How much breakage is considered normal?

[cutiepiesensei]

Now before people say "none", I know that it's gotta be impossible not to lose any hairs at all ever, especially if there is daily manipulation of any kind. I just want to have an idea about what is something to worry about and what isn't. I have neck length hair, and I get about 4-5 broken hairs per day. Is this bad? I used to get a lot more, too many to even count, but now since I've started hair obsessing, I notice a significant difference. But is this still bad?

 

[divachyk]

cutiepiesensei, I think you will find what is normal for you may not be normal for others. I manipulate my hair twice daily - morning / night. I can go days without breakage and then get 3+ strands in one day. On wash day, I might get 5. Just depends on my hair's condition and how I'm handling my hair during that session. If I consistently got breakage every single day, I would become concerned because that's not my norm. Breakage here and there, no so much. Sistaslick's book uses a rule of thumb of fewer than 5 on non-wash day and less than 10 on wash day.

 

[southerncitygirl]

cutiepiesensei

divachyk is right....i'm natural with lots of shrinkage and when i thought i had lots of breakage it wasn't the case at all when i went for a trim. it was just curly shed hairs mixed with tiny bits of broken strands. stay on top of your moisture/protein/ceramides and trim on a schedule. remember that a watch pot never boils, grasshopper

 

[regina07]

I used to have constant breakage -- lots of little hairs every time I touched my hair. Now i may get 2-10 little hairs on any given day. It depends on my M&S routine. The more moisture in my hair, the less breakage.

 

[SuchaLady]

Are y'all for real? I wish I only got 5 broken hairs a day.

 

[Aicer]

Ahhhh ...humph.... this is sooo discouraging. I get about 20- 30 strands of breakage (not shedding) if I manipulate my hair.

And I've done everything to try and stop it and have been trying it for almost 3 years. Moisture, deep condition, protein, baggy, henna...sigh

5 broken stands sounds like a miracle.

Sorry for sounding like a Debby downer.

 

[MystiqueBabe]

Today was my wash day. Overall I had about 5-10 broken strands (not shedding strands). I learned that finger combing and bunning has reduced breakage a lot for me. When I finger comb dry hair there are usually 5 or less broken strands.

 

[greenandchic]

Daily I get about 2-10. Before I started baggying and moisturizing daily, it was much more.

 

[Evolving78]

i get 5 to 10 daily because i like to pull on my hair a lot. i get 10 on wash day. i was having a lot more, due to protein overload recently. i am getting that under control now. i was thinking about getting that Mizani overnight treatment to see if it would help. i plan on wearing my hair in a style that i don't need to manipulate a lot. not really protective because my ends are exposed, but something that just falls into place with out me doing much.

 

[kinkycurlygurl]

I'm seeing less breakage since I started coating my hair with sebum. Some how it seems more flexible and will bend rather than break. Prior to my sebum experiment I'd break some hair every time I styled it.

 

[lushcoils]

For those who get less than 10-15 broken hairs a day on average, do you have mostly type 3 or type 4 hair? Do you have fine or thick strands (not referring density)?

 

[ellebelle88]

For those who get less than 10-15 broken hairs a day on average, do you have mostly type 3 or type 4 hair? Do you have fine or thick strands (not referring density)?

And do you all keep your hair moisturized consistently? There is no way in heck, I'm gonna get less than 10 strands of broken hair when I manipulate my hair. There must be some secret.

 

[Mische]

Are y'all for real? I wish I only got 5 broken hairs a day.

Especially detangling on wash day. 5 hairs who?

I know a lot of people on here detangle in the shower, and I'm wondering if they count the broken hairs that wash down the drain.

 

[Nix08]

Today was my wash day. Overall I had about 5-10 broken strands (not shedding strands). I learned that finger combing and bunning has reduced breakage a lot for me. When I finger comb dry hair there are usually 5 or less broken strands.

^^^ Co-signing...finger combing has drastically reduced my breakage to near 0. When I do use a comb it's still minimal but I don't use a comb until about 7 weeks post relaxer and I use a seamless comb.
ETA: I don't detangle in the shower anymore and I finger comb/detangle as my hair is hanging airdrying.

 

[Evolving78]

Especially detangling on wash day. 5 hairs who?

I know a lot of people on here detangle in the shower, and I'm wondering if they count the broken hairs that wash down the drain.

i do actually! i have a hair catcher. but i don't really comb my hair that much. only on wash day for detangling and roller setting. i am 4a fine strands. i got 3 strands so far today. all of that bunning and protective styling daily would cause me to have more. more daily manipulation IMO.

 

[Ogoma]

For those who get less than 10-15 broken hairs a day on average, do you have mostly type 3 or type 4 hair? Do you have fine or thick strands (not referring density)?

I typically see 0-5 with my daily routine or <10 on wash days if I de-tangle. I have a mix of 4a sides and some front (coarse strands), 4b side edges (medium-fine strands), and 3c some front and back (medium-coarse strands).

 

[greenandchic]

For those who get less than 10-15 broken hairs a day on average, do you have mostly type 3 or type 4 hair? Do you have fine or thick strands (not referring density)?

And do you all keep your hair moisturized consistently? There is no way in heck, I'm gonna get less than 10 strands of broken hair when I manipulate my hair. There must be some secret.

My hair is 4a/3c and the strands are fine to medium.

I moisturize my hair daily with a lotion type leave-in. Oyin Hair Dew or Donna Marie Hair Whip are good ones for me.

 

[cutiepiesensei]

For those who get less than 10-15 broken hairs a day on average, do you have mostly type 3 or type 4 hair? Do you have fine or thick strands (not referring density)?

And do you all keep your hair moisturized consistently? There is no way in heck, I'm gonna get less than 10 strands of broken hair when I manipulate my hair. There must be some secret.

I am relaxed, type 4b with very fine strands. I just started my hair journey less than a month ago, so that's why my hair is short. I used to get tons of breakage everyday, but after I got my splits cuts and started moisturizing every night, I get about 5 strands daily. I get a little lazy with moisturizing sometimes though......I might skip a day here and there, but yeah my breakage rate has gone down a lot. It's a different story though on wash day I always get more than 10 shed/broken hairs. That's why i decided not to try rollersetting anymore because that's too much for me to do to my wet hair. I just partially airdry and then blowdry on a very low warm setting. Much much less breakage

 

[KittyMeowMeow]

When I started my journey here, I counted my broken hairs. It was a hassle, but I wanted to make sure I was making progress with eliminating my breakage. I knew that an excess of broken hairs would mean my hair wouldn't progress as I wanted it to.

I was getting 40-50+ when combing when I started. It was depressing. It got less and less, and I rarely get broken hairs now (I get some splits, though, which is similar).

I learned from doing this what was causing my breakage & fixed it:

- combing hair while wet/in conditioner but not under the running shower water - works for many, nightmare for me

- Not combing gently enough, not using the right tools. Got the Magic Star Rake Comb, learned to comb from the bottom up, & it fixed my problems.

- no more bobby pins (hairpins only), no breakage-causing hair accessories.

- trimming & esp S&D where needed. damage breeds more damage.

- not using enough moisture, not working it through hair, protein/moisture balance

I think some breakage or damage is probably unavoidable. But a lot means there are probably better techniques out there.

(Extreme multi-textured hair. Mostly type 3. Mostly fine. Transitioning. Worst breakage issues were in the med-coarse-bermuda triangle no idea what hair type crown.)

 

[mamaore]

I'm waiting for the day when I'll be able to report that I had only 5-10 broken hairs during a detangling session.

I'm still working on it.

 

[ChristmasCarol]

If I saw more than 5-10 broken hairs, I would be seriously alarmed. I had a little more breakage the first year or so of transitioning, but now, I see very little. My hair is medium/coarse (diameter) type 3. When I've done an elasticity test and purposely tried to break a shed hair, I had to pull really, really hard before it would break. I style my hair in buns daily and never see tiny pieces on my clothes or the sink.

Whole other story when relaxed. I probably had 60 or more each wash day, but didn't care one bit, lol. I got it blunt-cut every 12 weeks, so the hemline was still thick.

 

[Kn0ttyByNatur3]

Any piece of hair that breaks is depressing to me lol. So I don't count them. I just puff my cheeks out and continue on in the detangling process. TT__TT

 

[lushcoils]

If I saw more than 5-10 broken hairs, I would be seriously alarmed. I had a little more breakage the first year or so of transitioning, but now, I see very little. My hair is medium/coarse (diameter) type 3. When I've done an elasticity test and purposely tried to break a shed hair, I had to pull really, really hard before it would break. I style my hair in buns daily and never see tiny pieces on my clothes or the sink.

The bold explains the red.

 

[ChristmasCarol]

lushcoils

I would imagine that coarse hair would require much more force to break it. Coarse hair is a gift from God, IMO, and I'm not sure why I hear people say that they don't like coarse hair. Even on this board I've seen posts where people wish their hair was fine. That always amuses me, lol.

But, more often than not, when I check their album or fotki - they actually have fine hair.
I think there is some confusion about the resilliency of coarse hair

 

[cutiepiesensei]

Washed my hair today and learned something new

No matter what I do when I wash my hair, If I mess with it at ALL when wet, it will break somewhat. That's even during detangling....so I'm going to keep my wide tooth comb away from my hair when wet and just finger comb. I've said a bunch of times before this is one of the reasons why I can't rollerset lol. When I blew my hair dry though, I barely got any breakage and my hair felt super soft and strong......It's so confusing because looking at how easily my hair breaks when wet you would think it was super weak and damaged, but the moment it is dry it behaves extremely well and doesn't break off I'm not sure how to approach it....

 

[Prettymetty]

For those who get less than 10-15 broken hairs a day on average, do you have mostly type 3 or type 4 hair? Do you have fine or thick strands (not referring density)?

I have 4b natural hair with medium strands. I mostly keep my hair straight. It breaks more when it is in its natural state. Go figure

 

[BillsBackerz67]

I see about 5-10...out of approximately 150,000 hairs on my head I don't trip. It's like losing 5 bucks when you have hundreds of thousands of dollars in ur account *shrugs*. Sometimes it's more because I go 4-5 days without combing my hair. As long as I see the growth and my ends don't look hit I'm good.

 

[ms-gg]

For those who get less than 10-15 broken hairs a day on average, do you have mostly type 3 or type 4 hair? Do you have fine or thick strands (not referring density)?

When I was relaxed, my hair stayed breaking off and it was pathetic. Since going natural, breakage is not an issue. I may get one strand that randomly snaps off but breakage is not an issue for me anymore thankfully.

I have coarse type 4 hair strands that are extremely dry.

 

[cynd]

ms-gg

I literally drool every time I see your siggy. Maybe in my next lifetime...

 

[Amarilles]

I think it's more important to note when the breakage is happening. It's normal that hair would break while you're manipulating it, so while washing/detangling/styling. Hair should absolutely not be breaking while it's left alone. So if one is finding small pieces on clothes or the areas surrounding all the time, it's a problem. Otherwise, not really, IMO.