There has been many a blog, journal, book and article dedicated to the process of achieving natural tresses from relaxed locks. Many affirm that the only way to achieve a natural style is to cut off all your hair and start from scratch…. That idea has me scratching my head.

Now I don’t profess to have the longest hair. Currently, at its longest point, it's a little past shoulder length. And since I’m the type of person who winces whenever I get a trim, I assume a CUT would send me into near cardiac arrest! So, since that’s an option I’m  not willing to consider (at least not right away anyway), gradual transitioning would be the only way for me to reach a stage of truly natural hair.

So what is transitioning? Transitioning is the process by which you go from relaxed to natural hair without doing the big cut (cutting off ALL of your relaxed hair in one fell swoop).

The first step of transitioning is to stop relaxing. Yes ladies, put down the creamy crack. Phew one step down and I’m quite sure you survived. This isn’t so hard is it? Well actually, let's be real, transitioning isn’t actually that easy.

There are a lot of things to take into consideration during this process, which, depending on hair type, length, and health can take anything from 2 months to over 3 years! Some things to consider include:

• Your regime. You need to tailor a hair regime that fits in with your lifestyle as well as your hair type and hair needs. Think about how often you are going to shampoo and condition your hair. Do research into the products you're going to use.

• Research what natural alternatives you can use to moisturize your hair. Think about it- your natural hair needs natural care, and no manmade product can do it better than nature itself! Consider oils like coconut and jojoba which have natural restorative and moisturizing qualities and as such are great for the hair. They penetrate the hair as opposed to coating it like a lot of products on the market.

• Start a hair album. During your time of transitioning, the only thing which may keep you from reverting to chemically treating your hair, apart from sheer determination itself, is inspiration. Start collecting pictures of people with healthy natural hair, celebrities who inspire you, friends and family etc. You can even begin compiling pictures of hairstyles you may want to try, and take pictures of your hair and versions of hairstyles so that you can track your progress. At the very least this should make your hair journey interesting! 

• 
  Be realistic with your goals. Think about the reason why you have decided to take this journey. If you just want to improve the health of your hair or save money, then thats fine. But if you're doing it because you want to look exactly like someone else, then that's probably not a realistic goal. I mean I admire Tracee Ellis Ross’s (at left) hair as much as the next person. But considering I’m not her, nor even of mixed parentage like her, I doubt very highly that I will achieve the same texture as her!

• Don’t lose faith! This is a gradual process and you're unlikely to notice a change overnight. Remember slow and steady rather than fast and hasty.

And finally, celebrate your progress. Setting small goals to monitor progress is a sure fire way to see if you're heading in the right direction.

Coming soon to Mane Texturez: 

Do you consider yourself a Mane Re:Belle? Do you want to share your natural hair story? Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to be featured in future articles.