Naturals: WORST mistakes you ever made as a natural?

[AsTheCurlzTurns]

I searched the threads for more info on this. This could possibly be a spinoff of the Do's & Don'ts of Natural hair. Being that we got long-time naturals and former naturals here, I am asking if you don't mind sharing some of the worst mistakes you ever made as a natural head and what happened. Also would appreciate if you could also state what you did to correct or diminish the problem. This could get very informative! TIA!

 

[BrownSkin2]

About 8 months after being natural, I let a regular salon do a press and curl on me. They 'said' they were experts with natural hair. This chick pulled so much hair out blowdrying, and she used a marcel iron. I smelled hair burning. Well, long story short...she gave me an uneven cut and some of my hair did not revert. I cut those pieces out because I was still at the twa stage and wanted to wear my twa.

The lesson: Don't let just anyone do your hair. No one will care for your hair like you.

 

[Fine 4s]

My worst mistake was not knowing about heat damage and allowing the stylists to use excessive heat during the straightening process.

Since heat damaged strands do not revert, I'm in the process of growing out the damage. I decided not to cut.

Lesson learned: Use heat protectant in addition to low heat to straighten my hair (among many things).

 

[KweenBeeDiva]

1). Letting someone press my hair freshman year.

2). Cutting my hair off when all I really needed was some TLC and a good DC.

3). Letting my mither put a texturizer in my hair. It was horrible. I cut it off.

 

[adw425]

Pressing my hair frequently during and right after my transition. My hair was as dry, coarse, shrunken, dense, unmanageable as it is possible to get. I would press my hair several times a week and put oil or moisturizer on dry hair, which just dried my hair out more. I had not as yet found LHCF, and once I did in 2005, I stopped pressing my hair altogether and have only flat-ironed about five times since then. I was trying to tame my hair with heat, but what really/actually tamed my hair (got my hair to behave) was moisture, moisture, moisture and I haven't looked back. I started co-washing nearly every night and used a bit of oil like almond, avocado, olive, etc. on wet hair and then sealed with shea butter. The first time I did this, I woke up with moisturized, non-greasy hair and it was wonderful. That is where I turned the corner because my transition and right after was hellish.

Now, of course, I have evolved beyond that to using aloe vera mixed with a creamy leave-in (my current favorite is Surya Henna's volume reducer with tucuma and cupuaca butters) after co-washing or rinsing and sealing with whatever butter I have on hand. My current butter mixture is ghee, wheat germ butter, avocado, castor, camellia and monoi oils. The more moisturized my hair is, the looser the curl and wave pattern and it is pretty much non-existent at this point. People are constantly saying to me now that I have "good" hair and I think, "No one was saying this three years ago, so how did I suddenly get good hair?"


(For the record, I do not believe in good/bad hair. I believe in properly cared for hair and improperly cared for hair.)

 

[AsTheCurlzTurns]

Wow, sorry to hear all that you all done went through. At least by getting this out, this will save another natural head from making that same exact mistake! Thanks for chiming in ladies. Hopefully more will chime in with their experiences.

 

[LynnieB]

Right now i'm on cruise control, thank goodness. Most of my boo-boos were early on in my journey.

The worst have been thinking i had to use shampoo every time i wanted to wash my hair.

During the first couple months after the bc, not washing my hair in enough sections - sometimes 4-6 or 8 is better.

Not pre-softening my dry hair with a watery conditioner or lots of spritzing before working with it.

Realizing that it's my hair's nature to coil and clump up on the ends and it's futile to try detangle and uncoil every single coil; it just immediately recoils on itself . now i just get the shed hair out and leave the clumpy coils alone.

Oh yea, one more i made early on realizing my hair really doesn't like oils (except jojoba) or pure shea butter but it tolerates them if use them very sparingly and on damp or wet hair.

 

[AfroKink]

When I went natural I didn't know or care about hair at all. I went my first two years doing EVERYTHING wrong. I was using an ammonium sulfate shampoo which dried my hair out. I didn't use conditioner. I was using hair dressing that was basically petrolatum. I was combing with a fine and medium tooth comb on dry hair. FOR 2 YEARS! You can imagine my lack of growth. Not that I cared though. I wasn't concerned about growing hair.


Then one day I was searching for hairstyles to do and I found NP.com. I learnt the error of my ways and my hair is healthy and growing

Lys

 

[KrimsonKween]

Well my worst was just last month. My hair has been doing really great. This is my second time natural n I wish I would have found LCHF sooner. Last month within a spain of 5 days I colored my hair 3 times and bleached it twice. Needlsy to say I was smoking some good crack to think my hair would be alright bx it ws natural. Well yup u guessed it I had orange straight hair and I lost a patch in the back, yes I live and I learn. I started immediately on aphogee protein, oil and moisturizers (luv luv luv n thanks to the ladies here and nappy natural) my hair has given me another try and did not laugh at me and fall out.

Will I do it again h____ll to the naw my hair may not give me a second chance.

 

[AsTheCurlzTurns]

Oh just wow!! Thanks ladies! Keep educating us, keep 'em coming!

 

[Qetesh]

for me the worst thing i did was turn my hot comb up so much that i burned my hair in sections and had to cut it off. not to mention the heat damage to the hair that wasn't burned to a crisp.
i have since stopped pressing my own hair and got a sedu. but even with that i dont flat iron my hair much.


also letting a stylist cut off 6 inches when i asked for 3... now i am ok with it because my hair can be totally even growing back, but at the time i was upset that i had lost so much growth.

 

[BrockStar]

PROTEIN! I didn't need, I used it, and my hair hasn't been the same since That was about 2 months ago and my hair isn't as bouncy as it used to be and it's a lot more frizzy

 

[oooop2]

For months I would wear a silk scarf as a headband. I would place it along the front, tie it in the back tight, then push it back along my hairline to the desired position. Little did I know that all that friction was breaking off my front hairline..Now I'm diligently trying to grow it back..Talk about a lesson learned...

 

[SoAnxious12]

using and abusing my old pressing comb without protectant. I bought a maxiglide and then i purchased a sedu and my chi silk infusion or fantasia!

Combing my hair when dry... then wondering why i had a straight bush lol
not using and deep conditioner cause i thought my hair was naturally "soft/silky" because it didn't feel hard

Trimming and cutting alllllll the damn time lol. I'm still fighting this habit, i have a thing for freshly cut hair. lol

 

[kweenameena]

Too much moisture! My hair became a mushy mess!!!! It was limp, lifeless, weak and way too soft!

Dominican Blowouts-I got one this summer and I'm still recovering from it. No joke!! Stay away. I had splits, tons of breakage, uneven hair, see thru areas of hair from that friggin blowout. Did I say I was STILL recovering.

Too much protein made my hair too dry.
Wearing those stretchy headbands instead of pantyhose fro a head band caused breakage. Now I buy those knee-hi socks that come in the plastic bubbles at walmart for 49 cents

 

[GoingNatural]

I get little knots at the ends of some individual strands sometimes, and I sometimes pick/break them off with my hands instead of cutting them off. I know that is so bad, but usually i don't have scissors near when i find them.

 

[Lucky's Mom]

I found www.growafrohairlong.com in 2003... and thank God I did.

Shampooing hair in Plaits changed my life - I NEVER wash without doing this.

 

[manegoal]

sulfates and protein dry my hair out, I use them sparingly. I also use silicones sparingly.

 

[Cichelle]

The worst thing I've ever done to my hair since my big chop was to try a "low manipulation" regimen where I didn't detangle my hair for several days. My hair was knotted and matted so badly. No matter how carefully I tried to detangle, I know I did some damage. Never again. I don't like to have a rat's nest on top of my head.

 

[discodumpling]

Using heat with my egg treatment. It's no fun picking scrambled eggs out of your hair!

Eggs are great for hair...just don't heat 'em up.

 

[JustKiya]

Double processing (bleaching and coloring) it. If I was relaxed, I would have REALLY been bald, instead of just having to gradually chop it all off. *sigh*

 

[~~HoneyComb~~]

The worst mistake I made as a natural was hi-liting my hair with a bleach-blond type hair hi-liting kit. I did the hi-lites mostly in the front where my hair texture is looser. It immediately damaged my hair in those sections. And I hi-lited large sections. As a result I had to BC my hair after a few months because my hair was a total mess. I'm not saying I won't hi-lite or color again, but it won't be the really "light" or "blonde" colors because my hair finds those colors too damaging.

 

[sweetwhispers]

Colouring twice in one day. So no to drugs kids

Pressing

Those two things f'd up my hair so bad i looked like a

 

[Dee Raven]

About 8 months after being natural, I let a regular salon do a press and curl on me. They 'said' they were experts with natural hair. This chick pulled so much hair out blowdrying, and she used a marcel iron. I smelled hair burning. Well, long story short...she gave me an uneven cut and some of my hair did not revert. I cut those pieces out because I was still at the twa stage and wanted to wear my twa.

The lesson: Don't let just anyone do your hair. No one will care for your hair like you.

I second this opinion. Just because you go to an african american salon does not mean they know how to deal with african american hair. If they only specialize in straightening hair, run.

 

[bLackButtaFly]

I get little knots at the ends of some individual strands sometimes, and I sometimes pick/break them off with my hands instead of cutting them off. I know that is so bad, but usually i don't have scissors near when i find them.

me too. I think the worst i've ever done is bad coloring, or not washing it for awhile(like a month).

 

[Ivie184]

When I began to wear my own natural hair minus the extensions, I did not know how to take care of my hair.
I would dry comb almost everyday, "blow-fry" my hairnono,ripping my hair out because I didn't want to take the time and patience to properly detangle my hair after taking out two-strand twists and not moisturizing (whenever I felt like it) After all that I was doing, I was surprised I still had hair on my head.

 

[Mimi22]

Blow drying excessively
Flat ironing excessively w/out heat protection serum
Abusing the "black gel" and combing through the hard gunk at the end of the day
Washing my hair every 3 weeks even though it was hella funky
Combing my hair harshly when dry
Wearing my hair in tight buns
I actually believed for a long time that natural hair didnt need protein or moisture treatments Now i know better

I've learnt my lesson via LHCF, I'm never turning back

 

[ajargon02]

Going that BEAUTIFUL blonde that you see in my avatar. My hair just couldn't handle lifting that many levels, eventhough it was done in seperated stages. No matter how much protein and moisture I gave my hair eventually it started to break off, and I had to cut off several years of growth and start all over again. NEVER AGAIN!!!
I would suggest if you are gonna color to go to a professional and have a counsiltation (sp?) first, and know your hair. I had only colored my hair once before that, and it wasn't NEARLY as drastic. My hair couldn't handle it at all. Oh well, live and learn. Plus it's only hair and it's growing back.

 

[DeepBluSea]

Underestimating the amount of moisture my hair needed this winter. This was my first winter as a natural. It was going well until I slacked up on the DC. (still trying to find the perfect 1, so I will take suggestions).

Going too long without a good trim. I knew I needed one but I was too afraid to do it on my own and too afraid to trust a stylist to do one.

Last, but certainly not least. Hand in fro disease. Doing twists, then seeing someones straw set. OK, I wanna try that. Then seeing someone's microtwists. Oooo, I wanna try that. You get the picture.

 

[MissJ]

Trust stylists when they say they know how to do natural hair.