Perfect Hair Lives

[inthepink]

I was just thinking how in so many years, I never experienced a hair disaster until just last year when I had my relaxer problem. Sure, I had split ends that I always dealt with. When I was first getting relaxed, I always had underprocessed hair. I have also had a haircut I didn't want - though it wasn't bad. I may have not liked some haircuts I got but they were never disastrous.

I'm wondering who has had a perfect hair life. Has anyone gone from teenagehood to where they are now without ever having a HUGE issue happen to their hair - such as a bad relaxer, really bad cut, extremely bad split ends, dried out color job, etc. - things that would cause huge cuts of hair in order to fix? Has anyone had several different huge hair issues happen?

 

[buffalosoldier]

Since I cut all off my hair OFF (cos I had to) in 97 I have had nothing but hair success.
But I made a committed effort to taking care of it. You know what they say you dont miss what you had until its gone

Andre Walkers book really helped me.

 

[inthepink]

buffalosoldier - Why did you have to cut off your hair?

 

[sassygirl125]

I had to get a corrective relaxer, a blue-black rinse and a cheek length bob cut because years and years of using no lye relaxers and rarely moisturizing my hair left me with a funky brownish/auburn colored, crispy, tow up mess.

I kinda liked that funky color, though.

 

[cutebajangirl]

I had a perfect hair life from the time I was 14 until I was 22. During that time, I wore braids whenever I felt like it and either relaxed myself or went to the hair salon using a no lyer, usually PCJ. My hair disaster came about after I started reading hair boards etc and switched to lye. That in itself was an improvement and my hair was even healthier than ever. The problem came when I went back to my old stylist in July 2001 who said that my Dudley's mild was a crappy relaxer and that I should use Gentle Treatment no lye. So since she had been my hair dresser for year (10+) even though I knew she was wrong I trusted her and let her apply it. Within 3 days the breakage had started and it just kept getting worse. The horrible part about it is that the stylist told my friend before she did this to me that switching from lye to no lye would cause significant breakage so why did she do it to me? Anyway within a month the left side of my hair was practically gone, I'm talking about down to a 1/2 inch if that. I was back in braids until October at which point I had to cut into a chin length bob that was beyond cute. My new stylist in the Bronx nourished my hair with premium products and I would still be a client of hers now if I could afford her. After that it has been all good again. Except for minor stuff that I should know better and yet still did, like getting blowouts on 9 week post realxed hair for me a recepie for breakage leading to a 2 inch trim.

 

[Victorian]

Well...I guess I've had a "perfect hair life" so far (I'm only 20 though). I can't remember my first relaxer, but my mom always took care of my hair while I was young. Once I started taking care of it myself, it didn't get any shorter than when my mom took care of it, but it didn't look quite as shiny/healthy. I could never blow-dry as well as she could (still can't, for that matter

), so I would blow-dry a little longer to try to smooth stuff down, and I think that's what gave me my split ends. My mom would still give me trims though, and I did believe in moisturizing often, so it was never a disaster--I just kept the same length my hair had always been (a few inches below shoulder).

The one exception is right before I started 8th grade, when I begged and begged for my mom to cut my hair. She finally agreed and cut it so that when the ends were bumped under, it just barely grazed my shoulders. I got it done a day or two before orientation, when we took our school pictures. To this day, my 8th grade picture is my favorite one. My hair was looking fly

By the time I took my ninth grade pic, it was around 3 or 4 inches below shoulder length, and in my tenth grade pic, it was actually only a couple inches away from armpit length (which was as long as it had ever been at that point. I was pretty pleased with myself

)

My sophomore year in college is actually when my hair got to be the longest it had ever been. I wasn't blowdrying every week, and I kept it up all the time because I was too busy to worry about my hair. That was probably the best thing I ever did for my hair--leave it alone. My longest length (the left side of my head) got to be about an inch or so past armpit length. The only thing is, because I hadn't been trimming on my own, and because my left side grows faster than my right side, it was lopsided. My right side was about an inch shorter. That drives me nuts! Plus it looked a little raggedy, even though it was long. I can't stand raggedy hair (I'm a big fan of the blunt cut) so last August I did a big trim of about 2-3 inches (that was shortly after I joined LHCF, some of you might remember) which brought me back up to a few inches below shoulder length. I got a relaxer in september, right before going back to school, and I have to say, my hair was doing quite well. Around then was when I became a real LHCF junkie, and when I started thinking about seriously extending my relaxer. I had never relaxed more than 3 or 4 times a year anyway (which is probably the only reason why my hair held up fairly well to all that blowdrying I did in high school), but I thought I'd see how long I could go. So, during winter break of 2003, the time I would have normally been getting my 3rd and final touch-up of the year, I decided not to get a touch-up. And I haven't gotten one since.

I've been trimming every once in a while to keep my hair even. I'm trying to get to brastrap, but I have to get there at the pace of the right side of my head, even though my left side would get there faster. I just hate the lopsided look. Also, I may or may not be transitioning. I mean, if I continue with the trimming as it grows, and not relaxing, I will essentially be transitioning anyways. It's starting to get a little tough though...I have this feeling that come January or so I'm going to have to decide either to chop or to relax. We'll see...and that's where I am today

 

[buffalosoldier]

[ QUOTE ]
hairlove said:
buffalosoldier - Why did you have to cut off your hair?

[/ QUOTE ]

It was ruined, it was blonde very healthy and I liked it but then I wanted to go back to brown. Everytime I died it brown the blonde came back thru. Then I died it almost black by mistake and I looked like a witch. So I used ultra blue to get it out. It did but my hair started falling out and was fried. so i tried aphogee protein and that was all she wrote. my hair was horrible and breaking etc. so i wore crochet braids for a while took them out, attempted to wash my hair and it all matted up. So my So cut it all off to the new growth.
It looked really nice actually and I kept it short for a year before growing it out.
When my sister saw it she said "Oh I wish my hair would fall out!!!" she didnt have the guts to cut it

 

[SilkyandSmooth]

Well, I had a perfect hair life up until a couple of summers ago. My regular stylist was on vacation and I really wanted a touch up, so I went to a Dominican stylist thinking she was going to do a good job. She did a good job the first time. In fact, I loved how my hair turned out so I went back to her the next time I needed a touch up. After that second time, I noticed that the back of my hair was a lot shorter than it usually was. My hair back there broke something awful. I don't know if it was the relaxer itself, or the way she rinsed my hair out. I was fit to be tied. Needless to say, I returned to my old stylist.

 

[Kha]

I've thought about it and I guess you could say that I've had the "perfect hair life". I've never had any of the above things mentioned happen to my hair. I haven't had a relaxer in over 10 years, but I have colored probably 2 or 3 times within that period. I didn't have any problems with dryness or breakage with the coloring. I can count on one hand how many times I've been to the salon within the last 10 years or so...maybe that's why I don't have any stories. I know my hair pretty well and know what I have to do to get or maintain a desired style.

 

[Tene]

I had a perfect life up until age thirteen when I started getting relaxers. I've only had one or two good haidressers my whole life, the rest did nothing but take my hair out, break it off, over process it, etc. Now my hair is back in shape and growing, I just need to find a good hairdresser. I'll probably go back to my old hairdresser I had in elementary school. I've never and problems with her and she's older which is good.

 

[Enchantmt]

I've never had any major problems. Any breakage I've had was due to me not caring properly for it (lazy, sick, whatever) and not protecting it at night. A deep trim would solve that problem. I've never had chemicals make all my hair fall out, even in 9th grade when I was sooo frustrated with having a Jerhi curl that I put a relaxer on top of it. I used to read a lot about hair and figured if the bonds werent broken all the way I should be able to relax it as long as I did it for a short time. It was ok and my hair independence was born!! (I had had the thing for maybe 4 years and I couldnt take another sticky summer)
Well once, years later, I did have my stylist put a few strands of red- matador red- highlights in the front of my hair. She had to lighten it first and all that she lightened eventually broke off but it wasnt something noticeable. I also tried to go a lighter brown by myself and ended up kinda orangish once. Not pretty. I've had a blue hair fetish for quite sometime also so now I just use the semi perm colors in blue or fuschia.

Lately my ends have been looking a little thinner and I have breakage from about 4 months of not caring for my hair.(I would fluctuate between taking really good care of it and then feeling guilty about all the products I was buying and would stop.) I've had 2 trims so far this year and a third one in about a month should take are of all the rest of the damage. Its not noticeable to anyone but me.
Now I have someplace to come to validate my hair obsession so I doubt that I slip back into not taking care of it. I love LHCF!