Monday, 23 March 2015

Going Natural // My Transitioning Journey





Hello Everyone! So after a very long time, I am back with a natural hair post! And today I am going to be talking to you guys about a process which is very common the natural hair world which is transitioning.

When I was about 9 years (I think) my mum relaxed my hair (for all of you who don't know, relaxing your hair means getting your hair chemically straightened). I did that for a few years but not very frequently. When I was in Year 6 (so 10 or 11 years old) my hair became heat damaged due to straighteners, blow dryers and was just damaged in general due to lack of care and awareness. All that went on but Last Year in May 2014, my mum had asked me if I wanted to relax my hair again, and I had told her no. I wanted to actually get to know my hair, care for it and embrace it in its natural state. I had had enough of slapping on all that 'creamy crack' (as it's commonly known as) and neglecting a perfectly fine head of hair. This was when I decided begin my transition..

Through a million and one youtube videos and natural hair blogsI had learnt a whole lot about natural hair and transitioning. I had gone out shopping to get me some new products and accessories which would suit my hair at the  stage it was in. I also agreed that I would do my big chop in a years time(a big chop is basically the final chop of your transitioning hair). 

I am doing the Long Term Transitioning which is when you gradually cut off the relaxed or damaged ends of your hair until you are fully natural. I will probably do a whole post on why I made some of these decisions later on. I am currently in my 10th month of transitioning now but I have mini chopped certain areas of my hair such as the back and some parts of the side since I was so exited to actually see my natural hair texture. I have roughly had about 5inches of new growth (since the new hair that grows will be your natural hair texture). This is about average hair growth since hair tends to grow about 11/2inch a month so I am pretty pleased with that. I am 100% sure yet since I am not yet fully natural but I believe my hair type is 4c/4b so it is very kinky, coily, curly, afroey, springy and stuff. This diagram might help:


The middle section of my head is very coarse and thicker while the back is a little looser. My hair is also very soft. I am also planning on doing my big chop in the  half term of the 30th of May - 3rd of June so I've got about 2months to go..Eeek! Yes I am going to be doing it myself ( I literally have a self-written plan of steps that I'm going to follow on the day) and yes I'm really scared and nervous but super exited at the same time! Transitioning to natural hair can be a real pain and struggle at times so I can't wait to get it done and over with, but I'm not going to get into that for now otherwise this post will be way too long!

 I know that I am pretty crap at explaining stuff so here's a link to a few of my fave naturalista bloggers who will probably explain it better in less of a ramble and who have been great help to me throughout this whole journey:
napturallycurly
blackgirllonghair
naturallycurly
blackhair
blacknaps 

So that is all for today guys! Hope you enjoyed or found this interesting, please comment down below and let me know what you think! Thanks for reading,
Until Next Time, 
Abbie x


6 comments:

  1. Christy Murray23 March 2015 at 20:15

    This is such an inspiring post! I have naturally straight hair and do not put any heat treatments on my hair on a daily basis but I do curl it for extra special occasions. I think it is great that you want to express your natural hair texture. I really admire that.

    http://milkshakekingdom.com/

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    1. Abiola24 March 2015 at 00:08

      Aww, that you so much. I woke up to this first comment and it really put a smile on my face! It's definitely alright to change up your hair a bit on special occasions and stuff, but my problem was that I didn't even know what my hair was like in its natural state! Thanks for stopping by,
      Abbie xxx

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  2. Anonymous24 March 2015 at 23:41

    Lovely post. It is so important to be happy with what we have. I have completely straight hair and similarly I have now learnt a lot from Youtube clips of what I can do and not damage my hair at the same time. Really nice post :)
    Jackie
    www.stylemepetite.com

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    1. Abiola25 March 2015 at 00:10

      Thanks Jackie! Your are 100% right and I wish I knew that back then because I would have gone soo far with my hair by now if I had just embraced and accepted it. Also I totally agree, youtube does save the day at times! Thank you so much for your kind words,
      Abbie xxx

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  3. thepinkpineapple4 April 2015 at 15:54

    This is an awesome post Abbie. Although I don't use a lot of chemicals in my hair I still think that your hair is something that you really want to be aware of.

    Ella Xxx

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    1. Abiola4 April 2015 at 23:30

      Thank you Ella, and definitely! Thanks for stopping by xxx

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