SET BACKS THIS YEAR ? POST EM HERE

[blackberry815]

I probably had a million set backs this year... protein overload many times, my stylist at the time was probably the roughest person in the world.. She also trimmed off about an inch every 6-8 weeks. Also I was burned very badly with a relaxer. I self relaxed twice using the half and half method and had a little bit of breakage in the middle where I secured the plastic cap.

I'm going back to the salon for relaxers and just bought a splitender that I plan to use for trims after I get one more trim at the salon to even up my hemline.

 

[bb09]

I am at "the end of the year" as my last setback was last august (2010). I was almost shoulder length hair and I had to cut it 3 times in the summer because of crazy single strand knots. I was going mad with my denman brush, moisturizing all the time and I cowashed daily and wet bunned. So I came to this forum and many people gave me amazing suggestions. Now I am bra strap length with long layers (big achievement for me as I am tall!) and I have some single strand knots here and there but nothing to worry about (I had 2 or 3 per strand last year), I don't plan to wear my hair straightened, I don't use combs and I haven't seem them become split ends, so they don't bother me. (rarely I search and destroy).

The advice was: keep your hair stretched, meaning>
don't ever let it loose while wet
Wash in 4 sections,
twirl the ends of your braids/twists,
seal your ends with a ceramide oil (I find that wheatgerm, hemp and sunflower work very well)
and don't sleep with your hair loose.
Other suggestions that worked for someone were finger detangling only and oil rinsing. I also learned that wet bunning is counterproductive for single strand knots.

I followed all of this advice and it worked wonders. I love this forum. I hope this helps someone else.

@Curlykale -I'm back, still asking questions.
I've had setbacks -from tangles at the very end of my hair. Some of my strands are longer than the bulk of my hair. When I put my hair in plaits or twists, the plait can unravel down to a few inches above the end; then the longest ends tangle together.

I end up losing a clump of hair (a little but a lot), from having to force the tangles out . Any ideas on how I can get around that?

 

[Curlykale]

@Curlykale -I'm back, still asking questions.
I've had setbacks -from tangles at the very end of my hair. Some of my strands are longer than the bulk of my hair. When I put my hair in plaits or twists, the plait can unravel down to a few inches above the end; then the longest ends tangle together.

I end up losing a clump of hair (a little but a lot), from having to force the tangles out . Any ideas on how I can get around that?

now that I am natural my plaits don't unravel anymore so I am not sure... but what comes into my mind is that maybe you could use perm rods on the ends though!