Naturals - How can you tell your hair is healthy if...

[KurlyNinja]

you dont straighten it? I know its a little harder to see splits especially ones that are midshaft when the hair is its curly state. And you cannot really base it off the fact that your hair is dry because a lot of naturals just have natural dry, wiry hair. I just want to know because I dont plan on straightening my hair very often as a natural, but I'm not really sure how to check for healthiness... I know everybody answer might be different. I just want to know how you personally know when your hair is at its prime state or not? Do the curls not clump as much? is your hair poofier? flatter? Do you get more SSKs? TIA.

 

[leiah]

I have not straightened since my BC 2 years ago.
Now it's at a length were I can examine the ends, which I do all the time and have literally never found 1 split end. In the past, every single hair was split
I don't get little broken hairs on the collars of my shirts or when I detangle

But even before it was long enough to look at the ends, I just knew it was healthy because of how it feels. It's such a huge drastic difference from how it was when it was damaged.
It can be too dry or too moisturized or oily or over proteined, or frizzy, or have product buildup but it always feels thick and dense and strong

 

[Your Cheeziness]

Another way to tell is if your ends stop coiling (if you have coils to begin with). For example, I knew something was janky when my twists wouldn't hold as well on the ends. When I got my hair blown out it became even more obvious. Snip, snip.

 

[aa9746]

you dont straighten it? I know its a little harder to see splits especially ones that are midshaft when the hair is its curly state. And you cannot really base it off the fact that your hair is dry because a lot of naturals just have natural dry, wiry hair. I just want to know because I dont plan on straightening my hair very often as a natural, but I'm not really sure how to check for healthiness... I know everybody answer might be different. I just want to know how you personally know when your hair is at its prime state or not? Do the curls not clump as much? is your hair poofier? flatter? Do you get more SSKs? TIA.

My hair is longer and thicker. I have no problems seeing splits. I had more midshaft splits when i straigtened a lot. I have less now.

 

[empressri]

There are PLENTY of ways.

Does your hair snap easily?
Are you seeing breakage?
Tons of splits?
Overly dry? And yes that means something cause if you don't retain moisture like you should something is up.
If you take a strand of your hair and break it into two pieces, can you hear that 'snap'?
Is there a little stretch to the strand when you break it? If it breaks too easily it's over proteined. If it stretches TOO much where you can have breakage, it's over moisturized.

And everyone's head is different but I can look at my ends and tell if they need clipping. If they don't curl up like they should I need to do a little snip snip.

As for midshaft splits they're no more harder to see when my hair is straight than when it's curly. Hell I sit at work looking for splits when I'm more lol

 

[BERlin]

For me it's too many single strand knots. If I begin to have more than one knot on a large portion of my hair it's time for a trim.
Usually protein treatments put the bounce back into my ends.

 

[beautifullyblessed]

Another way to tell is if your ends stop coiling (if you have coils to begin with). For example, I knew something was janky when my twists wouldn't hold as well on the ends. When I got my hair blown out it became even more obvious. Snip, snip.

Agreed!!! I haven't used heat since last January and the first 6-8 inches of my hair in the front have a tighter curl pattern than the remaining 7-8 inches.

 

[libertysince05]

interesting....any more tips?

 

[glamazon386]

You can tell by the way it feels. I can also tell that I need a trim when I start to get excessive tangles. That means I have too many SSKs.

 

[southerncitygirl]

when my hair gets tangly i need a trim which is about every 5-6 months.....i'm due for one by the end of this month.....i get it flat-ironed during this time and then my stylist gets a better idea of how much needs to be cut normally its just a pinch.

 

[greight]

I do a strand test.

I don't know about the other ladies, but if I gently stretch one strand of my hair taut, I can feel the ridges (splits, etc) versus a healthy strand that is smooth.

 

[LovinLea]

I assume that my ends are damaged when they get extra tangly. If my hair doesn't kink up, it's damaged. If all the hair in the comb is shorter than the length of my hair...damage.

Most of the time, my damage is mechanical. ex. Combing the wrong way or ripping knots.

 

[ms-gg]

For me, it is time for a trim when:
A)If I do twists over time and they start to look really really really really frizzy. I mean nasty frizzy.
B)I trim every single strand knot I see on the spot. If I have a whole lot of them, I will trim those suckers off.
C)If I get a lot of incomplete splits, I will trim.
D) If my hair is tangling more than usual, I will trim. Not normal tangles where a shed hair is caught in your hair and once you remove it, the tangle is gone, no if my ends are tangling just to tangle, then it is time to do a trim.

Luckily for me, I have not done a trim since September of last year and I don't think I need to anytime soon either. Also, I do not use heat. The last time I used heat was sometime in August of 2006 or something. You do not need heat to know it is time to trim your hair.