Transitioning Days.....

When I started my transitioning phase I was super excited. Finally I was going to have healthy hair again. I spent a lot of my spare time watching YouTube videos on transitioning hair styles or looking up all kinds of information on oils and hair products and I jointed the curly nikki forums to read the posts about hair care and what other transitioners were doing and experience in their journey. I have met some awesome women via social networking and we all find ourselves stalking each others hair from time to time through YouTube, Instagram etc.(in a good way of course LOL). My transitioning phase didn't last as long as I wanted it to when I first started it but I learned a lot about how to care for my hair, mastered how to do flat twists, how to moisturize my hair and developed a regimen for my hair that hasn't been changed much even to this day. My transitioning lasted from May 12, 2012 (the day I decided to transition without heat) to the day I BC'd September 22, 2012; 4 months and 10 days...with a total 5 months 15 days post relaxer.

May 12, 2012 the day I started my natural hair journey

twist out with two strand twists and flat twists

flat twist out

bantu knot out with a pump

flat twists out added a goodie band

flat twist out..




If you want to see more of my styles check out my instagram page: http://instagram.com/nunusstyles_# 



Relaxer Days.....

With relaxed hair I had no idea what I was doing with my hair. I usually relaxed my hair faithfully every 6 to 8 weeks, sometimes sooner than that. My hair was usually in a bob like the pictures below. I didn't moisturize my hair properly, had no idea when to shampoo my hair, condition or any type of treatment. I just couldn't get nor understand that the lack of hair care was causing my hair not to grow properly and break off. Basically I was afraid of water on my hair because I didn't want to wash out the relaxer so any form of hair care with water was minimum. Oh but I did use a scarf most nights to protect my hair when I remembered and I thought that was enough.(boy was I fooled!)  Now as far as a routine hair care...ummm no it didn't exist. These pictures below are of my signature cut during my relaxer days.  

 

 

 

 

 

How long have you been natural?

This picture above is the day I BC'd, which was September 22, 2012. For those who don't know what BC'd stands for it is Big Chopped which simply means cutting all the relaxed ends out of your hair. My last relaxer was April 7, 2012 and I decided to transition without heat on May 12, 2012 so my transitioning phase lasted a little over 5 months from last relaxer to BC. Some people are long term transitioners and others are short term transitioners like myself. I just couldn't take the straight ends for longer than 5 months so I BC'd earlier than I originally wanted too.

Thinking back to September 22, 2012, I remember it as plain as day. I came home after a long morning in the dentist office with one of my twin boys and I started playing in my hair, which was nothing unusual... that's what I did most of the time in my free time.That morning I started out with a cute twist out from bantu knots but by the time I got home my hair was a hot mess so as I began trying to style it, all of a sudden something came over me and I picked up my scissors and started snipping my hair until I cut all the visible straight ends. After I literally butchered my hair I immediately called my cousin, who had been natural for a few months and my biggest influence in my transitioning days, to check out my hair and help fix what I messed up. She and her mother came to saved me, cutting the remaining straight ends I missed. After they left I immediately hopped in the shower and co-washed my hair with  Aussie Moist Conditioner, one of my favorite conditioners, lightly dried it with an old t-shirt and added coconut oil, my staple carrier oil, to seal in the moisture. From that point I have been in love with my hair.

 Has my journey been everything I wanted it to be? No way but even on my worse days I've learned how to embrace my textures. Yes, I say textures. One of my main reasons for BC'ing so quickly was to eliminate the different textures but what I failed to know is even our natural hair can have different textures and there's no way to get around them so even though I'm nearing my one year Naturalversary I still have days where my hair doesn't want to do what I want it to do but on the flip side to that, my hair can be manipulated a whole lot easier with my natural textures than with relaxed ends. I can honestly say I've never have had a bad hair day. Some days twist outs are not the best but there's always ways around a bad twist out to make your hair look super cute! :-)