Have any of you ladies ever had long-term scalp damage and were able to get a healthy scalp? Here's some background on my issue:
I've been an extremely slow grower since childhood but I think that is the result of getting my first perm at age 1 . My aunt (who at the time was 16) was an "aspiring cosmetologist" and decided that she couldn't resist perming an available head of hair. My parents said that before she permed my hair, it was full and thick (even at that young age my twa is thicker and longer than my hair has been at most periods in my life!). My mum tried many methods to get my hair to grow but nothing worked well and my hair was always short, fragile and fine. Eventually she just started perming it to make it easier on herself (at around age 8 probably) and that made breakage and scalp burns a problem.
Once I started taking care of my own hair, I put in a series of braids that further damaged my already temperamental scalp, meaning that my edges were (and still sort of are) gone. Finally, I decided back in 2008 that since perms didn't seem to be working out for my hair, why not go natural? And I was for about 8 months before I decided to follow my mother's advice and do a short "Halle Berry" style. This was the worst possible decision I'd ever made for my hair. This short style meant that I permed my hair every month and got it styled every two weeks on the dot to maintain it. I also made the foolish mistake of getting color rinses on the same day as the perms. I never let a permanent color touch my head because I knew that my scalp just couldn't take it and my stylist assured me that a rinse and perm on the same day would be ok (all pre-LHCF) Talk about breakage! I would have probably noticed it more if my stylist wasn't trimming every month to maintain a style. What I did notice was that my scalp was JACKED UP! My edges, which were starting to grow back after the time I was natural, are just about gone and my scalp is still recovering . I had my last perm in Dec. '11 and I'm pretty sure that after joining LHCF, I'm never going back.
I'm trying to be patient because I know that everything takes time but I just don't know what to do now to get my scalp healthy. I'm not even sure I can say "back to normal" because given my scalp's history, I don't think it's ever really been healthy. I'm putting a lot of work into finding some kind of solution because I'm getting married next year and would like to at least be able to wear my own hair in some kind of style instead of the wig I've been using for the past few months. I'm trying twists now under the wig and daily spritzing with a mixture of nettle tea, 6'n1 moisturizer (anyone else used this?), aloe vera gel, and castor oil mixed with some essential oils and sealing with shea butter. I've also been washing with an all natural aloe and vitamin e soap bar to avoid sulfates. I also tried cowashing but I got the worst buildup ever. So far I can't really tell if it's truly helping with the condition of my scalp because it still itches frequently and the hair on my edges sometimes drops out with a white bulb still attached.
Can anyone offer advice? And sorry the post is so long lol . Thanks ladies!
If you need me to post my "regiment" or anything else let me know!
I've been an extremely slow grower since childhood but I think that is the result of getting my first perm at age 1 . My aunt (who at the time was 16) was an "aspiring cosmetologist" and decided that she couldn't resist perming an available head of hair. My parents said that before she permed my hair, it was full and thick (even at that young age my twa is thicker and longer than my hair has been at most periods in my life!). My mum tried many methods to get my hair to grow but nothing worked well and my hair was always short, fragile and fine. Eventually she just started perming it to make it easier on herself (at around age 8 probably) and that made breakage and scalp burns a problem.
Once I started taking care of my own hair, I put in a series of braids that further damaged my already temperamental scalp, meaning that my edges were (and still sort of are) gone. Finally, I decided back in 2008 that since perms didn't seem to be working out for my hair, why not go natural? And I was for about 8 months before I decided to follow my mother's advice and do a short "Halle Berry" style. This was the worst possible decision I'd ever made for my hair. This short style meant that I permed my hair every month and got it styled every two weeks on the dot to maintain it. I also made the foolish mistake of getting color rinses on the same day as the perms. I never let a permanent color touch my head because I knew that my scalp just couldn't take it and my stylist assured me that a rinse and perm on the same day would be ok (all pre-LHCF) Talk about breakage! I would have probably noticed it more if my stylist wasn't trimming every month to maintain a style. What I did notice was that my scalp was JACKED UP! My edges, which were starting to grow back after the time I was natural, are just about gone and my scalp is still recovering . I had my last perm in Dec. '11 and I'm pretty sure that after joining LHCF, I'm never going back.
I'm trying to be patient because I know that everything takes time but I just don't know what to do now to get my scalp healthy. I'm not even sure I can say "back to normal" because given my scalp's history, I don't think it's ever really been healthy. I'm putting a lot of work into finding some kind of solution because I'm getting married next year and would like to at least be able to wear my own hair in some kind of style instead of the wig I've been using for the past few months. I'm trying twists now under the wig and daily spritzing with a mixture of nettle tea, 6'n1 moisturizer (anyone else used this?), aloe vera gel, and castor oil mixed with some essential oils and sealing with shea butter. I've also been washing with an all natural aloe and vitamin e soap bar to avoid sulfates. I also tried cowashing but I got the worst buildup ever. So far I can't really tell if it's truly helping with the condition of my scalp because it still itches frequently and the hair on my edges sometimes drops out with a white bulb still attached.
Can anyone offer advice? And sorry the post is so long lol . Thanks ladies!
If you need me to post my "regiment" or anything else let me know!