Omw2TbL
Member
Hello everyone,
I am new to this forum as an official member but I have been lurking since my teenage years. Especially when the natural hair care movement started. I finally found the solution to my extreme brittle hair after reading so many threads on all the forums that are still active, which is not much. I am not sure if I am supposed to post this in a relaxer thread, but I figured this advice might get buried and I really want to share what worked for me, hoping it might save someone's hair.
Background:
I have been natural since roughly 2014 and my longest length was BSL. I did relax my hair a couple of times along the way when I got tired of single strand knots, the breakage and not being able to wear my hair out without it becoming extremely dry in just a couple of hours. Last year during quarantine I decided that I wanted to relax again after being natural for around 3 years. And this time for good. My hair was a little past BSL and in a matter of months my hair went form BSL to armpit length with extreme brittleness, breakage and dryness. I then transitioned again cutting everything to a TWA, with the same issues. A dry, brittle TWA that snaps and pops every time I put a comb to it. After doing some research I decided to relax my hair yet AGAIN but this time I had all the knowledge that I needed. I have now been relaxed for the past 3 months and my hair is finally soft, supple, my comb and Denman brush glide through my hair without making a single snapping sound and life is just good.
Realisations:
1. I finally realised I have naturally high porosity (HP) hair. And relaxers make it worse, waaaay worse.
2. Realising that as a HP natural I needed frequent protein, but all I did was focus on moisture. But now that I am relaxed protein needs to be the centre of my hair care.
3. I stopped exclusively following black hair advice and started researching what white people do to salvage damaged brittle hair. I mostly searched on how to keep bleached hair healthy (or as healthy as possible). Since both bleached and relaxed hair suffer some level of chemical damage.
4. I stopped trying to fix my hair with only natural concoctions. Nature is great but hair care has been researched for decades. Trust science more, not everything that is man-made is evil.
What did I do:
Change my hair care routine to focus on protein, rather than moisture.
Don't get me wrong moisture is important but with highly porous hair that moisture slips right out if you don't do anything about the raised cuticles. You need hydrolyzed proteins to lay your cuticles flat and fill in the gaps in your hair. If you are relaxed this will keep your hair strong at the line of demarcation where your new growth meets the relaxed hair.
I threw away all my products and my routine is now 90% Aphogee products.
Using these products weekly slowly changed my hair to become less brittle but I was still experiencing some breakage. Until I did two major things. You don't need to discard all your products and go out and buy everything I listed above but I do advice you to try the two things I will list below. This turned my dry brittle ends that felt like velcro and would snap off and fill my sink with a million small pieces into legit butter. The results were instant as well for me.
1. Breakage hair mask: I mixed the Aphogee 2 step protein treatment with the 2 minute reconstructor. I was too lazy to do the two step treatment. If you are familiar with it, you know it makes your hair rock hard before you rinse it out. So I added a table spoon to my reconstructor to have an extra boost of protein without having to wait and do a second deep conditioning treatment. I used one table spoon of the 2 step and two table spoons of the reconstructor. I decided to let it dry completely on my hair and not cover it. The mask did get hard but nothing too crazy. I rinsed it out and my hair felt so strong, yet supple and moisturised from the conditioner.
2. Use a serum to seal your hair: After reading blogs for white women's hair and the recommendation of using serums for dry brittle hair I decided to just try it. I picked up the John Frieda Frizz Ease as it claimed to keep hair moisturised. This product is pure silicones mind you, an ingredient I avoided like the plague since going natural. It left my hair so soft, supple and manageable. I always sealed with oils but was always left with dry hair after a couple of hours. This was the first time I actually experienced moisture being sealed in my hair. Even the next morning my hair was still nice and soft. I did do a micro trim of 1/8 inch even though my damage is around an inch long. And still my comb and brush would glide through my hair.
Edit on how I use the serum: After washing my hair without towel drying, I apply the Pro-Vitamin Leave-in, the Redken Anti-snap and the Garnier leave-in conditioner. Then I sealed everything in with the Frizz Ease serum and slicked my hair back so it could dry as straight as possible.
This turned out to be quite a long post, thank you for reading if you have come this far. I wanted to give you as much information as possible because I know how frustrating it is to have hair fill up your sink and bathroom floor no matter how gentle you are and how many deep conditioning treatments you do. It has made me break down in tears many many times. These two treatments have completely salvaged my breakage and when I comb my hair I now get maybe 15 to 20 broken pieces, I do think that most of those pieces are from damaged strands that were already too damaged to be saved. But the fact that I can comb through my hair without any snagging and popping tells me no strands are being further damaged and I am on my way to retain more length.
I added a picture of my hair in box braids so you can get an idea of my hairs condition. I did this routine 2 days before braiding my hair on the first washday after my relaxer. I now just spray my hair with leave-in and use a pea size of the serum to keep my hair moist
Hope this helps, good luck!
I am new to this forum as an official member but I have been lurking since my teenage years. Especially when the natural hair care movement started. I finally found the solution to my extreme brittle hair after reading so many threads on all the forums that are still active, which is not much. I am not sure if I am supposed to post this in a relaxer thread, but I figured this advice might get buried and I really want to share what worked for me, hoping it might save someone's hair.
Background:
I have been natural since roughly 2014 and my longest length was BSL. I did relax my hair a couple of times along the way when I got tired of single strand knots, the breakage and not being able to wear my hair out without it becoming extremely dry in just a couple of hours. Last year during quarantine I decided that I wanted to relax again after being natural for around 3 years. And this time for good. My hair was a little past BSL and in a matter of months my hair went form BSL to armpit length with extreme brittleness, breakage and dryness. I then transitioned again cutting everything to a TWA, with the same issues. A dry, brittle TWA that snaps and pops every time I put a comb to it. After doing some research I decided to relax my hair yet AGAIN but this time I had all the knowledge that I needed. I have now been relaxed for the past 3 months and my hair is finally soft, supple, my comb and Denman brush glide through my hair without making a single snapping sound and life is just good.
Realisations:
1. I finally realised I have naturally high porosity (HP) hair. And relaxers make it worse, waaaay worse.
2. Realising that as a HP natural I needed frequent protein, but all I did was focus on moisture. But now that I am relaxed protein needs to be the centre of my hair care.
3. I stopped exclusively following black hair advice and started researching what white people do to salvage damaged brittle hair. I mostly searched on how to keep bleached hair healthy (or as healthy as possible). Since both bleached and relaxed hair suffer some level of chemical damage.
4. I stopped trying to fix my hair with only natural concoctions. Nature is great but hair care has been researched for decades. Trust science more, not everything that is man-made is evil.
What did I do:
Change my hair care routine to focus on protein, rather than moisture.
Don't get me wrong moisture is important but with highly porous hair that moisture slips right out if you don't do anything about the raised cuticles. You need hydrolyzed proteins to lay your cuticles flat and fill in the gaps in your hair. If you are relaxed this will keep your hair strong at the line of demarcation where your new growth meets the relaxed hair.
I threw away all my products and my routine is now 90% Aphogee products.
- Keratin and Green Tea Shampoo (sulfate free)
- Keratin 2 Min Reconstructor
- Two-Step Protein Treatment (every 4 weeks)
- Pro-Vitamin Leave-in Conditioner
- Redken Anti-snap (ceramides: 2-oleamido-1 and 3-octadecanediol)
- Garnier Avocado and Shea Butter Leave-in conditioner
Using these products weekly slowly changed my hair to become less brittle but I was still experiencing some breakage. Until I did two major things. You don't need to discard all your products and go out and buy everything I listed above but I do advice you to try the two things I will list below. This turned my dry brittle ends that felt like velcro and would snap off and fill my sink with a million small pieces into legit butter. The results were instant as well for me.
1. Breakage hair mask: I mixed the Aphogee 2 step protein treatment with the 2 minute reconstructor. I was too lazy to do the two step treatment. If you are familiar with it, you know it makes your hair rock hard before you rinse it out. So I added a table spoon to my reconstructor to have an extra boost of protein without having to wait and do a second deep conditioning treatment. I used one table spoon of the 2 step and two table spoons of the reconstructor. I decided to let it dry completely on my hair and not cover it. The mask did get hard but nothing too crazy. I rinsed it out and my hair felt so strong, yet supple and moisturised from the conditioner.
2. Use a serum to seal your hair: After reading blogs for white women's hair and the recommendation of using serums for dry brittle hair I decided to just try it. I picked up the John Frieda Frizz Ease as it claimed to keep hair moisturised. This product is pure silicones mind you, an ingredient I avoided like the plague since going natural. It left my hair so soft, supple and manageable. I always sealed with oils but was always left with dry hair after a couple of hours. This was the first time I actually experienced moisture being sealed in my hair. Even the next morning my hair was still nice and soft. I did do a micro trim of 1/8 inch even though my damage is around an inch long. And still my comb and brush would glide through my hair.
Edit on how I use the serum: After washing my hair without towel drying, I apply the Pro-Vitamin Leave-in, the Redken Anti-snap and the Garnier leave-in conditioner. Then I sealed everything in with the Frizz Ease serum and slicked my hair back so it could dry as straight as possible.
This turned out to be quite a long post, thank you for reading if you have come this far. I wanted to give you as much information as possible because I know how frustrating it is to have hair fill up your sink and bathroom floor no matter how gentle you are and how many deep conditioning treatments you do. It has made me break down in tears many many times. These two treatments have completely salvaged my breakage and when I comb my hair I now get maybe 15 to 20 broken pieces, I do think that most of those pieces are from damaged strands that were already too damaged to be saved. But the fact that I can comb through my hair without any snagging and popping tells me no strands are being further damaged and I am on my way to retain more length.
I added a picture of my hair in box braids so you can get an idea of my hairs condition. I did this routine 2 days before braiding my hair on the first washday after my relaxer. I now just spray my hair with leave-in and use a pea size of the serum to keep my hair moist
Hope this helps, good luck!
Last edited:
