SSK's and products... A link between the two?

I've been fully natural since February and it's been an exciting journey! I've tried some stuff and looked back with a erplexed face lol but overall, I wouldn't change it for the world.

I've noticed that I have SEVERAL different textures. 3c at the nape.... randomly placed straight hairs through out my head... 4a different sized/shape coils and cottony wavy 4b all over. Honestly it's pretty FREAKING AWESOME! I mean... wow... genetics... how wild is that?! I was doing my hair and I took strands out of the comb and laid them on the bathroom counter. I narrowed it down to four strands and each one was very different from the next. I've learned alot about my grass. With that said, let me get into what I've noticed.

The hair at my crown is odd (still very cool but just.... odd) It has a wavy pattern not very coily at all but it's extremely coarse, not too fragile, but once it reaches a certain length it straightens out. I almost cut it thinking it was heat damage.... when I realized hey... but I use medium to low heat. When I started my journey I kept it as simple as possible and then.... I started using aloe vera juice. The first time it looked good, had shine, and smoothed the ends. THEN the breakage/knots started. They weren't bad but they annoyed me. Especially since I didn't have them prior.

I backed up to what I was using before (simple conditioner, water, glycerin, oil mix) and my grass was back on track. Virtually no breakage at all (finger combing and very easy detangling.) I washed with a clarifying shampoo as needed and mostly co-washed. I usually just allowed it to airdry (shrink naturally in a modified wng or in twists.) And voila! Good going. I even slapped in some mild protein every other week. So far so good. I've been retaining length and have had no problems at all detangling.

UNTIL I figured hey I need to up moisture for the fall....so I went to long aid for extra dry hair. It had it's pros and cons. I use a VERY small amount of this because it WILL leave you uber sticky. When I do this, I don't need to moisturize daily (which I do normally twice a day.... upon getting up and a few hours before heading to bed.) I started to notice more knots. The exact same kind of mat-like knots and ssks I noticed with aloe juice and gel. When I go back to my regular regime of co-washing, applying my leave in (even with detangling and letting it dry wild and free) I have no detangling issues or breakage when manipulating....

I've used other moisturizing products and different protein(ish) conditioners (MNT, Flex Balsam & Protein, henna glosses with moisturizing conditioner...) But I've only noticed this with those two things and anything that contains aloe juice high on the list and ONLY on that particular section of my grass. Why is this? Is there a link between ssk's and the products used? Is hair type a factor too?

Where's Nonie?

It can be the product if it is locking out the moisture. I posted about SSK in another thread, I cant post it here because the search function is being rebuilt.

Anywhoo, long story short, when you are moisturizing do it is sections and TWIRL you hair as if you are doing a bantu or shirley temple working with gravity. I usually twirl my DD's natural hair left and right all the way to the end and I have pretty much eliminated SSK on her hair. You dont have to leave it in the twirl, this is only to moisturize and seal.

Athough I am relaxed I don the same thing because my hair is not relaxed bone straight every where and it helps me tremendously.

SSK are hairs that are twisting on itself due to lack of moisture gettting to that specific strand. HTH

Hmmm interesting to know.....bumping for ya!!

Myjourney2009 said:

It can be the product if it is locking out the moisture. I posted about SSK in another thread, I cant post it here because the search function is being rebuilt.

Anywhoo, long story short, when you are moisturizing do it is sections and TWIRL you hair as if you are doing a bantu or shirley temple working with gravity. I usually twirl my DD's natural hair left and right all the way to the end and I have pretty much eliminated SSK on her hair. You dont have to leave it in the twirl, this is only to moisturize and seal.

Athough I am relaxed I don the same thing because my hair is not relaxed bone straight every where and it helps me tremendously.

SSK are hairs that are twisting on itself due to lack of moisture gettting to that specific strand. HTH

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Exactly! I apply a hair butter to my c-napp hair and work it into my hair in sections and I can feel the SSKs just melt away. I pull the butter through from root to end. Without a hair butter, I would have SSKs all throughout my hair and will break them trying to detangle. Oil does the same thing --- melt away my SSKs.

My favorite butters are Shescentit.com's seyani butter and mango buttercream; KBB hair butter, Christinegant.etsy.com's herbal hair butter and beemineproduct.com's luscious balanced cream moisturizer.

Oils I use are hairveda.com's CoCasta Shikaki Oil.

Thanks for responding ladies. For some reason I thought that there would be a wider response due to alot of ssk complaints.

I always moisturize my grass in sections and I never have this problem unless I use aloe vera juice, which made me wonder if it was more product (ingredient related) as opposed to actual hair type or a bit of both. One thing is for certain, when my hair is moisturized with what it likes, I don't have a problem at all. That may change as it gets longer but for now, it's solely when I use certain things.


If there's a link between products and SSKs, imagine how much that would help with retention once you find the right products and techniques for (your, mine, his/hers, ours lol) all natural hair types.

ILuvsmuhgrass said:

Where's Nonie?

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@ILuvsmuhgrass, can't you PM a chick or somep'n?

I don't know if there's truth to the subject of this thread, but I honestly have such an easy time with my hair w/o products. I have been toying with the idea of starting to use products and especially sealing. So a week or two ago, I used S Curl on the length of my hair and Vaseline on the ends. While I actually loved the feel of my hair with S Curl on it (when I touch it, not when it touches me!), and the Vaseline which looked white initially actually eventually "melted" and no longer showed, when I had to redo a twist, finger-combing seemed trickier, and I would literally have to stop to open up what seemed like knot of several strands forming. I didn't notice SSKs but again, I only worked on one twist. I had only had the twists in for a week and wondered how harder it would have been had I waited longer. After I washed my hair, I only applied products to the ends, and my hair is back to behaving normally. Yesterday I made an pitiful video (I'm an amateur of the lowest quality) to show how I finger-comb and you can see there are no knots or tangles forming and it seems effortless. Not so when I had product in it. I think products only work for me when I'm combing my hair out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5iU4NgNGgI

I'm bumping this thread up because I am wondering if there's anyone else who's noticed what OP posted. I am also bumping this up because I am really beginning to think OP is onto something, as I have found out 3 months into using S Curl on the ends of my twists--although I admit I cheated and went bare last week. (For those who don't know, until August 2010, my norm was to leave my twists bare after washing and airdrying, never applying any leave in. My hair never matted or tangled and redoing twists was a breeze.)

What I have found is I cannot redo my twists with product in it, if I don't want to have to keep slowing down the rhythm to carefully undo what seems to be a knot forming. So the new plan is to leave my twists alone when wearing S Curl no matter how much HIH disease tries to take over, and then redo them only after washing my hair when there's no product in my hair. I will admit there's a "slip" associated with product that makes playing w/ my hair aka redoing twists fun, but only if the ends don't stick together and to the shed hair--which seems to be the problem and the cause for matting.

Without product, my strands separate easily and shed hair slides out smoothly, which is why I will only be redoing my twists--still one at a time--only after I've washed my hair. If I decide to redo my entire head, I will just baggy my bare hair and wear wraps and redo one at a time, as time allows, until all are done. Then and only then will I apply S Curl to my ends; when I know I don't need to mess with it for a while.

I wonder if anyone else has noticed the same. @ILuvsmuhgrass, any update?

My answer is yes and no.

I noticed that when my hair is dry I have more SSK.

Being a reformed product junkie, I have tried most products. I have noticed that quite of few "LHCF popular" products, S-Curl being one of them, (sorry Nonie) makes my hair dry. why? My theory is people often confused softness with moisturized hair. Since I have fine hair that is almost always soft, I know soft hair does not equate to moisturized hair.

So if I used S Curl and seal with shea butter in the morning, my hair will feel soft(er) but in the evening my hair will look dry, my hair will be lighter, and I have tangles and SSKs.

If I used Frank's Juice and seal with shea butter in the morning, my hair will feel wetter not any more soft but in the evening my hair does not look dry, my hair will be darker, and my shed hair, if any, comes out like hair balls.

I do not think products create SSKs, I think using the wrong combination of products and letting your hair dry out creates SSks.

I hope I make sense.

i'm falling on the floor b/c you said where's nonie???

I swear each time I post a "real question" I'm always.... always in my head like where's Nonie?? shameful but true

I don't think products has anything to do with single strand knots, unless the product causes buildup throughout your hair strands. I think the structure of type 4 or type 3 natural hair has a lot to do with getting single strand knots. When my hair was relaxed straight, I never had single strand knots. I also notice I do not get knots when my natural hair is heat straightened. I believer tightly coiled natural hair is more proned to single strand knots because it can easily curl around itself.

tatiana said:

My answer is yes and no.

I noticed that when my hair is dry I have more SSK.

Being a reformed product junkie, I have tried most products. I have noticed that quite of few "LHCF popular" products, S-Curl being one of them, (sorry Nonie) makes my hair dry. why? My theory is people often confused softness with moisturized hair. Since I have fine hair that is almost always soft, I know soft hair does not equate to moisturized hair.

So if I used S Curl and seal with shea butter in the morning, my hair will feel soft(er) but in the evening my hair will look dry, my hair will be lighter, and I have tangles and SSKs.

If I used Frank's Juice and seal with shea butter in the morning, my hair will feel wetter not any more soft but in the evening my hair does not look dry, my hair will be darker, and my shed hair, if any, comes out like hair balls.

I do not think products create SSKs, I think using the wrong combination of products and letting your hair dry out creates SSks.

I hope I make sense.

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ITA, especially with the highlighted portion. This fact has caused me to interpret product reviews in a different light, in that, I tend to focus more on verbs as opposed to adjectives.


To answer the OP’s question, my newbie musings lead me to believe that the problem arises as a consequence of the hair’s aversion to specific ingredients and user methodology (how often a given product is applied); with application (the manner in which a given product is applied) and interaction (how a given product and its ingredients reacts with another product and its ingredients) being confounding factors.

Those of you who find S Curl makes your hair hard, I bet my bottom dollar you use it on damp hair. May I suggest that once your hair dries and feels hard, you reapply it and then baggy for the night. If natural, especially if 4B, please braid your hair for the night before baggying. In the AM you will have soft hair that will not need moisturizing for days. It will stay soft w/o being sticky icky. Also I insist you use S Curl alone. If you mix it with something else, you're on your own there and I cannot be held accountable for whatever results you get.

As for my theory on products, I think it's the stickiness that is to blame. W/o product, shed hair doesn't get caught in the coils in a way that knots up. I never understood why people found they needed to work tangles out of their hair all the time. It seemed my hair just NEVER tangled. I learned differently when I have product on it. And I blame the shed hair. I also got to understand why folks think they shed so little. Product seems to make shed hair hold onto other strands.

Maybe it's a personal thing, but it wasn't until I started finger combing with products on my hair that I understood why so many discuss detangling like it's a necessary step in haircare. This is something I never had to deal with until I tried fingercombing with product on my hair. Now if using a comb, I must use product to provide the slip. But for everyday care, fingers work best on bare hair I find. But seems this is only me...and maybe OP.

LOL @ tHeHaIRLab, you're silly. I think OP was looking for me coz I'm a no-product regimen chick.

tatiana said:

My answer is yes and no.

I noticed that when my hair is dry I have more SSK.

Being a reformed product junkie, I have tried most products. I have noticed that quite of few "LHCF popular" products, S-Curl being one of them, (sorry Nonie) makes my hair dry. why? My theory is people often confused softness with moisturized hair. Since I have fine hair that is almost always soft, I know soft hair does not equate to moisturized hair.

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If softness doesn't equal moisturized, then what is moisturized to you? I know for me, my hair was always so hard even when I piled on products. I only discovered softness when I introduced deep conditioning to my regimen and it was only then that my curl pattern revealed itself.

A few years later, there was a new product on the scene; it might've been Diva Smooth or something that was similar. Someone on the forum used it and besides being so excited about how moisturized/soft her hair felt, she was also blown away by how her hair appeared to have a uniform curl pattern she'd never seen before. I remember her posting that the only thing she can see the product having done is increased the moisture content of her hair because her hair was so soft.

I guess it's really up to you, but I've never known soft hair that was dry. BTW, I think a lot of people mistake layers of product with moisturized hair. When hair is conditioned on the inside, it becomes soft...even if it has nothing on top. It is why deep conditioning is done in the first place. To allow moisture to penetrate strands because it is that internal moisture that is most important. Product sitting on your hair does little by way of moisturizing, and it is why hair that is dry is usually so soft after DCing.

tatiana said:

So if I used S Curl and seal with shea butter in the morning, my hair will feel soft(er) but in the evening my hair will look dry, my hair will be lighter, and I have tangles and SSKs.

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I'm not sure why LOOKING dry has to do with hair being moisturized. My hair always looks dry. It doesn't reflect light like straight hair so if you're going by looks, then you'd swear my hair is ALWAYS dry. Even when wet with water, it doesn't LOOK wet. Also not sure what you mean by LIGHTER. In color? Or weight-wise? Not sure what either would mean in term of moisture.

tatiana said:

If I used Frank's Juice and seal with shea butter in the morning, my hair will feel wetter not any more soft but in the evening my hair does not look dry, my hair will be darker, and my shed hair, if any, comes out like hair balls.

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I don't follow what shed hair coming out as balls means. My shed hair slides out wavy and it's only if I roll it in my fingers that it turns into balls.

I looked at the ingredients of Frank's Juice and I see glycerin (the water hog) is way down in the list of ingredients. That could mean if you're in dry climate, there isn't enough of it in the product to draw moisture out of your hair and leave it dry, while S Curl may do that because it's got a larger percentage of glycerin in the product. Also Frank's juice has aloe vera juice in it which is a great moisturizer. (I actually do not use water-based moisturizer on my skin but will use aloe vera based products coz they don't leave the skin dry the way water-based moisturizers do.) So because of Frank's Juice's ingredients, it may work better for you than S Curl. But I don't know what hair being darker has to do with moisture.

tatiana said:

I do not think products create SSKs, I think using the wrong combination of products and letting your hair dry out creates SSks.

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I would believe this if it weren't for the fact that since 2001, I have been letting my hair dry out (ie washing, airdrying and not using product) and I haven't had problems with SSKs. My take is products make hair stick to itself so that if it curls, it locks up more easily that if it were just bare and able to slide out of such fixes.

Nonie said:

If softness doesn't equal moisturized, then what is moisturized to you? I know for me, my hair was always so hard even when I piled on products. I only discovered softness when I introduced deep conditioning to my regimen and it was only then that my curl pattern revealed itself.

A few years later, there was a new product on the scene; it might've been Diva Smooth or something that was similar. Someone on the forum used it and besides being so excited about how moisturized/soft her hair felt, she was also blown away by how her hair appeared to have a uniform curl pattern she'd never seen before. I remember her posting that the only thing she can see the product having done is increased the moisture content of her hair because her hair was so soft.

I have fine hair and one of the characteristics of fine hair is soft hair. I always had soft hair. It looks soft and it is soft to touch. I think some people refer to as wispy or baby hair. I do not need products to make my hair soft or show a uniform curl pattern.I have a 3c hair type. My hair has never been hard.

Moisturized hair to me is hair that feels moist and looks moist. Sometimes I have to wait a few hours to determine if my hair is moistened because I can not always tell with the initial application.
I guess it's really up to you, but I've never known soft hair that was dry. BTW, I think a lot of people mistake layers of product with moisturized hair. When hair is conditioned on the inside, it becomes soft...even if it has nothing on top. It is why deep conditioning is done in the first place. To allow moisture to penetrate strands because it is that internal moisture that is most important. Product sitting on your hair does little by way of moisturizing, and it is why hair that is dry is usually so soft after DCing.

Naturally soft hair can be dry. It feels different; it has a soft but dry feel. Like I said I always have soft hair, I have soft hair before I poo and if depending on the poo I used, my hair is soft after washing it. My hair is soft regardless if I DC or not.


I'm not sure why LOOKING dry has to do with hair being moisturized. My hair always looks dry. It doesn't reflect light like straight hair so if you're going by looks, then you'd swear my hair is ALWAYS dry. Even when wet with water, it doesn't LOOK wet. Also not sure what you mean by LIGHTER. In color? Or weight-wise? Not sure what either would mean in term of moisture.

When my hair is wet, it looks wet. My hair does have a natural sheen to it. When I say my hair is lighter, it has more of a red color. It may be obvious to only me but I can see it in my bathroom light. My hair will be frizzier or have more fly always depending on weather and hair style. If I am wearing a WNG, my hair will go from going down to a east-west state.

I don't follow what shed hair coming out as balls means. My shed hair slides out wavy and it's only if I roll it in my fingers that it turns into balls.

I put my hair in twists at night. In the morning I see littlr bit of hair at the end of twists like a piece of string. I pull it and there is a hair hair ball. Hair that is curled up.

I looked at the ingredients of Frank's Juice and I see glycerin (the water hog) is way down in the list of ingredients. That could mean if you're in dry climate, there isn't enough of it in the product to draw moisture out of your hair and leave it dry, while S Curl may do that because it's got a larger percentage of glycerin in the product. Also Frank's juice has aloe vera juice in it which is a great moisturizer. (I actually do not use water-based moisturizer on my skin but will use aloe vera based products coz they don't leave the skin dry the way water-based moisturizers do.) So because of Frank's Juice's ingredients, it may work better for you than S Curl. But I don't know what hair being darker has to do with moisture.

I do not live in a dry climate. Even if I used Curl moisturizer (Target one or the online one) where glycerin is the second ingredient, it still outperforms S Curl. I have tried S Curl on dry, damp, and wet hair. To me, moist hair looks darker. I can not use softness as an indicator for moisturized hair
-I would believe this if it weren't for the fact that since 2001, I have been letting my hair dry out (ie washing, airdrying and not using product) and I haven't had problems with SSKs. My take is products make hair stick to itself so that if it curls, it locks up more easily that if it were just bare and able to slide out of such fixes.

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I found I can get SSKs with or without product because my hair has the tendency to curl when the weather is humid (this was true even when relaxed). I get tons of SSKs when my hair is parched.

I get SSks a lot so I'm very interested in what others have to say on the subject. My hair is in braids right now. I'm hoping that will help keep some of the knots away.erplexed

Actually I think thread presenter may be onto something. I have been on a healthy hair journey for about a full year now. I have been protective styling putting my hair up, moisturizing and sealing and cutting off heat damage. My hair finally got to a place that I was proud of. My ends looked better than they ever did. I had little split ends and little ssks. Around the beg of Oct I decided to use some aloe vera gel to set my hair when i wear it out. It looked fabulous! Felt great!

About 2 weeks later my hair felt ridiculously dry. I started having breakage. Nothing I did could stop this change. Last week I DC with a moisture conditioner n did my usual routine without Aloe Vera Gel. My hair is back to its normal self again.


Hmmm. I'm thinking ur on to something. Each person's hair is different but I do believe that sometimes our products may hinder our progression. Just some hair food for thought

my experience with SSKs (the bane of my natural existence) is that I neeed to have stretched moisturized ends. And I have only just (within the last 2 weeks) found my remedy.

first, I agree that after twisting the hair, twirling the ends (stretching and smoothing them) usially with my moisturizing leave in sets my ends in a curl which helps to eliminate tangles.

secondly I ensure that my cuticles are sealed .... aloevera juice added to my moisturising leave in always does the trick (a la kimmay tube) and then I always seal my ends with a heavy oil - like castor oil, keeps the strands slipping and sliding

on the second and then consecutive days after that I spritz in the morning with S-curl (on dry hair) and seal my ends, again twirling (I;ll take a bunch of them and twirl the ends in chunks if Im in a rush)

If for some reason my ends are feeling particularly dry, I'll go over each one with some moisturizing leave in (again twirling and smoothing) then seal with a heavy oil


re- S-Curl and moisture

S-Curl moisturizes MY hair ie, it makes it feel damp and cool.

also if i use a holding product to do my twists for a twist out (like eco styler) then, like a dern fool put S-curl on it before I go to bed - I will wake up with soft puffy hair, with some definition but little to no hold - because my hair is over moisturized

tatiana said:

I have fine hair and one of the characteristics of fine hair is soft hair. I always had soft hair. It looks soft and it is soft to touch. I think some people refer to as wispy or baby hair. I do not need products to make my hair soft or show a uniform curl pattern.I have a 3c hair type. My hair has never been hard.

Moisturized hair to me is hair that feels moist and looks moist. Sometimes I have to wait a few hours to determine if my hair is moistened because I can not always tell with the initial application.

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I think that's one place we're different. Type 3 hair has never seemed hard to me. But if you had felt my hair before I discovered DCing, it was hard. Like a brush. It was even more so when I used Cream of Nature shampoo and Shea butter. It was rough. Fine strands that were dull and rough. That is dry hair to me. It didn't matter how much I applied product to it to make it moist, it was dry. It soaked up product and became rough and dry. I don't think I've ever felt type 3 hair (especially fine hair) feel like my fine 4B hair used to feel.

tatiana said:

Naturally soft hair can be dry. It feels different; it has a soft but dry feel. Like I said I always have soft hair, I have soft hair before I poo and if depending on the poo I used, my hair is soft after washing it. My hair is soft regardless if I DC or not.

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See that's the difference. YOU have always had soft hair. I never did. My hair only got soft when I learned how to moisturize it on the inside. I could apply as much product as I can but it's only when I baggy and allow the moisture to penetrate the strands (or baggy bare hair and allow more of my sebum to spread throughout the hair) that I get soft aka moisturized hair. If I do not DC my hair, it'll turn into steel wool. I didn't just coin that word to describe my hair to be funny. It really used to be hard and rough and reminded me of Brillo pads.

tatiana said:

When my hair is wet, it looks wet. My hair does have a natural sheen to it. When I say my hair is lighter, it has more of a red color. It may be obvious to only me but I can see it in my bathroom light. My hair will be frizzier or have more fly always depending on weather and hair style. If I am wearing a WNG, my hair will go from going down to a east-west state.

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My hair doesn't have a natural sheen and doesn't look wet when wet. In fact, it'd be hard to tell it were wet just from looking at it. Here's a photo of my hair after I stepped out of the shower. You can see the water dripping down my face but the hair doesn't look wet like type 3 hair does. It is also somewhat dull in appearance, which is to be expected of kinky hair.

tatiana said:

I do not live in a dry climate. Even if I used Curl moisturizer (Target one or the online one) where glycerin is the second ingredient, it still outperforms S Curl. I have tried S Curl on dry, damp, and wet hair. To me, moist hair looks darker. I can not use softness as an indicator for moisturized hair

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Hmm...maybe your hair doesn't like some of the other ingredients in S Curl like cones, maybe?

And as you can see, my moist hair doesn't look darker, so what you're describing is something that might be true of your type of hair. I cannot use the appearance of my hair for determining whether or not it is moisturized.

BTW, I'm not the only person who knows that when dry, brittle hair is well moisturized it becomes soft. In fact, if it weren't for this fact being true of my hair, I'd have no hair left, considering I haven't applied leave-ins or sealed forever. And we all know dry hair is susceptible to breakage but somehow my hair has survived all that abuse, and I attribute that to it being well moisturized. Here is an article that support my theory that soft hair (when it isn't like yours which is naturally soft) is hair that is moisturized:

How Can You Change Dry Hair Into Soft Hair? | eHow.com

tatiana said:

I found I can get SSKs with or without product because my hair has the tendency to curl when the weather is humid (this was true even when relaxed). I get tons of SSKs when my hair is parched.

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I haven't noticed this of my hair when it doesn't have product on it. You'd think humidity from the shower would make me get the SSK, but I seem to only get them when my hair has sticky product on it that makes separating the strands tricky. W/o product my hair strands separate as easily as these twists which were a few weeks old:

I guess it's different strokes for different folks, but after going for years w/o using products and finger-combing my hair with ease as shown in this video (notice, no SSK or knots; strands slide out easily) and then finding it harder to do the same with product in my hair and SSKs becoming something more familiar when I never had to deal with them, I am confident in this theory as far as my hair is concerned: tangles only became an issue when I tried to finger comb hair with moisturizer on it.

I'm exhausted so please pardon my lack of eloquence.

I have been watching and yep.... a majority of my SSK's are product related. My experiment was done on clean (clarified/chelated) hair without any product build up. I typically pay attention to my grass and at the first sign of build up, I clarify (with a shampoo because baking soda is the debbil for me.) I used various products on my hair. Natural shampoo (found one that's kinda nifty. It worked well when used with a particular product. When used in conjunction with another product. All Hades broke loose.), regular poo, moisturizing poo, etc.

In my honest opinion, it doesn't depend on "just" what is used to moisturize.... but can also be complicated by shampoo, conditioner, and/or certain leave ins. When I use the old faithfuls my grass is as good as gold. When I used aloe vera products (the natural ones not the aloe vera gels for jerry curls) I had the most SSKs in the portion of my hair that is 4b-ish with random SSKs in the 4a with none in the 3c (although it was dry and weird feeling.) Even if my hair is dry (I deliberately went loose without moisturizing for three days) I still don't have SSKs. My moisturized fro is easier to detangle with my fingers and it's happy. My dry fro could be finger combed but due to the dryness I didn't want to manipulate it much. Still... no SSKs.


It makes me wonder if it's an actual ingredient contributing to the formation of SSK's or if the products are "not playing nice" with each other.

Do single strand knots literally mean that one strand of hair has created a knot on itself?

If so, I really don't get those and I'm an avid product user. Currently my leave-in is Hawaiian Silky.

I don't get them in wash & go's when I use Giovanni Direct Leave in. I have no clue why. If I want a head full of single strand knots I have to wear a wash and go with kccc (maybe because it encourages my ends to curl up on themselves? who knows. maybe because it is aloe vera based? I haven't tried the knot today yet, though.)

I have tried thinner, then thicker products like aubrey organics white camellia on my ends, conditioner + ceramides, gel, layering products, cheking the ph, butters. I haven't tried many brands though.

I wear braidouts only in order to be sure I avoid SSK, but when I use Giovanni's conditioners on my ends as a leave-in and to moisturize... for some reason they help a lot. Still trying to understand why.

This is a very interesting theory. Aloe Vera juice, has been a hit or miss for me. In the past I used in my spritz and hated it, but recently have like it the couple times I used the kimmay mix... and have been cutting knots from my straight hair all week! hmmm, I will do an experiment in January and report back to you ladies.

Hey ladies, Nonie just called me out for being a bad little researcher sowee

I haven't used AVJ that much as a leave in, but there were 2 occasions where I did use it in the Kimmay leave in for a whole week and did not notice an increase in ssk's. For me it seems to be more related to how I wear my hair, if my hair is allowed to shrink too much or worn out for more than a day or two, the knots sho' nuff will pop up.

I will be sure to update if I discover anything else.

I notice more ssks when I use protein
although I'm not protein sensitive if I use
gel or a hard protein its ssk city

Stepiphanie said:

Hey ladies, @Nonie just called me out for being a bad little researcher sowee

I haven't used AVJ that much as a leave in, but there were 2 occasions where I did use it in the Kimmay leave in for a whole week and did not notice an increase in ssk's. For me it seems to be more related to how I wear my hair, if my hair is allowed to shrink too much or worn out for more than a day or two, the knots sho' nuff will pop up.

I will be sure to update if I discover anything else.

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ithink that is my case also...flat ironing and daily combing seems to help tremendously with my ssk. When ever i try to go days without combing or super-low manipulation, iget ssks---however, i'm thinking the benefits of a low maintenance reggie may outweigh those few annoying ssk...idon't know--this month i'm going to flat iron 2x (instead of 1) on lower temps and see how my hair is affected.
xoxo

Iluvsmuhgrass said:

Thanks for responding ladies. For some reason I thought that there would be a wider response due to alot of ssk complaints.

I always moisturize my grass in sections and I never have this problem unless I use aloe vera juice, which made me wonder if it was more product (ingredient related) as opposed to actual hair type or a bit of both. One thing is for certain, when my hair is moisturized with what it likes, I don't have a problem at all. That may change as it gets longer but for now, it's solely when I use certain things.


If there's a link between products and SSKs, imagine how much that would help with retention once you find the right products and techniques for (your, mine, his/hers, ours lol) all natural hair types.

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Iluvsmuhgrass any updates. I didn't start getting SSKs until approximately 2 years ago and that is around the same time I started using AVJ in leave ins. I wish I would have read this thread before I washed my hair on Saturday but I'll be doing a little experiment for my next few washes to see if AVJ is indeed the culprit.