Feature Friday: Presenting Britton!

Hey Curlies!!!  Thank goodness it’s Friday!!!  And besides it being one day closer to the weekend, it’s also FEATURE FRIDAY!  I belong to an incredible blog group called Blogger Like Me!  I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many phenomenal women.  Today’s guest post is from Britton.  You can read more from this great lady over at My Big Beautiful Life.

I will be the first to admit. The whole “natural hair” thing never really appealed to me (or so I thought). For many reasons:

• I didn’t want a teeny, weeny, afro (TWA).

• I didn’t want kinky hair that I could barely comb.

• I didn’t want a TWA.

• It just seemed like too much work with all the co-washing, sealing, moisturizing, finding the right products, etc. etc.

• I loved my creamy crack (relaxer).

• …and did I mention I didn’t want a TWA?

What changed my mind, you ask?

These micro braids…last summer. Or Should I say…the aftermath.

I’ve always had healthy and relaxed hair, but after this micro install, it hasn’t been right since. After I took them out, I realized that my hair thinned out. Not major thinning, but I could definitely notice the difference…and regardless of what I did, I could not get my hair back to its original state. I trimmed, I moisturized more, used less heat…EVERYTHING! It was MAJOR setback! As a result, I decided back in April that I would do a relaxer stretch for eight months (April-December) in hopes that my hair wold thicken up a little.

Over the past couple of months, I had been going back and forth debating about whether I should relax in December like I had originally planned, or continue with this “no relaxer” thing and fully transition to natural. I was kinda liking the texture of my new growth…and feeling that maybe the maintenance wouldn’t be all that bad!

After a lot of thinking and weighing pros and cons, I made up my mind (and when I make my mind up to do something…that’s pretty much a done deal). I decided to stop with the relaxers. “Go natural”. Transition. Even though I made this decision months ago, I think this is actually the first time that I’ve mentioned it directly in public.

When I decided for sure that I was going to do this, I had tons of questions (I still kinda do actually):

• Transition or Big Chop (I reeeeeally didn’t wanna BC)?
• How long should I transition?
• What are the best moisturizers, shampoos, conditions?
• Pre-poo? After-Poo? Poo-Poo? Maybe not “Poo-Poo”…
• What’s my hair type?

Since I’m well versed in the school of Google, I took my questions to the world-wide web. I read….and read…and read more. Then I watched Youtube…and more YouTube…and more… YouTube.

After all of my research, this is what I gather:

I don’t have to drastic BC (…and I’m not):

Or at least, I hope not! I will be doing a long-term transition. I know I can’t hang on to this relaxed hair forever and will eventually have to cut it. I don’t know exactly when I will, but right now I’m thinking between 12 months post (April 2013) and 18 months post (October 2013). I think I would be most comfortable with my natural hair length at 18 months post, and that would be my preferred time to “BC”, but I may have epiphany and do so before then! Who knows 😉

 I need some kind of regimen plan of action:

Since I plan on transitioning long-term, I need to figure out how I am going to manage taking care of my hair. The two textures, the old hair, the new hair, the in-between hair…LOL! For me, I have decided that as of right now, the best option would be me dealing with it as LEAST as possible. Which means a LOT of protective styles! Sew-ins (which I’m currently rocking), braids, twists, all of that will be on this scalp at some point during my transitioning period. I plan to keep them installed for 2 months at a time, have a 2-3 week “airing out” period, and then go into another one. I will take care of my new growth underneath by treating my scalp and hair as I normally would, moisturizing every other day and washing and deep conditioning as necessary.

…and that’s pretty much all I got…I’ll figure out the rest as I go.
Now before we go any further, let me say this…I’m not one of those hair typing, hair challenge lover, Dr. KinkyCoilyCurly hair gurus. I don’t have time for all of that. I can’t and won’t be spending hours on hair boards or marking up all my t-shirts to check length (no offense to those who do). That’s just not me. I probably won’t even be writing about my hair journey much here on MBBL either. There are enough women in the blogosphere writing about hair, and I’m not trying to get in the mix of that! Plus… it’s not just really that much of a big deal to me. IT’S JUST HAIR! I did, however, want to share my decision with you all because it was a BIG ONE for me…and one that I am VERY excited about!

Do you have any transitioning or natural hair care tips or advice you would like to share with me? Sound off in the comments below! 😉

Ok, Bye!