Naturally Flexible Support Thread

MileHighDiva said:

Ms.havilland thank you for starting this thread!

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Girl bye! It was your idea! Lol

I'm laminating cards now...... Teehee.

1. My hair braided
2. My hair during my transition when I washed it

3 & 4 My hair after I cuff off my relaxed ends showing my shrinkage
5. My twist I did last weekend
6. My hair right after I cut off the relaxed ends

Rae81


I love those braids! Ur hair is gawgus!

I am flexing more these since I am getting close to my hair goal. I have bunned almost everyday for the past 3.5 years and I am sick of it. It works to retain length and this is no doubt. I will be bunning but when I feel like it as opposed to obligation.

I will be wearing my hair in its natural state majority of the time but every month or every other month I plan to wear is stretched without feeling guilty, lol. I love my hair stretched!

I really like this thread

I'm subbing. I'll make a real post when I get back to my computer.

Roller set that I wore down for 3 days....turned into a braid out for 4 days ..then a big poof ball. Yep, time to wash

Today's wash n go pony.

Yesterday I tried the curly girl method of leaving conditioner in my hair for a wash n go. It took FOREVER for my hair to dry. 12 hours later my roots were still wet.

I used Hairveda moisture 24/7 as my leave in. And miss Jessie's pillow soft curls as my styler. My hair is soft and curly with major shrinkage and finally dried this morning.

I looked like Michael Jackson in the original Thriller video. MMNPH!

When will I learn......

Here is the pony that resulted after I finally got the roots to dry.

havilland said:

Today's wash n go pony.

Yesterday I tried the curly girl method of leaving conditioner in my hair for a wash n go. It took FOREVER for my hair to dry. 12 hours later my roots were still wet.

I used Hairveda moisture 24/7 as my leave in. And miss Jessie's pillow soft curls as my styler. My hair is soft and curly with major shrinkage and finally dried this morning.

I looked like Michael Jackson in the original Thriller video. MMNPH!

When will I learn......

Here is the pony that resulted after I finally got the roots to dry.

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Im going to have to look up the curly girl method. I wish my hair would fit into one of those banana clips, but sadly i can never close it. How do you get your hair to fit in there?

Fencers - Relaxed ladies considering transitioning, chopping in the near or not so near future


A. any pictures from your journey you want to share -
This was in June





here's my hair today- I'm in a twist-out, I'll post an after pic.









B. your regimen
I've been shampooing once a week, using some organix shampoo, dc with Argan mask, using 2mim aphogee
C. how long you relaxed and what products you used
I've been relaxed since at least 5th grade. I want to see how my natural hair would look. Relaxed hair is versatile, I just want to try something different (I think)
D. any setbacks and how you overcame them as a natural or relaxed head. (you never know who you can help with this information)
I haven't had any real setbacks since I started. Not much of a risk taker.

E. Your goals as a natural, especially length goals
I just love the way her hair sits on her shoulders.






F. Any hair inspiration pictures or stories about who/what inspired you (in a POSITIVE way) to go natural or consider it
The whole "transitioning without bc" crew

havilland said:

so if you use henna you can't use traditional dyes anymore?

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That's what my stylist told me. She told me to stay away from henna if I plan to use commercial dyes. They deposit color differently.


I like this thread.


Question for those who straighten often: Do you get straight pieces of hair when you do a wash and go? What do you do about the nonuniform curl pattern when wearing curly styles?

I was natural until about my sophomore year of high school. I begged my mom to let me get a relaxer, and she finally relented sophomore year. My hair was below BSL when I first relaxed, and that was even with some pretty heavy abuse. I stayed relaxed for about 15 years before I started to realize that I was having a hard time getting my hair to the length it was pre-relaxer. It would start to grow and then I'd have a setback, usually due to over- or under-processing (my natural hair is low porosity and resistant to relaxers). After my last relaxer in August 2012, my hair stylist suggested that I try a sixth month stretch. Then I came across the transitioning with BC board and Youtube, and I was inspired to officially start my transition. On March 23, 2013, I cut off my relaxed ends after 7 months of transitioning. Now, I'm just over a year post-relaxer. My goal is to try being relaxer-free for at least 3 years to see if it thrives now that I know more about how to take care of natural hair.

I'm not anti-relaxer or other chemicals. I just want to see if refraining from relaxing works better for me. I know it's cheaper because I don't self-relax (I had some really bad setbacks when I tried), but I will take care of my natural hair at home.

Now that I'm a year post, I'm going to try straightening. I have a few heat protectants and I bought a new hatchet blow dryer. I just haven't straightened yet because I'm afraid of heat damage, but I just need to go ahead and try it.

My regimen
Currently, I wash once per week. I deep condition overnight first, then I shampoo and condition/detangle. During my transition, I did the same, I just used more protein deep conditioners than I do now.

When I was relaxed and finally figured out my regimen, I used the Keracare line almost exclusively. The only exception was that I used Aphogee 2-min reconstructor, which I used weekly. Right now, I'm trying to figure out what my natural hair likes. It seems to like certain Aubrey Organics, Curl Junkie, Oyin and Camille Rose products, but we'll see. I want to start branching out to some cheaper, still quality products that I can get on the ground, like Aussie; but I'm also a recovering PJ, so I have to do it in an organized way.


Any setbacks and how you overcame them as a natural or relaxed head. (you never know who you can help with this information) - No setbacks as a natural so far.

Your goals as a natural, especially length goals - I want my hair to be at least shoulder length in its natural state, and WL straightened. I don't know if WL will be too heavy, but I want to at least reach it and cut later if need be.

Rae81 said:

Im going to have to look up the curly girl method. I wish my hair would fit into one of those banana clips, but sadly i can never close it. How do you get your hair to fit in there?

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I have no problem with fit. I can buy regular size banana clips. My hair is thin. U probably need to go to sephora or sally's and buy jumbo banana clips.

Haviland: your ponies are gorgeous!

I'm not big on writing out my whole natural story but here is a little pic:


I BC'ed after a little less than a year in August 2010. I think I was full SL stretched at this point.
The longest my hair has been in my life in August 2012. I had had a couple of setbacks between my BC and this point, but I was happy to be in the near/scraping/whispering MBL vicinity.
Second BC in September 2012 due to horrible ends and perpetual dryness, and the desire for blunt ends.
Length as of July 2013.

I spent 2012 and the beginning part of 2013 doing a lot of experimenting (and trimming to fix experiments gone wrong) to really try and figure out why my hair was in such horrible condition in that second pic and was able to make the final resolutions, which are now helping me craft a much better regimen:

I cannot wear WNGs perpetually. My hair is really fragile and it can't be left to shrink because the SSKs mean splits for me. My hair NEEDS to be stretched.
I cannot wear wet buns (which was pretty much all I wore 2011-2012). The daily washing gives me a growth boost like crazy, but the stretching my hair beyond its natural elastic point via wet bunning causes mad splits and breakage.
Heat is my friend!
I must moisturize DRY hair.
Oil needs to happen daily.

Once my regi is really finalized, I can post. I am hoping I can get it down-pat over the next few weeks.

I cannot wear WNGs perpetually. My hair is really fragile and it can't be left to shrink because the SSKs mean splits for me. My hair NEEDS to be stretched.
I cannot wear wet buns (which was pretty much all I wore 2011-2012).

davisbr88

I Soooooo agree with this statement about keeping the hair stretched. I LOVE roller sets and find that out of all styles I've tried, they are the best at keeping my hair stretched and my ends smooth. WNG's remind me too much of my jherri curl days and I swear every time I see people sporting them, I cringe a little inside. hahahaha

Holla said:

That's what my stylist told me. She told me to stay away from henna if I plan to use commercial dyes. They deposit color differently.


I like this thread.


Question for those who straighten often: Do you get straight pieces of hair when you do a wash and go? What do you do about the nonuniform curl pattern when wearing curly styles?

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Holla I have straight pieces right around my face/perimeter of my hair. It almost looks like transitioning hair.

I'm mostly ok with it. My hair is extremely thick, so it gets swallowed up by the rest of the hair, but after a day or two, when the hair starts to get stretched, you can really see them. That's why my wng don't last for more than 2 or 3 days.

Lawd have mercy this wash day took 50-11 hours! This is how it all went down.

Washed with Silk Dreams Go Moist Shampoo
Did that stank a dank Aphogee 2 step treatment
Deep conditioned overnight with Silk Dreams Shea What Deux
Next morning, rinsed that out then used a teeny bit of Silk Dreams Wheat Germ conditioner as leave in
Roller set using 2 pumps of the Carol's Daughter whatchamacallit
Serum

I can't be bothered with my hair in the next 2 weeks cause it's gonna be hella busy in my household. New school year, my son's football schedule etc...so fingers crossed to making this last to my hair appt at the salon.

lulu97: yes, it was a long time coming but I'm super happy I finally figured it out.
Lol at the jheri curl, though! My WNG always looked really poodle-ish to me. When it got long, it definitely started taking on the jheri curlish look in some spots of my hair.

I forgot to add that I also learned that I need to dust regularly as well. I used to trim every 4 months. Now I do it every 2 months and it's definitely made a huge difference.

lulu97


Looks good. I love the color!

This wash day I realized that my hair had gotten too long for the rollers I normally use to rollerset. *insert happy dance, twirls & spins*. Gonna go one size up and get some like this you tuber. I don't wrap my hair after the set like she does cause my roots ain't having it, but I love her tutorial.
http://youtu.be/6wDWdx5MdIs

lulu97 said:

This wash day I realized that my hair had gotten too long for the rollers I normally use to rollerset. *insert happy dance, twirls & spins*. Gonna go one size up and get some like this you tuber. I don't wrap my hair after the set like she does cause my roots ain't having it, but I love her tutorial.
http://youtu.be/6wDWdx5MdIs

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Wooo hoo! That's great!

My hair is so dry, I don't understand why

Rae81 said:

My hair is so dry, I don't understand why

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I was wondering yesterday why my hair is so hard.......i want touchable hair....this shriveled up crunchy mess is not looking like Mahoganycurls or Naptural85 and i am NOT HAVING IT!!

havilland said:

I was wondering yesterday why my hair is so hard.......i want touchable hair....this shriveled up crunchy mess is not looking like Mahoganycurls or Naptural85 and i am NOT HAVING IT!!

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Exactly, I don't know what to do to get it soft

Flexible natural here . I have recently been alternating every 10-14 days between wash n gos and flat-ironed hair. I wash every 10-14 days, so if I'm wearing a wash n go, I only add my stylers on the first day, and then refresh with water/glycerin spray daily, pineappling at night. When I wear my hair straight, I moisturize/seal at night and then wrap for bed. I use henna for color every 2-3 months. Pretty simple. I'll add pics later.

MyAngelEyez~C~U said:

Flexible natural here . I have recently been alternating every 10-14 days between wash n gos and flat-ironed hair. I wash every 10-14 days, so if I'm wearing a wash n go, I only add my stylers on the first day, and then refresh with water/glycerin spray daily, pineappling at night. When I wear my hair straight, I moisturize/seal at night and then wrap for bed. I use henna for color every 2-3 months. Pretty simple. I'll add pics later.

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Love that color

Do y'all remember how the baby dolls hair we played with when we were younger was nice and straight but the ends would be bushy..that's how my ends are when I try and stretch my hair... bushy

Love this! I'm a newborn flexible natural. Let's see I was natural for most of my life and didn't know how to take care of my hair at all! I got my first relaxer five years ago and my hair did really well with it I got my hair to waist length. I then got my last relaxer October 15, 2011 and started transitioning, I finally have cut the last of the relaxed ends recently. Right now I am learning my natural hair again to do a better job than I did in the past when natural. Mostly I have worn my hair straight, but am taking a break from the heat since it's so hot and is just sweating out anyway. I don't really have a set in stone regimen as of right now, but what I have been doing is:

For Straight Hair:

Wash with Suave Daily Clarify Shampoo
Deep Condition with Silicon Bambu
Apply Leave in (Lacio Lacio, Aphogee Green Tea Reconstructor, and Heat Protectant Serum or Spray)
Blow dry with comb attachment
Flat iron and then pin curl

And if Wash & Go goes well

Curly Hair:

Shampoo with either Deva Curl No Poo, Shea Moisture Curl and Shine, KeraCare Hydrating Detangling Shampoo
And if I don't want to shampoo I will Co Wash with Tresseme Naturals
Deep Condition with either KerCare Humecto, Kera Care Dry and Itchy Scalp, Mixed Chicks Conditioner, or the Silk Elements Naturally Conditioner
Detangle in the shower
Apply Leave in of either Kinky Curly Knot Today, As I Am Leave in, or KeraCare Leave in <----Think I am going to skip this step when doing Wash and Gos
Style

During the week moisturize and seal every night unless doing a wash & go

I'm trying to get back into protective styles to help retain length. Will post pictures soon!!

Here is a picture of my hair when I wore it straight the past weekend, and a day or two later after I Co washed it out and decided to try a wash & go. Love the flexibility of natural hair!