Transitioning without BC'ing Support Thread

The urge to trim away the remaining relaxed ends was strong after wash day today. Not to do it today but do it sooner than I scheduled. I had originally planned to do it at the 3 year mark (in January) but I don't think I will make it. :look: I have so few relaxed ends left in the back so I was thinking what is the point waiting for this arbitrary date of 3 years. Now I need to decide when....

ETA: I decided October will be the month.....for now. :look:
 
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Is there anyone still transitioning? I'm 12 months post and this is my 2nd try. Last time in 2014 I relaxed at this point because i was too overwhelmed (1st time mom.) This time it has really been a breeze but I am in uncharted territory so I'm a lil nervous. I will cut before I relax but I have no plans on chopping anytime soon. I am full bsl and pretty attached to my length. My go to style is a bun as I have 2 little ones now and by the time I finish washing and detangling that's all I have the energy for. I do have breakage in my crown (my relaxed hair not at the line of demarcation) so if anyone has any tips to stop that I'd really appreciate. I just did aphogee 2 step last week D.C. With aowc and cowashed later in the week so my hair feels great for the time being. Ok that's all I've got! Very excited to be back in this forum. No one understands the struggle and tells me to cut or relax.
 
I'm transistioning....again. This is my third time, and I'll be 9 months post. I was doing okay the last time I transistioned but decided to relax my hair when I got sick (in/out of hospital, therapy) and was unable to care for/style my hair. Now that I've been home, I have been bunning. I only recently realized that it had been 7 months since I relaxed, so I decided to go ahead and transition again but without the big chop. I just started using my electric straightening comb (on very warm) to help with the new growth. This is helping with management tremendously. Wash/condition/grease/semi-straighten is the regimen and it's been working great. I'm actually excited this time around to work with my natural, especially now that it feels alot less like a chore than it did the first two times. Even when I'm all natural, I'm going to continue this regimen. I am prone to SSKs and this will help to minimize, if not eliminate, them.
 
Checking in again. I've been reading through the past posts in this thread and another thread, and they've all been very helpful. I trimmed off the unhealthy ends and hair management/detangling has gotten even better. I washed, deep conditioned (2-Step Aphogee), lighted greased the strands and put into three ponytails with elastic bands. Then I put small flexirods on the ends (though I think I didn't need them). Thanks to only texlaxing, my hair is still thick and the ends curl up on their own except for the top of head where the pattern is looser.

Straigtening it last week seems to have helped also, but I'm going to try to only straighten it once per month now. I think I'll start taking pics next time/soon to post here. :yep: Every t.ime I break down and texlax, I regret it. I'll get this natural thing right one day :lol:

Come on ladies, breathe some life into this thread.
 
Still going strong with my transition. October will be the month when I trim any remaining relaxed ends. I started thinking yesterday that maybe I'll bump it up to September :look: but I don't have enough free time (want to be home for a few days after the BC to play around with my new hair.....ain't trying to walking around looking all crazy :nono:).
 
Hey y'all! Nothing much going on here. I'm actually trying to find a new hobby because I've been buying too many hair products then I have to try them then I cut small random pieces of hair then since I can't seem to define any of the curls I went to pulling from the root. Yes I snatched perfectly good hair from the root (like 3 or 4) to see my curl pattern. I've become obsessed with trying to see what my hair will look like. I've NEVER seen my natural hair and I can't wait.
I made a Shea butter mix that I love I've been using curly probverbs growth oil and when I can get to my scalp I'll use xcel 21. I'm really trying to get some length so hopefully I'll be comfortable chopping at 2 years.
At the moment my hair is in a low bun with flat twist in the front. Boring but cute. I plan to flat iron and trim once it cools down here but I'm in the South so no telling when that'll be. After that I'll wear box braids for a while.
My hair is still feeling really good from my last wash day. It's nice and fluffy and super stretched almost looks blow dried. I'll stretch this out for another 5 days or so and hope I can get the same results next wash.
 
Is there anyone still transitioning? I'm 12 months post and this is my 2nd try. Last time in 2014 I relaxed at this point because i was too overwhelmed (1st time mom.) This time it has really been a breeze but I am in uncharted territory so I'm a lil nervous. I will cut before I relax but I have no plans on chopping anytime soon. I am full bsl and pretty attached to my length. My go to style is a bun as I have 2 little ones now and by the time I finish washing and detangling that's all I have the energy for. I do have breakage in my crown (my relaxed hair not at the line of demarcation) so if anyone has any tips to stop that I'd really appreciate. I just did aphogee 2 step last week D.C. With aowc and cowashed later in the week so my hair feels great for the time being. Ok that's all I've got! Very excited to be back in this forum. No one understands the struggle and tells me to cut or relax.

Make sure that your bun is not in the same place every time. The constant tension in the same spot can cause crown and nape breakage. Also, be sure that your crown is getting extra love when you moisturize/DC. Lastly, be careful with how you detangle that area. I JUST watched a really good video on it that may help.




Good luck with the rest of your transition!
 
Yes my bun has to be the problem. I've been wearing this same high bun for years rarely switching it up. I'm styled challenged so I really don't know what else to do besides moving it around. I MAY try braid outs and twist outs. I can do those and they don't look bad I'm just not used to wearing my hair out. Thank you for sharing the video. It's very informative and has scared me into TRYING to be more creative with my hair
 
:bump:

So.......circled October 3 as the day my remaining relaxed ends meet their fate onto the bathroom floor....

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Tips on air drying?

I've been air drying in a bun I'm looking to reduce tension
I've done braids but they take 20 years to dry and I don't like leaving the house like that
I haven't used heat to dry yet and don't want to start....
any tips would be appreciated or even a healthy hair compromise
 
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Tips on air drying?

I've been air drying in a bun I'm looking to reduce tension
I've done braids but they take 20 years to dry and I don't like leaving the house like that
I haven't used heat to dry yet and don't want to start....
any tips would be appreciated or even a healthy hair compromise
Air drying in twenty minutes is super fast. Have you tried drying under a hooded dryer? What type of look are you going for? A braid out? I spent my transition in cornrows and twist.
 
Tips on air drying?

I've been air drying in a bun I'm looking to reduce tension
I've done braids but they take 20 years to dry and I don't like leaving the house like that
I haven't used heat to dry yet and don't want to start....
any tips would be appreciated or even a healthy hair compromise

I'm not against heat so if just a hooded dryer or even blowing on cool works, go for it.

I normally get wash day out of the way on Saturday because I know it takes my hair a day at least to dry. I also do twist as braiding takes longer to dry. T-shirt or microfiber towel drying helps to reduce the amount of water still in my hair. Leave the twist uncovered. The smaller the twist, the longer to dry. Sealers affect drying time too, as heavy sealing causes my hair to take almost 2 days to dry, while gel does not.

I've also noticed that after a protein or henna treatment, my hair dries fastest, likewise for the next wash day. After that, it's back to long drying.
 
Interesting. If I may ask, why did you BC just the front and not all of your hair?
I wanted to see what it would be like to be all natural now that I discovered that I have curly hair. Also my hair is very spongy. I wanted to see if the relaxed ends were contributing to this frizz and sponginess. What I found out is that most parts of my twa manage an acceptable level of clumping and definition now after I chopped but the very central area is still frizzy and less defined. I think that big chopping helps a lot with definition but some hair textures are just inherently frizzy. Something else might be needed to clump them that I'm still unaware of but so far no luck. Here is what it looks like now:

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