Naturals who decided to texlax/relax again, what were your reasons?

Hey all! I am really frustrated right now and need some help and guidance. I have been natural for 3 years now, and my hair is about BSL, and I am getting very very tired of doing my hair. I have very tangle prone type 4 hair that doesn't seem to cooperated no-matter what I do. I feel like the main issue with my hair is time. As an undergrad student with a job as well as running a ton of student organizations on my campus, I just don't have the time I would really need to take care my hair in order to make it healthy and not have my hair be a hassle. As a result I kind of just do whatever with my hair.

Because of this I am thinking of texlaxing/relaxing my hair so that wash days would not have to take so long and I could actually focus on my life without worrying about looking horrible because of my hair.

I would just like to hear any words of wisdom about this. I have considered just cutting my hair into a tapered cut, but that seems high maitenance as well seeing as I wouldn't be able to cut my hair myself and I go to an isolated predominantly white institution and have no car. So I don't even know how I'd pull that off.

TL;DR
Student with no time for long natural hair struggling with what to do with it, to relax, or not to relax? HELP!
 

Lucie

Dancin' on sunshine!
I couldn't see out of my rearview anymore.

I felt like it.

I had too much hair.

THE END. :)

ETA: I will shave it off again when I hit WL.
 

Holla

Well-Known Member
Trust me when I tell you that the time for you to explore natural hair is now as a student. As a working professional, you will have even LESS time to do your hair but MORE days where you will need to put your best foot forward appearance wise. If you want low maintenance hairstyles, consider getting braids when you go home. You can get those redone every couple of months when you go home without needing to leave campus to do your hair.

For low maintenance styles naturally, learn how to do a nice bun or updo. Get a donut to make the bun look more uniform. Learn how to do the scarf method to lay down your edges with some good lite gel (like Ecostyler).

With relaxed hair, you will still need time to do it because a wash and go is not the same on relaxed hair IMO. You will still need to rollerset, blowdry, airdry in a bun....something to have it look decent. Plus you'll need more time to do your hair the closer you get to needing a touchup as your new growth grows.

If time is your only reason for wanting a relaxer, I would reconsider.
 

overtherainbow

Well-Known Member
I completely agree with Holla.
My relaxed hair took just as long as my natural hair, if not longer. And worst of all, it never held a style as long as my natural hair does, so I ended up having to do it more often.
I feel for you on the busy student life OP. During my undergrad, I was taking 19 credits, working in a different state and during my last year, applied to 10 grad programs while writing a 20 page thesis. I did not sleep, I did not eat, and my hair was the last thing on my mind. My hair is a little shorter than yours (I'm BSB, maybe 2-3 inches from BSL), but it only takes me an hour flat to do when I'm in a hurry, even less if I plan on wearing a pony or bun. Many times I would just wash my hair an hour before class and wear my hair in twists. What I'm trying to say is that maybe you should reevaluate your regimen and take out the "extras" before you decide to relax.
 

isawstars

Well-Known Member
I returned to texlaxed after being natural for 2 years. Looking back, I wish I just heat trained because that's what I'm doing now and my hair detangles easier. But I really wanted to be texlaxed... I never regretted it but I am returning to natural hair again.

Unless you're afraid of remorse, you should do what your gut says. It's just hair, you can go natural again and again and again. Best thing about that is transitioning feels like nothing after the first time. At least, that's my experience.

Anyways, overall I texlaxed because I was tired of sectioning my hair to wash my hair and just wanted a change without cutting my hair.
 
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Ms. Tiki

Well-Known Member
I texlaxed after being natural for two years. It was just too much hair for me to work with and at the time I was only APL. I got tired of battling with my hair.
 

ajargon02

Well-Known Member
Hey all! I am really frustrated right now and need some help and guidance. I have been natural for 3 years now, and my hair is about BSL, and I am getting very very tired of doing my hair. I have very tangle prone type 4 hair that doesn't seem to cooperated no-matter what I do. I feel like the main issue with my hair is time. As an undergrad student with a job as well as running a ton of student organizations on my campus, I just don't have the time I would really need to take care my hair in order to make it healthy and not have my hair be a hassle. As a result I kind of just do whatever with my hair.

Because of this I am thinking of texlaxing/relaxing my hair so that wash days would not have to take so long and I could actually focus on my life without worrying about looking horrible because of my hair.

I would just like to hear any words of wisdom about this. I have considered just cutting my hair into a tapered cut, but that seems high maitenance as well seeing as I wouldn't be able to cut my hair myself and I go to an isolated predominantly white institution and have no car. So I don't even know how I'd pull that off.

TL;DR
Student with no time for long natural hair struggling with what to do with it, to relax, or not to relax? HELP!

Do what you want/need to do with ur hair to make it manageable. Just know relaxed/texlaxed/or natural, to maintain your length, it WILL take time and patience. Best of luck to ya!
Let us know what you ended up doing :)
 

Pinkicey

New Member
That's exactly why I stopped trying to go natural. I was a junior in college, worked, and raised an autistic 3 year old by myself. I need the manageability to be able to just wear a slick back ponytail for a week. When I was transitioning I needed to wash my hair every 3 days because I couldn't feel my scalp. I had no time to do all those cute transitioning styles and my relaxed ends were falling off like crazy. It looked horrible because it was so thick on the top and thin on the bottom. Now that I'm relaxing again I still use all the hair care tips I learned while trying to transition and it's sooo much easier to take care of. Right now I'm 8 weeks post and I don't even look crazy. Before learning how to take care of my hair I wouldn't even be able to go out anywhere fancy at 6 weeks. Natural hair is absolutely beautiful but the best things in life come with work.
 

VictoriousBrownFlower

Well-Known Member
I texlaxed because I wanted to show more length and I wanted my flat irons to last longer. I think I should have waited it out though. I miss my natural hair. It appeared thicker and was stronger. I think by now it would have been shoulder length or at least close. I'm transitioning again and this time will be a long term transitioner. I plan to maintain it at waist length cutting off just enough every month to keep it long and tailored.

So I say try your best to maintain your natural hair but if you can't and you've thought it through then get a relaxer. You can always transition again if you want natural hair again. Just make sure you have a good reason for relaxing. I didn't. And now I'm just making my journey longer.
 

dicapr

Well-Known Member
Hey all! I am really frustrated right now and need some help and guidance. I have been natural for 3 years now, and my hair is about BSL, and I am getting very very tired of doing my hair. I have very tangle prone type 4 hair that doesn't seem to cooperated no-matter what I do. I feel like the main issue with my hair is time. As an undergrad student with a job as well as running a ton of student organizations on my campus, I just don't have the time I would really need to take care my hair in order to make it healthy and not have my hair be a hassle. As a result I kind of just do whatever with my hair. Because of this I am thinking of texlaxing/relaxing my hair so that wash days would not have to take so long and I could actually focus on my life without worrying about looking horrible because of my hair. I would just like to hear any words of wisdom about this. I have considered just cutting my hair into a tapered cut, but that seems high maitenance as well seeing as I wouldn't be able to cut my hair myself and I go to an isolated predominantly white institution and have no car. So I don't even know how I'd pull that off. TL;DR Student with no time for long natural hair struggling with what to do with it, to relax, or not to relax? HELP!

If you had healthy, easy to take care of relaxed hair it may be a good option. Also cutting it into a tapered cut could also work. I had mine cut about 5 weeks ago and I am just now making an appointment to get it shaped. I didn't shave the sides or anything so it isn't high maintenance. I wash and go every 3 days and spritz with oil/water/conditioner mix in between. I have a coil pattern so I don't bother with twisting or coiling my hair. It really has been carefree for me.
 

CocoGlow

Well-Known Member
healthyhairdontcare

I texlaxed last year after chopping all of my natural collar bone length hair off the year before and after attempting 4 sets of locs the years before that! :look:

All of those decisions were made out of frustration - not a true desire to have locs, short hair or texlaxed hair. My hair is very very very dense and extremely kinky so detangling became a chore in addition to fact that my scalp liked to be washed 2x a week - the thought of having to go through the detangling/styling process that often really frustrated me ... I loved the way my cottony natural hair looked especially as it got longer but my itchy scalp made the maintenance difficult.

I truly thought that by lightly texlaxing my hair I could keep the natural "look" while making detangling "easy" ... I soon found out that the easy detangling sessions only lasted for that first month after touch-ups (if that!) .. once my new growth came in uh oh!! And then it was really hard trying to figure out the protein treatment element ... some protein treatments would be too much and cause my hair to revert and other protein treatments were not enough at all and my hair would shed like crazy - very frustrating... after about 9 months of that I decided I really just wanted to be natural and texlaxing did not give me the ease that I thought it would ... so here I am growing my hair back out again :spinning:

So yeah all that to say I regretted it but I guess I had to do it to get the "what-ifs" out of my system

I'll say that if you are the type of person that can go a while without washing, with your current length you can do sooo many protective styles that last 2-3 weeks in which you can moisturize as needed but not have to constantly go through the long wash day process as often ...

The tapered cut is a great idea also, BUT you have to consider if it will really cut down on your styling time .. before my major ceasar cut 2 years ago I did a tapered cut also, but I found that it didn't really shave that much time off of my process like I thought it would ... unless you will be rocking wash n gos with your cut, you will still have to style it after each wash with even smaller twists/braids etc than you probably put in your hair now after washing because short hair cannot fit into larger twists/braids for a twist-out/braid-out ... I didn't consider this so while my hair was shorter, the fact that I had to put in smaller braids/twists made the process just as long as before ....

AND with a tapered cut. you will have to trim certain parts with clippers every few weeks to a month depending on how low/sharp you like the taper ... If you do cut, I would also recommend you learn how to do your own taper if you like it done often ... when I rocked a ceasar cut 2 years ago I only liked it for the first 2 weeks post-cut because I could simply brush & go, beyond that I didn't like the cut, so I had to learn how to do it myself and I started resenting how often I had to do it...

Whatever you do, don't do what I did so many times and make rash decisions out of frustration ... but who knows, you might be like me and have to experience it first hand to know what you really want/don't want lol :drunk: ... there is a lot to consider and I hope you make the best choice for you sis!!
 
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PureSilver

Well-Known Member
Relaxed after 3 yrs natural with APL hair, i relaxed again because

1. It was so much easier to manage if i'm in a hurry; 2 mins to slick in a low bun/pony

2. Natural hair made me look older

3. Relaxed hair is a little easier to care and takes a little less work for me.
 

LoveisYou

Well-Known Member
I enjoy my twa stage, it's too much and too time consuming as it starts to grow, and life has gotten a lot busier for me. In fact, I'm about to become a weaveaholic because my schedule is insane sometimes.

If I ever go natural again, I'm keeping it short
 

Queensheba88

Well-Known Member
I relaxed after being natural only 8 months I realized a little to quickly that natural hair did not fit my schedule. Having a two year old..going to school and working kicked my butt and I didn't have enough time on a daily to retwist and style my hair it was too time consuming and after experiencing crown breakage for the first time in my hair journeys I said enough is enough...I should be enjoying my natural hair but the maintnence was too much and I wasn't enjoying it. I now do my rutine on a Fri moisture and seal through the week and I'm done...
 
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briacait

Well-Known Member
I don't really have any advice to offer. I've been natural almost 6 months and I'm already thinking of relaxing again. As a busy professional I really don't have the time for the upkeep and as my hair gets longer it seems to be harder to control. I transitioned for 6 months and I actually miss my transitioning hair.
 

DDTexlaxed

TRANSITION OVER! 11-22-14
I texlaxed because I was using heat too much. I thought it was less taxing for my hair. I honestly really loved my natural hair, but I just didn't know how to properly care for it and style it.I could only do one hair style. Ironically, it is the same thing right now with my texlaxed hair.:lol:
 

greenandchic

Well-Known Member
There was no "again" for me since I never had a relaxer prior to December 2013. For me, I was going nowhere with natural hair. I could not retain length and wash days was getting longer and longer since I realized I needed to put more time into my hair. My scalp doesn't do well when I don't wash it often. I need to wash twice a week and shampoo at least once. I also sweat a lot at the gym.

I haven't used direct heat on my hair in over 13 years and I still don't now. I did a mini blowout recently to set my hair in bantu knots but that's about it. I can wash, DC and set my hair without spending hours on it and/or losing a lot of hair.

HTH
 
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