A Customer's KL's Naturals Transformation.

I think I shall be doing more of these types of post - where I showcase a few customers who come through and do a big chop or who by caring for their hair with our help, witness huge changes in terms of improvement in length and thickness of their hair.

This young lady is actually my cousin who apparently had stopped relaxing her hair over a year ago and had literally had it with dealing with 2 textures. She wanted to chop off the rest of the relaxed ends, get some color (she loves color) and style her hair.

Now, her hair is quite curly and she has medium textured hair - by the time we'd washed her hair, those ends looked raggedy with a capital R!

It was easy snipping them off and because she still had some color in her hair, we decided to leave that in and go straight to styling. She wanted something curly so I decided on a permrod set with a bit of weaving on both sides of her head to enhance the overall shape in a way that would suit her features.

How to Transition from Relaxed to Natural Hair.

I decided to do this post because lately I've been getting asked this question quite a lot by ladies who have decided that they want to ditch the relaxer and take care of their own natural hair.

Chief amongst these questions is - 'Do I have to cut off my hair now? a.k.a doing the 'Big Chop'
My answer always is (and still is) cutting your hair immediately  is a matter of choice and individual comfort level. Some people may transition for 6 months and chop off all their relaxed ends because they're comfortable enough to rock a short look ( or a Teeny Weeny Afro a.k.a. TWA). Some others will not hear of it and would rather transition for 1 - 2 years, trimming off the relaxed ends every other month or so till they get to a comfortable enough length.

Either way, the following are tips that helped me on my own 9 month transition journey and which I know have helped quite a number of people:

1. Build a Regimen: Consistency is the key to attaining any goals. You will need to develop a simple regimen which is knowing what you will be doing to your hair and how often. Too often I hear people say things like ' My hair is damaged, I just want to cut it and go natural and I know it will be better'. Thing is, if you didn't care for your hair while relaxed and it became damaged; going natural is not going to automatically solve all your hair problems. Daily disciplines will give you the success you desire.

My 'Accidental' Transition from Relaxed to Natural Hair.

Accidental because it really wasn't planned (cross my heart). As I'd said in my last post, I stumbled upon a video which opened up my eyes to the immense growth potential 'black' hair had - eroding years of doubt and unbelief in my own hair's potential.

I was also at a point where I needed something to consume my mind and this discovery couldn't have come at a better time.

When I discovered Sunshyne at Hairlicious and consequently various hair blogs, forums and sites; my hair was about neck length, scraggly, had broken bits all over, was overly porous, and was just a right old mess really. I was determined from the pictures and videos I'd seen, to make a 'magical' turnaround with my hair and so, armed with the information I was feeding my mind with, my master card and all the excitement of a 5 year old at Disneyland, I got to work.

Now, the one point that was stressed over and over again in pretty much all the blogs et all was 'stretching' your relaxer i.e. extending the time frames between touch ups. This really wasn't  a problem for me as I'd already cut down on my touch ups till I was doing them about 4 times a year.