How HEALTHY is your hair?

[Ramya]

My hair is in perfect health. No breakage, no dryness, no dullness just healthy but then again it's only been around for 5 months. Ask me again in a year

 

[danigurl18]

My hair is pretty healthy.. I fixed the shedding issue with garlic so I'm good!

 

[BrandNew]

I would say it's perfectly healthy

 

[Oasis]

Not healthy at all.

My hair is perpetually dry and breaking.

 

[DaPPeR]

My hair is on its way. I see the difference. It started with my much needed trim, not to long ago.

 

[lilsparkle825]

I think once I get a professional trim my hair will be as healthy as it can get. My ends are horrible cause I don't detangle my hair as gently as I should, and I let my WNGs turn into puffs. I find that when I cowash more often (and/or stay away from WNGs) my hair doesn't get as tangled.

 

[LaidBak]

Not healthy at all.

My hair is perpetually dry and breaking.

Aww sweetie, I feel bad because that used to be me. What all have you tried in the past to try and correct the problems?

 

[Lucia]

Split ends? Do you think that they are keeping me from obtaining the last few inches I need in order to achieve my goal? I dust as often as I can. I am natural.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

I suggest doing small S&D=search and destroy on those splits, then maybe every 6 months trimm it for real, but if you're trimming the splits you shouldn't have to cut much off, max 1.5 inches.

 

[Stormy]

I voted perfectly healthy. I've been natural for only two months though and wearing a TWA, so I guess in about six months or so that will be enough time to see how well my regimen is really working.

 

[locabouthair]

Not healthy.

Im always dealing with dryness and dullness.

I have two broken patches on my sides, which was due to two bad salon visits.

But in spite of that, my mom keeps telling me how thick it is.

 

[mscocoface]

I can say I have a healthy head of cottony mass of wonderfulness right now. I think I will probably never be satisfied with the temples, but they aren't unhealthy just slow to grow.

 

[MrsHdrLe]

I voted splitz, bubbles, and dryness. I have been a long time briad wearer w/o much care for my own hair. But that's my past. I was fortuante though that i did my own braids and did not experience a lot of edge damage b/c I never liked tight and "slick" looking new growth. But The damage of months and even years of improper moisture and protein has done a lot of damage. I'm trying to correct it though. We''ll see what happens in the next couple of months.

 

[pri]

I think my hair is pretty healthy. I only have a sore/tender scalp issue now that left me w/ a scalp pimple but other then that I have no breakage,barely shed,no splits and my hair is very moisturized and is growing at this point so I'm happy considering I had major breakage Feb 2008 which caused me to do a major chop so considering my hair is still recovering it's in a healthy state so I'm happy

 

[Polyesterdiva]

Wow, it's great to see so many people repping healthy hair! Based on what I've seen on the streets I'd can problem say (of all races) that I see a lot of damaged hair, so it's a pleasant surprise to see "perfectly healthy hair" is winning on this board!

 

[Faith]

I don't know if I would consider see through hair a health problem

I would say my hair is healthy. I do have the occasional breakage usually from how I handle it or when I need a trim but overall it's good hair `

 

[aprils13]

Good job for turning it around Aprils13. Working with damaged hair is SOO frusterating. Before I got my hair in good shape there was no damage it didn't have all at once: over processed relaxer, heat damage, split ends....

I did the same thing you did with the blow dryer and flat iron. I never moisturized too!

What flat iron and temperature did you use on your hair on?

I had a Andis ceramic flat iron from Walmart. I think the settings ranged from 1 - 20 and I was using a I started out on 10 but eventually cranked it up to 15, and it used to smoke.

 

[loulou82]

My hair is fairly healthy. It's not relaxed or colored and I keep the manipulation to a minimum. There's always room for improvement though.

 

[SCarolinaGirl]

My hair is so much healthier than it was a few months ago. The low heat and DCing is helping a lot. I have some breakage at times but it's not excessive. I am working on thickening my edges.

 

[cherryhair123]

Good time to ask a question I have been wondering about-
Is "heat damage" really damage on a natural head of hair if your hair still looks healthy, with no split ends or breakage? The only difference is that one section may not curl back as easily. I understand that the hair may be "trained straight" but is it really damaged. By the way I'm not talking about my hair...yet.

 

[cherryhair123]

I think my hair is about 99% healthy. It was waist length last year but my split ends got so bad from me not trimming that I had to trim it to almost shoulder length. I didn't know my hair was that damaged because I had wore it natural (wash and go) most of the time and I could not see the full length but when I flat ironed it, it was thin right in the middle of my hair. The sides were still healthy, but my overal hair condition did not look good so I cut it to shoulder length. Now it is at brastap length and I am happy because it is healthy and long. I'm on the waist length journey again, but this time I have changed up my regimen a bit and it seems to be working.

I had the same issue. Do you straighten it more now to see if it is damaged? I agree it does not look damaged at all when you wear it natural a lot.

 

[PinkSkates]

My hair is very healthy. On a scale of 1 - 10 with 10 being the healthiest, my hair and scalp is a 9. I always focus on health before length!

And from my many observations on being on various hair forums, the ladies who always post about healthy hair care practices have the longest hair!

 

[bbdgirl]

my hair is healthy but I still have breakage issues at the crown, so in addition to my usual routine I am trying to find the solution to stopping the breakage so this area will catch up.
I have been struggling with this for years now, so I am only 75% happy with my hair right now.

 

[Aggie]

I voted for general breakage because of I'm newly texlaxed and have demarcation breakage from the 3 textures in my hair, therefore, I am also suffering from see-through ends as a result. I also have porosity issues with my ends because I used to use no-lye relaxers which damaged my hair pretty badly and now I am currently growing that hair out and cutting it off as it grows. I know when the texlaxed hair grows out, my hair will be in a much better condition than it is now. It's not horrible but it's also not how I want my hair to be at the moment. I'd say I'm about 80% happy with my hair's progress right now.

 

[caribeandiva]

I had a Andis ceramic flat iron from Walmart. I think the settings ranged from 1 - 20 and I was using a I started out on 10 but eventually cranked it up to 15, and it used to smoke.

my first flatiron used to smoke too. the silver plates eventually turned BROWN! You get what you pay for.

 

[aprils13]

Good time to ask a question I have been wondering about-
Is "heat damage" really damage on a natural head of hair if your hair still looks healthy, with no split ends or breakage? The only difference is that one section may not curl back as easily. I understand that the hair may be "trained straight" but is it really damaged. By the way I'm not talking about my hair...yet.

From my experience, my hair looked very healthy when it was straight, I always got compliments on my thick hair. Once I blowdryed it looked really dry and brittle. I have a large section that doesnt curl back and it feels so much different than the other sections when wet.

IMO, heat damage is damage.

 

[mahogany_horizons]

I think my hair is pretty healthy. I'd say 85 to 90% healthy. The only recurring hair issue I ever have is split ends. I get a tiny smidge of breakage here and there, but that is to be expected when relaxed, or when you heat style. It is normally about 5 strands or less. My hair is thicker and healtheir than it ever has been. When my husband gets home, I will take pictures and show my progress since May 2008! M.

 

[ladytee2]

My hair is much improved since finding LHCF. I DC once a week, protective style and moisturize my ends daily. Today I noticed what I thought was frizzy hair is actually new hairs sticking straight up from my scalp. How cool is that?

 

[Poohbear]

My hair is pretty healthy... I just have some split ends, that's about it.

 

[MizzCoco]

I can finally say that my hair is healthy. Pre-LHCF my hair was thin and lifeless b/c of heat styling and too-frequent relaxer touchups. But I've been on my journey 6 months, and I've found my staples and a regi I can live with, and breakage is no longer an issue. It retains moisture very well, and I'm really seeing some growth now! A few months ago I couldn't say all this!

 

[foxieroxienyc]

I can actually say that now that I've super simplified my hair regimen (wash/DC/roller set or air dry/up do) my hair has been super healthy. I used Bigen in my hair recently to color it a rich Oriental black and it looks great, my ends have no splits, I don't see much breakage, only a hair here or there, nothing serious. My hair has a natural sheen to it, and it's VERY thick. The length is finally coming along, I kept trimming for the sake of eveness, my nape grows slower than the rest of my hair no matter what I do, just how it is. But since stopping that, things are coming along and growing rather quickly. I'm happy with my hair, very happy. In fact I love it.