Be HONEST!!! What is the most damaging thing you've done to your hair???

[TwistedRoots]

Sprayed super spritz and pink lotion on my hair before I crimped it like it was weave... (3 barrell crimp iron)...Had to get it cut the next day....I burned of the entire front right side of my hair... Sad day...

 

[TaraDyan]

Oh, oh, oh ... I had to come back in this thread to admit to another debacle. Two days before Halloween back in 2003, I decided to give myself copper highlights. I used a harsh box color that had a special "highlighting comb". After I applied the highlights, I rinsed it out and then stepped out of the shower real quick to see what the color looked like. Well, I must not have isolated the hairs enough because the highlights looked more like I colored my whole head. The problem is that it was Bozo the Clown orange ... while it was soaking wet!! Can you imagine how that mess would have looked dry?! I mean, I know it was around Halloween and all, but dang! I was completely horrified, so I quickly slapped a permanent black dye on top of that. In the end, my hair came out muddy brown. It truly was a hideous site to behold.

Several months later, it started breaking uncontrollably, which eventually lead me to LHCF.

 

[mezzogirl]

when I was in college, I dyed my hair with a bottle of peroxide.

 

[200AndOne]

I have used a hotcomb on wet hair with marcel curl wax

 

[angelbaby]

I didn't wash enough times with a neutralizer after a relaxer because I was in a hurry to do something else. Because of the damage, I ended up cutting my hair off up to my earlobes and then I didn't know how to style it so I got braids. The braids were a pro and con situation. The pro was that I didn't have to stress about my hair growth. The con was I went to some really evil African women that I paid way too much money to for the way they treated me. You live and learn.

 

[tinkat]

When I was relaxed, my hair was overprocessed and I used too much heat. That was before LHCF though.

 

[FemmeCreole]

I did a color myself (the garnier streaks thingy) and I left it on too long and on top of that I was not moisturizing and taking care of my hair as I should. It broke my nape off on the left side.

 

[Paradox]

Has anyone done so many damaging things that is just too overwhelming to post them all....

 

[JustKiya]

Bleached my hair platinum blond, then dyed over it less than 2 hours later.

 

[Aveena]

The most damaging and stupidest thing I did to my bsl (longest ever hair) was but a curly perm on top of a relaxer because i wanted it to be curly.... count the days...

I was BALD in 5 days!

I've not gotten to that length since..... hopefully I'll get there again soon.

 

[moonglowdiva]

I once a long time ago used a curling iron on my hair that was way to hot and began curling my hair. It melted a section in the top of my head clean off. I've been paranoid about heat since then. The lesson here. Don't set your curling iron to the hottest temperature. In fact don't use curling irons.

 

[LadyPaniolo]

Has anyone done so many damaging things that is just too overwhelming to post them all....

Yep.

I was up in here trying to think :scratchch What was more damaging? When I "highlighted" my hair and ended up with bleached blonde polka dots? Looking like Chester the Cheetah's bastard child.

When I slept for YEARS, make that DECADES without any kind of scarf whatsoever?

When I'd leave micros in for 4 months and only wash them once that whole time?

When I'd relax every 4 weeks and comb it through?

When I'd use that cheapo Gold 'N Hot curling iron on the highest setting on hair that hadn't seen shampoo much less conditioner in a month? Every day I'd be there sizzling away.

When I would pull my micros back TIGHT into a ponytail... every single day? erplexed

Let me just stop here before I get too depressed

It's a miracle I had any hair at all when I came to LHCF.

The good thing:
If my hair made it past SL with that kind of abuse, think of how long and HEALTHY it can be (and is!) with proper love and care. My hair is APL stretched and will be at BSL before I know it!

 

[edenhere]

I have natural hair and the most damaging thing I've done was actually detangle my hair in the shower with a wide tooth comb! I know it sounds crazy, but this didn't work for me. I had a wide tooth comb and I would apply the conditioner to my hair and let the water run through my hair while I combed it and I always had a clogged drain with broken hairs, and hairs with the roots attached and a lot of hair in my wide tooth comb. I realized just this year that, this was not shed hair, but rather me pulling it out and breaking it. I don't do that anymore and I've noticed the difference. My ends are thick and the amount of hair shed has decreased dramatically after each washing.

 

[mxdchiq86]

i went to a salon and got a really strong relaxer on damaged color treated hair. needless to say, the relaxer fried off all of the damaged and color treated areas. my hair was falling out at the touch! at that point, i still had close to BSL hair.. but, it was just so thin and badly damaged that i ended up having to cut it into a short bob. that was my first and only but, major set back. now i'm at APL and i wouldn't dare put a relaxer in my hair ever again.

 

[Rei]

bleached. twice. in one day.

 

[Br*nzeb*mbsh~ll]

applied borax detergent to shampoo to help rid myself of scalp infection/parasites/whatever...my hair and scalp was super duper clean, light, fluffy...i didn't know how to moisturize my hair to bring it back into balance....my hair began to break off chunk, by chunk by chunk....now i'm trying to get it back......it got rid of more than just parasites, i tell ya that....

 

[Whisper]

I Partially took the bottom half of my weave out b/c I wanted to adjust some bulky braids. I had to rebraid the cornrows and burn the bottom of of the synthetic braid so it wouldn't seperate. Not realizing that for one, she only used a sliver of synthetic hair just to make it thicker and two, my hair was just as long!! Needless to say I burned the bottom 3 inches of my hair, b/c the fire just rode up the shaft all the way across. My ends looked horrible as you could imagine

 

[TexturedTresses]

Hmmm lets see....

- Used a marcel curling iron to curl my ponytail and the thing got stuck. My hair was all tangled in there. Needless to say it was burnt off something vicious.

-Used African Pride blond highlights on my jet black hair. Stripped it and still looked a hot mess.

-Used a relaxer that didn't take bone straight- Had some wavy roots while still wet. So I reapplied relaxer in the same place, while hair was still wet.

- Flat iron hair while damp.

-Spritz hair and curl. Letting it sizzle.

- When I got relaxers at the salon, I would sit there as long as I could so it would be straighter.

- Hairdresser: "How you doing there baby?"
Me- "Oh I'm fine..." (straight burning)

But that was years ago! I'm on the straight and narrow now.

I'm ashamed, but I still do this. And I KNOW better.

 

[Sui Topi]

LOL!!!, As a hairdresser I was waaaaaay more experimental on my on hair, I would def say puttin bleach on permed hair, I stayed platinum for several yrs. If the color wasn't pale enough I would bleach as many days as necessary , up to 3 times a day till I got the desired result, the scary part is my one of my friends ( who also does hair ) was my partner in crime!! We wanted to shatter the theory that baldness would be a instant result from doing so. I lost hair twice starting out , but eventually got down a routine that kept it from sliding off my head!! I was NEVER scured cause I always knew how to do hair , so I figured If I lost some I could weave it back on , after all it was only hair , back then I viewed it more as an accessory, like earrings or a handbag. I would say " if you can't grow it, sew it!, if you can't do it , glue it! , if you can't achieve it , weave it! "

When i was relaxed i used to flat iron my hair every day and night as i couldn't bare to see any frizz, with no form of heat protectant!! As like the other stories this just caused my hair to severely break.

When i used to have braids i used to be so impatient when removing them that i ended up just pulling them and thus breaking what ever growth i had achieved.

That was me. I remember one specific time while I was "transitioning" aka too lazy to get a relaxer, and I just pulled a braid in the back. All I heard was "pop!" I was like what the heck? My hair broke right of at the line of demarcation. I just looked at the braid, threw it out and kept it moving. I was like "I guess I have to pull more gently

I went to the beauty shop to get my extra dry over processed hair highlighted with brown and honey highlights and the stylist dyed my whole head Ronald Mcdonald Red and all my hair fell out. Thing is I knew she was doing it wrong and I was too scared to say anything. All the other girls in the shop were like she gonna f**k up you hair, but it was too late. When I was 13 my mom decided it was time to start to combing my hair. I was mbl unstretched natural that hadden ever tried to comb my hair. As a sign of rebellion I refused to comb my hair for a whole summer. End results? shoulder length bob and ball spots.

DUMMY!!!!!!!! lol! Girl how could you! I've never even seen a MBL unstretched 4 anything lol!


The one I have problems with is, I let my friend flat iron my wet hair. I was so scared, but she reassured me it would be okay. She did it to her hair and her hair was long (maybe apl) so I was like okay. It turned out so nice I quickly adapted it. I would get off the phone with DH like "I'm in the middle of flat ironing my hair and I have to do it before it dries so I have to go!" I would tell people "My hair likes the steam because it is porous". Fast forward to now. I'm natural now, and I washed my hair the other day and it looked long stretched, so I then was like hmm, I wanna flat iron it. So I towel dried it and flat ironed it, and it was the straightest I've everrrrr seen my natural hair! I ended up doing 1/4 of it. It was straight, shiny....and all over the sink. I was trying to remember if my husband had just trimmed his moustache or something, but no, it was my hair lol.

 

[Covergirl5906]

When I was in high school.... put box relaxer on my hair every 6 weeks from root too ends, would use different ones each time and had the nerve to use a super relaxer when my hair is fine and only needs a mild used curling iron almost every day with spritz instead of heat protectant, didn't deep condition, didn't use real moisturizing products, used horrible products like pink oil, grease, brown gel, ....glued tracks in my hair, went to a hairdresser when my hair broke off and she cut it short and told me how nexus emergencee and aphogee(the hard stuff) would grow my hair back..I proceeded to use emergencee and sometimes aphogee without any follow up moisturizing deep conditioner This of course made my problems worst....

 

[Jetblackhair]

It was the summer of '89, I dyed my bangs and then sprayed Sun-In ( hair lighting product) in my hair, blow dried and the result, drum roll please...

Hair started falling everywhere. I quickly put some Pink's moisturizer on it (i know, i know) and didn't touch my bangs for 2 weeks (no wash, no comb, no brush, no nothin').

I figured as long as I didn't touch it wouldn't fall out.

 

[NCRapunzel]

Umm, let's see...it would have to be:

1. Self-relaxing for about 45 mins. with Dark and Lovely or Optimum then
2. Immediately doing a quick weave
3. Taking that quick weave down, washing and putting in yet another
4. Repeat steps 1-4 once a month for 2 years

During year three,
5. Having my relaxers professionally done (hey, I was moving up in the world)
6. Trimming
7. Getting either a sewn in or interlocking weave the very same day
8. Taking it out and repeating once a month for 2 more years...

It's a wonder I had any hair left at all!

 

[GeauXavi]

when i was about 13 or 14 i used to put gel on my bangs, then use the curling iron to "set" spiral curls... basically i fried them in....i thought the sizzle was a good thing

 

[charmtreese]

ACV rinse! In Nov 06 I tried a ACV rinse and I lost a sandwich bag full of hair due to horrible knotting/matting/dreading and bad detangling technique! Never again!!!! That little mishap put my so far back, I was worst then where I started.

Other than that, I use to keep weaves in for months on end with little to no care for my real hair at all.

 

[Likeyouneverseenme]

LOL!! Sorry, but I couldn't help but laugh...

It was the summer of '89, I dyed my bangs and then sprayed Sun-In ( hair lighting product) in my hair, blow dried and the result, drum roll please...

Hair started falling everywhere. I quickly put some Pink's moisturizer on it (i know, i know) and didn't touch my bangs for 2 weeks (no wash, no comb, no brush, no nothin').

I figured as long as I didn't touch it wouldn't fall out.

 

[Son26]

Getting highlights and dyes. My hair can't handle permanent colour.

Using heat several times a week without a heat protectant on my hair.

Not trimming it ever.

 

[naturalepiphany]

The most damaging thing I've ever done to my hair was put velcro rollers in my then naturally heat damaged hair that was wet. I let it dry, went to take it out and my hair was stuck and tangled in the roller. So I tried to get it out for a half hour, cried, pouted and then did the worse thing imaginable. No I didn't run to get the scissors to cut it out.... I ripped it out. My hair has never grown back right in that area since It constantly breaks off and is always the shortest spot of hair and its been 18 years since I did that. I threw those rollers away so fast and shake my head in shame every time I walk past a package in the stores.

 

[cecilie]

The most crazy thing was to go to an unknown hairstylist to make cornrows after that I didn't have edges and it took almost 6 months to make my edges grow .

 

[gloomgeisha]

Pre-Lhcf:

-Using heat everyday to get that bone straight look.
- Applying relaxers myself making sure to reapply over already relaxed hair and then leaving it on until I couldn't take the VD like burning any longer.
- Pulling my hair back into a little pigtail every day for months to the point where my edges only had 6 little hairs clinging to my scalp for dear life.
-Using any kind of grease that promised growth even if it was just saddle soap in a pretty jar.
- Never using a detangler to comb out my hair.
-Never sleeping with a scarf or bonnet.
-Deep conditioning? What the heck was that?
- Using a regular rinse out conditioner as a leave in since it allowed me have perfectly slicked hair. Never mind that you could bounce a quarter off it and depending on the velocity; kill someone standing a few feet away.
- Fine tooth combs.
- Allowing a chick who had *finger snaps* this much hair to apply a weave. I should have known something was up when another hair dresser looked over at her and said "what the hell are you doing?"
- Taking hair advice from stylists that never had long hair of their own. One in particular would always comment on how she "didn't need long hair", but was always slapping an APL curly weave or ponytail on her head.
-Allowing one of my friends to attempt to dye my hair purple with a jar of manic panic and peroxide. My hair came out brassy orange- looked like cheap terra cotta pottery.

Thank the gods for LHCF

 

[adf23]

when i was about 13 or 14 i used to put gel on my bangs, then use the curling iron to "set" spiral curls... basically i fried them in....i thought the sizzle was a good thing

I used to do the same thing, but with hairspray!! It really was the only way my hair would hold a curl, but looking back, that was soo damaging.