In this video I talk about when natural hair is considered natural. I also give tips about how to stretch the hair to safely. Enjoy!
Video Transcript:
Hey, it's Marquetta Breslin and I am back with another Q&A. This question comes from Chelsea. Chelsea says, “I've read some of your emails about natural hair. I've not used a relaxer in a few months and I want to grow my hair out natural because the chemicals are damaging my hair. I want to know if I use a press and comb or curling iron will my hair still be natural?”
There are a few key things you want to get out of this video. Your hair that is growing out is the natural part. The hair that is straight on the ends from your relaxer is your relaxed ends. Those ends are chemically altered. They are permanently straight. They will never revert back to its natural state. Those ends will eventually have to be chronic undifferentiated type off.
However, if you use a curling iron, it's not going to chemically alter your natural hair, but if you apply too much heat you could cause permanent damage or heat damage. What that is, is you'll see some young ladies that have … their hair is natural, but they'll have straight pictures all over and those straight pieces are not relaxed sometimes. They're not relaxed. It's just where the hair was straightened too much and it caused permanent damage and it's permanently straight.
Sometimes though, you can reverse that by using an Aphogee treatment, that's my favorite, or sometimes that'll help the hair revert back, but you just want to be careful if you're going to use a curling iron or if you're going to use a hot iron or a flat iron. I think a hot iron, a stove hot iron, that's a lot of direct heat. I probably wouldn't do that. I would use the lowest heat possible on a flat iron if you can or just blow-dry it out.
There are a lot of different stretching techniques that you can use to help aid you in the process of straightening so you don't have to apply a lot of heat. I would some stretching techniques. You can do some rubber banding and stuff like that or you can do a braid. Braid the hair in big sections and that kind of helps to stretch the hair a little bit.
When you pull a blow dryer through, you're not applying too much heat. You don't have to take it from its real natural state and keep pulling it and pulling it. If you let it dry, you braid it up, in big sections and let it dry. When you take the braid down, and I don't know if this would even apply to you because I'm not sure how long your hair is, but if someone is watching this and they are wondering how they can straighten their hair without using a lot of heat, there are different things you can do.
You can braid it out and let the braids get pretty dry. Usually people sleep like that and then when they wake up in the morning, their hair is … depending on the length of the hair, it maybe a little bit damp, it maybe completely dry, you take a warm blow dryer and pull the hair out and then you can go through with the flat iron and that helps to eliminate some of the heat.
Always use the heat protectant; always use some sort of oil to protect the hair. If you don't like the chemicals and the heat protectant, if they bother you then you can always use an oil, but you just want to do some of those things to help prevent so much heat from damaging the hair.
The answer to your question is, yes, you will still be considered natural if you cut those relaxed ends off, but then natural part is the natural part. That's not going to change because the curling iron and the hot comb, they're not chemically altering your natural hair, not chemically they're not, but they are with heat. You just want to be careful with that.
Yes, you'll still be considered natural, but just be careful with the heat. Always use a protectant or some sort of oil or something like that to protect your hair. All right? I hope you enjoyed this Q&A session. Stay tune for the next one. Thank you so much for watching and I will talk with you soon.
Enjoy!
Be blessed,
