It is not just about being natural, it is all about staying natural. One relaxer kit is enough to vanish your years of being natural. I have seen a lot of posts and youtube videos about people expressing how bad they felt after relaxing their hair, how they relaxed their hair after 10 years of being natural. It is not their fault, it is because they thought it is all about being natural not knowing it is all about staying natural. For you to stay natural, you need to have some basic knowledge to get you through the natural hair journey which includes knowing about the pros and cons of natural hair, porosity, products for natural hair, the type of natural hair you have etc.
I have been natural for 1 year and I can tell you its not easy and sometimes I imagined and asked myself, how would I have felt if am still relaxed? but I can't answer the question unless I relax my hair but I can't because I made that strong decision to stay natural no matter what i face in this journey. So before you make that strong decision to big chop your hair, allow me to emphasize on the pros and cons of natural.
THE PROS OF NATURAL HAIR
- Natural hair is versatile
I wonder why people think you cant style natural hair in different ways. That is far from the truth you can always rock your natural hair however you want from a messy bun to an afro style depending on the lenght of your hair.
- Water, Natural hair's best friend
- Styling natural hair is economical
When my hair was permed, I had a hard time maintaining my permed hair because it takes a lot of time and those burns I got from relaxers pisses me off. You can always wet your natural hair overnight, twist it and you can rock a nice twist out the following day.
- Natural hair can be cared for without chemicals
You dont need chemicals on your hair before you can care for it. The avocado, castor oil, olive oil and those banana you see every day in your kitchen has a lot of benefits for your natural hair.
- Fall in love with the gym
The reason why ladies find it hard to hit the gym is because we dont want the sweat from our body to affect our hair but when you are natural, you will fall in love with the gym.
- Natural hair is thick
Natural hair does tend to be thicker . This is because your hair follicles are textured. The natural hair follicles have lots of disulfide bonds which create the curls in the hair and give it texture. Chemically relaxed hair has been altered. The follicles have been broken down so that they don’t curl. This decreases the amount of texture, therefore leaving your head of hair to feel and appear thinner.
- Best of all:
Being confident enough in yourself to not care what anyone else think of you or your hair. Inferiority complex is a no to Natural hair lovers.
CONS OF NATURAL HAIR
- Natural hair tangles
- Shrinkage frustration
Natural hair shrinks a lot within a very short time. This frustration annoys me but trust me, you will get use to it as time goes on.
- Wash-day takes longer time
If you are the type that lacks patience, you will find it very hard to stay natural because even your wash day process takes a lot of time from detangling process to L. O. C process.
- Styling natural hair takes longer time
While shorter hair makes for shorter detangling, it makes up for it by requiring more styling time than for longer hair. Sections for basic styles like twists and twistouts have to be much smaller – whereas I could put my long hair in 8-12 twists to maintain a style, I have to do at least 20 on my little fro. More twists or vbraids sadly means more time.
