4 year progress/regress-not a happy story

[ArrrBeee]

I started my journey four years ago with a BC. My hair grew nicely and after 2 years I decided to texlax because it was constantly tangled.

A few days ago I decided to have my stylist completely relax it. My hair had a lot of issues due to stress and mismanagement. It didn't look that good anymore and my curls were looking anorexic.

Things I learned-

1) Condition washing is fine but don't comb the conditioner through. This caused me to lose ALOT of hair. I read this tip in another thread but it was too late for my hair to recover.

2) I really didn't have to cw my hair everyday. I could have just rinsed it out and conditioned it. with a good conditioner.

3) I didn't pay enough attention to my ends. It was hard to because I didn't wear my hair straight alot so they seemed okay.

4) I didn't deep condition enough. For some reason I felt that a cw was adequate. It wasn't .

5) I shoud have stuck to a few regular products and routines so I could figure out what works and what doesn't. I mixed a lot of things together so I had a hard time pinpointing what worked and what was causing probems.

You can see in the attachments how my hair got progressively thinner and broken. My new journey will allow me to see if I can have healthy relaxed hair.

1st pic- healthy and texlaxed
2nd pic- thinning, broken, and texlaxed February 09
3rd pic- relaxed March 09

 

[caribgirl]

Thanks so much for sharing your journey tips with us! DC-ing is so very important.

We all have a setback or two or more! Be happy that you now know what works for you and your hair !

I know that you will surpass the first pic length and reach your goals with your new reggie. Stay blessed!

 

[ArrrBeee]

Thanks so much for sharing your journey tips with us! DC-ing is so very important.

We all have a setback or two or more! Be happy that you now know what works for you and your hair !

I know that you will surpass the first pic length and reach your goals with your new reggie. Stay blessed!

Thanks. I am trying to stay positive about this.

 

[secretrose]

I have to admit, your hair looked much healthier as a natural. But I can't possibly imagine what the management must have been like. Only you can truly decide what is best for you. I hope you find a regimen that works for you whether you decide to stay relaxed or go natural again. HHG.

 

[Firefly]

Girl, I truely feel for you....Been there, done exactly that!! I definitely know what you're going through and had many of the same problems but you will get through this and the more you learn about your hair, the better it will be for it. For me, it seemed as if it took forever just to get my hair to where it is now (I'm not even close to my ultimate goal) but when I look back at my pics from beginning (BC) to now (texlaxed), I realize that it didn't take as lon as I thought....I just wanted everything Yesterday. I'm sure you'll do Great and you're already well on your way to long, healthy hair!!!

Many Blessings!!!

 

[Odd One]

Aw im sorry to hear that But we all learn from our mistakes, with all that learning experience, your hair will only be stronger than EVER!

2) I really didn't have to cw my hair everyday. I could have just rinsed it out and conditioned it. with a good conditioner.

Sorry I might be slow but i dont understand the difference, does a cowash involves massaging the condish in and a rinse doesnt?

 

[Teja]

Thank you very very much for sharing this with us...you might have just saved my hair I have been going through alot of the same ish...n e way thanks alot and I am sure your hair will thrive now with your knowledge!!!

 

[Denise11]

Aw im sorry to hear that But we all learn from our mistakes, with all that learning experience, your hair will only be stronger than EVER!



Sorry I might be slow but i dont understand the difference, does a cowash involves massaging the condish in and a rinse doesnt?

I think she meant that she couldve rinsed her hair then deep conditioned. Deep conditioning is more beneficial IMO.

Cowashing is just wetting your hair in the shower and washing and rinsing, as if you're shampooing, only, you have conditioner instead. It's not as conditionig and moisturizing as deep conditioning. With DC, you leave it on longer and /or use heat so that it deeply penetrates.

 

[ArrrBeee]

I think she meant that she couldve rinsed her hair then deep conditioned. Deep conditioning is more beneficial IMO.

Cowashing is just wetting your hair in the shower and washing and rinsing, as if you're shampooing, only, you have conditioner instead. It's not as conditionig and moisturizing as deep conditioning. With DC, you leave it on longer and /or use heat so that it deeply penetrates.

Exactly. I meant that I could have just rinsed my hair with water instead of going through the whole cw/detangling, manipulation process.

 

[Ganjababy]

Thanks for this

 

[hairedity]

Thanks for sharing your story and wishing you all the best in getting back to healthy happy hair.
RE: not combing out the hair with conditioner in it. I thought that was the best time to detangle? What is your suggestion on when to detangle -water only, damp hair, dry hair, wet hair etc...?
thnx.

 

[natural2008]

Girl the texturizer did the same thing to my hair.

 

[natural2008]

as a matter of fact I did a few threads on my hair loss. If you are interested search threads under natural2008.

 

[kristie21]

HIII! I can definetly relate to this!! When I first started caring for my hair using all the lovely advice and tips on this board I did really well. Somewhere on my journey, I fell off and aquired some bad habits such as blowdrying from root to tip when I was too lazy to rollerset, not paying mind to my ends and a horrible case of underprossed breakage . After a corrective relaxer this past weekend, I'm already trying to find a "simple" regime to get my hair healthy again. I wish you luck on getting your newly relaxed hair healthy. I found keeping your ends moist and up/off the shoulders works best for me. HTH

 

[Supergirl]

I feel ya hun. I got lax with the "DCing" myself, and I got into this phase where I would comb my conditioners through. I still do it sometimes, but not everytime. I can massage them in pretty well with some effort.

Good news is, your hair does look nice and healthy which is a great "starting over" point for you. It doesn't look like you'll have to worry about any breakage or damage for now.

 

[kjeneen]

I feel ya hun. I got lax with the "DCing" myself, and I got into this phase where I would comb my conditioners through. I still do it sometimes, but not everytime. I can massage them in pretty well with some effort.

Good news is, your hair does look nice and healthy which is a great "starting over" point for you. It doesn't look like you'll have to worry about any breakage or damage for now.

So how often should you DC?? Currently, I dc once a week and cw 2-3x per week.

 

[Butterfly08]

Is that a snake around your neck?!

Your hair did look a lot thicker natural but the good news is you've learned from previous experience and you can apply it to your future regimen. I can't wait to see your hair grow!

 

[Mom23]

Thanks for sharing...I wish you the best on your hair journey.

 

[ArrrBeee]

Is that a snake around your neck?!

Your hair did look a lot thicker natural but the good news is you've learned from previous experience and you can apply it to your future regimen. I can't wait to see your hair grow!

Yes that is Fred the snake. He lives in the classroom next door to me.

 

[ArrrBeee]

Thanks for sharing your story and wishing you all the best in getting back to healthy happy hair.
RE: not combing out the hair with conditioner in it. I thought that was the best time to detangle? What is your suggestion on when to detangle -water only, damp hair, dry hair, wet hair etc...?
thnx.

What really worked for me was to massage the conditioner in and then rinse it out. I found that detangling under the shower with no conditioner decreased the shedding.

I also used coffee ( I brewed a pot and let it cool to room temp) to stop shedding. It worked like a charm.

 

[texasqt]

Hey Not Rapunzel!

It's been a while since we've seen each other and I can definitely see the difference but the good thing though is that you are taking the steps to get your hair back in shape. I'm going through something similar and I haven't figured it out yet but from your post, I can identify some things that I'm doing that may be ruining my hair (i.e. not deep conditioning). I also started texlaxing and its becoming a disaster. Even my relatives have started making comments on how thin my hair is getting. I'm going to try and do some things differently with you.

Thanks for sharing and being a blessing!

 

[ArrrBeee]

Hey Not Rapunzel!

It's been a while since we've seen each other and I can definitely see the difference but the good thing though is that you are taking the steps to get your hair back in shape. I'm going through something similar and I haven't figured it out yet but from your post, I can identify some things that I'm doing that may be ruining my hair (i.e. not deep conditioning). I also started texlaxing and its becoming a disaster. Even my relatives have started making comments on how thin my hair is getting. I'm going to try and do some things differently with you.

Thanks for sharing and being a blessing!

I keep thinking of more mistakes that I made. Another mistake was to stretch as long as I did. I would stretch for 3 or 4 months and maybe my hair didn't like that. I tried to treat texlaxed hair like natural hair and I forgot to remember that texlaxed is a fancy word for RELAXED.

Hopefully next time we see each other our hair will be back on point.

 

[tetbelle]

Thanks for sharing this I just saw this post. I'm sorry that you went through this but I'm glad you are staying positive and working on the health of your hair. Since it's a few weeks later how has it been? Your tips are very helpful. Thanks again for sharing.

 

[Ivy Santolina]

I understand how you feel though. I texlaxed pre-LHCF and I learned so much on this site I'm thinking texlaxed/relaxed is not for me.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us and providing the tips. Your relaxed hair turned out beautiful and it looks like you're on the right path.

 

[tiffers]

Thank you for sharing your story with everyone. Hopefully this will show newbies and old heads alike to pay attention to our hair and not just jump on every bandwagon


The good news is, now that you know what not to do, you're gonna see great progress!!!