Rock the Dragon

What is a saiyan?
A saiyan is an old race of people that were destroyed by Frieza when they tried to rebel. Originally lived on Planet Vegeta (known as Planet "plant" before they took it over) where the weak warriors were sent to far off planets where they were not a threat to their enemies but would follow out orders. The strong saiyans were leaders and powerful warriors.
Only a few remain.
Traits: brown tail, more power than normal, extra ambition to fight



Why are they special?
They have very special abilities. One is when there is a full moon they turn into giant apes (have to have their tails). The disadvantage of a child becoming an Oozaru is they loose control of themselves and reek destruction. They also have the ability to go Super Saiyan or SSJ. To do that you have to have a pure heart, lose your control in battle and obtain a power level of 100,000 for transformation. That will explain why Vegeta doesn’t go SSJ until he has Bulma as his wife and has a son that he truly loves down deep inside (he didn’t have a pure heart until then). After that it becomes easier to get back to a super saiyan. When you go Super Saiyan you reach a very high stage of power.




Vegeta didn't have a pure heart! How did he go SSJ?
A lot of people tend to disagree with me here. But to answer your questions, I believe that Vegeta was pure hearted for only a short time when he was about to be killed by an asteroid. His life and his ambitions flashed before him. After that he was back to his bad old self, but now had the ability to become a super saiyan.



More about the apes...
As I have explained above, at the sight of a full moon a saiyan with his tail can become an Oozaru. Many webmasters think that to transform into SSj4 you have to be an Oozaru. And only when a saiyan is in the SSj4 stage, can he reach a Golden Oozaru.
When a saiyan goes into the Oozaru stage their normal power is increased by 10 times!
Traits: Believe you’ll know when you see a giant ape.



Now time to get to the good stuff!
SSJ or Super Saiyan

This is the first stage of the legendary Super Saiyans. Goku was the first seen to achieve this. Though earlier there were others (unknown). When you reach this stage you gain extraordinary power. You can push this stage further by increasing your power (muscles get huge) but you lose a lot of speed. This is known as "ultra ssj". Which some mistake for ssj2, but was achieved by Vegeta first after he came out of the hyperbolic time chamber. All that follow have reached the super saiyan stage Goku, Vegeta, Brolli, Gohan, Gotan, and
Trunks. Also the longer you stay in this form or the more frequently you transform the easier it is to get back to and the less energy it requires.
Traits: Their hair turns blonde and their eyes turquoise and hair turns vertical, yellow aura surrounding them.



SS2

This stage is when you reach an even more powerful level of super saiyan. You gain speed and power of preformed correctly. Trunks had reached the ultra ssj stage when fighting cell in the imperfect cell saga. Trunks had pumped up his muscles to much which cause him to lose speed. When gohan trasformed he perfected the ultra ssj by correctly gaining great power without losing speed causing him to be the first to reach the ssj2 stage. You can maintain this level for a rather long time. First achieved by Gohan. Lightning forms around your body.
Traits: Hair and eyes stay same color but hair grows higher up, yellow lightning strikes around them.




SSJ3

This stage is you gain extreme power but you loose speed in result you can't maintain this for long at all. This is by far the most powerful stage of super saiyan and also the most odd physical features. Your eye brows disappear, hair falls down past knees, and muscles bulge. These deformities show signs of its immense source of power. First achieved by Goku. And only reached by Goku and the fused fighter Gotenks (Trunks and Goten).
Traits: Hair grows very long and falls back



SSJ4

This is the final form of super saiyan. It can only be seen in Dragonball GT. Some believe it isn't a true super saiyan form, that is at least along the lines of the dbz series. The saiyans characteristics mix between Oozaru and human. It can only be achieved while a saiyan is a golden Oozaru. In the ssj4 stage your hair goes back to original color, they grow red fur coat across their chest. An exception is for Gogeta who had brown fur and red hair. Also as ssj4 stage the warriors have some pretty hippy looking pants. Another attribute is the hair grows really long and props back up around head. All stats are increased and you can maintain the stage for awhile. First achieved by Goku. Only ones to get here are of course Goku, Vegeta, and Gogeta.
Traits: Hair turns back to original color, tail grows back, red fur coat, and ability to go to golden oozaru.





Mystic Saiyan

The only known saiyan who accomplished this is Gohan. Gohan was taught this power up by Dia Kaioshin after he was released from the Z sword. After Gohan learned the technique, he could have enormous power (approximately equal to the SSj3 form) without even going super saiyan. That's why after the Buu Saga, Gohan is rarely seen as a super saiyan.





Important Notes:

Each time you go super saiyan on any of the levels it becomes easier to get back to.
If you reach SSJ3, and you have enough power you can get right back to that level without going to the ones before it without working your way up. But if your weakened from battle it might be easier for a saiyan to remain a super saiyan until they have enough power to work up to the next level.

Requirements for Super Saiyan levels

Must be a saiyan or have saiyan blood.

Must have a pure heart for any length of time before going SSj. A very high power level (100,000),

Must be enraged, extremely mad, or have a lust for battle.

And in order to get there it needs to be in response of a need.