Beginning Natural Hair Journey

African American women has been relaxing their hair for years and not realizing the damage it's causing to their hair.

I've took on a journey to stop using relaxers and become fully natural. My journey was not easy but I'm glad I did it. Now my hair is fully natural, healthy and I can wear my hair either naturally curly or heat straighten it to get that straight relax look.

Read my article to see how I've took on a not-so-easy journey to becoming natural.

Photo Credit

I started my journey to becoming natural with my hair at the end of September of 2009. I'm so happy I started this journey because my hair has never been healthier in a long time and I'm now free from the creamy crack (relaxers). Let me tell you how it all got started.

My Relaxed Hair

My hair was chemical free throughout my whole childhood. I had long, thick, luscious hair that everyone loved sticking their hands in. My mom made sure I would go to the hair salon several times a month to get a press and curl.

Once I entered in middle school, my beautician at the hair salon talked my mom into getting me a relaxer since my hair was just way too thick and took the beautician hours to do my hair. She told my mom that with an relaxer my hair would stay straight without the pressing. That convinced my mom to say yes and the beautician slapped my head full of relaxer!

Aphogee treatment product line was a godsend to my hair! The products is a protein treatment that helps stop breakage and make the hair more stronger. Only can be used every 6 months because it can dry out hair and cause even more breakage.

Since then I would get a touch up every eight weeks like I was told by my beautician, but I started to notice a lot of shedding after awhile. It usually happens when it was close to the time I needed a touch up and I thought this was normal and didn't think anything of it.

Soon my hair became thinner and thinner and didn't have that bounce or swing like it use to. But I still didn't care because I liked the convenience of being able to wash my hair and it still be straight. I had to start getting my hair cut shorter and shorter to cut off all the split ends caused by relaxers. But I still kept continuing relaxing.

Once I've gotten older and moved out of my parents house, I started paying to get my hair done myself. It started getting too expensive so I started relaxing my hair myself. I didn't really know what I was doing and had the relaxer on too long and wasn't using the right shampoo to deactivate the relaxer once washed out.

One day I looked at my hair and noticed bald spots all around my head! I thought I was going to cry! Good thing I had enough hair to cover all the bald spots.

I started doing research online about how to grow back hair that fell out due to relaxers and I came across a forum called LongHairCareForum.com and CurlyNikki.com

. I came across many post about women ditching relaxers and going natural. Some women just completely cut all their hair off and started fresh and some transitioned meaning they let their hair grow out without cutting all their hair off at one time. I decided I don't want to do anything drastic by cutting all my hair off but I would cut my hair little by little until eventually my hair is fully natural.

I had two textures of hair from growing my hair out which made my hair harder to style and comb. Also had to be careful combing my hair because my relaxed hair became very weak and broke off easily. The part where my new growth and my relax hair meets was the weakest part so I always made sure to use a wide tooth comb and comb my ends first and gradually work my way up.

To make combing easier I would always deep condition my hair once a week to soften my hair. I started using natural products that doesn't contain sodium lauryl sulfate which dries out your hair. I also started using hair conditioners only instead of shampoo when washing my hair because it gave my hair added shine and bounce.

When I style my hair I would air dry and then use a flat iron with a heat protection sprayt. I roll my hair at nights so I wouldn't have to use heat during the week. Less heat, less hair damage. From months of doing this I noticed my hair is growing in thicker and longer quick! Also my bald spots are starting to fill in.

I would say my journey has its ups and downs but it is the best thing I did! I will never turn back to relaxers again! Here are the advantages of having natural hair :

These are the top 10 great benefits of having natural hair.

1. Less to no shedding
2. Hardly no itchy scalp and dandruff
3. No expensive salon visits
4. Thicker hair
5. No bad chemical smell
6. You have more of a product selection you can use on your hair
7. Not have to be afraid of the rain wetting your hair
8. Faster growth
9. You have a choice of wearing your hair straight or curly
10. No relaxer burns

My Natural Hair

I've been fully natural since late 2009! I'm so happy I took on this journey to become natural and be free from using relaxers every other month!

My hair is very healthy and fuller! Now I do still have some bald spots that will never fill in since using relaxers damaged my hair from the roots.

Shea butter and oils helps seal in the moisture. You can mix any natural oil into your raw shea butter.

Still don't know what to do with your transitioning hair? Check out this helpful book to help guide you.

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