What is the best solution to undertake your transition with the minimum amount of difficulty?
A lot more ladies are looking to transition from relaxed to natural hair. Whether it's simply because you miss your natural texture and aspire to wear your tresses curly or you have having difficulties in growing your relaxed tresses long, transitioning can be a decision which will empower you. However, the whole process can be a little overwhelming. How do you do it without driving yourself crazy with worry over the hair breakage you might experience?
Get ready for some good news and some not so great news. Transitioning could very well end up being breakage free under certain situations, that's the good news. The bad news is that some degree of breakage is not altogether avoidable.
As your natural texture grows in the line of demarcation (the place that separates the two textures) will likely be the weakest section of your hair. As soon as you manipulate your tresses, you might be detangling or doing just about any styling, this is basically the area that could most likely break. Based upon your hair type, your line of demarcation may well be more conspicuous and it's also worth a mention that the curlier the hair is, the weaker your line of demarcation. With 3b and 3c hair, the breakage will be considerably less than with 4a and 4b type tresses.
Let us discuss 3 ways to transition:
1. An early big chop: You may decide that you don't really want to deal with two completely different textures at the same time. If you don't mind keeping shorter hair for a little while (and you have the shape of face for it!) then it could be an ideal solution for you. Many will hesitate at the thought of such a drastic switch, particularly when your relaxed mane was quite long, however, you will save yourself a good deal of inconvenience by starting from scratch. Furthermore you will save yourself a few bucks on the expense of hair care products during the period you are wearing a TWA (teeny weenie afro)!
2. Transition with 'hair hiding' protective styles: Cornrows, extensions, lace wigs, just about any style which will stop you from touching your hair while it grows out. If you're able to stand continually hiding your hair, you could easily transition experiencing the least breakage possible. The most obvious downside is that you won't have the option to flaunt your length regularly without risking breakage.
3. Blend those textures together: This is without a doubt the most popular solution used. You may use heat to flat iron your new growth to match the chemically processed hair but regular heat is not healthy for african american hair. If you are going natural to get healthier locks, this isn't the way to do it! If you have 3b and 3c type tresses, a roller-set may easily blend your two textures without the use of heat but if your hair is 4a or 4b then usually only a flat iron will get it straight enough to match your chemically processed texture.
Other ways of blending the textures is to do braid outs, twist outs, bantu knot outs or straw sets to give all your hair the same curl pattern. The challenge with repeating weekly through your transition will be the sheer level of manipulation your locks will experience which as your natural hair grows longer means excessive breakage.
Whichever strategy for transitioning you decide on, keeping up with protein conditioning treatments will ensure that in most cases, your locks remain where they should be, on your head!