My name is Courtney I’m from Staten Island. I’m currently in graduate school for biology hopefully to be in medical school in 2 years. My mother relaxed my hair when I was in the 4th grade and I made the decision in Dec 2011 to stop relaxing my hair.
How long have you been natural?
I cut all of my relaxed ends in Jan 2013, so technically almost 7 month (a baby natural) but between all the learning and researching over my transition period I like to say almost a year and 7 months.
What motivated you to transition? Were you a transitioner or a Big Chopper& why?
I transitioned. Although I made the decision to stop relaxing my hair, I still wasn’t sure it was what I wanted. Aside from people trying to dissuade me, I wasn’t ready fro the big change. So I decided to gradually let my relaxer grow out.
How would you describe your hair?
I would describe my hair as being versatile. I have about 3 different curl patterns 3b, 4a and 4b. It extremely thick. My hairdresser always says I have enough hair for 2 people and other people always think I’m wearing a weave or a wig haha. My hair is strong, over the years I’ve put it through a lot but it pretty much withstood it all. Now that I’m natural I’ve learned how to properly care and maintain my hair so that it can be stronger. Lastly, my hair is intriguing. It draws attention, it’s big, wild, sexy, fierce and most of all and fun. It compliments my personality.
The thickness and curl versatility. Depending on what product I use I can achieve almost any style. It can be neat and tamed, curly and sexy or big and wild. I love all the different looks I’ve tried and the ones I have yet to discover
What has been the most memorable part of your journey? Has it been easy or difficult or both?
My journey has been both easy and difficult. The beginning was difficult. A lot of people were against my decision; imagine someone being against a decision about hair that doesn’t even belong to them. I was told I wouldn’t link it, my hair probably won’t be nice, it will be “nappy”, I won’t be able to handle it, I’ll probably never wear it out, it will break, why am I transitioning this way, I should just cut it…Oh my gosh the comments were endless which made me want to do it even more. So I put a weave in, which lasted about 2 months. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing or that I had to take care of the hair under my weave, especially since I was transitioning. Taking care of my relaxed hair was simple that wasn’t the case now. When I took out my weave I was 6 months into my transition, with a lot of new growth and no idea what to do from here, so I pressed it bi-weekly and wore clip-ins for about a month until I discovered U-part wigs. The best discovery ever!!! This is when it became easy. The wigs allowed my to protect my hair while I transitioned, eliminated the fuss and allowed be to care and maintain my hair daily. I alternated between wigs and weaves until I finally cut the rest of my relaxed ends off. That was the most memorable part of my journey. I wanted to scream “Freedommmmm” hahah. No more worries about point of demarcation, I didn’t have much breaking or shedding during my transition. I constantly trimmed to get rid of those stringy ends. I maintained a good length and my hair was beautiful. After that I decided to continue doing protective hairstyles to maintain the health of my hair and promote growth.
Ladies, what do you think is the most protective of alllll protective styles? 🙂 Leave comments below.