Belizeanbeauty's Long Term Transition to Natural Hair

Hello everyone!

I have been transitioning to natural hair since March 17th 2007. I started off my journey with BSL hair and I currently have hair that reaches the small of my back (about 4 inches past waist length). I decided to transition because I was tired of spending $40 to relax my hair 3-4 times a year. Nothing deep or profound. I only went to the hairdresser for relaxers and I trimmed my hair with each relaxer. I maintained my relaxed hair with blunt trims, deep conditioning, etc and I did my hair myself between salon visits. My father encouraged my sister and I to do our hair ourselves and bought us our own hair products and tools so we didnt have to rely on someone else ( my sis started transitioning with me and has BSL natural hair now). Ultimately I learned a lot about my hair in its relaxed state and now I am excited to continue learning about my natural hair.

A little background on my hair: I have (and have always had)very thick and long hair. I dont believe in hair typing, as my mom taught us "hair is just hair", but if I had to choose I would say I am a 3c/4a. My natural hair is about 16" long and the natural hair at my nape reaches BSL. The natural hair at my crown reaches APL. At my nape I have about 3-4" of relaxed ends and at my crown I have about 6-7" of relaxed ends. I have a fotki but it hasnt been updated since I was 18 months into my transition (I became busy after junior year of college and keep forgetting to update). Hopefully I can use this to post pics and show my progress.

Ultimately I hope to show people that long term transitioning is possible. I initially planned to transition until March 2009 but im still going strong and now I plan to transition for at least 3 years (until March 2010) but I will probably go longer since my transition has been so smooth.

My hair today is currently swept up into a high bun. I straightened my hair 2 weeks ago and I plan to wash tomorrow and either blow dry or do a twist out..I have not decided as of yet. HHG!

hi!!!!!!!! i am belizean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! welcome!!!!

Your hair is beautiful! I am glad to see your transition is going so smoothly. Keep up the good work!

Wow, I can't believe you've been transitioning for so long. That's awesome! I didn't have the patience - as soon as I decided I wanted to be natural, I had to cut to the chase...literally!

I know what you mean curlykinks, everytime I wash my hair I am tempted to cut off the relaxed ends lol.

You make me feel normal! I thought I was the only person who never BCed.

I never BC either and I've been transitioning since February 25, 2006. I just got regular trims and mini hair cuts . Happy Transitioning.

I actually ended my transition in March after 3 years of growing out my relaxer and I am so glad that I decided to wait it out to get the length I wanted. I really loved the length of my relaxed hair and i wasnt ready to part with it. I was determined to have long natural hair and currently my hair is straightened and the longest layer is waistlength and the shortest layer is almost bra strap length. My transition got easier after the first 6 months and by 1.5 years into my transition it was such a breeze that I decided to go for even longer. Trust me when I say that you have to have a goal in mind, mine was to be at least bsl when I cut the relaxed ends off. You will have a lot of people wondering why you are taking so long to cut the ends off. For me my hair was almost hip length when i cut off the relaxed ends and it was so hard to cut those ends off bcuz I grew attached to the length, but I reminded myself that i met my goal of transitioning for three years and I snipped off those ends.

I felt different at first, not necessarily free bcuz my hair felt so short (crazy I know bcuz my hair was ridiculously long after the little chop lol) and I had to adjust to having layered hair as opposed to the blunt all one length hair that ive had for the past 5 years. But my first wash after cutting off the ends i felt so free!! I saw all my hair curly for the first time since i was 13! My hair is now back to the length it was when I was a child and I love it. I thought detangling my transitioning hair was a breeze, but my completely natural hair is even easier to detangle, im still shocked lol! I have the urge to wet my hair even more just to see it curly. The only thing that bothers me is that the right side of my hair shrinks up more that the left, so my wash and goes look a little lopsided at times, and due to the layers my buns have little curls the stick out here and there as opposed to the sleek buns im used to. I also have to adjust to the different shape of my hair, the way it falls and the way my ponytails look. I am slowly trying to embrace the layers. When curly, the longest layer of my hair falls near bsl and the shortest layer near apl.

I have been fully natural for a month and I am LOVING my natural hair. I hope that your transition goes as well as mine did!

Wow, congratulations on your looooooooooong transition.

3 years!

Congratulations! Now, were are the pics?

Thanks so much ladies! I havent been able to take any pics because I have been swamped with work and moving into my new apartment. As soon as i get my internet connected i will upload pics from my transition and my completely natural hair. HHG!

You're GOOD, because I barely lasted six months. I was climbing the walls at THREE months, never mind six! Anways, congrats and we can't wait to see the pics!

Hi, it's nice to meet you. My family is Belizean!

I am so amazed that you made it 3 years!!!! How exciting! And CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Wow congrats!!! Can't wait to see pics

Congrats!!

details please!! how did you make it that long without breakage? How often did you wash your hair? did you ever use shampoo? what kind of moisturizer/how often? I'm in awe of your restraint!!!

it's really hard to decide when to cut.

I never BC'd either. Through most of my transitioning I was still going to the salon and my stylist who was natural also encouraged me going natural. So she was good and doing deep coditioning and triming my ends till all of the prem was gone.

I am glad to hear that after 6 months it seemed to get easier. It has been 6 months for me and I thought it was just me that it seem like it was getting easier. I am really excited that it will even become better.
Very inspirational that you went so long. What were your main style during the major tranistion?

Wow 3years!!!!! I got overly anxious after 2months and BC'd. I didn't wanna miss any step of my natural journey lol. But I can't wait to see pics