Naturals who NEVER straighten - thin ends?

[naturalmanenyc]

If you never straighten your hair, how can you tell if you have thin ends?

I wear my curly hair 95% of the time, rarely in protective styles. When I had my hair straightened, I noticed thinning ends.

How can a natural who does not straighten tell if they have thin ends?


My hair Sunday morning

My hair Sunday afternoon

Back shot - I really need to stop wearing my hair out 95% of the time. If I could bring myself to protective style, I would retain more length.

It's not as easy to see with the black shirt, but my ends are definitely thin. Some of it is from plucking single strand knots but more than likely the cause is not protective styling.

 

[Janet']

I love your bun- that's an awesome ps! My wash and go's dont necessarily damage my ends and have been a key in my retention. What do you do for your wash and go's? Your curly hair is too cute!

 

[Geminigirl]

I can tell when my hair is dry and stretched. My roots are full and poofy then it goes down into dry scraggly knotted up ends. I hate them damn SSK's

 

[Tamster]

I hate SSKs too. I wear a wash n go almost all the time. I'm scared to straigten because of how bad my ends might look

 

[africanqueen456]

your shrinkage is craxy!!!!Your nearing apl too!

 

[Rocky91]

i guess i don't fit this category anymore, cause i do straighten now. but back in my days of being a member of Nappturality and never using heat, i could still tell my ends were bad by how my stretched styles looked. like, a big twistout on banded hair just looked bad when my ends got too thin.

idk if protective styling really helps my hair though. what has helped is thoroughly detangling and regular DCs.

your hair is really cute!

 

[suburbanbushbabe]

Love your Sunday morning hair. I can tell my ends are straggly if I'm wearing a twistout or bantu knot out. Also on 2nd day wash and gos.

 

[naturalmanenyc]

I love your bun- that's an awesome ps! My wash and go's dont necessarily damage my ends and have been a key in my retention. What do you do for your wash and go's? Your curly hair is too cute!

Thanks! That is the SouthernTease bun. My Wash & Go is usually just a water rinse and adding conditioner. I shampoo & DC at least once per week & I detangle. I just water rinse and add conditioner daily for the rest of the week. I plait my hair at night, most nights, using 4 - 6 plaits. I have been known to just sleep on my curly fro though - with a silk scarf over it.

your shrinkage is craxy!!!!Your nearing apl too!

Yeah, my shrinkage is over 50%. I have been nearing APL is some spots for months and have passed APL in a couple of spots, per DH's assessment.

i guess i don't fit this category anymore, cause i do straighten now. but back in my days of being a member of Nappturality and never using heat, i could still tell my ends were bad by how my stretched styles looked. like, a big twistout on banded hair just looked bad when my ends got too thin.

idk if protective styling really helps my hair though. what has helped is thoroughly detangling and regular DCs.

your hair is really cute!

Thanks! I don't really do twisted styles. I'm mostly rocking a curly fro. I need to work on my two strand twists. I wore them once a few weeks ago and they were cute.

Love your Sunday morning hair. I can tell my ends are straggly if I'm wearing a twistout or bantu knot out. Also on 2nd day wash and gos.

Thanks! I have not noticed how ratty my ends were until this last BKT on Sunday. I plucked a few more single strands knots tonight

 

[VidaStarr]

when I braid or twist my hair I can tell. I usually clip the ends that way.

 

[cmw45]

I love your bun- that's an awesome ps! My wash and go's dont necessarily damage my ends and have been a key in my retention. What do you do for your wash and go's? Your curly hair is too cute!

I'm jealous. This has not been my experience at all. For me, wash n' gos lead to single strand knots and have since I was shoulder length. I have 4a type hair.

And while it does look like you have a bit of thinning on the ends, it also looks like you just might have fine hair. I have fine hair but a lot of it and had to come to grips with the fact that even when my hair is at it's healthiest, pressed, it's not going to look like a thick lush 4b/4c.

 

[Nonie]

I agree with the others. When my hair was braid stretched, I could tell when the ends were thin even before I ever pressed it. Even just stretching a section with fingers, I could tell as demonstrated below where you see 2 year old virgin hair that had never been pressed:

Nice thick ends:

Skinny ugly ends (top pics) and then after I cut them off:

ETA: In case you're wondering what it is I did differently to get the different results. In the thick end pics, I used to dust REGULARLY. In the skinny end pics, I went only FOUR months w/o dusting and boy did I pay for it.

 

[Curlybeauty]

I hate SSKs too. I wear a wash n go almost all the time. I'm scared to straigten because of how bad my ends might look

Me too. I have been anti-heat for the summer, and at first I was doing good with twist sets and stuff but then I just got plain ol' lazy. I have been doing wet ponys, wet buns, and wash n go's. I'm so scared to see what my ends look like, it's almost scary. I wont be flat ironing because i'm going right into a sew in, but i'm scurrd

I wish janet would let us know how she does a beneficial wash n go!

 

[Nasdaq_Diva]

I never staighten my hair, but I can tell my ends are thin too. When I wear it in a puff, it just looks very frazzled. I guess that's a word to describe them. I hate my ends..I cut, and cut, and cut..but I think it's a part of life now

 

[africanqueen456]

ooh thats good then natural congrats on reaching apl natural

 

[BostonMaria]

naturalmane, do you have fine hair?
BTW do you still do the BKT every few months? I only ask because I noticed the shrinkage.

I don't think your ends look bad. Maybe try to mix it up and do wash n' go's a few days then the protective styles the rest of the week.

 

[curlycrocheter]

i just posted about this a few days ago. I went 4 months with no heat. While I retained over 2 inches of hair, I lost 6 inches because my ends were really really bad from wet bunning. I'm afraid I'm nearing the same problem because it's futile to flat iron in the humidity.

 

[TaraDyan]

Hi, Naturalmane!

I feel your pain. I lost a lot of length in February due to thin ends. I could tell my ends were thinning when I wore my wash-n-gos because they looked anemic and see-through even when curly. So I straightened my hair and cut 4"-6" all around and vowed not to use heat for 3 months. I wore protective styles almost every day and only wore it out once or twice in 3 months. So tell me why oh WHY did I have thin ends AGAIN when I straightened in May?!? OMG ... I was too through!!

As it turns out, my wet bunning was causing serious breakage in the back because my hair is very fine, so you gotta be careful even with protective styling. I do have to admit that I hadn't been keeping up on my protein treatments and got a bit lazy with my hair. With my fine strands, I can't afford to get lazy with the reggie.

Now when I straighten again in September, I'm gonna have to chop back to APL ... AGAIN!!!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr ... ding dang setbacks!!!

 

[Rocky91]

Hi, Naturalmane!

I feel your pain. I lost a lot of length in February due to thin ends. I could tell my ends were thinning when I wore my wash-n-gos because they looked anemic and see-through even when curly. So I straightened my hair and cut 4"-6" all around and vowed not to use heat for 3 months. I wore protective styles almost every day and only wore it out once or twice in 3 months. So tell me why oh WHY did I have thin ends AGAIN when I straightened in May?!? OMG ... I was too through!!

As it turns out, my wet bunning was causing serious breakage in the back because my hair is very fine, so you gotta be careful even with protective styling. I do have to admit that I hadn't been keeping up on my protein treatments and got a bit lazy with my hair. With my fine strands, I can't afford to get lazy with the reggie.

Now when I straighten again in September, I'm gonna have to chop back to APL ... AGAIN!!!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr ... ding dang setbacks!!!

i soooo sympathize with this entire post, especially with the bolded. i kinda focus more on low manipulation with my fine hair over protective styling. like, wearing a twistout for a whole week and then loosely pinning it up for two more days is wayyyy better for my hair than wash n'gos/bunning.

oh and Tara, don't worry, honey, a setback is just a setup for a comeback.
totally swiped that from somebody's siggy

 

[TaraDyan]

i soooo sympathize with this entire post, especially with the bolded. i kinda focus more on low manipulation with my fine hair over protective styling. like, wearing a twistout for a whole week and then loosely pinning it up for two more days is wayyyy better for my hair than wash n'gos/bunning.

Girl you are soooooo right. Now that I've figured out what the problem is, I haven't been manipulating or bunning my hair as much, and I've stepped up on the protein / moisture treatments too. I'm also trying to eat better and excercise more, because those are factors as well.

oh and Tara, don't worry, honey, a setback is just a setup for a comeback.
totally swiped that from somebody's siggy

Thanks for that, Rocky! I saw that in someone's siggy too and I loved it!

Trust ... I'll be back in the game in no time.

 

[naturalmanenyc]

I do not think I have fine hair. In fact, I think it's normal, not thick or thin.

I still BKT every 2 - 3 months. I am going to work on protective styling...back to my bun.

naturalmane, do you have fine hair?
BTW do you still do the BKT every few months? I only ask because I noticed the shrinkage.

I don't think your ends look bad. Maybe try to mix it up and do wash n' go's a few days then the protective styles the rest of the week.

 

[Carrie A]

I could tell on my dry stretched hair. With coils not so much. My hair grows in a mullet and I just thought I had normal length variations. I did my second flat iron since my big chop +2 years and my ends were pretty jacked up. I now think if you are going to wear the hair coiled it needs to be trimmed regularly/ nothing major just a mini trim. That will help reduce knots which lead to breakage and ratty ends. I have recommitted to end care and use castor oil, protective styles and I will be trimming every three months. Hopefully in six months I'll see improvement.

 

[Carrie A]

Hi, Naturalmane!

I wore protective styles almost every day and only wore it out once or twice in 3 months. So tell me why oh WHY did I have thin ends AGAIN when I straightened in May?!? OMG ... I was too through!!

As it turns out, my wet bunning was causing serious breakage in the back because my hair is very fine, so you gotta be careful even with protective styling.

But what about the ends specifically. Were you using bobby pins to tuck the ends? Do you think that was an issue too?

 

[dyh080]

Sorry, don't have an answer( it doesn't look thin to me) but just popped in to say your natural hair looks beautiful.

 

[Fine 4s]

I love the fact that my stylist doesn't trim off a lot of hair but sometimes I really want that thick straight accross line. I can tell I have some thinning ends when I stretch my hair during styling or even worse when I blow dry I can't necessarily tell with my twist outs though. That style still gives me thick, neat ends. But I get confused as to whether it's natural thinning wear and tear or excessive breakage.

My last trim was in Feb 2010 and before that was in 2009 with a blowdry to straighten. I sometimes dust in between but einh, don't trust my dusting much. I'm scheduled for a trim in September 2010 and I will ask for a firm 1 inch off maybe more only IF I am at least at full MBL. If I'm not at least there, 1 inch will suffice and I'll come again in another 3 months. My goal length is full WL but I can deal with a full and neat MBL. This time, I'll straighten with a flat iron or press to get a good deep trim.

 

[Curlykale]

You hair looks healthy to me! I can tell only my experience: I used to use no protein because my hair was very healthy and I thought I didn't need it, but I noticed thicker ends when I started to use a light protein every week. Another thing that didn't help my ends was detangling with a denman... the hair on the top of my head is very thin and the denman on wet hair was enough to break it. Hope it helps.