Transitioning Tips (long-term)

Heyo aspiring curlies!


So....I'll say that I'm still transitioning because I've got a little less than an inch of relaxed hair at the ends of my hair (everything else is natural).
I have not used heat on my hair in like, almost a year. My hair is like....really elastic-y right now. Also, it's so healthy that the owner of a hair salon asked me what I do with my hair. I go to her salon like once every week or once every two weeks and each time that I go, she sits by me once she's done with whatever she was doing and asks me what I did with my hair during the week and after I took down the braids or twists I got. It makes me feel so special  lol

Here's something you might want to know. This'll help you during your transition:
  1. Look at the ingredients behind the bottles of products you use (and to cut what I'd have said short, go to this ingredients page , look for the ingredients and make sure you avoid products that have an ingredient that says, 'Avoid' below it on the list on that site, if your product contains an ingredient marked as 'Caution' on that site and that ingredient is either on the last row or the row above the last row, I guess it's alright, but don't use many products with that or use that product more than once or twice a week.
  2. Keep heat to a minimum and avoid flat ironing. If you must use heat on your hair (to dry it), use the cool-warm setting and only use heat on your hair once a week (max.)
  3. Find ways to style your hair with both textures. You do not have to use heat to do this.
  4. I'm into natural/organic hair products. I use only natural oils on my hair, I DC (deep condition) with food (like fruits, coconut cream, rosemary oil, olive oil, shea butter, oil, bananas, avocados....), I once made my own hair products, like shampoos and conditioners (but I don't think I'm going to make my own shampoo again, well...until I find a good recipe that won't leave bits in my hair). I believe that natural should be used on natural. I believe that that's healthy. You should be able to find some organic products (and people's thoughts about them and ratings) here or here.
  5. Don't use shampoo every week. I wash my hair with shampoo once every month (or sometimes, once, every month and a half). Why? shampoo strips off natural oils and sebum from your hair leaving your hair dry. However, I do wash my hair with conditioner once every week or once every two weeks (depending on if I have a protective style and how long I'm keeping it in). Oh! and this is not gross in any way. Try it out.
  6. Deep Condition your hair at  least once a week. If you use something like shea butter in your DC, you might have to use a bit of a shampoo to get it out. If not, just rinse out your DC and co-wash.
  7. Keep your hands away from your hair! When my hair's out, I tend to like twirl it round my finger sometimes. This can cause frizz, like, just that, touching your hair even if just making twirls can cause major frizz. So, for like a week, I wore a scarf at night, at day, and I made sure I didn't touch my hair (but I did get natural oils into it before I started that and after that week).
  8. NEVER COMB YOUR HAIR DRY! Comb it only wet, quite damp, or wet/damp and with conditioner in it for good slip. This helps with detangling. You don't want to damage your hair's elasticity, or pull off your hair while combing, now, do you?
  9. Avoid having your hair brush against your shirt collar or your neck (well, avoid the ends of your hair doing that, if you can't for the rest)
  10. Oooh! take photos to document your natural hair journey! 
  11. Comb your hair with only wide tooth combs, Ouidad Double Detanglers, Showercombs, Tangle Teezers and Denman brushes are alright too. You can use rat tail combs on your hair, but only when sectioning. Don't comb your hair with a rat tail comb unless you're ready to gradually go bald quickly (that may be a slight exaggeration, but still, it'll hurt your hair).
  12. Try balancing the pH level of your products
  13. Don't follow trends. If there's like a new product that everyone's running to, don't go throwing away your products and going to that because everyone else is. At most, get sample bottles and try it out first to see if it works for you before you go buying it. You don't want to waste your money on a product that doesn't work for you, now, do you?
  14. Crochet braids are a good hairstyle. I had them in for a while. With crochet braids, your hair'll be in a protective style, but you'll have hair of whatever length you choose our for you to style, do whatever you want with and as long as you don't pull at it, your natural hair is fine.
  15. Go through naturallycurly.com's search for whatever you're not sure about or want to know more about.
  16. Here are a list of natural hair YouTubers that I like (and hope you'll like too):

Hope I could help.
All the best, and good luck on your transition.

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