How I Used My Transitioning Journey To Get A Bit Of Renewal Therapy

Everyone needs a little therapy at some point in their life right? It doesn’t have to be red couch, feet up, and secret conversations with someone you hardly even know, and required to pay. It could be your own made up process, something that you have created for yourself to give renewed energy, a new lease on life, one of those “out with the old in with the new” kinda things.

I always looked at my transition as a time of discovery and when people who do not understand our struggle read that they get all types of confused. What in hell could you be discovering? Did you not know your own hair before? For many of us the answers are simple, we are reconnecting with our own natural hair that we haven’t seen in years and no, most of us did not really ‘know’ our hair before.

Transitioning can be easy, or it can be hard it really is a matter of how you choose to look at it and not necessarily how you plan to get through it. This post is an attempt at showing you that you can use your transition as a juncture for renewal, once you start, not only are you removing your relaxer but you are also removing other things in your life that might just need to go. At the same time you are adding things in to help you get through the process.

Here are 7 ways I used my transition for renewal therapy:

1. Curl discovery

I remember the moment in my transition when first saw my first real curl loop, it was pretty darn dope, because even though I am sure my curl pattern showed up right before it was time for me to get my next perm year after year, I never really took the time to look at my natural hair. I never even touched it, all I cared about was booking my appointment at the salon to get rid of it.

Curl discovery gets you excited, you cant wait to see more of it so you can determine how your hair will look after its all said and done and the relaxer is gone.

It really is a good feeling when you know that this is the first step to doing something healthier, adding a bit of organic’ness (I know that’s not a word, but it works) to your life.

2. Hair discovery

Curl discovery is one thing, but during your transition you will learn alot about your hair physically because you might be in the position where you do not know alot.

You will find yourself reading alot, discovering how to care for your hair, and also how to take care of you to make sure your hair has the best chance ever.

You will discover the science behind the hair strand and kick yourself for not knowing that before. I know I gave my hairdresser all the power, I knew nothing about my own hair and I thought she knew everything.

She was the professional and I sat in the chair, that how it was for years, and I didn’t change that until my transition.

3. Retail and mixing therapy

Girl, it was amazing being a product junkie; down right amazing. I know what the blogs say, you have to stop the madness, you cant buy everything under the sun. But I would be lying to you if I didn’t say it wasn’t fun discovering new products putting things together and seeing how my hair reacted to it.

I particularly liked to buy oils*, because becoming in tune with being all natural in my hair care was kind of my obsession. So I discovered how cool it was to be a mixtress, how to get into my kitchen and make something awesome for my hair and watch it benefit from what I made. It was very therapeutic, the hair care isle in every store was therapy.

4. Excersize

Working out was my muse during my transition for one its a healthy thing to do, but I liked the idea of getting a good work out in and then jumping in the shower and doing a co-wash.

I literally did that every day, like I said this isnt a red couch thing and I am no psychologist so if I were to explain how that was theraputic I really couldnt. I just know it felt great and “great” is therapy.

5. Transitioning is a time for change

You are about to change your hair, everything about it , the way you thought about it, the way you style it and the way you take care of it. Once you have fully transitioned and settled into being natural you will realize that you should have been taking care of your hair in this way all along. Even when you had a relaxer, yes, I said it, even when you had a relaxer.

My transition was the start of my healthy hair journey and that meant everything had to change.

6. I was more creative and I was more patient

You never know how innovative you can get until you are painted into a corner. I loved wearing wet buns but on the days that I needed a bit more, I would get my flowers and bobby pins* and create something I would never have done before 2008.

When you get creative, you also develop acceptance which means you can look in the mirror and say, ‘yes I like that!’ and walk away. Along with creativity I had to learn to be patient. Allow my hair to grow without measuring it every second, and getting though bad hair days without giving up.

Patience is something you never ever stop utilizing even when your transition is over, so it was good to have practiced that skill early in the game.

7. Eating well is therapy

I am not perfect; I hate carrots and I hate beets, so this has been a struggle, but I had my Green Vibrance for the days I didn’t juice, and I juiced on the days I felt inspired. For some reason going natural meant that you needed to have a banging body and to do that your diet along with your exercise needed to be on point.

There might be something a little bit deeper to this though, because some of us if we were truly honest with ourselves we would admit that we were not sure how we would look as adults with natural hair so we had to make sure everything else was on point just in case we might be slightly uncomfortable.

This means that having an amazing body became a bit of a crutch. Suddenly we want to be super toned, or vegan, or something else in addition to being natural. Oh don’t act like you never ever do that too; we all need red couches at some point in our lives (at least I can admit it!)

Well that’s it: enjoy your transitioning journey – I know I did.