PLEASE, NEWBIE NEEDS HAIR TYPING AND BREAKAGE & AIR DRYING HELP! (LONG)

[Lilpaw]

Hey Ladies,
After stalking forever, I’m finally getting the courage to post. I am very new to this hair care thing and I have learned so much from all of you but I’m still having issues.

After roller setting and bonnet drying for 20 years I let my friends and family talk me into allowing my stylist to blow dry and hot curl/flat iron my hair once a week. It was a huge time saver for me (as opposed to the 3 hours it takes to dry my hair in rollers under the dryer) and she thought that with leave in conditions and heat protection, her Chi Blow Dryer and flat iron wouldn’t damage my hair. BIG MISTAKE!! After just two months of this abuse my hair is shredded. Breaking, splitting, shedding, you name it.


I am currently 8 weeks into a 12 week relaxer stretch and I have canceled all hair appointments until then. At my touch up, I plan to let her trim my ends and maybe begin texlaxing (Isis you’re my hero but I can’t get with the vegetarian thing LOL). In the meantime I have been mixing and matching everybody’s regimens. I’m still having problems with breakage.

On Wednesday I clarified, Emergenceed, deep and daily conditioned (Humectress, Headress, HB Carrot Crème?) and sealed (Keracare or Asante Oils). I am limited to these products because I am limiting protein and currently no-coning to alleviate any moisture barriers to my hair.

I wash my hair once a week. I’m trying to do the air drying thing but it hasn’t been wildly successful. If I set with my huge rollers, I can’t sleep in them, nor can I afford the 10 or more hours it would take to air dry them during the day. I do the long ponytails with Solar rollers at the ends but I always end up under my space alien Ion Dryer for at least an hour because my hair starts to shrink and wave with just air drying. Not to mention, my ends take forever to dry and always look and feel terrible afterward. I bunned and baggied my whole head last night. When I woke up, the top of my head was moist but MY ENDS WERE STILL DRY!.

I’m appealing to all you beautifully tressed heroes of LHCF. Please let me know how to get my hair back to its former glory. AND, if it’s not too much trouble, can someone tell me what my hair type is? I’ve put a few pictures of my new growth on my Fotki. Thanks To You All.

http://public.fotki.com/Lilpaw/

 

[shunta]

Hi there and welcome to the forum . I would first like to say that your hair is so pretty. Whatever you were doing to get it to the length that you currently have, I would just go back to that. I would just go back to rollersetting and going under the dryer and eliminating direct heat all together. Its obvious that it was working for the past 20 yrs because your hair shows it. Maybe you should go ahead and get the trim and just start fresh again. As far as airdrying, I was never successful with that so I cant offer any tips. My hair absolutely hated ardrying, so maybe some other ladies can chime in and give you some tips. In the meantime, just make sure you deep condition with every wash so you can get the breakage and shedding under control. BTW, your hair looks somewhere between 3c/4a?? HTH Also, since you have so much hair and you're a rollersetting diva already, maybe you should invest in a good dryer to cut down on dryer time. With the soft bonnet dryer, it takes me forever too, and my hair is only APL. I invested in a salon quality dryer from Sallys, and now Im only under the dryer for about an hour and 20 min.

 

[RZILYNT]

Welcome!
You have some purty hair, nice and thick. It will be no time before you are back to healthy hair.

For me what helps with air drying is the types of product used to aid it in staying straight as it dries. Then tying it down at nite to make it smooth I understand wanting to shun the cones also. You can do that and be successfull. There are some ladies on the board that have a conefree regimen. I don't like all of them, but there are ones that I have had success with. I clarify often to make sure that the hair is not coated as I am using my deep conditioners and moisturizers. I don't mind after I moisturize to seal it with a cone. Keeps it staying moisturized. Have you tried braid outs to air dry with a roller on the ends to give you a little curl at the end?
Or if you are a pony tail wearer you can pull it all under one pony tail and then braid those ends to dry. Just a few ideas. I am sure that there will be more.
If you find that there is someone specific that you see on a thread and you have questions about their hair, just PM them and I am sure that they can go into more details with you regarding some of your questions.

 

[NeeSee]

Welcome to the board.

 

[Nanyanika]

welcome to the forum!!!!!!!!sorry your going through hair issues, so am I, btw your hair is very pretty.i'm sure other ladies will be able to advise you best.

 

[Lilpaw]

Thank you all for your comments (and compliments) so far. You’ve got some “purty hair” yourselves. MORE HAIR TYPING COMMENTS PLEASE!

Couple of questions. Ryilynt, What exactly is a braid out? Is it French braiding the hair while wet and letting it air dry? I hope it won’t be a ‘FRO when I unbraid it LOL. The ponytail with the braids sounds doable. I’ll try that next time.

Shunta, which dryer did you get from Sally’s? I got my Ion Bonnet Dryer from there also and it’s supposed to take less time. To be truthful, I was able to get out in an hour and a half last week but my hair was set on these huge soup can rollers and I had no curl an hour after I took them out so I thought; why bother?

If I could find an “ends friendly” air drying style that I could live with for a day or two without getting arrested by the ghetto police (rollers in public ) I’d be all up on it. Help keep a sista out of jail LHFC!

 

[shunta]

Thank you all for your comments (and compliments) so far. You’ve got some “purty hair” yourselves. MORE HAIR TYPING COMMENTS PLEASE!

Couple of questions. Ryilynt, What exactly is a braid out? Is it French braiding the hair while wet and letting it air dry? I hope it won’t be a ‘FRO when I unbraid it LOL. The ponytail with the braids sounds doable. I’ll try that next time.

Shunta, which dryer did you get from Sally’s? I got my Ion Bonnet Dryer from there also and it’s supposed to take less time. To be truthful, I was able to get out in an hour and a half last week but my hair was set on these huge soup can rollers and I had no curl an hour after I took them out so I thought; why bother?



If I could find an “ends friendly” air drying style that I could live with for a day or two without getting arrested by the ghetto police (rollers in public ) I’d be all up on it. Help keep a sista out of jail LHFC!

I bought the one that the salons have. It was $175

 

[Mestiza]

Your hair is beautiful!

 

[Lilpaw]

Your hair is beautiful!

Thanks Mestiza! Cool Pictures