Biggest Obstacle as a Natural & what you did to Overcome it

My biggest obstacle so far has been accomplishing 2nd and 3rd day hair. What I have done to overcome it is...use Wave nouveaou finishing lotion on dry hair and two strand twist my hair at night. When I wake up and untwist my hair looks like this... (click on pic for bigger view)




Please post your biggest obstacle and what you did to overcome it. I'm sure other naturals could benefit from your advice. Also if you have an obstacle you haven't overcome...post it...maybe someone can give you solutions.

Good post!! I hope to see more advice in here since I am transitioning.

I have another one...

I went to the salon and had my hair professionally pressed and curled. It looked great but the back of my hair that was a 3c are now more like a deep wave than a curl.

I've tried everything from protein treatments to deep conditioning to get the curls back. (with no sucess) The only thing I have done with sucess is to do a two strand twist to get my hair in the back to look like the rest of my hair. So far..so good.

keeping my ends from getting tangled up and trying not to overmanipulate my hair were my two biggies. i noticed at the end of last winter i had greater retention when i washed once a week and wore my hair in cornrows/flat twists under wigs or put my hair away in senegalese twists, but old habits die hard and i went back to biweekly WNGs over the summer. of course i had the same issues with raggedy ends that required more frequent trimming, so over the past 3 months i have switched to washing once a week and drying my hair in twists and french braids. i have also gotten 2 DBs six weeks apart with a dusting to accompany each. having straight hair for 2-3 weeks on end is helping with retention since my ends are easier to manage and all i have to do is moisturize and finger comb. as a bonus, in those two dustings, i lost less hair than i did with one regular trim. now if i could only fall in love with bunning!

bumping for responses

My biggest obstacle was ME!

Mentally it was very hard to transition my mind. Baby, I felt a HOT MESS. But, too many folks told me not to go natural. I had folks say that I wouldn't be the same w/o the relaxer.

They had no idea the turmoil I was in once I BC on a whim. But, due to their negativity towards me when I mentioned going natural they had no idea.

I faked it until I made it. Really, I projected HOTNESS and folks started to treat me as such. I really just made it seem like I was the business, but in avery nonchalant way. I didn't speak about it..It was all in the way I carried myself. W/ EXTREME confidence. On the inside was a mess, but you would have never known it...

I saw how my actions affected those around me and even new people I met and it was all positive. So I just kept at it and finally the mind transitioned over and I realized that in FACT I was HOT!

I haven't been this cool in my entire life. And it all started with the BC. Thank you BC..ya changed my life.

At the beginning of my natural hair care journey I have NO clue about the concept of moisture/protien balance. All I knew about was deep conditioning so i attempted to do so without any rhyme or reason. I did two DCs within the span of a week and a half that caused major setbacks and led to me chopping off about 5 inches

1) was protien overload! I used hair Mayonaise and added a raw egg and let it sit on my hair for 3 hours crazy I kno!

At the time I was doing wet cornrow outs daily and after that treatment my end were litterally snapping off

2) next week I decided to fix what I thought was "dry" hair...didnt realize it was protien overload....So I did an overnight DC... that left me with soggy hair and my ends continued to snapp off.

The next week I went to my beautician for my usual flat iron and "I" felt my ends were see through [they werent, yes there was some breakage but as I look at pics it wasnt that bad lol]. I probably only need a 1 or 2 inch trim but NOOOO I was feeling depressed and went on you tube and convinced my self I need to do a chop! BUT I had never had a perm so that was kinda dumb now that I think back...but I cut my then APL hair to neck length by my self with household scissors (mistake!)...can you say split ends!!!!

The beauty in this situation is it led me to do some research on styles for short hair, in my search I found www.growafrohairlong.com and adopted the crown and glory method...While my hair was in braids I learned about moisture/protein balance, how to detangle properly and I also learned to cut down on manipulation. This helped tremedously because I would litteraly rip out tangles and that topped with those daily cornrow outs were part of the problem

fast forward about 1 1/2 years later I and pretty much APL again but my hair is a lot thicker and healthier than before and i am retainig length.

I encourage any new natural to research hair practices b4 experimenting with a gang of natural products and styles. I was doing too much to my hair in the beginnig but I learned less in more.

My hair would be much longer today if I hadnt made those mistakes but I am glad I learned that lesson and I would hope no one else would make similar mistake in their journey

I couldn't figure out how to dry my twa without it tangles. Big twists and braids would come apart. I started putting my hair in 4 ponytails with the Goodie no metal bands. Not only did it stop tangles but it gave length like banding.

Hey there Bermuda!!! Good to see you girl

Look at how much your hair has grown!

I'm not natural yet, so I will just bookmark this. Great thread!

My Laziness.

It's harder to be lazy now, because I know if I am, I'll have a head full of painful tangles and dry straw hair.
I have to now set 'hair time' aside.

When I was texlaxed it was a lot easier to do absolutely nothing to my hair and have no consequences.

Other than that, no real obstacles for being natural (yet)

I can't get second day hair either. It never occurred to me to twist it at night. Bump that I'm too lazy.

This is a great thread! I'm taking notes...

Hair boards

Co-washing everyday, deep conditioning twice a week, trying out new products & hair styles were horrible for me. My hair loves the simple things.

Great Thread!!!

Man oh man MOISTURIZING!!!!!!!

Had the hardest time keeping my semi-thick 4b hair moist!
I took a deep breath and started experimenting with different moisturizers

I made some…they didn’t work (made like 4)
Did Shea Butter alone…kinda worked
Oils alone….nope
Kinky Curly….hell no

Finally….Oyin!!!
I learned more about my hairs needs….water was KEY!!

So….

Greg Juice from Oyin
Whipped Shea from Oyin

I apply both…mmm which one first? What ever mood im in.
Soft hair finally!!

Since Ive ran out of the Greg Juice, I am putting the Whipped Shea on before I shower, leaving the shower cap on the knob, and letting the steam do the rest…my hair is platted now…bout 10 braids. (That is till i get some more Greg Juice!!) So soft a week later!! Even when I take the braids loose!!

This is a great thread! I'm transitioning and this stuff is very helpful to me! THANKS LADIES!

My biggest obstacle was/is single strand knots that have already been mentioned.

I would say that both stretching with twists or braids and also slathering my ends with a thick shea butter/cocoa butter mix have helped the most...

cj

I'm still having isues with keeping my hair moisturized...weaved up for now but when it comes out, it's on and poppin!

Dry hair!!!

Starting spritzing my hair and applying a mix of shea butter, castor oil, aloe vera gel, and EVOO. Hair has never felt better after doing this.

Honestly my biggest obstacle was no longer having shoulder length hair. I haven't had short hair since 2004 so it was defintely a huge transformation especially after growing out my hair. Also, one obstacle is remembering to take care of my hair. I just overcome my obstacles with prayer and remember that my goal is to have my hair shoulder length again a year from now so I keep pressing and looking towards that goal by during what I need to do, which is taking care of my hair. How I got over my obstacle with my hair being short was seeing hair growth results and seeing my aunts reaction. Once they knew I was going natural they understood my decision to cut my relax her off.

My biggest issues are detangling and knots at the end of my hair.

Shrinkage, you can't overcome that one. Depending on the strength of your shrinkage. Yeah I said strength, you just have to deal with it unless you use some type of elongating method like blow drying or something else, but even with that if the water hits its...............

Just hoping one day I reach a length where the shrinkage won't be so noticeable. Right now I ain't see that.

my biggest problem is my heat damage area in the front bang spot. what im doing about it is cutting the ends little by little. in fact im due for a cut tonight.

My biggest obstacles:
1) Getting past the mindset that I NEED heat to manage my hair- Heat is not bad but I thought I had to have it to style my hair and it seriously affected my retention.
2) Single Strand Knots- I'm still working on this one. I didn't get these until I got past APL. Using shea butter regularly seems to be helping.
3) Breakage- I thought because my hair was natural I could be rough w/it and it wouldn't matter. I colored it, yanked on it while combing etc... and my hair suffered because of it. Now I know better.