Luscious Healthy Ends Challenge 2018

Did an Aphogee treatment and it ate up some of my raggedy scraggly ends. I shed and pulled out about a hamster size of hair. But, I hadn't combed my hair in many, many months. I'm going to have to comb my hair out, and leave my No Comb Method behind when I do another Aphogee 2 Step treatment.

I think I may have used too much product. But surprisingly, I still have my length. My hair is springy and curly and looks like it always does, after Aphogee 2 Step works its magic.

I do my Ends Routine with castor oil at night. Overall, my ends are in good shape!
 
Hope I’m not too late to join. My hair tapers very noticeably towards the ends. So I’m going to see how much I can baby my ends to be a lot thicker.

1. Are you relaxed, texlaxed, natural,
transitioning, etc
•I am relaxed
2. Current Hair Length
• 30.5 inches (7-8 inches from classic)
3. Why are you joining this challenge?
•as my hair gets longer, my ends seem to get more and more thin and sensitive
4. What have you tried to improve your ends?
•more protective styles such as buns, and detangling in the shower only)
5. What are you going to try to get those healthy ends?
•start microtrimming bit by bit, as that’s really the only way to thicken up ends
6. Any helpful tips you learned for your fellow challengers...
•patience? Lol But I think everyone knows that
 
Ends are still doing fine even after wearing a wash and go for a week. I had very few tangles and SSKs when I washed my hair today, which was a surprise. Did another wash and go. Planning to wear it for another week, then bun until my next wash day. I seal heavily with a moisturizer and Shea butter before I put my hair in a bun. I also did an oil rinse before shampooing.

I plan to start incorporating clay and ayurvedic powders on my next wash day.

Still wearing wash and go's and perfecting my technique. I have a few more SSKs than normal, but still not very many overall. I've been very gentle with my ends and try to keep them moisturized.

I want to evaluate my hair for a trim or S&D. I normally do this on straight hair, but I don't want to straighten anytime soon, so idk what I'm going to do about that. I guess I can go section by section through my wash and go but that will be harder to see. I'll take a look when I wash again.
 
Hi All! I definitely need to be in this challenge. I was adding conditioner for my dry DC last night and realized how thin the ends of my hair are.

I’ve been wearing wash n gos for the last 10 months and I think they’ve been bad for my ends.

1 - I’m natural

2 - my hair is around BSL

3 - I want the ends of my hair to be as thick as the roots

4 - I haven’t been paying any special attention to my ends because before I started wash n gos I used to wear buns most of the time

5 - I’m going to make quite a few changes
- switch to finger detangling
- seal my ends at night
- reduce the number of days I wear wash n gos (I’ll bum for half the week every week)

6 - I just read this entire thread and heavy sealing and/or glycerin seems to be an important step
 
I gave up getting my hair straightened back in November when I got heat damage so I haven’t trimmed since then. I’m going to dust today.

I’m thinking of ordering a butter to use on my ends even on days when I wash and go. It seems like everyone is in love with Shea butter these days. Which she’s butter product do you all recommend?
 
I had my hair done while on vacation. The stylist said my ends weren't too bad and he didn't trim them. So I will do a dusting sometime this week. I'm just not sure what trimming method I will use. Since my hair is straight, I may take very small sections and trim the sections. Since I don't wear my hair out, it doesn't have to be even.
 
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@Nightingale what is your ends care routine? I’m sure you’ve already said, but I read the whole thread all at once and now it’s a blur to me.

Daily I mist my twists lightly with water or a liquid leave in, focusing mostly on my ends, then apply a pomade to the ends only. Once a week, I’ll mist and moisturize my twists then seal the ends with pomade.
 
I started trying to trim with scissors but I have so many lengths in a small section it was imposible. So I pulled out my splitender and it worked fabulously. My ends feel so my much better.

Let' see how long this last. I will continue to search and destroy as needed.
 
Guess I could give a check-in.

I’ve been playing around with Shea Butter, on my ends. I just need something that’ll keep them together, and compacted which is why I love Shea Butter.

So about 3-4 inches up from my ends, I’ll apply Shea Butter, then I’ll add the Garnier Fructis Moroccan Argan oil serum this one:
via Imgflip Meme Generator
over the Shea butter so everything is sleek and soft, and then bun.

I’m pretty heavy handed when it comes to applying product to my ends, so I don’t care if they’re weighed down or anything
 
Before washing my hair last week, I dusted a few single strand knots from my ends. I then did an overnight prepoo with Shea butter and Philip Kingsley Elasticizer and SM Boabab & Tea Tree Oils Low Porosity etc. Applied Shea butter after my clay and before my gel.
 
Saturday I did a pretty thorough trim. Then I wore a wash n go for 4 days. Now I have so many stands that are knitted together. I don’t know if it’s just the wash n go, or if finger detangling isn’t getting all the shed hair out. But I need to figure something out.
I used Shea butter and then tons of gel on my ends for the wash n go, but I guess that’s not enough to keep my strands from knotting up.
 
I hope it's not to late to join this challenge.

1. Are you relaxed, texlaxed, natural, transitioning, etc
I'm natural, with lo to medium porosity, fine hair.

2. Current Hair Length
I'm about APL

3. Why are you joining this challenge?
I would like to join this challenge. I'm trying to grown out some heat damage, and I've decided to cut of the damage slowly so I'm working to better maintain my ends.

4. What have you tried to improve your ends?
I try to deep condition once a week, seal my hair with a butter my favorite is SSI Coriander Fig, I just started trialing SSI Seyani butter though. I do a mid-week moisturizing session by spraying my hair with leave-in conditioner, bagging for an hour, and then sealing. I also try to wear my hair in two strand twists, which always leaves my ends feeling the most stretched and moisturized.

5. What are you going to try to get those healthy ends?
Recently my ends have be feeling dry and rough. I think it could be a combination of ssks and changes in my damaged hair. I've recently trimmed some of the damage ends to start this challenge. I've always had ssk after I finished my twists and shed hairs that get caught in the my twists. I'm hoping that moisturizing twice a week and wearing my my twists off my shoulders will help reduced my ssks and therefore keep my ends from feeling rough. I'm also trying a heavier butter ( SSI Seyani) to see if that helps. I'm also wondering if more thorough detangling could help reduced ssks. At this point I exclusively finger detangle but maybe my hair needs more.

6. Any helpful tips you learned for your fellow challengers...
This is my first time, so I'm eager to learn. I will go back and read through the thread.
 
Saturday I did a pretty thorough trim. Then I wore a wash n go for 4 days. Now I have so many stands that are knitted together. I don’t know if it’s just the wash n go, or if finger detangling isn’t getting all the shed hair out. But I need to figure something out.
I used Shea butter and then tons of gel on my ends for the wash n go, but I guess that’s not enough to keep my strands from knotting up.

For "me", putting gel on the ends of my hair usually results in knots. In addition, I personally can't wear wash and go-s. They tangle and thus, destroy my hair and eat up my length gains. Those two things are the worse things as it relates to styling.
 
For "me", putting gel on the ends of my hair usually results in knots. In addition, I personally can't wear wash and go-s. They tangle and thus, destroy my hair and eat up my length gains. Those two things are the worse things as it relates to styling.

I’m slowly realizing that wash n gos are terrible for my ends. They just knot up. But I love the style. Maybe I just have to put them off until I reach my goal length. :-(
 
After reading through this thread. I've committed to moisturizing my ends every other day as opposed to once a week. I have fine, lo-po hair and am wary of it feeling greasy, so I'll see how my hair feels at the end of the week. Last night I started by layering Alikay Lemongrass Leave-In, with SSI Honey Buttercream, and Sealing with SSI Seyani butter.
 
:wavey:

I went in for my semi-annual professional trim, and below are the pre-trim and post-trim photos. I blogged about my experience at the new-to-me salon (phenomenal!), about the extent of my split ends (photos included), and about the stylist's and my ideas to reduce the extent of my split ends. For those interested, here's the address of the blog post: https://blossomingfitnatural.com/2018/05/18/length-check-trim-and-a-new-to-me-salon/

As I discuss in the blog post, I will definitely be purchasing, trialing, and evaluating The Mane Choice Split-End Treatment (the Sally's reviews here are compelling) . . . and I'm also going to try some styling and detangling and brushing changes. :smile:

May 17, 2018 before the trim. It had been 6 5 months since my last trim, I believe.

May172018BeforeTrim.jpg

May 17, 2018 after the trim:

May172018AfterTrim.jpg

Other photos after styling (next day, after the Texas heat and humidity got a hold of it ;) ) :
  1. https://blossomingfitnatural.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/img_20180518_140437.jpg
  2. https://blossomingfitnatural.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/img_20180518_140327.jpg
  3. https://blossomingfitnatural.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/img_20180518_140442.jpg
Overall:

My yet-trimmed hair went from line marker 9.5 in 2017 to line marker 11 in 2018 at its longest points. My trimmed hair went from line marker 8.5 in 2017 to line marker 9.5 in 2018. This means that my hair split more this time around. It means that I retained 1 inch of healthy hair in 5 months. That’s 0.3 0.5 (?) of growth per month, and 1/5 an inch of healthy hair retained per month.

That's my update. I've been keeping up with yours while logged out. :up: :smile:

Back on social media hiatus I go! (Thus I won't be able to respond to any posts here, but I can reply to comments at the blog.)

Take care, and happy healthy hair growing!

:heart:
 
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I didn't use the glycerin spray when I put in my flat twist today. I will see how that works out. I haven't yet figured out my ends. I had a good trim but I an feel the splits popping up already. I just plan on staying on top of that. I will just keep doing my search and destroys on a regular basis and do my trims every 4 months. It's been working OK so far so I will stick with it until I figure out something else.
 
For the last week I've been moisturizing and sealing every other day. I think that so far that's worked well me ends feel softer. However, I ruined my experiment by co-washing my hair in twists and putting on too much product so my hair is feeling coated as as a result dryer in general. I think I'll was tomorrow and start the experiment again.
 
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