Advice to Transitioners

I have three words of advice to ladies who are transitioning or considering transitioning-- 

“stop applying heat”. 

If the reason why you want to go natural is to learn your natural hair texture and want to have healthy natural hair then limiting heat is important. A couple of ladies I talked to planned on transitioning their entire time by blow drying and flat ironing their hair every two weeks. Not only is this a lot of heat, but transitioning hair is weaker than both relaxed and natural hair.

When transitioning the point where the natural hair meets the relaxed hair is called the line of demarcation. The line of demarcation is extremely weak and may cause your hair to break here. (It’s the same reason of why your hair dresser may say not to go too long without a relaxer or your hair will break).

Continually applying heat to your hair while transitioning will not only increases your chances of hair breakage, but will also damage your natural hair. Applying heat at high temperatures can create heat damage altering your curl pattern. There are natural who suffered from heat damage and ended up doing a second Big Chop.

A picture from when I first started transitioning

If you want to transition or are currently transitioning I would suggest not to fight your natural hair texture by straightening. Instead, embrace your natural hair by curling your relaxed hair. Roller sets, perm rods, curlformer, bantu knot-outs, twist-outs….anything to make your hair curly.  If you don’t like any of these hairstyles braids or other protective hairstyles are a great alternative as well. Once you decide to transition start treating your hair like you are already natural.