1 whole year with no perm and a couple of months after completing the Big Chop 2016
First time getting my hair straightened and styled the end on 2016
The pictures you see above shows you a quick glance of my hair journey of me returning to my natural hair texture state from a five or six years of having a relaxer in my hair. In the first picture, it shows me with a relaxer in my hair. In this point in my life, I just wanted to grow my hair very long while still perming my hair. Well, my hair was long somewhere along my back, but I always wanted to grow it pass bra length. In the second photo, was during a period of my life where I didn't see any need to continue getting perms in my hair. In fact, a friend of mine that is also in the picture asked me whether or not I was natural and she was in shocked when I told her I wasn't. She was in shock because my hair looked as though it was natural since you could see the thickness of my hair. I believe the day we took this picture was when she asked me that question. That got me thinking that night that maybe I should just stop getting perms altogether because, after two weeks of getting a fresh relaxer, my hair would suddenly become untamable again and have this frizzly bush as you see in the photo. In the third picture is the first hairstyle that I considered cute on me after completing the big chop with the help of my mother about two months before taking this photo. This was, in fact, my usual go-to hairstyle when I wasn't wearing wigs or trying to braid my own hair with added hair. And lastly, the fourth picture shows the first time a straightened and styled my hair. My hair had now become healthier, thicker, and grew back to the length I had while having a perm in 12th grade. Even though I made it three years natural, there were some things I wished I knew before deciding to transition. In this article, I will be discussing five things I learned while transitioning from having a perm to cutting my perm ends during my big chop after completing a year of being natural.
1. Going Natural is a change of mental thinking
When most people think about going natural, the first thing they think is changed is the person's hair but there's more to it. Going natural also involves a change of mental thinking. While going natural, you have to relearn that your hair was never meant to layback or to ever be slick enough to have a comb quickly go through your hair. Since perms and society have brainwashed us to believe that everyone's hair should be like that, it makes people who don't have that type of hair frustrated when dealing with our natural born hair. You must relearn to love how you see in the mirror while wearing your hair in its natural state. Also, you must take your hair for what it is. You might see someone with nice curly hair that grew naturally through their scalp and then tries to compare them with yours and wonder why your hair couldn't do the same as theirs can also lead to frustration. It is best to find people with similar hair texture as yours and gain tips to how they are able to style and take care of their hair.
2. You have to go Natural for yourself, not for anyone else
Going Natural is not a trend, it has now become the new realization for many people, and they are now curious about who they really are. With society training many people from a very young age what was considered attractive and intelligent, it made it easy to make a lot of people believe that having dark skin and African or colored features were considered the most unattractive and the less intelligent of all races. It has now become a point where society is trying to pretend they never brainwashed us and try to make African and colored features the new big thing in all forms of media without fully appreciating the features on the people who were naturally born with them. When I decided to become natural, I decided because I didn't feel like having completely straight hair anymore thanks to the media, but also the fact that perms are a painful process to gain straight hair and the fact that they wouldn't last as long as they used to on my hair. I also did research on perms and learned that there was proof that they caused brain damage and cancers to the body. After learning that fact, it actually convinced me that going natural was the best decision for my overall health.
3. The first year of transitioning will be the hardest year during the journey of becoming Natural
I say this because, for one, you have to learn how to throw away all your thoughts you once had about your hair and what is considered "Good Hair." There is no such thing as good hair because the idea was made up and created by traditional society. Secondly, you have to learn how to take care of the new hair that is now going out of your scalp in its natural state, while still maintaining the perm ends that is now hanging for dear life. That is if you didn't just decide to cut all your hair off all at once. Then when it comes to taking care of two different types of hair patterns, that means both need a different kind of attention and hair products. This is the most confusing for a newbie in this Natural hair journey. At this point, it might make you want to change your mind and just throw in a perm to your scalp especially when you start seeing a lot of shredding. I'm just going to let you know that shredding is very normal and highly expected to happen when you stop getting perms. Once you pass this state of mind, now you have to learn to ignore negative comments from outsiders who don't completely understand why you decided to go Natural. During my first year, people would come up to me and say that my hair looked a mess, that I needed to get it braided because it wasn't presentable and that I should just get it dreaded because I won't have a nice nor cute hair texture. I even got into a deep debate about me going natural that almost ended a relationship with one of my close family members because I wouldn't agree on how they wanted me to style my hair. And lastly, deciding when you'll be mentally ready to do the big chop and truly learning your hair texture.
4. Everything you knew about taking care of your hair, throw it all out the window
As I was learning how to take care of my new hair type, I was not well informed that I could no longer use most of the things I was once used on my hair when I had a perm. For one, I have to keep my hair moisturized all the time or my hair will eventually drink all of my moisturizing hair products and would cause my hair to become very dry and break off. Secondly, when moisturizing the scalp, it only needs a little amount, or it will cause to clog pores and making it impossible to gain new hair growth. Whereas, the hair needs a lot of moisturizing product(s). Thirdly, I never knew what the hell "Deep Conditioning" was and the importance of it. I just assumed it was the same thing as putting conditioning in your hair while washing it. In reality, deep conditioning is critical to put on your hair before washing it because it causes your hair to become softer and easier to detangle. With continuous use, it can help your hair to become more manageable. Fourthly, I learned that you're not supposed to comb your hair in its dry state or very wet state, or it will cause a lot of breakage. It is always better to comb your hair while the hair is moist. And lastly, all shampoos are not the same. When I would use the shampoo I was using when I was getting perms, my hair would instantly become dry. I know learned that shampoo that contains any kind of alcoholic ingredients causes natural hair to become very dry.
5. Youtube Natural Hair Bloggers will become your new best friends
As I was starting my journey of becoming natural, I didn't really have anyone who was one the same stage as me when it came to my hair journey. I only knew people who were either one year in on their hair journey, years in on their hair journey, or has been natural their whole life. So, I just looked up hair inspirations on Google that lead me to Youtube. While on youtube, I looked for hairstyles I could do on my hair while transitioning, when I completed the big chop and had a TWA (Teeny Weeny Afro), and currently at my bra hair length. These Hair Bloggers has been a great inspiration through the hard times when I was thinking that I wasn't fit to be natural to now getting excited about all the hairstyles I can now try with my newly thick and long hair. I also want to make sure to state that it's best to follow not only hair bloggers who have natural hair you admire, but also bloggers who share your similar hair length and texture. In this way, you won't become very frustrated with yourself when trying the tips and hairstyles that your admirers give.
I hope these five tips help you during your journey of becoming Natural. Being natural can be a mighty thing to have whether or not you have loose curls or very thick and tight curls. All curls are beautiful, and it's a great thing when you learn it for yourself. And once you relearn to love yourself, you can become an inspiration for someone else. Leave comments and topic requests. Thank you and let's start a conversation.
