I’m back folks.  Looks like I’m going to be doing quarterly posts rather than daily or weekly LOL.  My posts haven’t been as frequent as I thought they would be.  I often have ideas for articles as I journey through this natural hair transition process but just don’t seem to make myself sit down and type my thoughts.

In this posting, I’d like to discuss setting expectations for your hair.  Prior to making the decision to go natural, I never gave any thought to what my hair would be like in its natural state.  I had relaxed hair for 20+ years and honestly had no recollection of what my hair was like without chemical straighteners.  I wasn’t really prepared for what I have been dealing with as my natural hair grows out.

Roller sets and wraps had been my staples for years so when the roller sets and wraps no longer worked as my natural hair grew out, I was at a loss.  I researched various hairstyle options for natural hair.  Two Strand Twists and Wash & Go’s are very popular hair styles for naturals and you can find numerous how-to videos online.  I was excited to give these styles a try as I transitioned from relaxed to natural hair.  Most of the tutorials that I viewed online had amazing results and boy was I eager to see these results on my hair.  No Such Luck!  What I later learned was that results vary based on the texture of your hair.  I had been viewing tutorials and outcomes of naturals with a different texture of hair than mine.

Whether or not you believe in categorizing natural hair (see NATURALLYCurly.com^®), understanding your own natural hair texture is very important when it comes to trying different hairstyles.  Now that I am 10 months post-relaxer and my natural hair has fully emerged, I can say that I am a member of the Type 4 hair family.  Armed with this information, I tend to focus on tutorials performed by fellow Type 4 naturals.  A couple of my favorite Type 4c bloggers are KinkyNappyHappy and declutteringsolution.  Viewing demos by Type 4 naturals give me a realistic picture of what to expect when trying new products and hairstyles.

Prior to understanding my own hair texture, I would view demos by naturals with hair types other than type 4 and would expect the same outcome when I would try the same technique using the same products.  That wasn’t happening.  Now that I understand my own natural hair texture, I’m much happier with the outcome of my styling attempts because my expectations are set appropriately.

I don’t think that any one hair type is better than another.  The key is understanding the texture and knowing what works to maintain it and achieve the look that you’re trying to achieve.