How do you "baby" your 4b natural hair ends?

dlove

dlove

Active Member
My ends need help so that I can retain length. Background:4b hair natural.
  • I hear the snap and crackle of hair when I fingercomb.
  • I wash and condition in 6 plaits
  • My comb gets stuck when I start my detangling on the ends on wet kimmaytube conditoned hair.
  • I moisturize with a distilled water, peppermint oil, and SAA mix and seal with jojoba oil at night. I wear my hair in twist outs daily. I get a golf ball size of hair every week when I wash.
  • I trim 2-3 times a year.
Thanks for sharing your experiences and solutions.:yawn:
 
hey dlove!

a couple things i might suggest:

-deep conditioning more often (i didn't see that mentioned in your list of things you do...). i find it helps my 4a/b hair & ends retain lots more moisture
-detangle with a slippy rinse-out or deep conditioner on rather than the kimmaytube leave-in. some ladies even find it easiest to detangle under running water. i find it's best for me to do it when i've slathered on tons of conditioner. once i rinse out (in sections), my hair is soft and still tangle-free for me to moisturize/seal/style
-maybe try baggying your ends. if they're dry, which could be why they break off somewhat easily, baggying overnight or just for a few hours during the day definitely helps them suck up some much needed moisture. i baggy with juice (glycerin based products) and highly recommend it!
-check out threads on oil rinsing. again, that helps a lot of ladies detangle and the residual oil that gets left on the hair afterward helps combat dryness between washes
-lastly, and especially since you wear twist outs often, if you feel like your ends are breaking because of ssks or split ends (i know twists definitely increased the # of ssks my hair had), try doing a search and destroy every now and then to get rid of them. that way, maybe when it's time for a trim, you won't have as much snaggy ends get rid of

hopefully some of that's helpful!
 
Dlove,
To baby your hair & ends:
Weekly deep conditioning with heat.
Detangling with conditioner on is helpful also.
Maybe a heavier oil to seal with, Castor oil is my main sealing oil, jojoba & coconut are too light for my hair.
Protective styling sometimes is neccesary to give your ends a rest; wear an updo or bun a few days a week ( I love wearing twistouts too, but my hair requires time protected).
Do you ever wear twists as your style to give your hair a break also?
 
Can you previous posters share what you're dc'ing with? Thanks! I wear twistouts daily and I don't know if it's doing more harm than good. I have fine hair and it's very fragile. But I notice my hair seeming a little dry. I don't dc as much as I used to though. I used to dc like clock work. I've gotten really lazy.
 
I've just started watching Kimmaytube's videos and actually she does not detangle with her leave in. She prepoos soaked with Evoo overnight, then on wash day, detangles it with wet with more evoo (and conditioner if needed )BEFORE shampooing, starting with just using her fingers to pull out shedded hair. By the time she gets to putting in her leave in, her hair is already pretty detangled, bc throughout the shampoo and conditioning process she tries to keep it from retangling too much.

I tried this method on my last shampoo and it surprisingly worked really well (I say surprisingly bc my hair is a struggle and NOTHING seems to work, but I detangled exactly like she did in her video and my hair detangled like a breeze).
 
Thanks a whole lot ladies.

To answer some questions:

Last week I started wearing an everyday twist out. Using the practices from the link below:

http://www.longhaircareforum.com/ha...-day-hair-twist-braid-outs-pics-included.html

I guess for the last three days I do an updo.

Kimmaytube: Yeah she has good practices, it already takes me about an hour to wash, condition and detangle. Seems like her strategy will take forever and a day.:rolleyes:

I have tried deep conditioning with heat using AO smoothing conditioning it worked great.
I'll try sealing with castor oil and see what happens this week.

Hope this helps someone else besides me. :yep:
 
Last edited:
pookaloo83, I've just started DCing with Elasta QP DPR-11. It's super moisturizing! I doctor it up with some oils and maybe some honey, and my hair loves it. I've also used Yes to Carrots Moisturizing Mud Mask and Lustrasilk Cholesterol (also with oils, etc)...both are great also for moisture and offer lots of slip for detangling. HTH!
 
ellcee34 said:
hey dlove!

a couple things i might suggest:

-deep conditioning more often (i didn't see that mentioned in your list of things you do...). i find it helps my 4a/b hair & ends retain lots more moisture
-detangle with a slippy rinse-out or deep conditioner on rather than the kimmaytube leave-in. some ladies even find it easiest to detangle under running water. i find it's best for me to do it when i've slathered on tons of conditioner. once i rinse out (in sections), my hair is soft and still tangle-free for me to moisturize/seal/style
-maybe try baggying your ends. if they're dry, which could be why they break off somewhat easily, baggying overnight or just for a few hours during the day definitely helps them suck up some much needed moisture. i baggy with juice (glycerin based products) and highly recommend it!
-check out threads on oil rinsing. again, that helps a lot of ladies detangle and the residual oil that gets left on the hair afterward helps combat dryness between washes
-lastly, and especially since you wear twist outs often, if you feel like your ends are breaking because of ssks or split ends (i know twists definitely increased the # of ssks my hair had), try doing a search and destroy every now and then to get rid of them. that way, maybe when it's time for a trim, you won't have as much snaggy ends get rid of

hopefully some of that's helpful!
Click to expand...

How do you baggy ends?
 
I so undertand what u mean by ur comb getting stuck on ur ends (though I hardly use combs to detangle) but my ends are always "bushy". At first i thought it was residual relaxed hair and or scab hair, but Im sure Ive trimmed off all of that now. And ive looked at my ends with a magnifying glass LOL and though I did see a minimal amt of splits and SSKs I still cant quite inderstand why they are so "bushy"

anyhoo, I havnt had any issues with retention so I'll keep doing what I do

To add to the suggestions above ( i do the regular co-wash, DC - mosture and protein every week)

I baby my ends by

not using much heat. Ive reduced heat(blowing out hair before twisting) from 2 times to 1 time per month

moisturizing with Scurl then a creamy leave in and sealing with a ceramide oil (usually hemp, just started using sunflower)

finger detangling first with olive or sunflower oil. for my ends I start by just smoothing the oil over them as if u were shingling ur hair. I find this really helps. If I find a knot I work by slowly pulling the outrmost hairs, literally one by one if necessary. The only time a comb or denman gets near my hair for detangling is only after I have thoroughly finger combed and removed shed hairs.

I now wear my hair mostly in twistouits and I havnt had any issues with my ends re: retention

reducing use of poo with SLS as it tend to dry out hair in general
 
dlove said:
My ends need help so that I can retain length. Background:4b hair natural.
  • I hear the snap and crackle of hair when I fingercomb.
  • I wash and condition in 6 plaits
  • My comb gets stuck when I start my detangling on the ends on wet kimmaytube conditoned hair.
  • I moisturize with a distilled water, peppermint oil, and SAA mix and seal with jojoba oil at night. I wear my hair in twist outs daily. I get a golf ball size of hair every week when I wash.
  • I trim 2-3 times a year.
Thanks for sharing your experiences and solutions.:yawn:
Click to expand...

I started washing my braids with the ends rolled up in soft satin covered rollers and that has helped me to cut down on the knots. I take out the rollers on the final rinse.
 
^^^ Thanks!

I may need to add that wrap my perm rods in end paper. Do you all think the end paper is robbing moisture from my ends?
 
Ok, I trimmed my ends. I trimmed my DD's ends. I wish that there was a product I could purchase to melt away SSK's, dreaded balls on the ends and extra kinky curly ends...If you know it send it on :)...Thanks ladies.
 
I've found that wearing my hair loose was starting to do more harm than good for my ends. I had to stop with the afro puff. I keep my ends braided now.
 
I have the same problem with my 4b hair so I try and minimize wearing my hair out. I am starting to wear twists more but due to the fact that I have very fine hair my twists have a tendency to look a little thin:( and I don't much like it. But I've found that the more I put my hair away the less breakage I get. I do try to oil my scalp daily when I have sew ins, braids, twists etc... I am desperately trolling these posts looking for better suggestions.
 
dlove said:
My ends need help so that I can retain length. Background:4b hair natural.
  • I hear the snap and crackle of hair when I fingercomb.
  • I wash and condition in 6 plaits
  • My comb gets stuck when I start my detangling on the ends on wet kimmaytube conditoned hair.
  • I moisturize with a distilled water, peppermint oil, and SAA mix and seal with jojoba oil at night. I wear my hair in twist outs daily. I get a golf ball size of hair every week when I wash.
  • I trim 2-3 times a year.
Thanks for sharing your experiences and solutions.:yawn:
Click to expand...

I detangle on conditioner soaked/wet hair and start close to the roots. If I start at the ends, the comb pulls & rips my ends off! Apparently that technique works for some, but the way to baby my ends is to start higher up. Also, when you start detangling on the ends, when u think about it, u have to comb thru that area like 5 times as you work your way up the hair shaft. That is very abusive to my 4b hair. I do one good comb swipe thru & I move on. Over combing is enemy number one to 4b hair retention. In fact, I took combs out of my regimen for a very long time. Now I only use them to detangle on wet, conditioner soaked hair.
 
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