Naturals: WORST mistakes you ever made as a natural?

Not detangling because I was wearing my hair natural. Even if I am wearing an afro...to detangle in the beginning is to prevent tangles and loose way less hair when I get ready for the next wash.
 
1) cutting off all my curly ends cos i thought they were damaged ends only to find them reappear a week or so later

2) knowing nothing about detangling and cutting out two big chunks of matted hair on two separate occasions in the exact same place
 
Trying to be cute for the boy. I was wearing a puff for the weekend and I then usually re-braid, scarf and start over in the morning. Well slept with my puff cause I didn't want to sleep in a scarf. Woke up jumped in the shower without combing thru in sections and I ended up with a matted mess. Lost some hair, wanted to cry and vowed never to do that crap again
 
1. When I first did my big chop, some of my ends looked fuzzy at the end. So I kept cutting...and cutting...and cutting. And they still looked fuzzy but I finally stopped. So now a year later, a small section of hair at the top of my head is about EL while the rest of my hair is near APL. I'll get it evened eventually.

2. Not combing my hair for like a week. I read on here about not combing hair until you wash. Boy oh boy. I had a really tough time detangling.
 
non so far, cuz i found the forum as soon as i went natural and began my hhj... im glad i found this place ahead of time. thanks ladies
 
-No detangling enough. Just finger combing and wide tooth combs do not get the shed hair out for me. This has caused unnecessary knots.

-Underestimating the power of oil resulting in neglecting to use oil period. I've been using oil more frequently over the past month and it has helped tremendously with detangling and unraveling my twists. Oil is definitely a natural detangler for my hair.
 
The worst mistake I done was what I did last month. I flatironed my hair on Sunday then got a dominican blowout on wednesday and the following week a BKT. I have more heat damage then before and the dominican blowout was the cause b/c they didn't put any heat protectant and proceeded to blowfry my hair (not blowdry but blowfry) Never again.
 
Into year 2 or 3 of being natural, I was pressured by my peers in high school and I was so tired of wearing braids that I religiously got my hair pressed every 2 weeks. I've been natural for 7 years, and I'm SL. When I tell people I've been natural for 7 years they look at me with this :nono: face
 
My biggest mistake was thinking I knew how to care for my hair. I'd been a faithful in my stylist chair every two weeks for an "edge up". When I decided to go natural, I thought it would be simple and did not do any research.
 
1. Pressing my hair with the hot comb: It damaged my edges (by my temple)and I am still trying to recover from that.:nono:

2. Using the blow dryer after washing/co washing/conditioning: My hair hates heat in even the mildest form.(I DC with two showercaps on and a towel over that for 1 hour. Works well for me! )

3. Jumping on a bandwagon! Not every product/method will work for everyone. I learned the hard way when it came to protein. My hair is relatively sensitive to protein (only Profectiv Anti breakage treatments work well for me. They have protein and moisturizing ingredients in their products)

4. I need to PS, PS & more PS to retain length. The bunning or two strand does not help me at all in retaining length. Cornrows or individual braids only!

Basically, we must not generalise our hair, hair treatments and regimen and by extension, the likes and dislikes of our hair! Your hair is simply your hair! Not everything others suggest will help you achieve your goals. Sadly, most times we learn the hard way of trial & error.:grin:

HTH
 
MY worst MISTAKE EVER! Not being PATIENT! I relaxed after almost 2 yrs of being natural. Now I have to pay the price and let my hair grow BACK out, and then big chop again!
 
gennatay said:
My biggest mistake was thinking I knew how to care for my hair. I'd been a faithful in my stylist chair every two weeks for an "edge up". When I decided to go natural, I thought it would be simple and did not do any research.
Click to expand...

That's another mistake that I made. Once I embraced my natural hair, I didn't know what to do and even though I live in a place that was very humid I still flat ironed or pressed my hair everyday.

I didn't know or start to take care of my hair until 2 years ago.
 
Flat ironing. I used a heat protectant and didn't go over 350 but my hair still was not having it. My edges broke off and I lost major thickness. It's been five months and the thickness I had before is back but my edges are still a mess.
 
silenttullip said:
I used cantu shea butter shampoo and leave in religiously BAD idea I got so much shedding but the absolute worse was sleeping with a wig on and washing my hair with dish washing liquid cause I ran out. Ever since then I've had badly thinning hair dont know which made it worse but my hair HATES WIGS
Click to expand...

Dishwashing liquid??...WTF??....., I accidently washed my hair with my boyfriends Sauve for Men body wash one time.
 
Too much manipulation and detangling... Baggying..cause my moisture overload trip...washing hair free even tho I prefer it this way cause i'm lazy and dont wanna section..my hair gives me a hell no... eh... i'm still learning...even almost at the 2yr mark i'm still slow with what works for my hair...
 
Not finding a good leave in for moisture.....Natural hair LOVES moisture!:yep:

Also not coming up with a good regimen.....That was a mess!:nono:

Not doing a S & D of SSK's.......:sad:

Not keeping my ends moisturized and sealed...which...goes back to the first 2 dont's...
 
My worst mistake was deciding to try using a paddle brush to smooth my hair back into a ponytail instead of using my usual denman or boar bristle brush. Also I had build up from cones which didn't help either. It's like it blocked the gel from smoothing my hair down. Now I have quite a few broken hairs throughout my head.
 
I thought that when i first went natural (over a decade ago) that my hair would automatically thrive and be healthy. I didn't moisturize regularly and whenever I combed my hair i would tear out gobs of hair (dry combing). After some years of not caring much about my hair I stumbled onto LHCF looking for a good moisturizer for black hair, learned a lot of things and my hair is thanking me for it. :)
 
1. dry combing
2. not washing my hair in sections
3. not moisturizing my hair throughout the week
4. never DCing or pre-pooing
5. inflicting severe heat damage in 2007:nono:
 
I'm still transitioning, last texlax was August 09'. My texlaxed hair was mostly healthy, thick ends, even made WSL borderline tailbone because I religiously used Profectiv break-free night, pony tailed, and rolled ends into 1 flexirod. mostly wore my hair pinned up, quick french twists. didn't start to get damaged until I wore it out more often with the wrong clothes that chewed up the ends!!:nono:
I started my transition more out of necessity, because of alopecia areata, so doc was like no chemicals!!! I mean it was a huge baby butt smooth bald spot in the bang area:nono: (I forced my mom to transition too, since I do her hair....she BC'd2 mos ago...I'm envious of her texture, but didn't inherit, or daddy's. despite her BC, I'm still fighting with her to not texlax:ohwell:

My biggest mistake was begging and pleading with mother at about the age of 14/15 to relax my hair. First clue that I had no business getting one in the first place, was that my mother had to use 2 box kits for all of my hair:nono:

-not using castor oil sooner, my parents are from the islands, and there was a gallon of it sitting in our home for years
-being impatient with detangling...I've become more patient with finger combing/detangling first, in sections...using safety in extreme conditions
-most extreme case of just laziness, not doing my hair for a week, just left out in my bonnet. took me 4-5 days to detangle, with a safety pin no less. it was just a huge matted dread lock
-not washing/co-washing hair in sections or braids
 
another mistake I made was getting a Dominican blowout...looked great...but ***** cut off about 4-5 inches of my hair (even though I told her no); it was still BSL but I was p'd...damaged showed itself, constant shedding and a lot of breakage:perplexed
complaining the entire time about how thick my hair was! never again
 
Poohbear said:
Back in 2005 - letting my mom press my newly big chopped 3-4 inches of natural hair with a stove top pressing comb and thick grease.
Click to expand...

Almost 2 years ago I posted in this thread and have more to add to mistakes I have made with my natural hair...

1. Using too much heat - once I learned how to get my hair super straight with heat, I was somewhat addicted to it. I would blowdry and flatiron with grease and it kept my hair straight for a month. However, it caused a lot of split ends

2. Not moisturizing enough or properly - I like wearing stretched out hair styles on dry hair. In order to do that, I couldn't moisturize much or else my style would shrink. However, not moisturizing caused my hair to get too dry and break off at the ends without me realizing it sometimes, hence the reason I've been APL for almost a couple of years.

3. Dry combing - again, this was done to achieve stretched out styles. This also caused breakage and splits.

4. Trimming too much - there were some times when I definitely needed a trim (when I had split ends), but there were times I didn't need to trim. There was also a time back in 2008 where I asked for a trim and the stylist actually gave me a cut from APL to shoulder length.

Now, I've been trying to reach my goal of at least BSL by the end of this year. I have seen time and time again that moisture and avoiding rough manipulation is the key to retaining hair length. So I've been keeping my hair in a bun and juicin' my hair with S-Curl, my long lost hair friend back when I had a TWA. :)
 
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