Been natural for about 4 or 5 years and I can say that having a relaxer is much easier than being natural especially when you first go natural. First, you have to find products that work in your hair, I was using Pantene relaxed/natural for the longest and this ish was drying out my hair. I was also shampooing my hair every week which is bad for natural hair because it strips the much need moisture from it. Then I was pulling it out every morning because I just slept on it then woke up and picked it out, without using any moisturizer.
Now I know how to manage my hair and while it's still some work, it's not as bad as it was in the beginning. All I have to do is co-wash and detangle once a week, shampoo/deep condition once a month, and I only have to moisturize it once a week because the product I use keeps my hair soft and shiny for that long. The only hard part is the braid out, I do it every night before I do to bed to avoid my hair from becoming matted or tangled. That's the hard work, hell I've gone a whole week keeping my hair in braids simply because I didn't want to put it back up that night