My Hair Story - Please Respond w/ Suggestions

[itismehmmkay]

So...this past weekend seemed to have put the last 4 years down the drain. Within those 4 years, I had been natural twice in the attempt to gain healthy hair. Welllllllllllllllllllll..........just last night I was sleeping in rollers just like I did when I was a freshman in college with relaxed hair.....4 years ago. It's embarrassing! I went through alot of "what is she doing w/ her hair" while in college when doing the natural-relaxed flip-flop. My motivation was that it would all be worth it in the end........

Long story short.....I need your suggestions as to what I need to do with my hair from this point. I'm currently relaxed but still pretty underprocessed. It air-dries in a looser afro with dry ends (I'll post a pic later). As we speak, my hair is flat-ironed and I'm wearing a "some-up-some-down" style. Each strand is only about 4 inches long. I'm going to call today ground zero again, but here are the things that I don't want to do:


THINGS I DON'T WANT TO DO:

1. No braids.....I'm tired of them!

2. No weave...It's too expensive for the sewn in kind and my hair breaks with the gule

3. No drawstring pony-tails...I bought one yesterday and couldn't get it to work for me. It's out of the picture for right now and will be used only for emergencies.


THIS IS WHAT I'M THINKING OF DOING:

1. I'm tempted to do a corrective relaxer on my underprocessed hair. At the same time, this may be a bad idea.

2. I'm thinking of investing in a better flat-iron so that my curly ends will get straight and not just stuck together and hard to comb.

3. Doing self-trims about every 2 weeks for maybe 2 months to get rid of split ends...then gradually increasing to every 4-6 weeks.

4. Only washing and flat-ironing every 2 weeks. Yes, I know it's not as frequent as it could be, but I dont' want to use the heat as often either. And no....wearing it air-dried is not an option...

... trust me!

5. Sleeping in rollers...Yes, I know this is on the list of hair-breakers, but I figure it's better than a daily curling iron. Maybe I'll just do this until I feel my ends are healthy and heavy enough to be wrapped at night and worn straight?

6. Continuing my lecithin and surge and all other hair-growing boosters.



Also.......I'm trying to decide whether or not I want relax again or should I just try and get my hair pressed? I keep thinking that's what I should have done on Friday before the relaxer: get it pressed and flat-ironed.


Yes this was long.......but pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease offer me your suggestions from my starting point to healthy, should-length hair. Yep...I'm just asking for shoulder length here. Though a blunt shoulder length would be even better (that's about 12 inches from my bangs and 8 inches from the top of my ear).

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[hOnii]

well, i think that if you can help it, you should just flat iron your hair instead of getting it relaxed again. you should learn how to do your own sew-ins. it saves you sooo much hassel and money!

in the time being you could try some new styles or something.. i have a link with many short-med. hairstyles.

 

[Healthb4Length]

wow where do I start? Seems like you're frustrated with your hair and trust me girl we've all been there. I have a few tips on styles that may work for you. Have you considered braidouts/twistouts as an alternative to flat ironing? They are great because you have a protective style and it's cute too, just my opinion. I think that you need to employ basic hair care tips and then work your way up. I think that protective styles should be part of your regime since you don't want to go the braids route. Buns, phony ponies can really work great for you. I think you should go to this site www.growafrohairlong.com although she uses braids to grow out her hair she also gives tips on how to grow out with protective styles, go to the site and click on the link for protective styles. You might have to wait it out on the corrective relaxer cause it can cause more harm than good. You don't mention much about what you do for moisture for your hair. Do you oil the last 3 inches of your ends? This really combats split ends. I think also that you should wash your hair more often, then less you wash it for me, the more damaged it gets. Why because in my opinion dirty hair is dry and when you put more stuff like grease or bad styling products on top of the that only makes the problem worse. Please try to stay away from too much heat, you need to be patient your hair wasn't damaged over night and it won't grow overnight. Do you do co-washes they really work wonders on alot of the ladies here including myself. They soften the hair and provide moisture, you don't mention anything about deep treatments etc.Are vitamins apart of your regime? let a sistah know

Stick with us and you'll have success!

 

[itismehmmkay]

Yay!! THanks to you all so far.

Alli, I was thinking about doing flat-twists like I used to last year (in pics). My hair was so soft and curly cute and I would wear it pinned up with a bunch of clips. The only thing is that my hair was relaxed a bit more so the curls were a bit looser. Also, my hair was about 2 inches longer. Annnnnnnnd, I'm worried that the flat-twists caused me to pull on my hair too much in the crown; it broke right off to the new-growth.

Then again, it could've been due to all of the "retouching" that I was doing to my hair. Blahblahblah.......maybe I'll try that again? It did allow me to wash my hair ever night. Ya'll, I want to try an correct my relaxer so badddddddddddddd! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

 

[MizAvalon]

I would suggest that if you attempt a corrective relaxer, that you don't do it yourself and go to a professional.

 

[Healthb4Length]

when did you get the relaxer? Maybe if it's like a month later then you can but if it's like a couple of weeks I really don't suggest it. BE PATIENT. YOu might need a treatment like nexxus emergencee to combat breakage or aphogee, you might need to stretch out your relaxers, you have to learn to DEAL with both textures and be GENTLE.

 

[ms_kenesha]

I'd also recommend roller setting as opposed to flat ironing or sleeping in rollers. This would make your ends look better as well as eliminate the direct heat on your hair.

HTH

 

[Queenie]

I agree with Ali & Ms Kenesha. Twist outs are great.

 

[itismehmmkay]

Keep in mind that my hair does not have the conventional smoothness associated with relaxed hair (since it's underprocessed quite a bit). What kind of leave-in would you all recommend for doing the twist out?