Please help me & My hair! What do I do???

[ibeleevenme]

When I figure out how, I will post some pics of my real hair. Right now, (through this site) I have learned about protective styles and now I know why when I wear a sew in weave for a while and my hair is real long after... why it ends up breaking off. But here is my issue:

• Right now I wear wigs all the time, with my hair braided under. My hair broke off real bad like the above example in about February. It went from past my shoulders to the nape of my neck in about a week, and this ALWAYS happens!
• I have no clue what hair type I have except that my hair is thin, very fine, I have no relaxer (Grew it out about 5 years ago) and when I wash it, it reminds me of little spring like curls. But when it dries, it is a hot mess - frizzy, no definition etc. - I'd love to know how to figure out what type of hair I do have.
• To straighten my hair, all I have to do is flat iron it, for some reason I don't need to press it, relax it, nothing. When I flat iron it, it is nice and shiny, but too fine to keep a style and I know heat is very bad for the hair.
• I have NO clue what to put in my hair. Some grease is to greasy, I can't wear it curly cause nothing will keep the curls looking nice, oil can be too much... I'm at a loss. Under my wig, I either grease it, use a hair conditioner, or use Wild growth hair oil and leave it alone. But it gets ichy at times in the middle and breaks off there and only there. (What the heck!)
• I went to a Dominican shop to get a doobie, but they told me that they don't press hair... (though my hair doesn't need to be pressed)
• Don't even get me to talking about split ends. Sometimes I see none, then it seems like my whole head is full of split ends.
• My diet is pretty simple, I don't eat red meat or pork, no soda, no candy, no chips or junk food. I do eat chicken, turkey, and fish a lot and I don't really eat anything that is fried anymore.

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[*]Also can anyone tell me what dusting is? I haven't the slightest clue.

I'm so desperate for some help and direction. I know that the above is a lot, but there are a lot of experts on here is there anyone out there that can help me figure this out? All I would like is to grow a healthy head of hair and hopefully get it past my shoulders again down to my shoulderblades or so. I've given up on it being thicker but any help is appreciated!!!

Happy Holidays!!!

 

[ajacks]

to the board!

I don't really have any suggestions, but here are a few links that may help you get started:

A Newcomer's Guide To Starting Out
Sistaslick's Hair Breakage 101

 

[Nonie]

From the way you describe your hair, it sounds like 4B and that is what I have. Most people will swear that their 4B hair doesn't have definition especially when dry when really if we were to let it dry without being disturbed so the coils can remain, we might not be able to comb it.

This is 4B hair with conditioner on it:

I braided it with conditioner in it.

Then I started to rinse, and undid to make sure I removed all conditioner, comb, then braided it again, to keep it stretched and stop it from shrinking and getting tangled up. This is what it looked like when I undid that braid after my hair dried:

Now if I simply rinse out conditioner without messing with the hair, it looks like this when wet:

And like this when dry:

Incidentally, I consider using hot metal directly on hair "pressing it", whether it is done by way of flat ironing or using a hot comb or using a curling iron. So I'm not sure what you mean when you differentiate between pressing and flat ironing. Is pressing, to you, only when one uses a hot comb? Just trying to follow.

I am not a pro on weaves but I imagine if you leave hair braided for long, it can start to knot up so that when you try to undo it breaks at that point if you're not careful. Not sure if that's what's happening with you. How long do you keep your hair weaved?

I don't like grease and oils make my hair hard. S-Curl Activator spray though keeps my hair soft and moist, although it will not keep it from shrinking. But plaiting your hair for the night can help to keep it slightly stretched so that it's easy to comb even though it will still shrink into an afro. S-Curl does help to keep my coils evident.

Dry hair before S-Curl when only grease was used:

Same hair after washing and conditioning and then using S-Curl:

ETA: Those last pics are of my mom's hair, who was a regular heat and grease user until I introduced her to S-Curl spray. She also has 4B hair.

 

[tatiana]

Welcome! I think you have naturally fine/thin hair but you are treating it like it is thick and coarse. So grease and oil will weigh your hair down. I would recommend no wigs/weave for a spell. Also fine/thin hair will straighten in 1 pass regardless if you are a 3a or a 4b.

 

[Toy]

Welcome to the board.

 

[ibeleevenme]

That is very good information!!! Is there a guide out there that I can read on hair types? The pictures are helpful and our hair seems to be similar. I am going to wash my hair tonight and I am going to post some pics of mine and hopefully I don't scare anyone. You are right Tatiana, no matter what I use, it's always weighed down. I bought some new oil a few weeks ago to put on my hair under my wig, and it was sooooo greasy it took about 2 weeks to completely soak it up by that time I was ready to wash it again anyway. It was horrible!!! I really need to figure out what to put in it though and how to better care for it.

 

[ibeleevenme]

Thank you Toy!

 

[ajoyfuljoy]

Welcome woman!