Why are you going natural? - Page 2

hippiedoll · 10-05-2011, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThriftyCurly

I've been on my natural journey for 8 months, I decided to go natural at first by accident since relaxers starting costing too much and I was not about to start relaxing my hair on my own. After about a month I picked up the paper one day and there was an article about natural hair bloggers, I ran a search through google and voila! An infinite amount of information about natural hair care. I never even knew what 'natural hair' was, or that my natural texture could ever be curly. After reading stories about people journies it became more about me not wanting to torture my scalp with relaxers any longer and not frying my hair with Dominican (I'm Dominican myself) blowouts and flat irons. Most importantly I wanted to see my hair natural hair texture which I've NEVER seen, learn how to grow healthy hair without harming it and learn to love myself without all the damaging additives. I was taught that I needed to do the mentioned damaging things to have 'good' looking hair because mine was 'bad and kinky' but 'not that bad' according to my grandmother because, 'it grows a lot'. I was brainwashed into thinking that I NEEDED relaxers, although I hated them.

I had braided extensions in my hair from the age of 2 and my first relaxer before I started 1st grade, 5 or 6.

I use to get Dominican blow outs. My hair never was damaged from getting them. I always asked for my hair to be lightly blown out. My hair became damaged from having improper stylists relax my hair. I think my diet when I was younger contributed to why my hair was weak and breaking off. I'm taking my transition slowly. Now that summer is over I have been heat styling my hair. I personally don't get or have heat damage thus far. My new growth and relaxed hair is always the same texture each time I wash my hair. I think going natural is apart of learning how to properly take care and manage our hair accordingly. I think the aspect of going natural is to discover how your hair grows, it's texture, what products work/don't work, and how to correctly treat/style our hair.

Rusycurly · 10-06-2011, 05:47 AM

Wurlacurls and Thriftycurly, thank you so much for your stories. They made me realize that I'm not the only Dominican that has been struggling with this. I've been transitioning for 10 months now. I would religiously get Dominican blowouts every week. My hair was not damaged at all. However, my scalp was. There was nothing I could do to get rid of some "crusties" that very much resembled dandruff (in my journey I've discovered it was just a severely dry scalp and no longer have that issue).
In my family now I'm seen sort of like an outsider since I've decided I no longer want to fry my hair every week. I no longer care. While every other person is complaining that their edges are thinning and how their hair has no shine I'm quietly chuckling...I no longer have those issues.
The reason why I was getting the front edges of my hair relaxed was because they were these short little baby hairs that would always stick up and never grow. Guess what? The reason why they wouldn't grow was because I kept relaxing them! Now that I've stopped they are growing and I'm able to smooth them back with some gel. Using henna has helped a lot too. Plus, I've loved the discovery journey of different heatless styles on my hair. Never been happier or more comfortable with my beautiful wavy hair.

ThatChic91 · 10-06-2011, 09:27 AM

I'm going natural because...well sorta...because relaxers kept breaking my hair and honestly, my hair grew so fast I had to constantly process it...then it would break some more. An endless cycle of damage. My hair is AS COARSE AS THEY GET! Can you say AFRO SHRINKAGE so I still use SOME processing. I using zelo keratin but its not permanent or damaging. On my hair it just stretches out the kinks a little bit so I can manage it. Now its just soft and fluffy. Keeping away from the harsh toxins and chemicals has definitely been helping my hair get strong. Really inspiring thread guys

wurlacurls · 10-06-2011, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rusycurly

Wurlacurls and Thriftycurly, thank you so much for your stories. They made me realize that I'm not the only Dominican that has been struggling with this. I've been transitioning for 10 months now. I would religiously get Dominican blowouts every week. My hair was not damaged at all. However, my scalp was. There was nothing I could do to get rid of some "crusties" that very much resembled dandruff (in my journey I've discovered it was just a severely dry scalp and no longer have that issue).
In my family now I'm seen sort of like an outsider since I've decided I no longer want to fry my hair every week. I no longer care. While every other person is complaining that their edges are thinning and how their hair has no shine I'm quietly chuckling...I no longer have those issues.
The reason why I was getting the front edges of my hair relaxed was because they were these short little baby hairs that would always stick up and never grow. Guess what? The reason why they wouldn't grow was because I kept relaxing them! Now that I've stopped they are growing and I'm able to smooth them back with some gel. Using henna has helped a lot too. Plus, I've loved the discovery journey of different heatless styles on my hair. Never been happier or more comfortable with my beautiful wavy hair.

Rusycurly, even before the relaxers, my edges were destroyed from the Dominican blowouts. You know how they take the tiny round brush and yank those edges and blow the super hot air on them to smooth them down. I used to cry when I was little and my mom and the sylists were like oh well, thats what you deal with when you have 'bad' hair. My scalp would be red for days all around the edges. Horrible.

Sent from my PG06100 using CurlTalk App

Prototype_K · 10-06-2011, 12:36 PM

I am going natural because I don't want to get up in the morning, look at my roots & think "time to flat iron again." I think having natural hair takes a lot less effort to style (depending on how you want your hair to look of course). Flat ironing has dried my hair out & I just want healthier hair. I did not realize that natural hair is beautiful till this year & that is how I came across this website. My mother has been relaxing my hair since the age of 8, I still can't figure out WHY because my natural curls are gorgeous. I stopped relaxing 5 years ago but kept flat ironing. I'm trying to get her to stop relaxing her hair as well but she refuses. -sigh-.
I am just waiting for the right time to do my BC, can't wait for big curly hair!

Prototype_K · 10-06-2011, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThriftyCurly

I've been on my natural journey for 8 months, I decided to go natural at first by accident since relaxers starting costing too much and I was not about to start relaxing my hair on my own. After about a month I picked up the paper one day and there was an article about natural hair bloggers, I ran a search through google and voila! An infinite amount of information about natural hair care. I never even knew what 'natural hair' was, or that my natural texture could ever be curly. After reading stories about people journies it became more about me not wanting to torture my scalp with relaxers any longer and not frying my hair with Dominican (I'm Dominican myself) blowouts and flat irons. Most importantly I wanted to see my hair natural hair texture which I've NEVER seen, learn how to grow healthy hair without harming it and learn to love myself without all the damaging additives. I was taught that I needed to do the mentioned damaging things to have 'good' looking hair because mine was 'bad and kinky' but 'not that bad' according to my grandmother because, 'it grows a lot'. I was brainwashed into thinking that I NEEDED relaxers, although I hated them.

I had braided extensions in my hair from the age of 2 and my first relaxer before I started 1st grade, 5 or 6.

WOW, I am Dominican myself. I was also brainwashed into thinking I had to relax my hair as well! Is that a common thing for Dominicans? My entire family relaxes their hair, I don't know why. I am just glad I found this website!

wurlacurls · 10-06-2011, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prototype_K

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThriftyCurly

I've been on my natural journey for 8 months, I decided to go natural at first by accident since relaxers starting costing too much and I was not about to start relaxing my hair on my own. After about a month I picked up the paper one day and there was an article about natural hair bloggers, I ran a search through google and voila! An infinite amount of information about natural hair care. I never even knew what 'natural hair' was, or that my natural texture could ever be curly. After reading stories about people journies it became more about me not wanting to torture my scalp with relaxers any longer and not frying my hair with Dominican (I'm Dominican myself) blowouts and flat irons. Most importantly I wanted to see my hair natural hair texture which I've NEVER seen, learn how to grow healthy hair without harming it and learn to love myself without all the damaging additives. I was taught that I needed to do the mentioned damaging things to have 'good' looking hair because mine was 'bad and kinky' but 'not that bad' according to my grandmother because, 'it grows a lot'. I was brainwashed into thinking that I NEEDED relaxers, although I hated them.

I had braided extensions in my hair from the age of 2 and my first relaxer before I started 1st grade, 5 or 6.

WOW, I am Dominican myself. I was also brainwashed into thinking I had to relax my hair as well! Is that a common thing for Dominicans? My entire family relaxes their hair, I don't know why. I am just glad I found this website!

I think it is. I think anything tightly curly, kinky, or coarse is considered bad hair to most old school Dominicans. My mom has fine soft 2c wavy hair. They call that good hair. My cousin has fine, soft, (beautiful) 3c, 4a, they call that bad. Go figure. My hair was always called bad. Its very dry, coarse, high porosity, 3b, 3c. I would love to have my cousins soft beautiful tight 4a curls.

Atleast this is how it works with my Dominican family.

Sent from my PG06100 using CurlTalk App

Rusycurly · 10-06-2011, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wurlacurls

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rusycurly

Wurlacurls and Thriftycurly, thank you so much for your stories. They made me realize that I'm not the only Dominican that has been struggling with this. I've been transitioning for 10 months now. I would religiously get Dominican blowouts every week. My hair was not damaged at all. However, my scalp was. There was nothing I could do to get rid of some "crusties" that very much resembled dandruff (in my journey I've discovered it was just a severely dry scalp and no longer have that issue).
In my family now I'm seen sort of like an outsider since I've decided I no longer want to fry my hair every week. I no longer care. While every other person is complaining that their edges are thinning and how their hair has no shine I'm quietly chuckling...I no longer have those issues.
The reason why I was getting the front edges of my hair relaxed was because they were these short little baby hairs that would always stick up and never grow. Guess what? The reason why they wouldn't grow was because I kept relaxing them! Now that I've stopped they are growing and I'm able to smooth them back with some gel. Using henna has helped a lot too. Plus, I've loved the discovery journey of different heatless styles on my hair. Never been happier or more comfortable with my beautiful wavy hair.

Rusycurly, even before the relaxers, my edges were destroyed from the Dominican blowouts. You know how they take the tiny round brush and yank those edges and blow the super hot air on them to smooth them down. I used to cry when I was little and my mom and the sylists were like oh well, thats what you deal with when you have 'bad' hair. My scalp would be red for days all around the edges. Horrible.

Sent from my PG06100 using CurlTalk App

Girl! Don't remind me. Just thinking about it makes me cringe. No wonder my little hairs would break. Once I stopped blowdrying and I saw how cute those hairs were when they started curling I wanted to slap myself...why was I trying to hide them for all this long?

wurlacurls · 10-06-2011, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rusycurly

Quote:

Originally Posted by wurlacurls

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rusycurly

Wurlacurls and Thriftycurly, thank you so much for your stories. They made me realize that I'm not the only Dominican that has been struggling with this. I've been transitioning for 10 months now. I would religiously get Dominican blowouts every week. My hair was not damaged at all. However, my scalp was. There was nothing I could do to get rid of some "crusties" that very much resembled dandruff (in my journey I've discovered it was just a severely dry scalp and no longer have that issue).
In my family now I'm seen sort of like an outsider since I've decided I no longer want to fry my hair every week. I no longer care. While every other person is complaining that their edges are thinning and how their hair has no shine I'm quietly chuckling...I no longer have those issues.
The reason why I was getting the front edges of my hair relaxed was because they were these short little baby hairs that would always stick up and never grow. Guess what? The reason why they wouldn't grow was because I kept relaxing them! Now that I've stopped they are growing and I'm able to smooth them back with some gel. Using henna has helped a lot too. Plus, I've loved the discovery journey of different heatless styles on my hair. Never been happier or more comfortable with my beautiful wavy hair.

Rusycurly, even before the relaxers, my edges were destroyed from the Dominican blowouts. You know how they take the tiny round brush and yank those edges and blow the super hot air on them to smooth them down. I used to cry when I was little and my mom and the sylists were like oh well, thats what you deal with when you have 'bad' hair. My scalp would be red for days all around the edges. Horrible.

Sent from my PG06100 using CurlTalk App

Girl! Don't remind me. Just thinking about it makes me cringe. No wonder my little hairs would break. Once I stopped blowdrying and I saw how cute those hairs were when they started curling I wanted to slap myself...why was I trying to hide them for all this long?

Lol. I was cringing the whole time I was posting. I still struggle with me edges and maintaining length there.

Sent from my PG06100 using CurlTalk App

ThriftyCurly · 10-06-2011, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prototype_K

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThriftyCurly

I've been on my natural journey for 8 months, I decided to go natural at first by accident since relaxers starting costing too much and I was not about to start relaxing my hair on my own. After about a month I picked up the paper one day and there was an article about natural hair bloggers, I ran a search through google and voila! An infinite amount of information about natural hair care. I never even knew what 'natural hair' was, or that my natural texture could ever be curly. After reading stories about people journies it became more about me not wanting to torture my scalp with relaxers any longer and not frying my hair with Dominican (I'm Dominican myself) blowouts and flat irons. Most importantly I wanted to see my hair natural hair texture which I've NEVER seen, learn how to grow healthy hair without harming it and learn to love myself without all the damaging additives. I was taught that I needed to do the mentioned damaging things to have 'good' looking hair because mine was 'bad and kinky' but 'not that bad' according to my grandmother because, 'it grows a lot'. I was brainwashed into thinking that I NEEDED relaxers, although I hated them.

I had braided extensions in my hair from the age of 2 and my first relaxer before I started 1st grade, 5 or 6.

WOW, I am Dominican myself. I was also brainwashed into thinking I had to relax my hair as well! Is that a common thing for Dominicans? My entire family relaxes their hair, I don't know why. I am just glad I found this website!

I think its common amongst a lot of Dominicans, I know of a woman who's mother forced her to get a relaxer after she went natural, I thought mine was going to flip but she was very supportive. I have a kinkier texture than the rest of my family so they didn't know how to properly manage my hair, hence me getting relaxers from such a young age. No one else in my family ever relaxed their hair.

ThriftyCurly · 10-06-2011, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rusycurly

Wurlacurls and Thriftycurly, thank you so much for your stories. They made me realize that I'm not the only Dominican that has been struggling with this. I've been transitioning for 10 months now. I would religiously get Dominican blowouts every week. My hair was not damaged at all. However, my scalp was. There was nothing I could do to get rid of some "crusties" that very much resembled dandruff (in my journey I've discovered it was just a severely dry scalp and no longer have that issue).
In my family now I'm seen sort of like an outsider since I've decided I no longer want to fry my hair every week. I no longer care. While every other person is complaining that their edges are thinning and how their hair has no shine I'm quietly chuckling...I no longer have those issues.
The reason why I was getting the front edges of my hair relaxed was because they were these short little baby hairs that would always stick up and never grow. Guess what? The reason why they wouldn't grow was because I kept relaxing them! Now that I've stopped they are growing and I'm able to smooth them back with some gel. Using henna has helped a lot too. Plus, I've loved the discovery journey of different heatless styles on my hair. Never been happier or more comfortable with my beautiful wavy hair.

You're welcome

I too experienced the crusties and no longer have any experiences with it since I've stopped using heat and relaxing.

Prototype_K · 10-06-2011, 03:30 PM

Seems like families take the easy way out to style kinky hair. I'm very curious to see how my family will react once I BC & let me hair out.

SimplyDebra · 10-10-2011, 10:44 AM

I've been growing my hair out for a while and I rarely ever straighten. I would like to wear textured styles 90% of the time, so getting relaxer touch-ups is kind of pointless.

I was convinced after reading the Curly Girl Handbook. Even though I had been on the hair boards, the CGH basically answered all of my questions about going relaxer-free and it was englightening to learn that it wasn't just type 4s who struggled to embrace curls.

Okay...this post is long enough! lol I'm basically going natural because I want my hair to be as healthy as possible and I like textured styles.

beas2 · 10-11-2011, 12:40 AM

I went natural because I had a relaxer since the age of 7 and did not remember what my natural texture was. Also over the years my naturally thick hair was not thick anymore and my pockets were becoming empty going to beauticians who changed their prices like underwear.

My goal is to get to apl and never go back to a relaxer.

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hippiedoll · 10-11-2011, 06:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beas2

I went natural because I had a relaxer since the age of 7 and did not remember what my natural texture was. Also over the years my naturally thick hair was not thick anymore and my pockets were becoming empty going to beauticians who changed their prices like underwear.

My goal is to get to apl and never go back to a relaxer.

Sent from my SPH-M920 using CurlTalk App

I agree my has lost some of it's thickness over the past 8 years I've been relaxed. It's also hard for my hair to retain length relaxed. The longest it's been relaxed was a little past shoulder length. As a kid/preteen it was waist length but my mom always had it braided up

LaurenMarie · 12-15-2011, 08:47 PM

Wow. It's interesting to see that most of you started your natural hair journey because of breakage/financial costs/damage to your hair. My reason wasn't as practical, though those factors definitely helped me to make my decision in the long run.

My mom first relaxed my hair when I was about 7 or 8. While I had memories of my mother combing my natural hair (dry btw. Ouch!), I wasn't sure what it looked like. I grew up in a majority black community where almost every girl had a relaxer by at least 13 and those who didn't kept their hair pressed. My hair stayed relatively long and thick so it never real dawned on me that there was another option until college.

I went to a very multiracial college. Whites. Blacks. Arab. Asian. Latino. You name it. And I forget exactly when, but it started to irritate me that everyone else seemed to wear their hair as it grew out of their heads. Or at least, they weren't going to such extreme lengths as to put damaging chemicals in it every 6 to 8 weeks just to permanently change the texture. Sure, you had the few naturals walking around. But most black girls I knew were relaxed or weaving. And the killing part was that, the relaxed hair didn't even look good half the time. And when it did, it didn't look very natural. Sure, when you're fresh out of the salon, it's fine, but give it a day or two. It starts to look a bit stringy and dry and odd compared to someone's hair that is naturally straight. Then you put moisture in it and it starts to look clumped together and greasy. No one wants that. And no matter how well you relax it, it's never quite going to compare to the straightness and naturalness of someone whose hair ACTUALLY grows out of their head like that. Or even someone who only needs a few swipes of a flat iron to create that style. To top it off, it's damaging. So why was I pretending to be this when I didn't even know what my real texture was? I wasn't fooling anyone but myself and others who were just as ignorant as I was.

So all of that began to get to me. My relaxed hair was doing alright, but I decided to hold off on the relaxer for another month and actually explore how my texture felt. I liked it a lot and I didn't want to burn what I was feeling straight anymore so I cut it all off when I was 18. I loved it and actually inspired a few of my fellow schoolmates to join me. I relaxed it again after a year- mostly from stress with school and ignorance on how to take care of it. I regretted it, but I'm transitioning now and I'm 6 months in! Not planning on going back. So that's my story.

Also, I'm not against relaxing. I know that some people simply prefer it or find it easier for them and that is fine. But I also know that a lot of people won't even consider exploring anything else because they are so brainwashed and/or it is such a habit. Which is sad really because a relaxer isn't right for everyone. My grandmother for example has gorgeous 4a hair and she relaxes it and breaks it off every 6 weeks because she's convinced that she won't be attractive any other way. Her hair will only grow a bit past her neck, but if you see old pictures of her before she started relaxing, it grew down her back. It was gorgeous.

But I'll stop rambling! It's nice to be here.

induetime · 12-17-2011, 12:45 PM

I believe I got my first relaxer when I was 6 or7, maybe even earlier. I asked my mom and she doesn't really remember either. I had to be younger than 10 because during that age, I remember my hair completely broke off on one size from relaxing-sad, sad day.

Deciding to go natural was an overnight type thing. I went to sleep thinking about scheduling my next relaxer and woke up wanting to go natural. I must of had a dream or nightmare! My last relaxer was on October 15, 2011. I plan to be a long term transitioner- I wouldn't feel comfortable doing the big chop. Currently I am wearing a twist out style.

Having natural hair makes me happy knowing that I can be more versatile with my hair. Plus I just want to look different by the time I'm 30-I'm 27 now.

jubells · 12-18-2011, 07:22 AM

To be free from the relaxer that bound me to that salon chair for hours on end

jubells · 12-18-2011, 07:24 AM

Oh yea, and I can itch whenever I want to...like now. Feels good

no more nasty burns that happen. Even though my hair still grew with them they were hell and my hair would've been way longer natural.

Mixedchickcurly · 12-18-2011, 09:53 AM

I'm just starting to go natrual. It's been so far a mouth or a half a mouth.My hair is a 3c which it's hard a little to comb.So far for my hair I use curl activator gell,but it makes my hair flake up and become hard.Is there any better product I can use?