A Change Of Plan...

So in my last post, I wrote that I decided to braid my hair for the duration of the summer to protect it and give it a break and to take my mind of of transitioning...well that idea has flown the coop so-to-speak.

I've decided to do a drum roll please....mini chop! That's right I'm cutting some of my hair. What is the motivation behind this move? Well it has a lot to do with the fact that my hair is breaking badly. Even with all the moisturizing and protective styles, I just can't save these chemically relaxed ends - I mean I can just run my hand over my hair and come away with strands. So in the interest of not going totally bald, I'm going to cut some of the hair off and get a bob. My hair is currently bra strap length, but hey I've cut my hair before so it's no big deal.

This is the style I'm getting:

I'm pretty excited - I'm getting it done today in preparation for Mother's Day!

Wish me luck and Happy Mother's Day!

Summer Time!!!

Well it's that time again...summer time! When the weather gets steamy and my hair gets frizzy! LOL!! Don't get me wrong I LOVE summer weather. The clothes are cuter, my mood lifts and I just feel a buzz! But my hair does NOT enjoy this weather - even back when I was not transitioning, the hotter it gets, the humidity creeps and my hair either poofs out into a ball of fuzz or it falls flat into a stringy mess. Now that I am transitioning - 6 months in thank you very much - the two textures are at odds, so I have frizzy roots with stringy ends...ewww!! So I decided that the best route for me would be to get braids. My plan is to get a wash and get a deep treatment and trim my ends, then get braids let them stay in for the safely allowed time of 8 weeks - then take them out, give my hair a 2-3 week break bunning during that time, then get another set of braids.

I think this will get my mind off the transition and cut down on some of the transition breakage I am seeing. I've noticed that my relaxed ends are really fragile and snap like a dry twig in the heat. I've been moisturizing and moisturizing and moisturizing some more, but I've been relaxing for years so I expected this.

Anyway, that's my plan, I feel like it's a good one. I found a braider here in my city that specializes in helping women such as myself that are making the trek towards healthy, natural hair - so she has done this whole, transitioning with braids thing numerous times.

Wish me luck and happy summer!

Bad, Bad, Bad Hair Days...

So.....I still can't work it out with my hair. I am walking around with a giant puff ball on top of my head because I am trying not to put direct heat on my head, therefore no blow drying it straight. To that end I've been doing a sort of go forth and be curly routine which would be great if my hair would curl. I never had any problems with my hair going curly before but lately it'll go wavy sort of...

So to hide the craziness of it all I bunch it up on top of my head in a bun sort of thing. I did a twist out that came out so horribly that I had to actually rinse my hair out to get rid of it. I don't know if it's the dealing with dual textures or me just not having realistic enough expectations - i.e. me not knowing what the hell I am doing, but this is definitely trial by fire!

So me and my bun have been hanging out hard - the only good thing about this is that I have been making sure I put on a little something by way of make-up to draw attention away from the fact that my head is a mess LOL!!

It's funny, my son seems to like the funky hair - he's a baby so I guess the texture is interesting to him. He'll rub his little hands in my hair and start laughing...ah to be 1 years old again!

Well, I'm sure it can't get too much worse....

Here's to looking towards better hair days 5 months and counting....

Two Seconds From Shaving My Head!!!!!

Mama said there would be days like this...so I am 4 months into transitioning and my hair is growing like crazy, that's a good thing right? Except I can't do a dern thing with it!!! I am trying to do the whole protective styles thing - you know, buns, twists, french braids - which works, but because of the two textures it is tangling and then I try to detangle etc. in the shower and it works, but then my hair is sopping wet - I am having a time!

Then of course this past weekend I went home to NY to visit and my hair was looking crazy, so I decided to get a roller set while I was up there - it seemed like a good solution at the time, but with my thick roots and straight ends, it just looked crazy and my husband wanted to take me out to dinner - I just couldn't pull it together. I cried and refused to go out - he thinks I am being crazy and said maybe I should start with trying to texturize my hair and gradually go natural that way - bless his heart, he's been reading some of the blogs so he can be supportive - but me being stubborn, I want to go full monty so-to-speak and don't want to do that.

So now that we're back in MD - I've been just wearing two french braids twisted around into a fancy bun - it works but getting my edges under control takes some work. I had scissors in my hand and really thought about just BCing - but I don't want to do that either.

....Sigh....patience, I just gotta have some patience.

Transition Times...

So as you may know I have begun the process of transitioning from relaxed hair to natural hair. I am currently 4 months in and have really embraced it. The one thing that I am both surprised and I must say, VERY excited by is how much support I've gotten! I know that there are tons of young women that are doing it and I get a lot of on-line support (THANK GOD FOR YOU ALL), but I am getting lots of support from family and friends. My mom as I mentioned (Hi MoMo) went natural and is very happy that she did, but the rest of my family is as straight and silky as they want to be....LOL as are the majority of my friends. Nothing wrong with that - I say to each their own and do what is right for you. But I was almost sure that there would be some nay-sayers in the bunch and surprisingly I've gotten a lot of, "Really? Well you go girl! That's great!"
I guess it just goes to show that you never really know how folks will react to anything.

Anyway, I did find a product that I REALLY like - it's called Sexy Healthy Hair - Tri-Soy Wheat Protein Leave-In Conditioner. Now my hair has a huge tendency to be very dry so since I have not been wearing it straight I definitely wanted something that I could put in and leave in. I was shopping around looking for something great that didn't smell awful or that wouldn't leave my hair gunky and came across this. Now I know I am a novice so I am not 100% sure about all the ingredients, but I do know that my hair feels amazing!! Not heavy, but very soft and subtly protected. Maybe if someone who is more up on all the good vs. bad ingredients took a look they could give a much better review of this product than me.

Until next time...happy transitioning....

Stepping Towards Freedom!!

Hi Everyone!! I wanted to create this blog to chronicle my journey as I step towards freedom - freedom from hair chemicals that is! Since I was 13 I have had chemically relaxed hair with a few breaks as I got older and chopped all my hair off. I've toyed with the idea of getting rid of the relaxer all together off and on for some time now - it's not as if I don't know what I look like without it - when I was 22 I chopped all the relaxer out of my hair and had a TWA of cute curls. But as it grew I didn't know what to do with it and got sick of wetting my hair and gucking it up with gel. So needless to say I went back to a relaxer.

Over the years I've grown and cut my hair, had braids, weaves - you name it I've done it. One day about 5 years ago, I saw an ad with a young woman with a great head of natural hair - it was gorgeous! I thought to myself, "I can do that," but back then I lacked the courage to go natural but wanted the look, so I found a product (Aveda's Be Curly) that worked really well on my hair - you see even though I relax my hair, I only do it 2 maybe 3 times a year so my hair still curls up when it is wet. Anyway I rocked the curly look off and on for a while. But never went completely natural.

So what brought about the change? Why do I now want to be free of chemicals? That's easy - I had a son. My son Jayden is the absolute light of my life. He's 1 years old and just developing his own little personality. One day while he and I were at home and were watching television a commerical came on with a young african american woman with long, silky, clearly chemically treated hair and Jayden pointed at the t.v. and said, "Mama." Now of course he doesn't know what he's doing, but it became routine that every time he'd see an african american woman on t.v. with long straight hair he'd point and say "Mama."

I don't want my little boy to grow-up with a misconceived notion of what beauty is. All women of color are beautiful and that is not determined by hair. I took a good, hard look at myself and my 'hairstory' and realized that my curls are beautiful and that I don't need straight hair. So I am embrassing the me that God created.

So here I am in transition - I haven't relaxed my hair since October 18, 2008 - right before my wedding. I currently have about 2 inches of new growth. I've decided to transition without the big chop, I enjoy my length and have no shame about that. My hair right now is about 3 inches past my shoulders and I am going for BSL.

I've decided that I will wear transitional hair styles - mostly just wearing my hair curly to blend the two textures.

So here I am making my first steps towards freedom....