How to Go Natural Without Cutting Your Hair (The "Big Chop")

One of the most common myths about going natural is that you have to cut off all your hair and wear it short. This isn't the way I and many other women I know have gone natural from relaxed. There are lots of reasons you might want to transition to natural hair without cutting off all your straight hair. For starters, I'm just used to wearing my hair long and didn't want to drastically change my look overnight. You may have other reasons for wanting to transition slowly. No matter what your motivation, there are few things to keep in mind if you plan to go natural without the "big chop".

1. Stop Chemical Treatments That Alter Your Hair Texture

This may seem obvious but I have to state the obvious. Of course this includes relaxers but it also includes texturizers or tex-lax treatments. Texturizers permanently change your hair texture but not as much as relaxers do. If you really want to see what your own natural hair texture is and learn to style and care for it, you'll have to drop the creamy crack bottle and not look back. Don't worry. It may seem scary now but very soon you'll be so glad you did.

2. Use the Right Products & Maintenance Habits

If you don't take care of your hair (relaxed or natural) it's not going to look good at all. It's critical to do a few things differently once your natural roots start to grow in; mainly moisturize and protect your hair during styling and maintenance. Curly and kinky hair (even after it has been relaxed) is porous and tends to become dry and frizzy. It is very susceptible to heat damage and breakage.

Products to care for your hair while transitioning from relaxers: 

-Sulfate-free shampoo
-Cleansing conditioner
-Leave-in conditioner
-Rich oil that can penetrate the hair and keep moisture out to control frizz (coconut, shea butter, argan oil)
-Rinse-out conditioner with lots of "slip" (to detangle in the shower without breakage)
-Deep conditioner

Maintenance Tips:

-Detangle your hair while conditioner is in it. Use a conditioner with a lot of "slip" and a wide-tooth comb to prevent breakage. The thicker your roots get, the harder it is to detangle your hair after it's been towel-dried and has no product in it. Transitioning hair is prone to breakage at the point where the relaxed hair and natural hair meet; this point is called the line of demarkation.

-Cleanse your hair using a sulfate-free shampoo and/or a cleansing conditioner instead of regular shampoo. Sulfates strip your hair of its natural protective oils and leave it squeaky clean. Squeaky clean is not a good thing for natural black hair.

3. Protect Your Hair When Styling

Choose hair styles that require little to no direct heat and require gentle manipulation. For example, straighten your natural roots to match your relaxed hair texture by stretching while wet instead of using heat to straighten it after it's dry. Apply your leave-in conditioner, natural oil, and a dab of Eco styler gel throughout your hair concentrating on your roots. Brush your roots flat and pull your hair into a ponytail. Tie a scarf around your edges and let them dry flat and straight. Other types of protective styles that require minimal heat are braids, twists, up-dos or even wigs.

4. Be Patient and Consistent

 Human hair grows about 1/2 inch per month, on average. That means that in six months, you should grow about 3 inches of new growth. However, it might seem as if your hair is growing faster than usual because you will be retaining the length that you may not have when you relaxed your hair. If you're patient and consistent with caring for your hair as described above, you'll quickly notice your hair is softer, thicker, healthier, shinier and generally way more awesome than it was when it was chemically treated. Be warned that at some point in the transition process, you might get so excited to sport your natural hair that you decide to cut off all or some of your relaxed hair. :-)