May 25, 2008
Here are some updated pics of my sisterlocks. These pics were taken from earlier this year up to now.
May 25, 2008
Back in a previous post, I promised that I would explain why I had to shave off my hair twice. So here goes…. Well firstly, I’d like to clarify that in circles of napptural women, we use the words “Big Chop” (BC) which means clipping off all relaxed hair and leaving only the natural roots. A BC can be done several ways. One way is to transition by growing out natural roots while discontinuing the use of relaxers. The longer the transition period, the longer the natural roots will grow. I’ve heard of some women transitioning up to 2 years, keeping the hair in braids/wigs or “transition styles” such as flat-twists and braid-outs. Once it is decided that it is time, the BC is performed. Sometimes relaxed hair is cut off little by little during the transitioning period so that there is not a dramatic cutting of the hair in the end (for those of you who can’t see yourself being nearly bald). Some women bypass the whole transition period and cut off relaxed ends from the beginning, saving themselves the hassle of having to deal with two types of hair.
For my original BC, I decided to transition in 08/2003 and I had my relaxed ends cut about 3 months later. My decision to BC that quickly had to do with the fact that I had very little patience dealing with both the permed and natural hair on my head. My impatience = problems with the areas within my hair where the two textures met. This is called the line of demarcation, the weakest part of a hair strand with multiple textures that is a hot-spot for hair breakage (for more information on transitioning, see Transitioning How-To). Needless to say, once I was free of all permed ends I loved my hair of course. So my hair flourished and grew very quickly. I also think that doing the BC earlier on versus transitioning long term contributed to my hair growing quicker than it would have otherwise.
