To Chop or Not to Chop!?

THAT is the question!
It's actually a question that's been on my mind for a while now...do I want to venture with a big chop?
To those that aren't familiar with the term, a big chop is when a transitioner has a mixture of new growth and relaxed hair and cuts off the chemically treated ends to continue their journey with a head of purely natural hair!
So what's my issue?
I recently had my hair cut the shortest it's ever been and that was nerve-wrecking! I've always been very comfortable with my hair a little above my shoulders covering up any blemishes that I may have or disguising (what I feel) is an odd-shaped head. You know, you're run-of-
 the-mill hang ups!

To the right is the current length of my hair from the front (relaxed growth not straightened). The back has been shaved down to just my natural growth with some relaxed hair on top. I have 3 inches of new growth all around my head. If I BC now I'll have a 3in TWA!

Ok wait let me back up, I threw in some letters there!
BC=Big Chop
TWA=Teeny Weeny Afro




Something I learned about transitioning is that it's ALL about getting out your of comfort zone and being patient with your hair. The comfort zone thing was easy, the patience thing...not so much!


It's still up in the air right now but who knows where I may end up. What's a hair journey without new discoveries?

Relaxer Disaster!

A common idea about people who have gone natural or are in the process of doing so is that they hate relaxed hair and that chemical alteration of texture should be thrown out the window.
I'm not going to speak for everyone else but personally, if it's done right, a relaxer isn't bad!




However if you encounter a stylist who DOES NOT have a grip on what they're doing, it can turn into a nightmare, trust me I KNOW.
I've had some horrible relaxer jobs and have had to deal with severe scalp burns and bald patches. From at home treatments to salon visits, I've seen it all and it sucked.

First experience: I was very young, I want to say 12, and my aunt decided that we were going to experiment on my hair with a take home relaxer. I wasn't nervous, in fact I was excited! A chance for straight hair? No more braids? Sign me up! What no one told my aunt and what I didn't
know is that when it starts to burn, it's time to wash it out! Five minutes in and it started to hurt. We ignored it.
15 minutes in and I was close to tears. 
I bent myself over the bathtub and my mother began to rinse my hair. all of a sudden she started panicking and yelling, I looked down and the
noticed A LOT of my hair was going down the drain.
I ended up with some with small bald patches, thin hair and a few scalp sores. I was calm about it and told myself "never again!" Never again lasted until high school.

High school: This is where my hair insecurity began. I didn't want my little girl braids anymore or my pigtails. I wanted grown-up straight hair! My mother has very wavy, natural mermaid hair, but her stylist specialized in relaxed hair...or so we thought.
I went to her throughout my high school career enduring the high-strength cream, the scalp burns and her flat-iron meanness until she moved states. Something I'd noticed throughout our time together was that she would always coat ALL of my hair and not just my new growth. I didn't think much else of it until I found a new stylist (Miss K) and she told me that she needed to save my hair.
SAVE MY HAIR?
Turns out stylist #1 had been "overlapping" the relaxer. She'd been treating my whole head of hair as virgin hair and repeatedly re-relaxed my already chemically-treated ends.
In order to fix it, Miss K said we needed to start from scratch. This is when devastation set in.

Length: natural growth+relaxed hair hit a little past my shoulders.
Saving my hair meant cutting it a little below my ears.
ALL MY LENGTH HAD BEEN A LIE!
I dealt with it. I kept going back to Miss K and she helped grow my hair back thicker and longer.

Sounds like a happy ending right? So you may ask why I chose to go natural.
Truth is I got very bored with my hairstyle and its breakage.
I wanted to do more with it and I also wanted to stop being so insecure about it!
I was so inspired by other women that I made the big decision to go ahead with it and Miss K is helping me through the process.

So moral of the story, relaxers are not the devil, but they can ruin a good head of hair if you don't know what your doing with it!

Welcome to Transition Mission!

Hello! My name is Sabina and welcome to Transition Mission!

I created this blog to not only reach out and connect with those who choose to wear their hair natural, but also as an aid to myself and my hair journey!

Like many, I am impatient when it comes to my hair. I want it to grow, I want it to lay flat, I want it to curl, I want it to bounce, I want it short, long....pretty much everything I wanted, my hair did not!

I got my first at-home relaxer when I was very young and it was a disaster! I started getting salon relaxers around 2003 and I thought "FINALLY a professional and I feel great about myself!"
A few years later I realized the stylist had been destroying my hair with her technique. I moved on to another salon and the repairing process began.

BEFORE: I was obsessed with relaxing my hair. I was actually really
in love with this look! (Photo by: Vanessa Gonzales)

MARCH 2012: Brushed out relaxer with very little growth at the top.

Until very recently I had been content with relaxers. I was fine with constantly straight hair, but then I started feeling antsy and bored with my look. I couldn't colour it because of the other chemicals in my hair and layers and cuts were not ideal at the time.
In my angst I turned to the all-knowing advice giver: The Internet.
I was amazed by all the beautiful styles one could accomplish by going natural and the hair health benefits that came with it! After visiting a few forums and getting wide-eyed over pictures, I made up my mind.

Unfortunately I had made up my mind AFTER a relaxer in December of 2011.
I could've kicked myself BUT I'm here now and I'm learning a lot about my hair and myself and I hope you'll come with me on this journey!
-Sabina