# Strands that alternate thick and thin?



## Prose Princess (Nov 8, 2008)

Hey ladies, I'm a little lost.  I was examining one of my shed strands closely just now and noticed that it alternated between thick and thin every centimeter or so all the way down.  When I pulled at both ends of the strand it broke at one of the thin sections. Is this a porosity problem or a protein problem?  What should I do?  Please help!!


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## longhairlover (Nov 8, 2008)

I have noticed the same thing with my hair this time around, I think that if the hair is like this it has to be dry and brittle. I have started using a moisturizing conditioner to see if that will help. I don't do the protein like i use to starting to slack.


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## MJ (Nov 8, 2008)

My hair is like that too. 

I think it's one of the reasons my hair broke so much when it was relaxed even though I was keep up with my protective styling, daily moisturizing, and protein and and deep conditioning treatments. The relaxer made the thinner parts even thinner. 

Also, now, when run a strand of my natural hair through my fingers, the hair feels rough because of the alternating thickness.

ETA: I don't know what causes this.


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## bellecheveux (Nov 8, 2008)

It's Trichorrhexis Nodosa.

This is when the hair strand appears to be thicker and thin. It's caused by poor hair care and excessive heat. Regular deep conditioning and moisturizing should help.


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## Prose Princess (Nov 8, 2008)

bellecheveux said:


> It's Trichorrhexis Nodosa.
> 
> This is when the hair strand appears to be thicker and thin. It's caused by poor hair care and excessive heat. Regular deep conditioning and moisturizing should help.



So should I stay away from protein?


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## Blessed_Angel (Nov 8, 2008)

bellecheveux said:


> It's Trichorrhexis Nodosa.
> 
> This is when the hair strand appears to be thicker and thin. It's caused by poor hair care and excessive heat. Regular deep conditioning and moisturizing should help.


 
I was wondering if this was caused by heat damage...would you say it's heat damage?


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## bellecheveux (Nov 8, 2008)

Prose Princess said:


> So should I stay away from protein?



Use _light_ protein as needed.

Personally, I have this too but I still use my ApHogee Two Minute Reconstructor sometimes. So I would recommend using a reconstructor (*Affirm 5-in-1*, *ApHogee 2 Min*, *At One Botanical*, *ORS Replenishing*) followed by a moisturizing deep conditioner instead of an _extremely _heavy protein product like ApHogee Treatment For Damged Hair. HTH!


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## bellecheveux (Nov 8, 2008)

Blessed_Angel said:


> I was wondering if this was caused by heat damage...would you say it's heat damage?



Yes. Here is an excerpt from my post about it:

It's caused by excessive use of overheated dryers, excessive use of chemicals, and aggressive hair brushing/combing. It can make our hair appear as if it's not growing.
*
Symptoms *


lack of apparent hair growth
hair appears "patchy"
hair breaks close to scalp
hair may have thickenings/nodes in the shaft
thin or split ends
whitish discoloration of hair ends
ends of hair breaks easily


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## Prose Princess (Nov 8, 2008)

bellecheveux said:


> Use _light_ protein as needed.
> 
> Personally, I have this too but I still use my ApHogee Two Minute Reconstructor sometimes. So I would recommend using a reconstructor (*Affirm 5-in-1*, *ApHogee 2 Min*, *At One Botanical*, *ORS Replenishing*) followed by a moisturizing deep conditioner instead of an _extremely _heavy protein product like ApHogee Treatment For Damged Hair. HTH!



Thank you so much!!   Have you been able to get yours under control with these methods or do we just have to live with rough-feeling strands?


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## bellecheveux (Nov 8, 2008)

Prose Princess said:


> Thank you so much!!   Have you been able to get yours under control with these methods or do we just have to live with rough-feeling strands?



My hair is a lot better now. THANK GOD! Deep conditioning regularly and using reconstructors saved my life.


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## Prose Princess (Nov 8, 2008)

bellecheveux said:


> My hair is a lot better now. THANK GOD! Deep conditioning regularly and using reconstructors saved my life.



Good to hear!  I can't wait to see progress in my own hair with your methods.  Thanks for all your help!!


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## MJ (Nov 8, 2008)

bellecheveux said:


> It's Trichorrhexis Nodosa.
> 
> This is when the hair strand appears to be thicker and thin. It's caused by poor hair care and excessive heat. Regular deep conditioning and moisturizing should help.



I think my situation is different because I rarely use direct heat. For example, this year I've only used the blowdryer on low a few times, that's it. And then once my hair is cornrowed after blowdrying, I usually do a conditioner wash or put conditioner in it. I deep condition my hair every week. Also, when I was relaxed, I rarely used heat because I almost never wear my hair out. I would just wash and bun it. My regimen then is similar to what I do now as a natural, including weekly deep conditioning.




bellecheveux said:


> Yes. Here is an excerpt from my post about it:
> 
> It's caused by excessive use of overheated dryers, excessive use of chemicals, and aggressive hair brushing/combing. It can make our hair appear as if it's not growing.
> *
> ...



My thick sections aren't nodes. I don't have any of the other symptoms.


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## Prose Princess (Nov 8, 2008)

MJ said:


> I think my situation is different because I rarely use direct heat. For example, this year I've only used the blowdryer on low a few times, that's it. And then once my hair is cornrowed after blowdrying, I usually do a conditioner wash or put conditioner in it. I deep condition my hair every week. Also, when I was relaxed, I rarely used heat because I almost never wear my hair out. I would just wash and bun it. My regimen then is similar to what I do now as a natural, including weekly deep conditioning.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I don't necessarily have nodes either, it just looks like ====----====----====----====----====

My boyfriend is natural, and I tested a few of his strands and they felt rough like this too, but he wears braids a lot as well.  So maybe the braids are causing physical stress on your hair?  I don't know.  He also tends to pick his hair when it's dry too, no matter how many times I tell him not to.  It sounds like you take better care of your hair.


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## bellecheveux (Nov 8, 2008)

MJ said:


> I think my situation is different because I rarely use direct heat. For example, this year I've only used the blowdryer on low a few times, that's it. And then once my hair is cornrowed after blowdrying, I usually do a conditioner wash or put conditioner in it. I deep condition my hair every week. Also, when I was relaxed, I rarely used heat because I almost never wear my hair out. I would just wash and bun it. My regimen then is similar to what I do now as a natural, including weekly deep conditioning.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Heat isn't the only reason for the condition. It's caused by excessive use of overheated dryers, excessive use of chemicals, and aggressive hair brushing/combing.

And if your hair strand alternates from thick to thin like this:

====-----====-----====-----

Then you _do_ have TN. You don't have to have every single symptom to have Trichorrhexis Nodosa. We must remember that even though we take proper care of our hair, there are other things that can *** it up. Hard water, for example, can cause damage to the hair that can lead to TN.

And I don't really know if this applies to you, but when I used to get my hair braided, they would comb through my hair before each braid. Like I said before, TN is also cause by excessive combing.


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## Prose Princess (Nov 8, 2008)

How often do you use reconstructor?


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## MJ (Nov 8, 2008)

bellecheveux said:


> Heat isn't the only reason for the condition. It's caused by excessive use of overheated dryers, excessive use of chemicals, and aggressive hair brushing/combing.
> 
> And if your hair strand alternates from thick to thin like this:
> 
> ...



That's not excessive combing. If you were combing your hair like that every single day, then that would be excessive.

~~~~~

I comb my hair once every few weeks. I use a blow dryer on low once every few months. I don't flat iron. I have a shower filter, so hard water isn't a factor. I deep condition every week. Cowash multiple times each week. I don't see how I can have something that is caused by excessive heat, excessive combing, hard water, or not enough conditioning. Since I don't expose my hair to those things, I say what I have is possibly genetic, not something that's the product of external factors. 

TN is one of the possibilities that could cause what I have. But based on the criteria that cause TN, I don't have TN.


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## Prose Princess (Nov 8, 2008)

MJ said:


> That's not excessive combing. If you were combing your hair like that every single day, then that would be excessive.
> 
> ~~~~~
> 
> ...



I looked up this article: http://www.emedicine.com/derm/topic896.htm

Under causes it also says: "A primary congenital form of trichorrhexis nodosa is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait in some families."

So it could run in your family.  Although I doubt you were paying much attention to your strands when you were little so it would be hard to tell.  Unless it's causing you a serious problem like breakage or if it's making you unhappy with the appearance of your hair I wouldn't worry about it.


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## discobiscuits (Nov 8, 2008)

*I noticed this about my hair as well this week. I am 100% natural though so it is the way my hair grows and when I stretch a strand it has a lot of elasticity. 

imo your hair naturally grows in that pattern but things you do to it or products that you use may be causing the thinner parts to become weak or brittle and more prone to breakage. *


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## silverlotus (Nov 8, 2008)

Prose Princess said:


> I looked up this article: http://www.emedicine.com/derm/topic896.htm
> 
> Under causes it also says: "A primary congenital form of trichorrhexis nodosa is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait in some families."
> 
> So it could run in your family.  Although I doubt you were paying much attention to your strands when you were little so it would be hard to tell.  Unless it's causing you a serious problem like breakage or if it's making you unhappy with the appearance of your hair I wouldn't worry about it.



I don't think it's TN. That article you posted says "The essential abnormality of trichorrhexis nodosa is the formation of nodes along the hair shaft through which breakage readily occurs," so if there aren't nodes, then it's not TN. If it was, the OP would have noticed white flecks in her hair shaft.

My opinion is that if you're relaxed, it's probably damage from overlapping.


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## Prose Princess (Nov 8, 2008)

silverlotus said:


> I don't think it's TN. ^^ That article you posted says "The essential abnormality of trichorrhexis nodosa is the formation of nodes along the hair shaft through which breakage readily occurs," so if there aren't nodes, then it's not TN.
> 
> *My opinion is that if you're relaxed, it's probably damage from overlapping*.



This is what I was thinking at first, because I was relaxing every 6 weeks for a long time so I thought that may have been the problem.  Plus the length of the thick/thin alternations were pretty consistent.  But if that were the case, would occasional reconstructor and lots of moisture still help?  Or would I just have to grow it out?


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## MJ (Nov 8, 2008)

Prose Princess said:


> I looked up this article: http://www.emedicine.com/derm/topic896.htm
> 
> Under causes it also says: "A primary congenital form of trichorrhexis nodosa is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait in some families."
> 
> So it could run in your family.  Although I doubt you were paying much attention to your strands when you were little so it would be hard to tell.  Unless it's causing you a serious problem like breakage or if it's making you unhappy with the appearance of your hair I wouldn't worry about it.




Ah, so it can be genetic. With all that I'm doing, I haven't been having any problems. But this explains certain things that I've noticed with my hair. I was also thinking of texlaxing after I reach BSL ... That may be problematic. Thank you for sharing all this information.


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## silverlotus (Nov 8, 2008)

Prose Princess said:


> This is what I was thinking at first, because I was relaxing every 6 weeks for a long time so I thought that may have been the problem.  Plus the length of the thick/thin alternations were pretty consistent.  But if that were the case, would occasional reconstructor and lots of moisture still help?  Or would I just have to grow it out?



I think it would help. The protein would help patch up the thinner spots a bit and keep them from breaking off. How often do you relax now?


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## Prose Princess (Nov 8, 2008)

I plan to stretch to 11 weeks this time because of Christmas.  After that I'm going to do 12 weeks stretches.  My last relaxer I went 7 weeks.


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## silverlotus (Nov 9, 2008)

Prose Princess said:


> I plan to stretch to 11 weeks this time because of Christmas.  After that I'm going to do 12 weeks stretches.  My last relaxer I went 7 weeks.



Oh ok. I was gonna suggest stretching and making sure your stylist doesn't overlap or get sloppy with the application. That should help a bit.


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