How-To: Cute Up-Do for Transitioning Hair

For the past 9 months, my signature transitional style has been twist-rod sets. While this simple, practical style has become my staple, I wanted to do something a little different. In my usual fashion, I looked at some things that other people have done and came across this uber cute and easy style. What I love most about this style is that it can be done on type of hair, regardless of whether you are relaxed, natural, or transitioning. I find that this style works best on dry hair. Below is what I did to achieve this look.

How-To: Starting Your Transition

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The biggest question that I had when I embarked on my natural hair journey in May 2010 was this: how do I start transitioning? I immediately began scouring the Internet for an answer to my question, but alas, there was no answer to be found. I found a lot of information on transitional styles but nothing more. To help someone who is the same boat I was once in, here is the thought process that I went through to start my transition.

1.    Stop getting relaxers.

This is the biggest step in beginning your transitioning process. I’m not going to lie, it felt a little weird when I reached my 6 week post relaxer mark and I didn’t go back to the salon to get a touch up. Skipping the first one was the hardest, but once I realized my pockets that month were a little heavier since I didn’t spend the money on the creamy crack application, it wasn’t hard at all to continue with not getting a relaxer.

2.    Decide how long you want to transition.

The length of time you choose to spend transitioning is completely up to you. It can be as short at 1 day to as long as 2+ years. When making this determination, consider how long you want your hair to be when you BC (your hair grows at an average rate of .5 inches a month), how willing and able you are to deal with the two textures on your head (it does get frustrating every once in a while). I chose to transition for at least a year because I knew I wouldn’t be comfortable with having extremely short hair (I’ve never seen my hair extremely short before) and I figured that after a year, I would have a decent length. Not necessarily SL, but certainly more than just an inch.

3.    Determine how you want to wear your hair.

While transitioning, you will need to wear your hair in such a way that the two textures on your hair are blended. There are few different ways that one can do this. Some choose to use protective styling such as box braids or kinky twists. Others choose to use low-manipulation styling such as rod sets and bantu-knot outs. Still others choose to flat iron their new growth. Choose a method that will work best for you, your lifestyle, and your natural hair goals. Consider how often you want to restyle your hair, whether you will be going to a stylist or doing your hair yourself, how you want to wear your hair once fully natural, and how often you want to trim your permed ends when making this determination. I knew that I wanted to regularly wear my hair curly once fully natural, and I knew that I wanted something that didn’t cause a lot of fuss but allowed for a variety of different styles. With this in mind, I chose to wear my hair in low-manipulation styles. For more information on ways to wear your hair during your transition, check out this post.

4.    Create a hair care regimen.

Because of the line of demarcation, transitioning hair is fragile and requires a lot of consistent care. To be consistent with the care of your transitioning hair, developing a regimen is extremely beneficial. During the first 3 - 4 months, get to know your new growth and learn your hair's likes and dislikes. Once you have this down, proceed to creating a regimen that suits your hair's needs and helps you manage the two textures. This transitioning hair care regimen does not necessarily have to be the one that you follow once completely natural. I personally will be switching it up a bit once fully natural. Your regimen can be as elaborate or as simple as you want it to be. For tips on creating a transitioning hair care regimen, check out this post.

Also, check out my Do's (part 1 and part 2) and Don'ts of transitioning.

Quick Tip: Scalp Massages for Hair Growth

While are many things that you can put on your hair in an effort to maintain length, the true secret to encouraging growth starts beneath the skin. One way to assist your internal bodily functions in growing you gorgeous locks is to give yourself regular scalp massages. Scalp massages increase the flow of blood to your scalp, providing your hair follicles with more of the nutrients they need to optimally grow your hair.

As a person with dry skin (resulting in a dry scalp), it is pertinent for me to keep my scalp moisturized by oiling it regularly. Recently, I began incorporating scalp massages in my scalp oiling routine. I start by distributing oil on my scalp using a small tipped applicator bottle (the kind used to apply hair color). I use just enough oil to cover my scalp (when it comes to oiling your scalp, a little goes a long way; you don't want the oil dripping all over the place).  Once distributed, I take the pads of my fingers and massage the oil into my scalp in small, circular motions using varying pressure. This ensures that the oil is not only reaching all parts of my scalp, but also encourages blood to flow to my scalp which allows the additional nutrients in the oil to absorb into my skin to work in conjunction with the nutrients supplied by my blood.

In the past, I have done scalp massages just on wash day as part of my pre-poo treatment, but I have since increased scalp massages to about 2 - 3 times a week, coinciding with the days I re-moisturize my hair (I figured that the washing process could serve as an additional scalp massage so no need to waste oil on that day lol). Since having too much stuff on the scalp will suffocate hair follicles, I opt for a light oil that absorbs into my skin easily.

Creating a Transitioning Hair Care Regimen

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When beginning to transition to natural hair, one of the first things that you should do is to create a transitioning hair care regimen. What products you choose to use during each step depends on what you personally prefer to use and what your hair needs. (Check out this post to see the type of things to consider when choosing your hair care products during your transition.) In my opinion, there are 5 essential steps to a transitioning hair care regimen.

1.    Pre-Poo

Pre-Pooing is the process of preparing your hair for the shampoo process. This step is essential to transitioning hair because it gives you a chance to remove a lot of your shed hair before getting your hair wet. Removing shed hair prior to shampooing will help prevent excessive knotting. To remove the shed hair, lightly coat your hair with oil or a conditioner, finger comb gently, and you should be able to easily slip the shed hair out. 

2.    Shampoo

There’s nothing really different about shampooing transitioning hair than fully natural or fully relaxed hair. As more new growth came in, I found that shampooing in sections was extremely helpful. Shampooing in sections, similar to pre-pooing, is an additional way to prevent knotting. I section my hair in four (straight down the middle from forehead to neck and from ear to ear) and shampoo each section separately. I keep these sections until its time for styling my hair. At this point, some choose to use a rinse out conditioner and detangle prior to the next step. This is something that I have chosen not to do (I detangle later), but it’s purely personal preference.

3.    Deep Condition

Transitioning hair NEEDS moisture, so weekly moisturizing deep conditioning treatments is a must in order to keep moisture levels high. Liberally coat your hair with a conditioner and ensure that each strand is coated. Put on plastic cap and apply moderate heat for at least 30 minutes before rinsing out. Heat is an important factor for DC. Heat opens the cuticles to the hair, allowing the conditioner to get deep in the hair shaft and work its magic. There is a new trend in the natural hair community of using a steamer to DC. It is claimed that your DC will be more effective with a steamer because the steamer provides both heat and moisture, allowing the conditioner to work better. I personally haven't used a steamer, so I don't have an opinion either way about it. 

4.    Style

Once you have rinsed out your DC, you are ready to style your hair. Since the name of the game is moisture, its good to use a leave in conditioner before styling your hair. (This is the time that I choose to detangle my hair.  No real logic behind it other than I don't want to detangle multiple times lol. When I used a rinse-out conditioner to detangle prior to DC, I found that I still had to detangle again.) Seal the moisture in with Shea butter or oil (whichever you prefer) and style as desired. The leave-in conditioner will leave your hair really soft, so if you do low-manipulation styling (such as a twist-rod set), I suggest using a gel or setting lotion to make sure you get a good hold on your set.  At this point, a lot of people use a bonnet dryer or a blow dryer to dry their hair, I prefer to let my hair airdry overnight. Again, drying methods are all personal preference.

5.    Moisturize

To retain moisture in your hair, ideally you should moisturize it every 2 – 3 days between washing, assuming you intend to wash your hair once a week. Using a penetrating oil as a moisturizer has been beneficial for me. (Using any water based product on my twist-rod set was just the ultimate fail. The relaxed ends went limp and my new growth curled and expanded. Definitely not a good day to day look lol.)  Some use Shea butter, others use a moisturizing lotion and seal with oil, and still others prefer to co-wash every 2 – 3 days instead of applying a moisturizer. Again, this is personal preference as to the method you use to restore moisture to your hair.