The Long and Curly Road-Getting Through Your Transition

I would love to tell you that your transition from relaxed to natural hair will be easy. I'd live to tell you that you will never have to worry or think about your hair ever again; but I can't. You deserve to know the truth, so here is what I've experienced and felt during my transition.


Detangling: If you're not used to handling and caring for natural hair, getting started can be tough. Always work in sections. It is too easy to get overwhelmed trying to detangle or style a whole head of hair at once. I suggest you invest in several sets hair clips. I also learned that water is your friend. Curly/kinky hair should only be detangled when wet and with a wide-toothed comb. Start from the ends and work your way up. Some people use a Denman paddle brush to smooth out and detangle sections of hair, but if your hair is really curly/kinky I would stick with the wide-toothed comb. When you're detangling your hair, remember the weakest parts of your hair will be where the new natural growth meets up with the relaxed hair and where the curl bends. Not paying special attention to these area will result in damage and extra frizziness. Take your time when detangling and don't be afraid to spray some extra water on to help loosen up any tangles. If you do come across 'the mother of all tangles', you can try snipping it out with a pair of hair shears. Pulling and forcing the tangle will result in breakage.


Shampoo and Conditioner: One of the things I learned pretty quickly was that traditional shampoo was not going to work with my natural hair. As my transition went on, I noticed when I used traditional shampoo, it stripped my natural hair of all of its moisture leaving it dry, frizzy and especially hard to detangle. Traditional shampoos have harsh sulfates in them that tend to leave more pourous curly hair with less moisture than straight hair. This is when I started co-washing, using conditioner to detangle and add moisture to my hair then risning it out which left my hair soft, manageable and clean. When preparing to wash my hair, I usually section it off holding each section in place with a clip. Then going section by section I spray it down with water, detangle and add conditioner to the detangled section. Once all sections have conditioner on them, I let it stay in for an hour or two for deep conditioning. In the shower, I take down one section of at a time to rinse and detanlge it before putting it back into the clip. It sounds like a lot of work; but in the end, it makes the job of styling your hair much easier. Every three weeks or so, I do use a low detergent shampoo to get rid of any build up I have and this systems has worked well for me.

Semantics: Locks vs. Dreadlocks

If you are familiar with our blog or have been to Keepers of the Krown, you've probably noticed that we use the term locks instead of dreadlocks. Growing up, my mom always appreciated the beauty of locked hair but hated the term dreadlocks. To her, the term was too closely associated to the word dreadful. To my mom, this didn't seem like a word we, black people, would come up with to describe our own hair. However, the term dreadlocks has entered into our collective memory and is the term used most in conversation. So, we will be using both terms on the blog to make things clear to everyone (I can only imagine how many locksmiths I've bummed out by using the term locks).

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8 Months Later...What I'm Seeing

Hi Everybody. So, I am seven months into my transition and I am learning so much about myself and my hair. Here is what's been going on:

1. A return to my natural hair color: Relaxing my hair had certainly drained a lot of the color from my hair. It had become this sickly off-black, gross brown. Now, my hair is back to a healthy looking black.
2. Added sheen: Now, I've never had that natural high sheen look that makes black hair look even blacker (my sister hair type has a high sheen appearance-it looks like doll hair); but I have noticed my hair keeps a certain amount of luster throughout the day. I've even thought at times that I've gotten a piece of lint in my hair only to find out it was just the light hitting my hair a certain way in the mirror.
3. Overall improvement in the health of my hair and scalp: I've noticed a dramatic reduction of the amount of hair left behind when I handle it, so my split end are virtually gone. My hair retains moisture longer (which means I use less product, thus saving money). And the most important change has been the saying goodbye to a dry, itchy scalp. My scalp issues were so bad, I considered seeing a doctor or dermatologist; but I realized maybe the relaxers had a hand in this (duh).
4. My hair has grown: Or rather, the rate of growth now outpaces the rate of breakage. I was wearing a twist-out recently and kept feeling something moving my collar. I reached back and noticed it was my hair! I stopped tracking length a long, long time ago, so when I noticed it I was surprised. More important than the length, I know that my hair is healthy and is responding positively to being in its natural state.
5. My hair is more manageable than it has ever been: Okay, you may not believe me but it is true. Yes, I have more hair to deal with; but by knowing how to handle it and following a routine that suits my hair type and lifestyle it has made the act of combing and styling less stressful on my hair and scalp. I don't know what is going on or how to explain it; but I have a very 'tender head' and if I can detangle and style my hair without wincing, without losing a handful of hair all in less than 45 minutes, that equals more manageable.
6. My hair is incredibly soft now: It's true. My hair hasn't been this soft since I was a child! I can take a handful of hair, smoosh it in my hands and not hear that scratchy, crinkly sound extremely dry and damaged hair makes (yes, I said smoosh).

No 'Poo for me, Thanks

I can hear my mother now, "Jasmine, you are so gross. Did you HAVE to pick this title?" Yes, actually, I did. I have learned the hard way that my hair hates shampoo. Even before I went natural washing my hair left my scalp dry, flaky and itchy. I always attributed this to getting relaxers or the constant heat that was applied in order to maintain straight hair or hard water.

I learned about co-washing, using conditioner as a mask and to detangle only to rinse it out, from of all places QVC. Yeah, I watch QVC for entertainment-tragic! Well, they were selling a product called Wen which is just a series of conditioners for different hair types to be used as a cleanser and conditioner. The reviews for the product were pretty good and of course the QVC spokesperson raved about it. Well, I wasn't going to buy Wen but thought if there is any validity to using conditioner only to wash your hair, then it should work with any conditioner. I can't even remember what brand of conditioner I used, but it did seem to work. My hair felt as if it retained more moisture and was so much easier to detangle. As my journey from relaxed hair to natural progressed, I experimented with different conditioners (Oyin Handmade's Honey Hemp continues to be my favorite) to find that my dry, itchy scalp was a thing of the past! No more flakes (eff you Head and Shoulders)!


Now, using conditioner to co-wash is great; but you do have to be careful of product build-up. I decided that I would use shampoo to wash build-up out every two weeks. I bought some all natural shampoo and after the first use my hair felt dry, stiff and was difficult to detangle. I did a little research and found some low detergent shampoos, a.k.a. lo-poo, to try out. There was still too much 'poo! Though my hair was easier to detangle, my hair felt dry and stiff and it did with the full on shampoo. I even tried to reduce my shampoo washes to once a month; but the 'poo still stripped my hair of its natural moisture.

My next step is to try a few methods I've heard about here and there. One is the 'sugar scrub' method. I love sugar scrubs on my body; but I am not too keen on having sugar stuck in my hair (plus more rinsing means more time under hard water). Then there is the baking soda treatment (mixing baking soda and water to make a paste), but I am fearful this too will leave my hair stripped and dry. And if these home remedies don't work, there are some no-poo products that may work. Last weekend, I washed with lo-poo, so in 3 weeks I will have a report on the no-poo strategy (I need time to build up some build-up:).