Transitioning to Natural

As you can tell from the title of this post, I have made the decision to transitioning to natural hair for several reasons.

1. I have never seen what my real hair looks like: I have had a chemicals in my hair since the age of 5 years old when I had Jheri Curls. As a young child, I remember dressing up in my Sunday Dress for church and having to sit in the kitchen while my mother combed my hair with this metal comb she took off the hot stove. I was burned so many times, I ended up afraid of curling and flat irons if they were not being used by myself. I have looked through several pictures of me as a child and only one picture has my hair in its natural state, and that is in my professional baby picture where I had a small afro. So I am curious to see what my hair was meant to look like.

2. I have been dealing with under processed hair for two years: I transitioned for a whole year from March 2009 to March 2010 but did not have the confidence to cut off the relaxed ends. So I relaxed at home and misjudged how much my hair grew, so there was some under processed parts to my hair. I went twice to get it corrected, most recently in June 2012 and it did not work. I have come to realize that the only way my hair will no longer be process is if I cut off all the relaxed pieces. Then my hair would not be processed at all if I stick with being natural!

3. I am at a point in my life where I need a change: and the easiest change I can make is with my hair. So why not! Right now I have the support of my boyfriend who has been encouraging me to cut my hair off now- at two months post! Not going to happen Buddy. LOL. I've decided to even color or highlight my hair now which I have never done, only so I could actually see growth!

Since my last relaxer was on June 1, 2012, I am thinking that I will be fully natural as of June 1, 2013. This will be a few weeks after graduating from Graduate School- which signifies another change in my life. I have been thinking about keep my hair at shoulder length,which would require that I get my hair washed, blown, and flat ironed at the salon so that they can cut my hair.

If I feel that I have s good enough amount of new growth by January 2013, I may do my big chop then and keep my hair in braids and kinky twists until the summer. There are so many options out there for me and I haven't quite decided on what I want to do. However I am about 80% sure that I will be 100% natural in the year 2013 and I will stick to it for a whole year!

Stay tuned to my future post to see what I have decided.

1st Flexi Rod Set

I am doing a lot of FIRSTS on this journey. First it was the caruso steam rollers, then bantu knots, and now flexi rods! GO ME...GO ME....GO ME...

I have used flexi rods on my weaves and on my hair just for curls or styling purposes, but I never did a whole flexi rod set on my or anyone else's hair, and I wanted to know how it would look on my shoulder length hair. I have several packs of flexi rods but I did not have enough of one kind to make a set so I went to my local beauty supply store and picked up about six (all they had on the shelf) of the blue 9/16 inch flexi rods they had. I had about 4 packs at home.

On Friday night, I used four flexi rods on the front of my hair (bang area) to see which direction I would roll them in (either towards my face or away from my face) and I also wanted approval from the boyfriend to see if this style would work- he told me to go for it.

Today I washed out my overnight pre-poo using organix coconut milk shampoo and conditioner, deep conditioned without heat for five minutes using mixed checks deep conditioner, and then applied my leave ins.

I turned the music up on my ipod and proceeded to roll my hair, using water and lottabody to keep my hair damp. I also used end papers on my hair and rolled up my hair. A TOTAL OF 60 BLUE RODS AND ONE RED ROD (1/2 inch) WAS USED. I stress this because of all of the videos I watched on flexi rods, no one really ever said how many they used. So once again, each flexi rod pack came with six rods and I used a total of ten packs plus one red one.

I then proceeded to stuff my big Medusa head under the dryer for an hour and a half to two hours (after an hour I took out some of the rods in front and they were still wet, while the ones on top of my head were dry so I removed them). Note: My whole head did not fit under the dryer so I just sat under it as best as I could.

Here's a quick video:

1st Bantu Knot Out Ever

This past week I wore my hair in a bantu knot out. I was bold and decided that I wanted to know how the bantu knot out would look on me. I had purchase some children's hair scrunchies and decided that I was going to use them.

I had about ten Bantu knots all over my hair.  I used my ORS hair lotion to moisturize my hair and followed that up with my sweet almond oil to seal. After knotting my hair, I went to bed and took them down in the morning.

At night, I would do the pineapple method (placing the hair on top of my head and securing with a scrunchie), put on my bonet, and go to sleep. The knots lasted for 4 days. By Friday, I had combed down the knots and detangled my hair to prepare for this weekends wash.

I liked the results and would definitely do this style again.