(Twist-out on my stretched transitioning hair)
When I began transitioning I new I didn't have a clue about how I was going to maintain the two different textures on my head. All I knew was that I didn't want to relax it again and I wanted a simple routine that I could live with to retain the most amount of growth in the shortest amount of time possible.
Here are a few things I've learned as a long-term transitioner that I hope you will find useful as well:
1. Set Goals: What are your goals for your hair? When would you like to achieve them and how do you plan to achieve them?
Example: My short-term goal is to have full, thick, waist length stretched hair and a natural mane that would make most lions blush. I think that 3-3.5 years is a reasonable amount of time for me to achieve this goal. I plan to reach my goals via hardcore low manipulation/protective styling, limiting the amount of heat I use on my hair, staying on top of my moisture/protein balance, maintaining a healthy diet and exercise.
2. What is your hair type? : Is it tightly curled, loosely curled, wavy or straight? Is it porous or not very porous at all? Are your individual strands fine/coarse? Is your hair density thick, medium or thin? All of these will determine how you go about caring for your hair.
Example: I have tightly curled 4b hair with 4a around the perimeter of my head. It is quite porous. My individual strands are fine but the overall density of my hair is thick. From this information I can deduce that my hair needs to be handled with TLC because it is quite fragile (every twist and turn presents an opportunity for breakage). I can improve its resiliency by doing regular deep conditioning treatments, sealing my ends regularly, using shampoo less frequently and protective styling often so that I am not manipulating it too much. My hair does best with benign neglect.
3. Work in sections: Once I started washing, conditioning, air-drying and styling my hair in sections I cut the time it took to do my hair in half while simultaneously reducing the number of tangles I got. Fewer tangles = shorter detangling time = a happy transitioner.
4. Strand tests: When trying out a new product for the first time always test the product on a small section of your hair. This a great way to find out which products agree with your hair while avoiding potential disasters that come with the discovery of products that do not.
5. Try to Avoid Frustration: Please do not attempt to wash, detangle and style several months worth of new growth and relaxed ends 15 minutes before you are heading out to the movie theater. That's just asking to put Murphy's law into motion. So unless you've got mad skills, I would recommend you set aside a day to pamper yourself and your hair so that you don't feel rushed and have ample time to react if something doesn't go as planned in your routine. I'm sure it will not take you all day to do your hair but giving yourself some "me time" will help foster positive feelings about your hair. You will see doing your hair as a way to spoil yourself rather than seeing it as a chore.
6. Take pictures: Take a few starting pictures then take a picture of yourself in the same spot in the same positions if you can so that you can track your growth. There have been times where I thought my hair was not moving at all then I'd look back at older picture and realize that it had either thickened up or grown since. The pictures are what kept me from relaxing my hair early into my transition because the progress was right there in front of me.
7. Find a support system: Transitioning to natural may be something new to you and there will be times when you feel like giving up or frustrated with your hair. In these situations it's nice to be able to have a little support be it from your family or friends. If, however, they can't give it to you there are hair forums, blogs and youtube gurus out there to inspire you to keep at it. The first year is always the toughest because of the learning curve so just hang in there. You'll be glad you did.
If I had to squeeze just one more tip into this list it would be patience. Patience is a virtue and you will need plenty of it to make it smoothly through your transition. Not everyone hits the ground running...some of us have to crawl first before we get there and when we do success is just that much sweeter.
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