Hair Breaking Off At the Nape and Crown

I don't understand. I am so frustrated! Before I started taking care of my hair, these were my trouble spots. I had practically NO hair in my nape. And I remember a long time ago when I didn't know how to self relax the top middle was slowly disappearing. But I do everything right or so I thought. I am a relaxed SL and I bun most of the time. On the weekends I might try to do a cute style or wear it out but that isn't very often. I rarely use heat, only when I go to my stylist every 3 months. I shampoo, use my Aphogee 2 minute and deep condition weekly.I also deep condition a 2nd time in the middle of the week. And things were working fine. My hair was/is growing nicely. I haven't had any set backs but now this. My hair still feels and looks soft so I didn't think it was dry. Then I thought maybe I should cut out the Aphogee 2 minute but I've never had a problem before. The only thing I can think of that I'm doing differently is I am not co washing daily like I used to. I cut down to maybe 3 times a week because I got lazy. Now I might do it once a week if at all since it's getting colder. Which leads me back to considering the dryness. But again, my hair feels soft and isn't stiff and moves freely.

Do you tie your hair scarf with a knot on your nape?

Could you be wearing your buns to tight? Are you rotating the position of your bun?

I do tie my scarf at the nape but this isn't from that. I did get a little breakage from that and you could clearly see it in one spot. I have since started tying it a different way. As far as my buns I considered that. I never wear the buns right on top of my head where the breakage is occuring. I do however alternate bewtween right in the middle of the back of my head if that makes sense and sometimes low at the nape. I'm just a little confused. I read on here that pulling the hair back a lot can cause breakage at the crown? But how? Especially if the hair is always laid down?

I am natural now. But when I was relaxed the top-middle was always, always my trouble spot. I believe it was from over-relaxing. I would ask my stylist to apply the relaxer last in that area, but she never would.....My top-middle never grew past a certain length.

Now that I'm natural, I have no trouble in this area.

I would suggest you relax that area last; i.e., the relaxer is there the shortest period of time.

HTH

^^^ I may try that. I can't remember but I think she does relax that part early on in the process because I worry about my edges so much. I am not relaxing again until February (just relaxed at the beginning of this month) so hopefully I can make it better before then. Thanks.

Pompous Blue said:

I am natural now. But when I was relaxed the top-middle was always, always my trouble spot. I believe it was from over-relaxing. I would ask my stylist to apply the relaxer last in that area, but she never would.....My top-middle never grew past a certain length.

Now that I'm natural, I have no trouble in this area.

I would suggest you relax that area last; i.e., the relaxer is there the shortest period of time.

HTH

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I second this recommendation. For years my nape and the very front of mu hair never grew. I changed stylist who uses a mild relaxer every 12-16 weeks on my hair instead of regular. She also started applying the relaxer to my nape last and now that area is flourishing. Now we're working on the Front of my hair. The problem was 1. relaxing my hair too frequently, doing this didn't give my scalp and hair follicles time to recover from the harsh chemical. 2. When the hair is only 1-3 or 4 inches long, it's almost impossible to avoid overlapping. My nape hair was always a different texture than the rest of my hair because it was over processed. 3. When moisturizing, I never sectioned my hair to get to get product on my nape area which lead to over processed, under moisturized hair.

Babying my nape gave me great results. For a while, I even braided my nape horizontally. I would moisturize and seal then braid and spritz with water while it was braided. It's going to take some serious dedication which it sounds like you have. Be patient, it'll grow ;-).

Does this happen for you seasonally or year round? I ask because my hair would always break at the nape during the fall and winter regardless of how careful I was about the friction. Now I braid the nape or get a sew-in during winter months so that there's no exposure whatsoever. The cold air and the dry heat you experience inside buildings doesn't help at all. I would work on the moisture and maybe try a gentler protein treatment instead of the aphogee.

I think a weekly aphogee might be overkill.
I used to always have problems with my nape, I had to start relaxing it every other relaxer and babying and braiding it.
Now as a natural I see why, I have silky 3c curls back there but it took 2 yrs of being,natural for them to come out

The Aphogee I use is the 2 Minute (not the 2 step) which I thought was considered mild. I notice that when I do not use it I get breakage and excessive shedding so that is a staple and I know that I absolutely need that. I stretch my relaxers to about 12 -13 weeks now and have been trying to go a week longer with exvery relaxer but I have to see how my hair reacts to that. I agree with all of you about the relaxer though. I'll definitely start relaxing those part every other relaxer as well as relaxing them last when I do touch up.

toistory said:

Does this happen for you seasonally or year round? I ask because my hair would always break at the nape during the fall and winter regardless of how careful I was about the friction. Now I braid the nape or get a sew-in during winter months so that there's no exposure whatsoever. The cold air and the dry heat you experience inside buildings doesn't help at all. I would work on the moisture and maybe try a gentler protein treatment instead of the aphogee.

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It could be a seasonal thing since this is really my first winter in a long time that I am wearing my hair out. We'll see how it goes I guess. I know that I need the Aphogee but maybe I only needed it when I was cowashing often? I have a feeling this problem has something to do with me co washing less. Something about that is nagging me. I think I am going to start co washing again daily and maybe see if things change in a couple of weeks.

^ wearing the hair out in the winter with a relaxer is a recipe for breakage.

winter is the :heated:, The breakage is secret. Hair breaks in your coat, sweater, when you hug people. The artificial heat takes out some of your ends. Cold freezes your ends off, and we don't even see them because the hawk blows them away.

Wear your hair out in the spring, when the hair gobblins are banished the north pole.