Over the past couple of years, natural hair has been the big trend among African-American women. Many have gone through the drastic cutting of the hair, also known as the “big chop,” while some have just stopped getting chemical processes like relaxers.
But there are many misconceptions and much misleading information about the pros and cons of being relaxed compared to being natural. Being natural myself for about 13 years, I’ve been through the good, the bad and everything in between when it comes to dealing with my natural hair.
Experiencing everything from dry scalp to heat damage while being both natural and relaxed, I have been through it all, and have the dish on the natural versus relaxed debate.
Growth rate
One of the biggest reasons many women go natural is to “make their hair grow.” Being natural doesn’t necessarily mean your hair will grow faster or longer, compared to if the hair was relaxed. Most women with natural hair usually protect the ends of their hair by wearing it in twists, braids, buns or other protective styles. This contributes to the hair not experiencing breakage, but retention.
Hair growth rates are pretty much the same whether the hair is natural or not. Many see a difference in growth rate not because the hair grows faster, but because there is growth retention with lack of hair breakage, shedding, and loss. Relaxed hair is also capable of retaining growth. The only issue with growing and keeping relaxed hair is when the hair has been relaxed over a long time period, it could possibly result in thinning of the hair later on in life.
Moisturization
African-American hair is known to typically be dry. When the hair is in its natural state, it is even more susceptible to dryness. It is super important to keep natural hair constantly moisturized, especially during extreme weather conditions. Even though relaxed hair might not need as much constant moisture as natural hair, the ends of the hair still have to have enough moisture to prevent breakage.
Maintenance
Many are under the misconception that natural hair is easier to maintain than relaxed hair. Quite the contrary. Natural hair takes just as much or more time, patience and maintenance to keep it healthy. There are gazillion YouTube tutorials on how to just simply wash natural hair. To begin tackling different natural hair styling techniques is a whole other beast.
Natural hair can be worn curly or straight, but it might not be as versatile as some think. When natural curls are constantly straightened, the natural curl pattern can be loosened leaving the hair with straight ends. With relaxed hair, there is much more manageability, but unlike natural hair, it can pretty much only be worn straight, without any body or curl versatility.
Relaxed hair also offers easy edge control, which is a huge concern for us during the warmer months or when we are working out.
Color
One of the best benefits to being natural is that you can color your hair without causing any major damage. Many don’t realize that hair color is a chemical, just like relaxer. Natural hair is virgin hair, meaning it has not been compromised by any outside elements and is basically a blank canvas.
When coloring hair using either lightener (bleach) or various ammonia-based colors (dyes), the hair cuticle is being weakened, so having the “clean slate” of natural hair to perform the coloring process is best for keeping hair health. Relaxed hair has already been processed by a chemical, so adding a color process to the hair is further jeopardizing the integrity of the hair shaft that has already been compromised by the relaxer.
If the goal is to maintain or grow the relaxed hair, then steer clear of the color.
For more information on natural vs relaxed hair, contact danieraestylebroker@gmail.com.
