HELP, MY HAIR IS BREAKING PROFUSELY!!

[JadeFox]

Hello, ladies, I am a newbie to the board and was recommended to this site by a friend of mine. My hair is texlaxed and has been shedding profusely over the last few weeks. I have historically gone between wearing my hair completely natural and texlaxing. After a BC in August of 2006, I grew my hair out and I started texlaxing in June of 2007. I have done 3 touch ups since, and I plan to touch up once a quarter.

I usually wash my hair once a week, get a deep conditioner once a month and I blow dry and flat iron after washing. I flat iron on average 2 - 3x per week. I know blow drying and flat iron seems to be a big no-no on this board, but it is quick and easy. This regimen has worked for me until about 2 weeks ago when I started experiencing severe breakage. I am wiling to admit that the blow drying and flat iron may be a source of the breakage, but I need confirmation.

Normally, I would just get fed up and do a BC, but I am determined to stick it out. Any alternatives and advice you can give to improve my haircare regimen would be greatly appreciated. I am serious about my hair now and willing to throw out my blow dryer and flat iron once I find a suitable alternative. My hair is so much thinner now due to breakage.

 

[cocoaluv]

Hello, ladies, I am a newbie to the board and was recommended to this site by a friend of mine. My hair is texlaxed and has been shedding profusely over the last few weeks. I have historically gone between wearing my hair completely natural and texlaxing. After a BC in August of 2006, I grew my hair out and I started texlaxing in June of 2007. I have done 3 touch ups since, and I plan to touch up once a quarter.

I usually wash my hair once a week, get a deep conditioner once a month and I blow dry and flat iron after washing. I flat iron on average 2 - 3x per week. I know blow drying and flat iron seems to be a big no-no on this board, but it is quick and easy. This regimen has worked for me until about 2 weeks ago when I started experiencing severe breakage. I am wiling to admit that the blow drying and flat iron may be a source of the breakage, but I need confirmation.

Normally, I would just get fed up and do a BC, but I am determined to stick it out. Any alternatives and advice you can give to improve my haircare regimen would be greatly appreciated. I am serious about my hair now and willing to throw out my blow dryer and flat iron once I find a suitable alternative. My hair is so much thinner now due to breakage.

I'm pretty new on the board as well but I really think that the amount of heat you are using on your hair on a weekly basis is probably why you are getting all of this thinning/breakage. I mean blowdrying and flat ironing (plus flat ironing3 times a week).....not a good idea. Maybe you could use Alter ego Deep conditioner I use it and from what i read it helps with shedding. However I would stop with all the flat ironing ASAP if I were you.

 

[lovegan]

how often do you moisturize during the week? what do you use on your hair (products?)

 

[hopeful]

Too much heat and not enough deep conditioning. You should deep con at least once a week with that much heat. Also, are you using a heat protectant? I do wonder why you would experience so much breakage/shedding just in the past two weeks. Do you think you got ahold of a bad relaxer? That happened to me once when I was relaxed. Also, maybe because you've gone back and forth so much your hair is wondering why you haven't gone back to natural yet, idk? Good luck and welcome to the board, I see this is your first post.

 

[Songbirdb]

you need to deep condition your hair more often and baby those ends. shedding was an issue for me for about 2 weeks before i started deep conditioning more often. also, i added co-washes into my regime and my hair has improved alot. i also do a aphogee protein treatment once a month. lay off the heat. for me, i used to wash my hair 3 times a week and then just blow dry and not flat iron. and my hair seemed to be very healthy and strong, but since i haven't been using heat, my hair is thriving like crazy! it's thicker, healthier, longer! so you might think that the heat thing was working, but once you compare it to not using it as often, you might see alot of improvement. As a matter of fact, the siggy pic shows the difference in my hair from not using heat for just one month. you don't have to stop all together, just limit. i limit myself to every two weeks. in those photos, i stopped all together for one month. here's my new pic from not using heat but every two weeks:

It's alot thicker as you can see. And in this photo I self trimmed so it's a little shorter than the other pic.

 

[Songbirdb]

As far as other hair options, I hear bunning is pretty quick. I use phony ponies which have helped my hair to thrive. i wear them only on days when I'm going somewhere and other than that, I just wear my hair protected in some way with not tension on my hair and no harsh styling. Here's my phony pony

 

[Mestiza]

The amount of heat and/or lack of deep conditioning could be causing your breakage. I would decrease the former and increase the latter.

As far as heat being a big no-no for LHCF, I say do what works best for you. However, it doesn't sound as though your current amount or frequency of heat usage is working for you. Good luck and HHG!

 

[JadeFox]

thanks, for the comments, ladies, I will take your advice. What type of protective styles do you suggest. I am not very creative when it somes to styling.

 

[tiffers]

Way too much heat and not enough deep conditioning. You should dc EVERY time you wash with shampoo. If you must use heat (even though I advise against it, given your hairs condition), limit it to once a week, and use a heat protectant

How often are you moisturizing, and what products are you using?

You should join bootcamp, the rules are pretty much everything you need to get your hair back in tip top shape

 

[kgard7777]

My hair was dry and breaking too but one thing that will helped my moisture level. Was adding jojoba oil to my deep conditioner its the best!

 

[TwistNMx]

You might want to invest in a bottle of Nexxus Emergencee.
This should stop the breakage. It worked for me a few years ago and no matter what, I'd be afraid not to have it around.
Then make sure you keep your hair moisturized. Deep condition more often and maybe even do hot oil treatments.
If I were you, I would condition-wash more and stay away from the heat.
I would only airdry and straighen my hair on special occassions if I were you...and use a very good heat protectant at that.
Best of luck.
HP

 

[intergalacticartist]

If you are going for straighter styles why don't you just relax instead of texlax?
Also as already stated you need to DC wayyyyyy more often. The heat is drying out your hair and you need to limit it

Some quality DC are
Keracare Humecto
Nexxus Humectress
Mizani Hydrafuse
Mizani Moisturefuse
Kenra Moisutrizing Condistioner

 

[tiffers]

(Adding to intergalacticartists's list)

Some good cheap, accessible conditioners to dc with are:

Motions Moisture Plus

Lekair Cholesterol

Silk Elements Luxury Moisturizing Conditioner

Neutrogena Triple Moisture Conditioners

Pantene Relaxed and Natural Breakage Defense Mask (I haven't tried it, but it gets rave reviews )

If you want to co-wash (I recommend it) some good ones are:

Sunsilk Straighten Up Conditioner (the leave in is great too)

Any of the Suave Naturals conditioners (my fav is Aloe and Waterlily)

Suave Humectants

White Rain Tropical Coconut (haven't tried it, but it gets rave reviews)

V05 Moisture Milks (the Strawberries and Creme smells sooo good )

HTH!

 

[Cleve_gryl]

I co-sign with the ladies that too much heat and not enough moisture is frying those ends. My ends used to be red they were so dry from no moisture and blowfry/flatiron . Once I started DCing after every wash and rollersetting to obtain straight hair, my ends thickened up and I gained/retained length. HHG!!