Naturals: WORST mistakes you ever made as a natural?

The biggest mistake I have made is not using enough protein. In fact, I started co-washing with a bit of Joico K-pak in addition to my usual co-washing conditioners this week, and it's made a tremendous difference in moisture retention. :yep: I probably won't need to keep doing this all the time but I need to consistently incorporate protein treatments.

The other big mistake (that I also just learned of, too) is that I confused hair curl with hair texture. I realized that I don't have coarse hair at all! I have 4A/B fine to medium density hair, which is one reason why I probably need to use more protein in my hair. :yep: I thought it was coarse because the curl is so tight, but when I pull the curl out the strand is actually fine. Who knew?! :ohwell:
 
Thining I didn't need to "fix" my hair everyday...:nono:

I need to moisturise, co-wash and detangle and style just like everyone else..:yep:
 
I'm in the process of making my worst mistake right now, putting in black and brown kinky twists. I look like a big chocolate candy cane...

...but I'll be doggone if I am going to waste the money I spent on this hair....:wallbash::lachen::wallbash:

cj
 
Earlier this year, I lost nearly forgot all common sense and did some silly ish to my hair:

* Sleeping without a scarf. Fibres from the covers and pillow case kept getting stuck into my hair.

* Plucking strands straight from my scalp when I found single strand knots. I took my dense hair for granted and just thought since I have so much hair, who cares if I occasionally plucked a stand (:perplexed) ? Well, all that plucking over time means I don't think my hair feels as thick as it used to be.

* Keeping my hand attached to my hair and mindlessly finger combing dry. Any time I hit a snag, I would normally rip through it.

* Not moisturising enough. My hair needs near daily co-washing when it's out. I just left it dry dry dry because I was spending most days at home studying and became plain lazy.

* Blow drying on a higher heat than I should have. I have a lot of thin strands and these just broke off.

* Blow drying too much

* Rarely de-tangling

* Virtually no DCs

* Leaving my hair out loose when I knew dang well that I did not care to have it that way. I should have put some braids back in as soon as frustration set in instead of taking it out on my hair.

I knew much better than this but I still had not got it into my head that my hair is not indestructible. I had to cut back between SL and APL (from APL). Although, I :nono: at all of this and want to jump back into the past and kick my own arse, I realise it's a good thing I had to learn a hard lesson as despite all the warnings I wasn't really learning from other people's mistakes. Now I've stepped up my hair care game 100% and I believe when I reach my goal it wont be marred by damaged hair. I was also so dependent on braids and didn't know how to take care of longer hair but now I do.
 
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My biggest mistake was going from 100% natural after my BC, to texturized. My hair is EXTREMELY thick and I hated the thick\bc, can't do anything with it besides wash~n~go, but you let that stuff dry and you *(scream yike!)

I used Bontanicals (I've always used their line of products), but when I say this stuff made my hair bone straight! *urgh* Anyway, I am wearing braids now, starting from scratch ~~but I think I will texlax in a year or so and stick with that. (IDK, well see)

Keep them coming ladies...I'm learning...
 
1. Using baking soda everday
2. Not using protein
3. Trimming off ends because they are dry and frizzy

Lessons learned!
 
As a natural I wanted to make my own DC.

I mixed honey with banana but mashed the banana with a fork instead of blending.

I forgot my DC was in my hair and left it on for too long. I ended up with banana gloop coating my hair AND honey hair. It was like banana glue.

I even posted on here for advice. Oil is the only way to rinse it out. Do not use water.

lol

Always blend or whip your products.
 
These twists in my hair are still the worst. They get worse every day...but I refuse to remove them because it took so much to put them in, and I don't want to waste all that work OR the money I spent on the hair.

I'm dying a slow style death....

cj
 
Melodie- I feel your pain. A couple years ago I got some micros. I thought I was going to have subtle red highlights well I had super red highlights on my ends. Fire engine red. I was so embarassed I always wore it in a bun. It was not cute.

Sunhun- I made the mistake with the bananas before too. Except i mashed mines up with a spoon. I will try my recipe again..blended.
 
Ladies with banana issues: use banana baby food. They do the whipping and straining for you. It's slightly more expensive than buying bananas, but to me the ease of mixing and applying make it worth the extra pennies.
 
naijamerican said:
The biggest mistake I have made is not using enough protein. In fact, I started co-washing with a bit of Joico K-pak in addition to my usual co-washing conditioners this week, and it's made a tremendous difference in moisture retention. :yep: I probably won't need to keep doing this all the time but I need to consistently incorporate protein treatments.

The other big mistake (that I also just learned of, too) is that I confused hair curl with hair texture. I realized that I don't have coarse hair at all! I have 4A/B fine to medium density hair, which is one reason why I probably need to use more protein in my hair. :yep: I thought it was coarse because the curl is so tight, but when I pull the curl out the strand is actually fine. Who knew?! :ohwell:
Click to expand...

I made the same mistake as well. I thought my hair was very coarse because my texture is cottony as oppose to smooth, but my strands are very fine. My hair is tightly coiled as well. I tried baggying--the worst thing ever for me!!! My hair was breaking a lot and my fine strands couldn't take all that moisture. I need protein. Protein fills the 'holes' (weak spots everywhere it coils) on my hair. It makes my strands smoother, thicker and able to hold on to moisture.
 
When I was natural the worst mistake I made was using hair gel. I hate hard hair. Now that I'm transitioning I will not touch hair gel ever again.
 
This is an absolutely fantastic thread :cloud9:. I’m transitioning at the moment and this information is invaluable to me, thank you very much for sharing your experiences’.
 
Worst mistake I made. A month before I found out about LHCF
I put a relaxer in my hair, before that I had been natural for over year, but I didn't know what to do with my Hair, I kepted it bone dry under my wigs, and braids.

A week after I relaxed my hair I regretted it and I found out about LHCF
3 months later all the relaxed part of my hair just fell out. All that was left was my TWA. Fortunately I had been learning better hair care, so I had about 3 inches of new growth
so it wasn't very tramatic when I realized I didn't have any relaxed ends any more

I haven't had a relaxer since.
 
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I'm a newbie so I haven't had any mistakes yet. My hair is almost CBL, thick, and 4months post relaxer as of yesterday! No complaints yet as I am learning a ton from u gals! TIA and HHG!
 
i mixed French Perm Stabilizer Plus into my conditioner...AND didn't rinse my hair properly :nono: my hair was tangled, my cuticles were screaming, and my napps were swearing at me. never again (but for some reason though, i still haven't thrown out that bottle of mess. LOL)
 
Relaxing, coloring and flat ironing.. ALL IN THE SAME DAY.. (Seriously)
Not deep conditioning:nono:
not moisturizing:nono:
NOT NOTHING. I DIDNT KNOW ANYTHING. (Thank GOD for LHCF):yep:

you would have thought, my " hair stylist" would have taught me something after all the money I spent..:wallbash:
 
Putting henna in my hair and not deep conditioning long enough to put the moisture back in my hair. I now know that if I ever go back to using henna I have to DC for at least an hour under the steamer once the henna is rinsed out.
 
Dry combing
Flat ironing without roller setting first (higher heat= heat damage)
Lack of patience
Not accepting that my hair may always have some splits SSK's and getting scissor happy.
 
1. Experimenting with color and getting a color that looks bad.

2. Using 2 different protein conditioners at the same time just to get rid of them= Tangle City

3.Being scissor happy when my ends were dry and they just needed to be deep conditioned more.

4. Playing in my hair too much. Now I'm protective styling.

The worse mistake...
5. After almost 2 years of not going to a salon I went and got a Dominican blowout on my type 4 hair. My hair was relaxer straight after it but shoot if I wanted it that straight I would have just gotten a relaxer. I must stress that this procedure is NOT good for natural hair. Our hair has less cuticle layers than other types and that extreme heat will change your hair pattern.
 
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