Transitioning from Relaxed to Natural Hair

In my 1 year update of my hairgrowth journey, I let you know that I am considering transitioning to my natural hair. I hadn't made a final decision and was originally going to finish up the last jar of relaxer which I have just so there is less temptation to straighten my hair if I decide to transition. I know it is not going to be easy and somedays my entire head will be in knots, and somedays I might feel like giving up and just straightening it; hence my original train of thought. But recently, I woke up one morning and just thought "I want to do it!". I'm already about 2 months post relaxer, so why go back?! 

I've been straightening my hair since I was about 13. And the main reason was because my natural hair is quite kinky and I found it really hard to manage. I went to highschool in Nigeria, and we were required to put our hair in braids so we looked presentable. That meant I needed to go to the hair salon every week to get my hair done, and the ladies just kept pulling and ripping out all my hair. It was honestly extremely painful. I got tired of this and asked my mum to relax it. And I've been keeping up the treatment since. 

I've been asked by my family or close friends a couple of times why I relax my hair and if I've considered switching back. And honestly, I've considered multiple times but I've always used the excuse that styling my hair in the mornings when it's relaxed is way easier {and that excuse works like a charm} so I've never actually gone through with it. Lately, I've been spending my life on youtube & pinterest looking at hairstyles, watching videos about everyone's routine and what products they use etc. And I finally decided that now that I have the possibility to get products catered for african hair, I am going to transition.

Loads of people choose to do the big chop as opposed to the transition because then you have just one texture of hair and don't need to worry about caring for two different textures. Both of these methods have their pros and cons, so I feel it all goes down to personal preference. I really cannot imagine myself with short hair & after being on a hairgrowth journey for the last year, I honestly do not want to just cut it all off. So I'm going to be growing out my natural hair and trimming the relaxed ends off from time to time. 

If you have any suggestions of what hairstyles I could possibly do or what products I should try, please leave them in the comments. Because if not, I'd probably be living in buns and twist outs.

Did you make the decision to go natural? Tell me about your journey.