Going from Relaxed to Natural?

Transitioning from Relaxed hair to natural is a customized journey.

Depending on your head shape, body shape, personality, and lifestyle requirements, the options can be limited.

Blow-dry styles will work for the first 2 to 4 months depending on your length of your hair and the weather in your area. If you never needed a relaxer, then you are home free. Just use either Design Essentials Organic Cleanse and Moisture Retention shampoos or Pureology Nanoworks and SuperStraight shampoos plus your choice of conditioners that works for your hair type. Pureology shampoos are sulfate-free and around a $100 purchase. Design Essentials are within a $25 purchase price.

Glue-free quick weave can work for the first 2 to 3 months or all the time for those that never needed a relaxer.

Tree-braids or Interlocking can work starting at the third month and on into a year.

At six months, you can start twists or locks or wear your own curl pattern. Some curl patterns do not lock easily. Others only take a month.

You can wear individual braid extensions as well.

I recommend cutting the relaxed hair off when you are ready. Trim a little every other month or at a six month period, cut all the relaxed hair off.

If wearing your own curl pattern, try different curl creams, curl gels, curl pommades until you find a good fit for your scalp and hair type.

I personally texturized my natural hair after the one year mark, and I started wearing my natural afro. I adorn it with jeweled or floral hair accessories. Definitely lower maintenance for now. I will probably continue to texturize my hair so that I can have the option of blowdrying straight without the humidity reverting it so quickly.

Transitioning from relaxed to natural is a tough journey. Be careful of the press n curl, this process can be just as damaging as the relaxer that you are growing out of .

Have fun!