HELP!!!.. Bad Hair night

[trendydiva]

Okay ladies.. i'm still new to all of this and need some serious help/advice.
So, last nite I took out my braids i've had in for about 3-4 weeks not.I wanted to give my hair a little break and give it some good treatment before i go back to wearing braids again. Well all i can say is i was very disappointed as the process when on. I first spraid my braids with VO5 con before i took the braids out. afterwards i used a clarifying shampoo (also VO5) then did a henna/placenta treatment left in in for about 10 or so minutes. Washed that out and did an aphogee moisture balance treatment for another 2-5 mins. While this was in the bottle said to detangle my hair. I went about this with a wide toothed comb.. needless to say there was a lot of hair coming out even thoughi was being really careful and doing it in sections. IS THIS NORMAL??!!!! mind you i also have a lot of new growth even though i relaxed over a month ago so this made it even harder to comd through.
After i was done i washed it out put some leave-in conditioner and let it mostly air dry.
I feel as if i've lost more hair than i'm supposed to even though my hair is very thick, the ends are really thin.
By the way i believe i'm 4b (extremely coarse) relaxed neck length hair.

Somebody please give me some advice as to what i did wrong and what i can to do help myself along the right path to healthier hair.

 

[Ronnieaj]

Okay, I'll be the first to say I know nothing about braids. But if the hair coming out had a white bulb on the end, it's shed hair, and it's normal. If it was short pieces here and there with no bulb, that's breakage. The shed hair I wouldn't worry about; if you've been in braids for close to a month, those shed hairs are just sitting there and don't come out until you comb. If a healthy head sheds 60-100 hairs a day, which I believe is average (msa and gymfreak, get in here and confirm!), then multiply that by 21-30 days, and you're gonna get a lot.

 

[SEMO]

How much hair did you lose? I can lose a golf ball size amount sometimes just during a regular hair washing (if it's been more than a week since I last washed it). And my hair is still uber thick. Maybe it's not as much as you think it is.

 

[SelahOco]

Shedding hair is normal when you've had braids in for a month or so. When I wear cornrows, I get a hand full of shed hair all balled up. But it's not broken, short hairs. It's shed hair.

Most people lose up to 100 hairs per day, but when you're in braids it's not falling to the ground - it's just collecting, waiting to be brushed out.

How did your hair feel when you were detangling and moisturizing? What kind of braids did you have and did you take a look at the hairs? They were not broken were they? did they have the little white bulb at the end (shed hairs)?

 

[loveable37]

I wanted to say tha if ur hair just come out braids its fragile so why use all tha protein just wondering.

 

[msa]

I first spraid my braids with VO5 con before i took the braids out. afterwards i used a clarifying shampoo (also VO5) then did a henna/placenta treatment left in in for about 10 or so minutes. Washed that out and did an aphogee moisture balance treatment for another 2-5 mins. While this was in the bottle said to detangle my hair. I went about this with a wide toothed comb.. needless to say there was a lot of hair coming out even thoughi was being really careful and doing it in sections. IS THIS NORMAL??!!!!

1. If it was shed hair (with a bulb) that came out, then yes it's perfectly normal. Humans shed 50-100 hairs per day. Multiply that by 4 weeks and that's a lot of hair when you finally detangle.

2. I wouldn't be surprised if you had a lot of breakage though. You did way too much at one time (at least, in my opinion). First of all, when you take braids out you should detangle before you apply any shampoo or water to your hair.

Second of all, you should assess your hair first before putting on treatments if your hair is been put away for awhile. And, you need to treat it gently just in case it's been weakened while in the protective style.

Third, you clarified (which dried your hair out) and then did the henna/placenta which probably dried your hair out as well. At this point you should have done a really good DC but instead you used a moisturizing conditioner for just a few minutes. Trying to detangle at that point probably caused some breakage.

I suggest you do a moisturizing DC (and maybe add some olive oil for slip) and let it sit for a while so that your hair softens up and you can detangle it easily. You should probably do a low manipulation hair style for the next couple weeks so that you can assess your hair and make sure it's healthy before you put the braids in again.

 

[trendydiva]

Thanks for all the contributions! i really do think i did too much too! sigh* thats the problem when your new to all this you want to trey every little thing.. i need to slow the hell down! but you guys are right there werent a lot of short hairs just a little bit and the rest i guess is from the shedding...sorry if i seemed to be freaking out i had a moment there... i'll take the advice and DC my hair and just wait and see.
*about how my hair felt* - i can say that this morning my hair felt really think but it was soft as well. so maybe its not so bad...

Thanks agaiN!