Big news about my Hair Journey ladies! I'm transitioning to Natural! :D

Well I've thought long and hard about this for about a year now and now I have realized that it's inevitable. Right now I've been stretching 6 months after my Relaxer and I no longer want to continue to relax my Hair. I never thought in a million years that I would ever say that. I have never seen my Hair texture as an Adult. I don't remember what it looks or feels like. I know it isn't going to be easy,but maintaining Relaxed hair is too much for me so it can't be any worse than just rocking my natural hair. That being said I will NOT be BC'ing my hair any time soon. Length is extremely important to me. I feel and look better with longer hair. My attitude about it being sleek and straight all the time has completely changed. I look good with my naturally curly hair. This is who I am. This is who God intended me to be. Now I plan on Long-term transitioning and I will not cut any relaxed hair until my Natural hair is atleast SL or APL. This if I'm counting right, should take approximately 18-24+ months. I'm willing to wait. I just took a picture of my approximately 2 inches of NG (new growth) and this is my natural hair texture in this pic below:

I'm excited to see how it looks in full.

What made me decide to go natural

Well it was a bunch of things but the major turning point for me was watching Chime aka Hair Crush's video on "Why I went natural"
HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVotrFMm5T4 and it really made me think long and hard about why I relaxed my hair. Why was I whipping my strands into submission with those Chemicals every 12 weeks? Did I not feel that my kinky,curly,coarse hair was beautiful? I honestly feel that I (like many ladies) didn't feel like I could rock my natural hair like ever. Sleek and silky was the way to go. I've viewed this video 2 or 3x and on the 3rd time, I realized what I had to do. I want to embrace the texture God gave me. I don't need to match up with the European/Caucasian idea of what beauty is. Now, I will NEVER be a natural (I won't use the 4 letter n words as that's offensive) militant. I have been relaxed over 20 yrs. It would be hypocritical of me to bark the woes of Relaxers. I will never do that. I will respect everyone else's decision to do what they want to their Hair. It doesn't affect me directly what someone else choose's to do with their hair anyway.

My decision is NOT solely based on a Youtube video. After all, that would be silly right? It's been in me lately to attempt to love all of me. Not just my face, my nails or my body but my Hair as well. I also started researching transitioning blogs and I'm getting so much information. For the longest time I've been a member of Naturally curly or Curly Nikki as some of you may know it and didn't/wouldn't tell them that I'm relaxed. Now I actually belong there, heehee.

I also last week came across Fusionofcultures on Youtube. Her hair is gorgeous. The first video I encountered was her mini chop to completely natural. I was floored at how beautiful her hair was. Now I am aware that my curl pattern won't be the same as hers. I am aware that I'm a 4B and proud :D I can't claim 4a or 3c nope. But my curls are not in a zig-zag pattern whatsoever so I'm pretty sure it's a 4B. Anyway, you can still follow my journey. I'm still meeting all of the previous goals I have had set for length. The only difference is once I hit those goals, the goals for my Natural hair will change. I'm excited, apprehensive and I don't plan on announcing it to family and making a huge deal about it. Everyone isn't going to necessarily react the way you want them to. I even considered a BC but I know I don't like short short hair on me. My hair has never been shorter than a Halle Berry cut. Anyway :) thanks for listening to me babble. Thanks for following my blog and more awesome products, info, length check pics to come.

Cowash today blah :P

I loathe cowashing but darn it, I ran out of shampoo. My hair has just been feeling heavy so I figured earlier today I might as well put my Sulfur oil on and let it sit for a few hours. I baggied my hair after oiling/moisturizing and left it baggied for about 3 or 4 hrs. I cowashed with HE Hydralicious Conditioner. DC'd w Grapeseed Oil, JBCO, a couple drops of Peppermint Oil and a couple drops of Rosemary Oil & sat under the dryer for about 5-7 minutes. I can't wait to see how soft my Hair ends up. My hair was so silky and smooth while washing. I don't even believe it. I swear it's the Sulfur as I told you ladies before that has my hair so manageable while washing and all around handling. I think I may either air dry, or blow dry my hair on cool. I'm being lazy today. I know, this is the 3 time I'm washing my Hair this week but I cannot walk around with sweaty,dirty hair. I don't care if I end up washing it 5x a week. There is no way I will keep that stuff in my Hair. Clean hair is the key to length retention. I'm a witness.

DC in prep for wash day!

Tonight I applied my Sulfur Oil, VO5 Conditioner,Argan Oil, Lavendar JBCO and bagging overnight. Giving myself a good wash and then wet twist out tomorrow. I am at the point wear I really love Twist Outs.

Product Review: Fantasia IC Olive Anti-Breakage Treatment & KeraCare Twist & Define Cream

Fantasia IC Olive Anti-Breakage Treatment

This would be considered a Medium Protein treatment. For protein sensitive this may be considered a hard treatment. My hair is a 4B and for me it's medium. First off, this stuff smells so good..oh yes. I can't describe how good it smells. I use this every 2 weeks- 1 month. I probably could get away with using it weekly but I don't use it that often. This contains Hydrolized Silk & Keratin. These ingredients are listed in the middle. The further down on the Ingredient list, the less amount is in there so this is definitely a medium protein.

My hair felt so silky and smooth after using this. I love it. I mean love it. I would definitely recommend if you need a good protein treatment, between this and ORS Hair Mayo I don't know which one is better. On a scale from 1-10, this is a definite 10 for me. I paid approximately $7.49 plus tax for this. Hopefully it's cheaper where you off. NYC ripping folks off haha

Keracare Twist and Design Cream

Ok so at the beginning of my journey, I could never ever see myself wanting texture, wave or curl in my hair. Well thankfully my attitude has changed and I've started doing braidouts and twistouts. I did a twist out with this Cream and well, it was so nice! I love this stuff. The consistency is similar to Let's Jam..so I'm not too fond of that, but the smell is great and as far as holding my waves it did a good job. The cost, whew..this little container costed me $11.99 plus tax. I will be buying it again though and stocking up. It worked very well on my Hair and I really like this product. I think you ladies should try it. It worked better than Ecostyler Gel for me. My rating again, is a solid 10. Worth all my money.

Product Review: Aphogee Keratin & Green Tea Restructurizer

The long awaited review of the product everyone seems to rave about. This 8 oz bottle costed me about $6.99 plus tax. This spray has 3 different proteins: Silk, Vegetable & Keratin. I bought this as a suggestion and let me just say, it made zero difference in the feel of my Hair. It pretty much did nothing. Now, I have been using this for over a month so if my hair was going to tell me something about it, it would've by now. I'm sure if another lady uses it, she might have better luck with it, but for me it was a bomb. I mean, I bought two 8 oz bottles and now I am trying my hardest to get rid of them. This product is to be used with heat. So I usually use this after a wash, and right before a blow dry or flat iron. I would say it wouldn't hurt for you to try this for yourself. For me, I'm giving this product a 3. It showed no major change or anything while I used it.

Dusting :) made it to Sunday with straight hair!

ok so I'm going to dust my ends if they need it. I haven't been abusing heat so my ends shouldnt need much. I have noticed that they aren't even when they were not too long ago when I trimmed. No better time to trim while my Hair is still straight. So after Sunday, i'm free to proceed with my hair washing. I can't take trying to preserve this straight hair anymore. It's just too much work.
I took more pics with my Hairlista length check shirt. Should make it easier next time to see my progress

Here are my present length pics after flat ironing :)

Ok so here are my long awaited pics. I was slacking posting them. I have so many on my computer, but you know me, I am very picky about what pics to post and thats the only reason why I blur my face if I think it looks funny in a pic. I've put a full face pic (bottom) unblurred for you ladies that have no idea what I look like :)

I flat ironed my hair July 9th and these were taken on the 9th, 10th and today the 11th
I am currently 21 weeks post relaxer and I am unsure when I'm going to relax. I'm keeping my hair moisturized and pretty much sticking to my simple regi that I have posted. I'm still doing my Sulfur 1-2x weekly and then washing my Hair. That's pretty much all I'm doing right now. This is the first time I've flat ironed since 5/28.

I am not sure when I'll flat iron next. Most likely not until September because I refuse to press out my Hair when it's too hot. This week has been 80s and very low humidity so I was able to straighten it and make it last for looks like going to be a week soon. I see some progress but I did feel like my hair was too straight. I mean, I had a huge Lion's mane when I started and ended up with sleek, but I think too sleek for my liking. I used my Kiss Silicon Flat Iron (the small one) and big mistake. Small sections and small iron= too sleek and straight. I'll remember for next time. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the pics and I am pleased so far with my progress. Hope everyone's journey is going well. I'll be back later this week with a long awaited product review. This week i'm reviewing Aphoghee Green Tea Reconstructurizer. So don't miss my blog post :) Later Chicas

Finally a cool day without humidity so doing a length check w Flat ironed hair :)

pics coming today!