Is natural hair easier than relaxed!

Ok I would love to know the opinions of you curlies out there!!! I was talking with a friend who is single and with no children and she is going back to a relaxer after eight long years of being natural. She stated that it was much easier with a relaxer than it is with natural hair, she gets tired of twisting, braiding , and washing and going. When I asked why if she has enough free time at night(which she does/fresh out of college at home with her mom and teaching) and on the weekends why is it such a hassle, she simple said it just is. I am pregnant, married, and have a very active two year old at the house and do find it rather hard to take time out to take care of my hair like i should but I still try to make time(Heck thats my mommy/me time). My question is this do you sometimes get bored, or too busy to deal with the upkeep of your hair? If so does your personal life seem to have more to do with it? And if and when you were relaxed did you find the maintenace to be easier, harder, or the same?

Quite frankly, I don't see much of a difference in my maintenance. My routine is pretty much the same as it used to be: weekly wash, deep condition, moisturize, seal. I kept it simple back then, and I keep it simple NOW. Only difference is that I have natural hair, not relaxed hair.

hmmm....to each their own, but scientifically speaking, permed hair needs three times as much moisture and protein as natural hair....so, is more work, actually....i couldn't see myself going back to a relaxer because some of my hair is fine, straight hair imo is boring and honestly i want my future hubs to know EXACTLY how the babies' hair could be. heck, blowdrying would be a light press for me. if anyone says its too time consuming, then it should be ME cuz my hair is super thick (and is getting thicker by the month). it takes me 4-5 days to twist my hair (and that is because i take my time with detangling and i put in small-medium sized twists and i get tired and i stop and do other stuff). but i keep the twists in for around a month. i am single and have no kids. still, i anticiapte keeping my hair natural even when i start a family. anything u want in this world u can have...u just have to make adjustments around the obstacles in order to get there. so, i pretty much went through the rain forest to say that ur friend's reasoning is a bunch of bolgones (sp).

if ur friend wants to keep her hair 'more manageble' maybe she should band more often or roller set at home to stretch hair. maybe she could use strawlers?

dajewel wrote:hmmm....to each their own, but scientifically speaking, permed hair needs three times as much moisture and protein as natural hair....so, is more work, actually....i couldn't see myself going back to a relaxer because some of my hair is fine, straight hair imo is boring and honestly i want my future hubs to know EXACTLY how the babies' hair could be. heck, blowdrying would be a light press for me. if anyone says its too time consuming, then it should be ME cuz my hair is super thick (and is getting thicker by the month). it takes me 4-5 days to twist my hair (and that is because i take my time with detangling and i put in small-medium sized twists and i get tired and i stop and do other stuff). but i keep the twists in for around a month. i am single and have no kids. still, i anticiapte keeping my hair natural even when i start a family. anything u want in this world u can have...u just have to make adjustments around the obstacles in order to get there. so, i pretty much went through the rain forest to say that ur friend's reasoning is a bunch of bolgones (sp).

if ur friend wants to keep her hair 'more manageble' maybe she should band more often or roller set at home to stretch hair. maybe she could use strawlers?

I was thinking the same thing. That she used "more manageable" as a means to go back to a relaxer. But like you said: to each their own.

And I wish I had your thick hair. My hair is so fine and thin and too much of ANYTHING can make it go limp.

My routine is pretty much the same as well. The only difference is now I'm twisting it when I wash but when I was relaxed I wrapped and sat under a dryer!

I did less when I had a relaxer to be quite honest. My stylist took care of my hair. I went with my mom every 2 weeks to get it washed and flat ironed, and beyond that point all I do is wrap it up at night. Even when I went to college (and dared not to have another person do my hair), I still didn't do much. Now I am much more active in my hair, which is fine with me, wash and go's take no time at all.

I don't see much of a difference. Except I would have to pay someone to keep to trimmed when it was relaxed. (I kept it short most of the time).

I enjoy doing my hair, (wish I was better at styling it). But, I realize not everyone enjoys it, therefore time doing it is not welcomed. I look forward to the time. The detangling sucks but, I've gotten better at it.

I think it depends on what you are good at. I am much better at styling my natural hair (which I am still not great at). But I am very uncomfortable with a flat iron or curling iron, and doing my relaxed hair was a pretty big stress/chore for me.

I hate that ur friend feels that she has to go back to a perm to have more managable hair
I feel that since I went natural it has become alot cheeper & not so time consuming I love it I dont want to even think about a relaxer for a very long time
I agree Courtrhapsody when I was younger I was able to manage my relaxed hair better but as I got older it was more difficult so I was going to the salon on a wkly basis

Well, I'm going to throw my hand up and say I'm spending about 100 x more time messing with my hair, but then again I did not take care of my relaxed hair. I never did a DC. I washed every two weeks and I wore it in a pony tail most days. Hence it was all coming out, so I went to braids and abused it some more.

I think she's making an excuse for relaxing, which she doesn't have to do. Heck it's her hair.

It is less time for me because I am not drying or flat ironing.

Every woman has to make her way....

well to be honest..my relaxed hair was a tad bit easier to deal with..i use to have a short cut, so all i did was wrap it..in the morning i would un-wrap it an go..now that i'm a natural (and proud of it!!! ) it takes a lil longer to do my hair in the mornings..i gotta spray water in it, add some moisture and gels, and do the baby hairs..but i like the new look so i don't mind..

For me, my natural hair is more time-consuming than my relaxed hair was...especially on wash day.

this is a tricky one....

I feel like my relaxed hair was easier simply because i could just leave it in a bun if i didnt have time to do anything with it. Now that i do not have the length yet, i can't just wash and let it dry BECAUSE I WILL LOOK A HOT MESS.......lol

I work full time and i am currently getting my master's in engineering...so i do not have a lot of time. Last night for example, i had to choose between doing my hair and making some progress on a homework. I chose doing my hair because it is not long enough for a bun. So it took me about 2.5 hrs to twist my hair.

HOWEVER, i love my natural hair so much that i am willing to put in the extra work AND dedicate the extra time that it takes (i have 4c hair)....I DO NOT see myself with relaxed hair...

So honestly, all i'm praying for is some lengh and in my case, i think it'll make my life easier...

I think natural hair is 100x more work, but that's because I didn't do anything to my relaxed hair. If I'd taken care of it the way I take care of my natural hair, it may be a different story. Sometimes I think ignorance is bliss...

I would have to say that my natural hair is more time consuming than when i was relaxed but i say that also because i am not as familar with my natural hair. I had 20 years of practice dealing relaxed hair. I knew what styles would look good on me, i knew when i need a trim, a deep condition, a fresh cut. I am just now getting to know my natural hair.

Natural hair is easier without a doubt for me. I am the wash and go queen and I merely place a satin cap on my head at night. Sometimes I'm not so lazy and I'll moiturize it before bed but since I was a roller set wearing woman almost everynight I dont' have to do that anymore! No salons paying ridiculous prices and spending hours upon hours in a shop instead of time at home or elsewhere.

courtrhapsody wrote:I think it depends on what you are good at. I am much better at styling my natural hair (which I am still not great at). But I am very uncomfortable with a flat iron or curling iron, and doing my relaxed hair was a pretty big stress/chore for me.

I agree with this 100%. I was never good at styling my relaxed hair b/c I could not get the hang of the curling iron, flat iron, rollers, etc. It was a chore and I hated doing my hair. I'm much better at styling my natural hair and I have fun with it. It amuses me that I never know how I'll end up styling my hair when I do a twist out..will I pin it up somehow? Wear a headand? Wear it loose? Who knows...I never know until I do it and I love that. I actually enjoy it as opposed to the stress I had with styling my relaxed hair.

Thanks ladies for your comments!!! I think for me relaxed hair was easier but not on my pockets!!! I had a stylist that almost every 6 months she went up on her prices but i stayed with her because SHE helped keep my hair healthy(plus i had been with her since i was 14). But i know that with natural hair i tend to spend more time on my hair because i am learning how to take of it.(Lets be real many of us had to discover our natural hair after being relaxed for years) I think personal life and events play a great role on the maintenace and care we give to our hair but look at the outcome, HEALTHY, BEAUTIFUL, NATURAL HAIR!!!!! I can't change my friend's mind because i think its something she has to do for herself but as for me I will be natural and free!!!!

I would also say natural is more work because we are now learning our hair and choose to do it the right way our selves. i think that is a big change for a lot of us

I spend more time on my natural hair simply because it is more FUN!

Relaxed hair was easier because I had a standing appointment with my stylist, but that was MUCH harder on the pockets.

I suppose I could maintain my hair by doing WnG's every day, or put it in some tiny twists and keep them in for a month, but I actually like playing around with my hair and thus don't mind dedicating more time to it.

I think the question should be: 'Is maintaining HEALTHY natural hair more work than HEALTHY relaxed hair?' In almost every case the answer is HELL NO!

I don’t become bored or too busy to deal with my natural hair. For me, caring for my natural hair is simple and not at all time-consuming. Yes, I wear a WNG 99.99% of the time, but since I’m working with my hair and not against it, the time involved is much less than when I was relaxed. Any stress seemingly caused by having natural hair is at my own doing, i.e. worries about products/ingredients, pressuring myself to keep up with various natural hair blogs and YouTube, worrying about having spacey twists, etc. LOL None of that is necessary, imo, so I just need to let it go.

When I had my hair relaxed, my routine was simple as well, primarily because there was no such thing as leave-in conditioners, deep conditioners, healthy or “good” products for hair, etc. Any extra time involved with my non-existent relaxed hair care routine was related to doing roller sets or using a curling iron/flat iron EVERY DAY and then rolling the hair on rollers to set. Ugh.

I get an urge once in a while to straighten my natural hair just to see what it looks like, but not so much due to boredom...just a change. I usually get over it. I’ve worn my hair straight my entire life, it’s not like I don’t have any idea what it looks like straight…at ANY length. BTDT.

Caring for my natural hair is easier than caring for my relaxed.

Natural hair has been alot more time consuming for me. I bc'ed a little over a year ago, and I spend alot of time researching natural hair and how to work with it. I also research products, ingredients..... I never heard of any an ACV rinse before this last year. :-) I am learning more about styling natural hair now that my hair is getting longer. It seemed that permed hair was a no brainer because I relied on my stylist; I went to have my hair done every two weeks. But my hair wasn't healthy. Now, I feel as though I have much more control of my hair which requires extra time and effort.

@ladymika: u will get there! time moves fast! i do attribute the use of an egg along with my condition to deep condish which has helped speed up the thickening of my hair.