If you transition by growing your hair out, you will basically wear protective styles until you natural, unprocessed hair reaches the length that you want and all your relaxed hair is trimmed away.

You will have some time to prepare for your natural hair

During your transition period you can collect pictures of styles that you would like to try once your hair is natural. It is a good idea to get pictures of styles of various lengths.

You will learn about your hair type(s)

Different styles look a little different depending on what your hair type is. As your hair grows out you can look and see how the new natural hair is behaving. You can get an idea of what it does when it is wet. You will find out whether your hair is wavy, curly, coily or kinky. Once you figure that out you can look for styles that will work with and complement your hair type.

You can experiment with natural looks

Who says transitioning has to be boring? If you are thinking about growing locks, why not try nu locs/yarn lock. You’ll get an idea of how you might look with locks.

Kinky twists are truly a natural look. They will give you an idea of how your own double strand/two stranded twist will look. (NOTE: Be sure to read the section on types of extension hair. You do not want to get the type that will tangle in your hair.)

If you really want to be adventurous (depending on where you work) get the true feel of an afro with an afro weave. You could do a full weave or just the back with cornrows in the front.

But if you want to play it safe- and there is nothing wrong with that – you can stick with braids and cornrows with or without extensions.

There is not initial shock – for you or your friends and family.

Unless you have been growing out your perm for a while your hair will be very short even after a month or two of transitioning. If you have worn your hair medium length to long, the change could be shocking.

Wearing short hair of any style takes a certain type of self-confidence. If you are still uncertain of your decision or are not really comfortable with short hair period, don’t do the big chop. Ditto if you don’t have friends or family members who support your decision to go natural. No need to bring on needless criticisms unless you really don’t care what they think.