Which is more work relaxed or natural hair?

Natural hair is an interesting subject. On my journey I’ve learned through other women’s experiences that not everyone is a fan of natural hair. With this knowledge, I used my time transitioning to fall in love with my new growth as a way to “soften” the negative blows. So far I’ve only had one negative comment and not sure if it is considered negative. When I told my sister about my big chop her response was “you chickened out because you should have cut your hair shorter (i.e. TWA) and started from there”. Help me out please; is there really a difference as long as I’m natural?


A week or so ago, I hosted a baby shower for my cousin at my house in which my afro puff was debut. Surprisingly, none of my family commented on my hair. They said nothing! At the end of the night I was surprised because how could they not notice. Also, I didn’t make it a point to say “hey I’m natural notice my afro puff” because the puff will speak for itself. Plus that day was all about my cousin. However, the more common response I’ve heard which sparked an interest for this post was “natural hair is just too much work”. Really, natural hair is more work than relaxed hair?

Now this comment was burned in the back of my head for a while especially since it keeps coming up. When relaxed I was clueless on how to take care of my hair. Every 4-8 weeks was relaxer time and every morning I flat ironed. The result was shoulder length hair and constant breakage. Now that I’m natural more time and work is spent on my hair. The reason is because our hair is delicate and I treat it that way. Time is spent getting to know what my hair likes, dislikes and correcting the issues. Research plays a big part in my journey because I’m constantly educating myself on kinky afro texture hair. Now that I have acquired so much knowledge on healthy hair in general, these same principals I will use if relaxed.

Bad hair days are going to happen and they happen for relaxed ladies too. Just because bad hair days are inevitable is that a reason not to continue my natural journey? Not having the patience to find the best products for my hair is a reason not to continue my journey? Even when relaxed all products did not work wonders on my hair. These thoughts are not random because these are just a few reasons my sister gave for relaxing her hair. Of course there is more to that story which was explained in a previous post.

At this time, I do not have an opinion about natural hair being more work than relaxed because I’ve been natural for only a month, today. Since the big chop my hair is in protective styles 95% of the time. For now, I’ll give myself more time in the “natural realm”, if you will, before formulating my own opinion. What do you think?