Natural Hair: Straight or Curly

[shelli4018]

I'm having the same problem and I'm ready to texlax. I can't stand losing so much hair trying to comb out the tangles. After I rollerset my hair and wrap it, it's so much easier to handle. I can't take it anymore, so I'm making a change.

I understand what you mean. I texturized my natural hair in November 2005 because of the same issue. I regretted it soon after. I just don't have the patience for chemical processes. Plus my hair wasn't as big and fluffy anymore. I think I needed a haircut....not a texturizer. Wearing my hair in a puff wreaked havoc on my ends.

Next time around I think I will straighten my hair periodically just to check the health of my ends. Does that make sense?

 

[inthepink]

Another missing component of the past year has been using conditioners and leave-ins with silk protein. I remember back then that I made sure to buy products with silk protein. How could I suddenly just forget all about that? I used to use Suave Coconut or Suave Vanilla and a Pantene Leave-In that had Silk Protein (now discontinued).

 

[inthepink]

An idea I also came up with for moisturizing my ends at night are to literally dip the ends of my ponytail into a bowl of water (which may include conditioners and oils). Sounds radical but I don't know what else to do to ensure full coverage!

 

[jasmine26]

well, i prefer my hair in its natural state. it's just easier to not worry about reversion. Like others, i have knots and splits like crazy! i am now addicted to running my hand down my twists and wherever i feel knots, i dust away! i even abandoned my jamaican and mango leave in and tried to use a moisturizer with silicone to see if my knots would get better. But it's not working i actually have more knots and my hair constantly feels dry! so hairlove, i'm taking notes because i feel your frustration! btw, i looovve your hair!

 

[EMJazzy]

I feel you on the knots and split ends....ugh....I just did a dusting of my ends the day before yesterday then I massaged in some NTM Silk Leave In thru my hair then I pull it back into a pony tail then I applied Profectiv Healthy Ends on my ends then I covered the tail with a shower cap using the baggie method....when I go to work I just cover the baggie with a decorative scarf....nobody knows that I have a baggie on my ends that's how I've been doing it for the past 2 days.

 

[Sunshine_One]

I can't wait to hear how you rollerset natural hair!! I am too afraid to even attempt it.

Hi Hairlove,

I love your hair also by the way. I wanted to say that I think you should try a roller set. I do them every so often (might do one tonight) since I've been completely natural and they come out real nice. To be honest it looks almost the same as when I was relaxed. It really smoothes out natural hair. It does however get bigger with each day but I personally like that. I have a pic of the last one I did back in March I will try to post it.

The products I use when I roller set are: Lightly dilluted Lotta body (pink one) and lil IC Fantasia sparkle lite gel and Miss Jessies Baby Buttercream. I apply this to each section before I roll it. I usually do this on a day when I nothing planned so I can let it air dry. I sometimes will sit under my hood dryer for 20 min and air dry the rest of the way. Side note: The butter cream and lotta body work good together w/out the gel. However I found that the gel gave the firmer set. Which increased the longevity of the set. I think you could use CD hairmilk in place of the butter cream or better the healthy hair butter. I have used the hair milk but not the the HHB I wonder how similiar it is to Miss Jessie's butter cream. I bet it's cheaper!

If you decide to try this please post pics.

Sun

 

[EMJazzy]

I just added pics to my fotki so you can see what I was talking about...link and pw in my profile....check it out!

 

[jwhitley6]

If you had posed this question a month ago, my answer would have been "straight." I too was frustrated with the knots and still dealing with the frustration of mega hair loss following twists/twistouts. However, I had my hair pressed about a week ago and I must say that I'd MUCH rather deal with my hair curly than straight! I only had it straight for two days and it was SUCH a task! It rained, I was sweating indoors, I had to straighten it more than once because my hair was swelling before my eyes, it was too poofy to wrap, I had to roll it for volume, and the list goes on and on. Now, I'd much rather deal with my hair curly.

Now I will admit that I'm struggling with an easier curly regimen so if you come up with something, I'm all ears!

You could still wear your straight hair in ponytail instead of rolling/wrapping. Just because it's straight doesn't mean you shouldn't still do protective styles. That's what I've learned. Straight hair is so easy.

 

[inthepink]

I just added pics to my fotki so you can see what I was talking about...link and pw in my profile....check it out!

Thanks for posting pictures. It does look better than I envisioned. I have just never been a fan of the baggie method. I would always be afraid my hair would come down! I'm glad you found something to work for you though.

 

[inthepink]

You could still wear your straight hair in ponytail instead of rolling/wrapping. Just because it's straight doesn't mean you shouldn't still do protective styles. That's what I've learned. Straight hair is so easy.

Very true! I still like to wear my hair up sometimes even though it's straight.

 

[Poohbear]

When my hair is curly, it's hard for me to moisturize my ends. I spray them but I don't know if that's enough. I am not one for twists or styles that last several days to several weeks. When I wear my hair curly, I co-wash it daily. I lose some hair due to manipulation in the shower to detangle it. I get knots on my ends - I haven't figure out a surefire way to prevent these but I have been brushing every other day to make sure to pull through every strand. I can't tell that my ends are dried out/split/knotted until I straighten my hair. I don't want to lose 1-2 inches every time I straighten my hair b/c my ends are so dry.

When I first went natural, I could co-wash daily and not get knots, not get splits, not get dry ends and that worked fine. I am not sure why my hair is different now that it is longer.

Hey hairlove!!!! This has been my EXACT experience lately... I have been washing daily also and have noticed that I've been getting knots and losing hair daily... and not all of the hair I lose is shedding... some of it is breakage...

I told myself that I would never ever use heat again after I had a mishap with my mom pressing it with a hot comb from the stove, but I started considering it... so guess what I did...

I blowdried and flat ironed my hair a couple of days ago... it didn't even get my hair straight probably because I blowdried on low and flat ironed on low heat... I was scared to turn it up higher...

So I ended up washing it out after trying to straighten half of my hair. It didn't look right but I was surprised at the length of my hair, it touched my shoulders! After washing, my curls came back immediately so I was relieved. I braided my hair up and sported a stretched out afro puff today.

After doing that, I might not be as scared to use heat in the future....

But for right now, I'll stay heat-free to be safe and just stop washing my hair daily and look for something else to do with my natural hair.