Transitioning? 8 Things You Need To Do
Transitioning your hair back to your natural roots doesn’t have to be a rough process. A smooth transition can be achieved with minimum frustration, if you do right by your hair.
1. Start By Saying Goodbye To Chemicals
Giving up chemicals that permanently change the natural curl pattern of your hair or negatively affect it by causing breakage is a must. Relaxers, texturizers, dyes and the likes should be avoided.
Tip: Well, you might have told yourself that you are definitely going to stay away from these chemicals but you still have them laying around somewhere. It’s best to either give them away or throw them out, so as not to give into the urge on some frustrated bad hair days.
2. Reduce Heat Usage
Minimize the use of blow dryers, flat irons etc. Throughout my transitioning process, I stayed away from heat styling and this made my hair really healthy. The only heat I used was body heat (using plastic cap) when deep conditioning. Try air drying all of your styles instead, in order to maintain healthy hair by significantly reducing breakage.
Tip: Occasionally using heat won’t do much damage, if you take good care of your hair during this process. Endeavour to use appropriate heat setting for your hair.
3. Treat Your Hair With Care
The weakest part of your is the line of demarcation (where the natural hair ends and relaxed hair begins). You have to be gentle with it. Take time to detangle. Do not over manipulate. Keep your hands out of your hair!
4. Wash Hair In Sections
Keeping your scalp clean is great for hair growth and washing/co-washing in sections is the way forward. This may sound really time consuming but trust me it will save you a lot of breakage and shedding.
5. Deep Condition Often
This is very important if you want to properly nourish those strands of yours and keep them healthy. It’s crucial to balance your hair with moisture and protein. Moisture deep conditioning restores internal hydration and provided intense moisture to the hair. I do mine on weekly or bi-weekly basis. You also need to restore the protein in your hair that you loose through manipulation. Your hair needs protein replenishments in order to maintain its strength. I did my protein treatment every 3 months and it worked for my hair.
Tip: It’s all about balance for hair moisture and protein. Try experimenting with application intervals. Protein conditioning can be done between 1-3 months. Adding too much protein makes hair brittle and too much moisture makes hair limp. Find out what works best for you. Deep conditioners should be applied in generous amount to get optimal benefits.
6. Keep Your Hair Moisturized
This is the key to combating dry hair. Dry hair is easily prone to breakage and for transitioning hair the line of demarcation is at a bigger risk. Make sure hair is well moisturized to retain strength.
Tip: To moisturize hair, lightly spray with water. Followed by a leave-in conditioner and seal with natural oil of choice.
7. Trim Your Ends
On a regular basis you need to get rid of all those dead hair and split ends, it’s not like you were going to keep the damaged ends anyway. This prevents excessive breakage.
Tip: How often you want to trim depends on you. It can be often as every 6 weeks – 3 months, until you become a full natural.
8. Protect Your Hair
Put your hair in protective styles sometimes. Choose styles that are simple to maintain and blend in both textures. Avoid styles that put too much tension on your temple and the nape of your neck. Always tie your hair up with a satin scarf or cap when sleeping, better still get a satin pillowcase.
Tip: Find the go-to transitioning style that blend the two very different textures. Examples of these styles are: Bantu knots and knot out, 2 strand twist and twist out, flat twists, flexi rods, braid out etc.
2 strand twist and twist out is my all time favorite.
Doing these things will not only give you a smoother transition but will prepare you for when you become a full blown natural.
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