6 Things That May Surprise You About Going Natural

I thought I knew a lot about hair before I went natural. I also thought I knew a lot about my hair when I was a relaxed girl. What I didn't know before I started transitioning was that almost all the hair rules I knew as a relaxed girl didn't apply to my natural hair. Below are six things that totally surprised me along my transitioning journey and have also happened to other transitioners I know.

Transitioning Surprise #1: I actually DO have thick hair!

As a natural-haired child, I had a head full of long, thick healthy hair. This is true for so many of you, also I'm sure. But I relaxed my hair throughout middle school, high school and college which changed my view of my hair and actually changed  my hair itself. No matter how healthy it was, it always looked too thin.

How wonderful it was after I'd transitioned for about 6 or 7 months when I discovered that I actually have VERY thick hair! At the beginning of my transition, I straightened my new growth using a flat iron and wore a few clip-in hair extensions for added volume. If I straightened my natural hair today it would be so thick you'd think I was wearing hair extensions even though I'm not. That's how thick and voluminous it is now! That was one of the best surprises about going natural. 

Transitioning Hair Surprise #2: Washing/wetting my hair frequently is a good thing

As a relaxed girl, I tried not to wash my hair more than once a week for fear that it would become too dry. I always heard and read that black women shouldn't wash their hair too often because it tends to be dry. Well, it's true that kinky/curly hair tends to be more dry and porous than straight hair. However, it's actually good to wet my natural kinky hair frequently.

Water Didn't Dry My Hair Out. My Shampoo Did. 

One of the reasons my hair was so dry after washing as a relaxed girl is the type of shampoo I used. Regular shampoos, yes even the ones marketed to relaxed-haired women, contain sulfates (the soapy agent) that strips our hair. So I'd strip my hair of it's natural oils, then try to put the moisture back in later (unsuccessfully). I found out later that 1. I need to use a sulfate-free shampoo and 2. I didn't necessarily need to use shampoo every time I cleansed my hair.

Is Your Face Any Less Clean If You Use Dove or Noxzema Instead of Zest?

Does avoiding shampoo sound counter-intuitive to you? It did to me at first, too. I get the most puzzled looks whenever I try to explain this to people but bear with me for a moment while I explain. Using a regular shampoo versus sulfate-free shampoo is like washing your face with Zest versus washing it with Dove. Now do you get it? You don't need to strip your face dry to clean it and the same applies to your hair. Now I wash my hair about every other day using a cleansing conditioner with a low lather. If I get product build-up then I use a sulfate-free shampoo.

Transitioning Hair Surprise #3: Heavy oils are helpful for styling

 As a relaxed girl with semi-thin hair, I avoided oil-based moisturizers at all costs. They made my hair feel great, very soft indeed. But they weighed my hair down and made it look sort of...stringy for lack of a better term. So I did my best with water-based moisturizers such as leave-in conditioners and/or water-based creams such as Liv.

What I discovered while transitioning is that some heavy oils are actually essential for natural hair and can penetrate them, moisturizing from the inside out. My favorite natural hair oil is coconut oil. Other oils that are good for natural black hair are argan, jojoba, castor, and olive oils. Besides applying these oils before styling, you can use them with whatever rinse-out or deep conditioner you like to enhance the product. Don't mix it in the original bottle, though. Instead, mix the two in a separate container then apply to your hair.

Transitioning Surprise #4: I don't have dry hair

I thought my hair was naturally dry. The truth was that it can become dry if it's stressed from heat and chemical treatments such as relaxers. It had been dry for so long while I was relaxed that I didn't think there was much I could do about it. However, after skipping only two relaxers (about 4 months total), my hair was surprisingly soft. The ends weren't as damaged as they used to be either. I noticed that the spot in my hair that was notoriously damaged and breaking off for years was about an inch longer and the ends looked fine. I was shocked. Which leads me to the next surprise...

Transitioning Surprise #5: I hardly need to trim my ends

My hair grows about as fast as anyone else's does. Human hair, on average, grows about 1/2 inch per month. One person's hair might grow a little more than that. It just depends on your DNA, nutrition, etc. Still, I was losing length from cutting split ends off about as fast as my new growth was coming in while I was relaxed. It was pretty frustrating sometimes. But now that I don't relax and rarely, if ever, use heat to style my hair, I hardly ever see a need to trim my ends. They look great. From time to time, I straighten my hair and dust the ends to keep them healthy, but I don't need to nearly as often as I used to.
 

Transitioning Surprise #6: Kinky hair doesn't necessarily have to be nappy

Disclaimer: No offense to my sisters that like to rock nappy hair styles. I actually think it looks good on them. On them. It's just not the look I prefer to rock. I have kinky hair but I don't like to wear what I now know are simply undefined curls/coils. That's pretty much what nappy hair is; kinky/coily hair that is styled with little to no curl/coil definition. I never realized that a woman with an afro could define her coils and rock a head full of slick, shiny waves or coils. It's all in how you style it  and what products you use.

Kinky/coily hair is highly versatile. It can be stretched straight or semi-straight. It can be styled while soaking wet with oil and gel to make defined coils, waves, curls or whatever you like. Since kinky hair shrinks down to 25% of it's stretched length, it can be worn short or long. I prefer to wear defined curls and waves in what people call the "wet look". It works for me. I feel good and I get so many compliments about my hair that way.