Spinoff: Can You Go Natural Without EVER Cutting/Trimming The Hair?

Could it technically "fall out" so to speak? I mean if someone stopped relaxing, would all the relaxed hairs eventually shed making the person a full natural? Just a question/theory. I mean, no hair stays on your head FOREVER does it? Don't we end up with a new full head of hair withing a few years? How long?

I know a girl who never trimmed or cut her hair and went natural, but it was definitely due to breakage and not shedding. She was not properly taking care of her hair and transitioned with braids, all her relaxed hair cut out with the rough combing in between sets of braids...If your hair is healthy and it sheds in cycles I would think you'd just have relaxed ends for a very long time if you never cut it or had breakage.

I can't see that happening. Because the relaxed hair is attached to the natural hair, it's not like natural hair is growing beside the relaxed hair.

Your hair woul dhave to break at the relaxed ends for this to happen.

You can transition to natural and keep the relaxed ends, but you would never be able to consider yourself FULLY natural because that means that ALL your hair is natural and it's obviously not if you have parts of it that are still relaxed.

my youngest sister has done it around 3-4 times. She relaxes her hair once, within a year she's natural. It all breaks off eventually. Her hair goes fast though.

You can let it grow out. I never "big chopped" so to speak. But if you trim your hair, eventually you will not have any relaxed hair left. That amount of time depends on your growth phase and how much you trim each time. Eventually, you would either cut it out or it may break due to the texture difference (demarcation).

For me, that was (and still is) a very long time and with a load of care and patience.

Some people just decide to stop relaxing and never think about big chopping. Especially outside the hair board world.

Is possible depending on your hair texture.Relaxed hair is weaker than natural har so the natural hair will sometimes unaviodably break off. If you have really strong relaxed hair this might not happen but all my sisters have some really strong thick hair (unlike me) and there hair still broke off when the natural hair overpowered the relaxed.

navsegda said:

You can transition to natural and keep the relaxed ends, but you would never be able to consider yourself FULLY natural because that means that ALL your hair is natural and it's obviously not if you have parts of it that are still relaxed.

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Yes, and this is the thinking that makes folks think I am looney. So, should someone ask if this is my natural hair, I now tell them I stopped relaxing several years ago. I only explain further should they inquire. Regular people don't understand the transitioning stuff. In the recent past, I attempted to explain that I had some relaxed ends left in my crown and people looked at me cross-eyed. The amount (volume) of the non-relaxed portion is what adds to their confusion.

kbragg said:

Could it technically "fall out" so to speak? I mean if someone stopped relaxing, would all the relaxed hairs eventually shed making the person a full natural? Just a question/theory. I mean, no hair stays on your head FOREVER does it? Don't we end up with a new full head of hair withing a few years? How long?

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Yes, you can go natural without ever trimming. The ends will simply end up breaking off.

I don't think it's the healthiest way, however. I get very mini-trims (an inch or so) every now and then to keep my ends healthy. Eventually, I'll trim all the relaxed ends off without losing any length what so ever.

kbragg said:

Could it technically "fall out" so to speak? I mean if someone stopped relaxing, would all the relaxed hairs eventually shed making the person a full natural? Just a question/theory. I mean, no hair stays on your head FOREVER does it? Don't we end up with a new full head of hair withing a few years? How long?

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Eventually, yes.
It would take YEARS just through shedding though.
I think I read somewhere the growth cycle is approx 3-10 years long.

I think it is possible but only because the relaxed hair will break. This is esactly what is happening to my hair. Although I do trim anout every 3 months. the relaxed part of my hair is breaking off...my natural hair is soo much more stronger. Some of my relaxed parts are hanging on for dear life. LOL

It's possible, and this is actually how my mom became fully natural. Her last relaxer was in August 2005 and she wore micro braids, phony ponies, and wigs for about 14 months. When she took them out she had a niced sized fro with about 1 1/2 inch of relaxed ends. I told her to trim them of, but she said no. As she started taking better care of her hair, the relaxed ends couldn't be helped so most of them did break right off.

Bmp

Definitely possible. But in that case the transition to fully natural hair would be due to breakage. This is more likely to happen to someone who doesn’t take care of their hair than someone who does (in my opinion). I say this because someone who really takes care of their care would listen to their hair and wouldn’t let their hair just break off. Even if it is just the relaxed hair breaking off— breakage can lead to split ends which can then affect the entire hair strand (which includes the healthy natural hair that one is trying to grow out).

There have been many transitioners that maintain both their relaxed and natural hair and grow their hair to long lengths with the relaxed ends. So the relaxed ends don’t always automatically break off if one is taking measures to retain length and have healthy hair in the long run. If a person can’t maintain their relaxed ends for whatever reason, the healthiest way to get rid of it would be to cut it.

It's possible. The relaxed ends will either break off or disappear gradually and very slowly through the process of wear and tear just like what the natural strands go through. If she takes very good care of her ends, this may not happen and she will have to wait for all the strands to be shed after they complete their growth phase. This means that she will probably have to grow to her terminal length before all her old hair falls off and she becomes fully natural.

It’s possible, but can be difficult especially if your natural texture is 2 or more patterns of curliness/kinkiness from your relaxed hair. For example, if your relaxed hair is like a 2a 2b in curliness and your natural hair is a 3a 3b your transition to natural hair with good care will more likely be a success, with minimal breakage at the line of demarcation.

However, if your relaxed texture is a 2a 2b and your natural hair is a 4a 4b, you will probably experience more tangles and more breakage at the line of demarcation. You will probably also feel like your natural hair is difficult, and hard to manage, but this is only because the extreme texture differences are at battle. Both requiring different needs in moisture, protein, and maintenance.

When I grew out my relaxer and transitioned to natural. I would say my relaxed hair ranged from 1b -2b, my natural hair has a varying array of 4b. Not to mention that my natural hair is fine, but my relaxed hair was even finer. Needless to say, even with the utmost care, I could only transition for so long before I had to let the relaxed ends go. Once I did, my natural hair was easy to manage.

But just to throw a wrench in my own theory. If you have thick, coarse strands and your natural hair is pretty healthy free from odd breakage and such. Even with 2 or more patterns of texture difference you can keep both textures for a while without a lot of breakage at the line of demarcation. However, detangle may still be a struggle on wash days.

Mine would just break off lol.

It already is now.

I transitioned without ever big chopping and very rarely did trims. It's definitely possible with proper care. Deep conditioning was truly my friend. I honestly didn't know about big chopping till I came to this board. Back when I decided to not relax anymore in June of 2007 never heard of BC. Now to be fair, I only got a relaxer at most 2 times a year which is probably why transitioning for me was easier. I was already used to dealing with 2 textures so never found it that difficult. I am a fast grower so looking back it probably took me 3.5 years to be fully natural.

I'm testing this theory out but with severely heat damaged hair. So far I've learned that breakage is inevitable even with all the aphogee 2 step protein treatments in the world because of the cuticle damage and my hair strands bring fine. Fine has doesn't have as many cuticle layers as coarser hair so I was already prone to breakage from the get go. I really did a doozy with the excessive heat. In the places that have suffered the most heat hair, the hair has broken off right at the line of demarcation.