New Year Hair Update

Going into the new year it has been a little over 6 months since my last relaxer. My longest stretch was 1 year so I'm not feeling particularly accomplished as of yet. However, this year my plan is to carry on in my transition to natural without chopping at all!

This is my second attempt at transitioning. The first time I think I was overtaken by all the lovely "Hairlistas" that had beautiful, long, RELAXED hair. Not to mention, I was dying to see how my year long progress would look relaxed! So I did it! It was nice for a while but what I really started missing was the thickness. As well as the acknowledgement that the number one reason why I had wanted to transition in the first place was for the health of my hair. No matter how you cut it, chemical relaxers are bad for your hair. THE END.It doesn't matter how well you take care of your hair before and after the relaxer. It all boils down to the same inevitability: You are willingly, knowingly causing damage to your hair every time you relax. For many women, it doesn't matter because they are willing to take that extra time and energy needed to care for their damaged hair so the damage isn't even noticeable. However, my hair texture is pretty fine so the effects of damage from chemical relaxers is much more visible. Thus, the decision to go natural! So even after I relaxed and enjoyed it for a time, nothing had changed in the makeup of chemical relaxers and I still had to face the fact that I was back to damaging my hair very 3-4 months. I was on the fence about my decision for a few months until I lost my job! Suddenly, not only were relaxers damaging to my hair but they were also damaging to my cash flow! DONE! and now i'm transitioning!!

The last time I tried to transition, I was trying to pull it off without using heat. FAIL! This time around, I've decided I will use heat 1-2 times a month. However, to combat the negative effects of heat on my hair I'm making sure to do a few things:

• #1 and most important, ensuring I'm not having any major breakage issues before applying heat
• Always use a heat protectant
• Flat ironing with the goal of loosening my curl pattern as opposed to flat ironing for sleek results, meaning,
• 2-3 passes on the roots and 1 on the length of my hair
• only flat ironing on clean hair

So far the transition has been going fairly well. I'm at the point now where it's very easy to get caught up with detangling and end up being heavy handed on my hair. Especially, since I tend to procrastinate getting ready to go and end up having to rush to get out the door! So, this is the point where I'm working on more simple protective, LOW-MAINTENANCE, styles and prepping my hair AT NIGHT so I'm not having to fuss with it in a rush in the morning. A big standing ovation to those ladies who have their routine down so they don't have to mess with their hair as often. I'm still working on it!!

During my transition, I'm trying out the Real Queens Regimen. (Click here to see details of the regimen)Before I ever even heard of this method, I personally called it the Jheri Curl Method! My aunt had a Jheri Curl back in the day and her hair grew a ton while she had it. I always thought a big reason why the hair likely grow so much faster was because it was constantly moisturized with "Jheri Curl Juice" and BAGGIED often to maintain the style. The Real Queens Regimen uses oil instead of "the juice" however, the effects of the "green house effect" within the regimen is likely to have similar results in my opinion. So that's one thing I'm trying out heading in 2011. Stay tuned for more udpates down the road!