BIG CHOP vs. TRANSITION

[SouthernTease]

So... you may or may not know
I am 1 year into my transition
I have about 5" of natural hair
and about 5" inches of relaxed hair
No scissors have come near my head
in over a year...
My first goal is to reach BSL-MBL
I will reach that goal by January 2009
My plan is to stay away from scissors
at least until January 2009.
Length is my first priority
being 100% natural is the second.
My question to you is...
if you had 5" of new growth & 5" of relaxed hair
would you BC or continue to transition until you
reach your goal?

 

[LunadeMiel]

I'm a little biased but... I would bc. I don't see the point of growing your had to those lengths and then Bcing...

 

[Inches411]

if you maintaining now without breakage on anything I say continue until you grow to the length you want.

 

[tatiana]

I said BC. I transition for a year and I chopped it. After you chop it,your hair change it gets thicker, healthier, and curlier.

 

[JustKiya]

It would depend on how I wanted to wear my hair the majority of the time. If I was pressing/wearing it straight, I would keep the relaxed ends until goal, then chop.
If I was wearing wash & go's/curly styles, I'd do the chop now.

 

[SouthernTease]

Yeah, ditto on that.
If my hair isn't in a bun
it's flat ironed.
I'm really into this twist bun I've been rocking
I do 2 strand twist and put it up into
a bun... it is hard dealing with the tangles
and matting but I manage... I feel like if I've
come this far... what's another year
I didn't start out wanting to be natural...
it was actually just an afterthought
I want the BSL more than anything

 

[gymfreak336]

I would BC.....The curls are going to behave differently once the relaxed hair is cut off.

 

[The Savvy Sistah]

First of all you're doing a wonderful job with your hair.

Since you said length was your first goal I would press toward that goal. You seem to be able to handle both textures and I would like to see you make it to MBL.

Once you make your goal you can BC and have about 10 inches of healthy natural hair.

So in other words you can achieve the best of both worlds.

MBL by 2009 and about 10 inches of natural hair.

Go for it girl!!!

 

[LiberianGirl]

I wouldn't do it. I currently have 7-8 inches of natural hair and about 5-6 inches of relaxed hair. It's a hassle dealing with the two textures but I love having the length. I'm not going to BC unless I have MAJOR damage. It's going to be relaxed ends till the end

 

[cclark1]

I said BC. I transition for a year and I chopped it. After you chop it,your hair change it gets thicker, healthier, and curlier.

I'm transitioning now too. I can only stand transitioning for 9 months (June 08). I just want to be natural and let my hair be it's healthiest self. I want to see the real texture plus of tired of the dead weight of the relaxed hair.

 

[~~HoneyComb~~]

I did the big chop, but my hair was short when I did it so it wasn't an issue, but since you are concerned with having length, I'd say go ahead and continue to transition, so far it seems to be working for you. You're doing an awesome job .

 

[bluediamond0829]

i say continue transitioning. If you arent having problems with breakage then keep doing you until it gets to a length where ur ready to get rid of the remaining relaxed parts.

If you did big chop right now i think ur hair would be somewhat about Lauren450's hair is or maybe a little longer depending on the shrink.

 

[blasiancurlie]

I love your progess! I'm currently in the process of transitioning and if I had 5 inches I'd BC. But then again, I'm not too concerned with length as my hair grows fairly quickly. I could see why you would want to keep your length though. You're doing great!

 

[CocoGlow]

It would depend on how I wanted to wear my hair the majority of the time. If I was pressing/wearing it straight, I would keep the relaxed ends until goal, then chop.
If I was wearing wash & go's/curly styles, I'd do the chop now.

DITTO...what she said

Also, I think you are doing a wonderful job maintaining the two textures...I honestly wish I could have done a long transition so that when I chopped I would have more natural hair to work with but I could not do it and I really didn't know how ....

If it ever got too diffiuclut for you, then I would say to definitely chop at that point b/c you don't want to sacrifce the health of your hair for length...

 

[LynnieB]

I transitioned for a minute or two and i guess if i hadn't chopped like i did, i'd be where dsylla is now erplexed but, once i reached 5-6 inches or so of natural hair and kept seeing how different the natural hair was to the texlaxed (i am making difference here), i just couldn't take it anymore.

i guess it'd have been waaay different if i just wanted to wear my hair flat ironed all the time but i wanted to get into the natural styles so it just got to the point where those ends just had to get off my head.

I am glad that i waited to grow enough hair to play with and style.

...........and after all that, i probably still haven't answered the question.

 

[Napp]

i wish i kept transitioning. i miss my hair length

 

[Adgirl]

If your hair is not breaking and giving you hard time I would say Transition. I am 7 months into my transition. The two texture is not a big deal but my hair is breaking like crazy in random places so I am not sure what to do....I will baby it and see how far i can get.

 

[LadyEuphoria007]

I voted to chop but you are doing a great job with the way you are handling yo hair biz.

Since I read that you are rocking the straight styles then I'd say keep up with the transition as you have already figured out what works for what you are going now.

Congrats on your success and good luck on you hair journey

 

[SouthernTease]

So half and half right now.
I think it's hard to manage
the two textures
I love a challenge though

 

[loulou82]

Since your first priority is length I think you should continue on until you reach your hair goal- unless your transition becomes too difficult to deal with.

I have 4-5 inches of relaxed hair and 4-5 inches of natural hair and I plan to keep trucking along until I reach my goal (Full APL). Then I'm going to starting cutting the relaxed ends while maintaining APL.

 

[Allandra]

I'd continue to transition until I reached my goal.

 

[loolalooh]

BC ... but that's because I feel having 5 inches of new growth is a GREAT starting length, and you can still reach BSL as a natural!! However, if transitioning isn't super frustrating for you, why not stick it out til January 2009.

 

[Allandra]

You seem to be doing well. Keep it up girlie.

 

[TaraDyan]

It would depend on how I wanted to wear my hair the majority of the time. If I was pressing/wearing it straight, I would keep the relaxed ends until goal, then chop.
If I was wearing wash & go's/curly styles, I'd do the chop now.

I agree with this 100% (in fact I was going to say the same exact thing). I'm one year into my transition too and I have 6-7 inches of new growth. I plan on chopping in September, and I should have 9-10 inches by that time. Since my main goal is to wear my hair curly, I'm planning to chop. Since you pretty much wear yours straight (when not in a bun), you should probably transition until January 2009, if the two textures aren't giving you too much of a hassle.

 

[fluffylocks]

If my first goal was length....I would def. not cut it untill i had a taste of my dream length...

Then i might grow & cut....or just cut all the relaxed hair off.

But i think it would suck to be 8 months or so from your goal length, and have to start all the way over or take yourself back like 2 years

 

[DDTexlaxed]

Every time I see you hair, it makes me... It is absolutely gorgeous, girl! My goal is to transition for a year so I don't get called sir by mistake.(that has happened to me, before) Also I want badly to see how my hair would look because I never had my natural hair that long. I would BC because it is what I want to do. YOU DO WHAT IS GOOD FOR YOU. It doesn't look like you're having any problems. I am just dying to be where you are, girl!gorgeous:

 

[MissMasala5]

I am interested in transitioning as well, while keeping length. ST, you have made it this far with both textures, I say, keep going, girl!!!

 

[cutenappygrl]

If you are mainly wearing your hair straightened - then keep doing what you are doing - transitioning. There's not a whole lot of difference between straightening after your big chop and straightening w/relaxed ends.

 

[glamazon386]

I would bc. But if it's not bothering you and you aren't seeing breakage, then keep going. You're smack dab in the middle now. Once you start to have more natural hair then relaxed hair it's going to take over.

 

[Poohbear]

BIG CHOP IT BABY!