How to turn relaxed hair into natural hair without cutting it south africa

If you are wondering why I am talking about something as basic as how to go from relaxed hair to natural hair, kindly let me share a quick story with you. I love watching documentaries and one day, I watched one on the Pound shop. You know, the chain stores in the UK that sell everything under their roof for a quid. The floor salesperson being interviewed was asked what question he gets the most and unbelievably, it was “How much is this?”

One would have thought it was fairly obvious that in a shop that told you upfront that everything was a pound, you wouldn’t have to be asked this question. It made me realize that those that ask me what I sometimes think are obvious questions are not just yanking my chain. They actually don’t know and want to know. And I accept that.

With this blog, one of the frequently asked questions I get is “How do I get natural hair”. I thought the answer to be fairly obvious but apparently it is not. And that is okay. And that is why, this post is going to address that in detail.

Let’s begin with some definitions.

What is natural hair?

• This is hair that has not been chemically processed.

What is chemically processed hair?

• When the chemical make up of your hair strands are changed in a non-reversible way. That means that the only way to get rid of that change is when new hair grows to replace the old one.

Let’s talk a bit more about chemical processing

• Some examples of chemical processing include perming, relaxing, bleaching, texturizing, and texlaxing. These things re irreversible. However when you blow dry your hair, this is not a chemical process because it reverts to natural hair in a few days…sometimes hours, if you are in a very humid place. Hair Styling is also pretty temporary, so that can’t be considered a chemical process.

So if my hair is relaxed and I want it to become natural?

The first step is to stop relaxing your hair. It is that simple. There is nothing that you can buy and pour on your hair that will revert it to natural hair from relaxed hair. If you stop relaxing your hair, your new growth will be all natural. Over time, you can cut the new growth and Voila! you have natural hair.

So I must wait for my hair to grow before I cut it off?

Errr…no. There are actually two ways to do this. You can do the Big Chop or you can Transition. What I described before was transitioning. But let me explain a bit more.

Transitioning

This is a way to go from relaxed hair to natural hair.

This is typically when hair is allowed to grow for a duration of time without any relaxing of that new growth. What this means is that one manages both relaxed hair and new growth at the same time. This can go on from a few month to a year. What determines the duration is typically how long one wants their hair to be when they cut off the old (sentence updated to correct a mistake) growth. The longest Nigerian transitioner I know of is Sandra, Naija Girl Next Door. She transitioned for a record breaking 19months. That is almost 2 years. Little wonder that her 1 year length check looks like this.

She wanted to have long hair when she cut her relaxed ends off, so she was patient with her transition time. Read more about her hair journey on her blog.

Big Chop

Still wondering if you can go from relaxed hair to natural hair real quick without the wait?

For those that do not mind having short natural hair, they typically cut off the relaxed ends after very few months of new growth or when there is no new growth.

There is a whole range from “gorimapa” to a teeny weeny afro.

So there you have it, to go from relaxed hair to natural hair is basically a matter of using a pair of scissors AND stopping the application of relaxer or texturizer. As Africans, afro-textured hair grows out of our scalp and so we do not need to do anything to specially grow it. Simply do not relax it and after a while, you will have enough natural hair on your scalp to liberate from relaxed hair.

Photo from Instagram (@ all_naturalcutie)

You don't necessarily need to chop down all your relaxed hair to go back to your natural hair but bear in mind that this is a process that doesn't just happen overnight. 

A lot of women who relax their hair do so out of their own choice and many times like switching up hairstyles and one of them might be going natural again while they don't cut off all their hair. 

Maintaining natural hair can be time consuming and expensive hence other people opt for the easy way out with chemically processed hair. 

Bear in mind that chemically processing your hair is a big decision and always be sure you want to do it because sometimes it can cause permanent damage. 

Here are ways you can go back to your natural hair:

Step 1 : 

- Stop using chemicals and start using natural oils

There are a so many trendy oils and butters on the market, making it hard to pick which one is going to work for your curl type. Across the board, there is one oil that seems to work for everyone: coconut oil.

Step 2:

- Wash hair regularly

The most important thing when it comes to transitioning to natural hair is keeping your scalp clean. When your scalp is dirty, it can inhibit new growth from coming in. Wash every week or two weeks if you can. 

Step 3

- Do protective hairstyles

Try out different protective styles that put less tension on the hair, but still keep your ends tucked away.

Step 5

- Cut the straight ends

As the hair grows cut the straight ends bit by bit and the relaxed hair will slowly fade away. 

How can I go from relaxed hair to natural without cutting it?

Can a relaxed hair turn back to virgin hair?

How long does relaxed hair take to go natural?

Can you transition from relaxed hair to natural?