Starting to regret my BC....(pic heavy)

[getta]

Start to co wash three times a week or daily

 

[ShiShiPooPoo]

Try the home grown steam method. It works.

 

[Ivonnovi]

Try curlaway to naturally & temporarily loosen the curl pattern. You'll achieve less "shrikage" with this product.

 

[balancegoals2009]

I like your hair it is cute, title brother and sister just getting you back , overlook them.

You might want to changed the s - curl that dry my hair out, only a suggestion . Shea butter, and coconut oil are my stapler. in addition I used porosity and ACV at different times , the softness is coming back. I sit under my dryer or heating cap to help with moisturizer . my hair was shorter then your with bald patches , all my hair is back and I now have a TWA. Growing really good, I still have a long way to go but I have made progress since I bc damage hair in July 2009. I henna weekly with Nupura cost only 1:49 at Indian store, add my favorite oils in as well. Dc daily and motorized. I found the Indian store to be my best friend , their product is very cheap, I left out paying 28 dollar for everything, my products last long , I just ran out of henna today , and it been over two months. I forgot when I could not twist or braid my hair I used bobby pin to hold twist at night with shea butter , that help me to streche and my hair was longer and softer to manage the next day. Keep all of us posted on your progress . We love you our little African Queen. Be blessed

 

[joib]

You and I have the SAME hair. Delete S-Curl from the list and add World's of Curl. You will see the improvement in a couple of days. S-curl has protein in it. HTH

 

[SignatureBeauty]

I say try S-curl (Diluted)to see if you like it, it work for some and not for others, it didn't dry my hair out and it is the only thing I can use when I am waiting on my QB products, People told me to use shea butter and I did and it dried my hair out and left it greasy, but that was my hair, we all have hair that likes different things, just try it all out and then your hair will let you know what it likes!

I am gonna have to try some of that Worlds of Curls, is it a greasy feeling? and How do you suggest using it?

Good Luck to you!

 

[Nonie]

Well I BC on the 22nd of June I believe and I was kinda excited. I felt free and couldn't wait to start trying things on my hair to see how my hair reacted to it. Well my hair is SUPER dry and it has been for months now. Nothing seems to keep it soft. I co wash it still feels dry(Infusium, vo5, Suave) I leave-in(garnier) and then Moisturize(shea butter mix or s curl) and it's still DRY. I love my hair but I think I hate it too. My styles are limited because I have like 2 inches on 1 1/2 inches of unstretced hair. i wouldn't mind rocking a curly fro if my curls had more definition. If I gel my hair everyday eventually will my curls form more? how long will that take? I have no curl definition at all in the back and front. I think it's from always brushing my hair into a ponytail. Anyways here are so pics. Not the best pics for now but maybe you can help. I will try and get some better pics of my hair this weekend. I won't be back til Monday because my son's father is coming in to town and we have a great 4th planned for the kids.

Forgive me but I'm feeling lazy today and so can't read the whole thread, but I don't know if anyone pointed this out. The products I highlighted are just probably the reason your hair is feeling dry/hard. Infusium I believe has protein and Garnier is always advertised as a product that gives hair strength so I'd imagine it's also a strengthening product. Then you are using shea butter which for me would make my hair feel good on application but it'd dry up into a hard brush. Gels also don't make my hair soft.

So my suggestion is to replace those things with moisturizing products (Elucence, Trader Joe's Nourish Spa) and then add a moisturizing DC (Aveda Damage Remedy, Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose). Let a dilute ACV rinse be your last step before you apply a leave in of S Curl Spray to damp hair.

The day or your wash your hair may dry up hard but apply some more S Curl at night, plait your hair and baggy, and then let me know how your hair feels all of the next day. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

ETA You will not need to apply S Curl again on the second day at night. Just plait and baggy and you'll enjoy nice soft hair for days.

Give your hair time. It'll take shape in due time, I promise you. But please KISS. Too many things just end up canceling each other out and giving you weird results. I didn't know how beautiful my hair was until I stopped doing too much to it.

 

[Geminigirl]

ok well I am having another issue with my hair. It is just so tangly. And it shrinks up to the MAX. Real tight and I feel like detangling is ripping and breaking my hair. I try to just finger comb and my hand snags and gets caught in tangles and knots. The denman snags and so do wide tooth combs. They all are uncomfortable and hurt my scalp.

Do I need to get a detangler.

I always oil my scalp before washing either overnight or for some hours.
Then I poo
cheap conditioner
(usually here I would be finished and then i'd rinse, add a lil bit more cheap contioner, either style or just add oil)

Now I also DC and I want to DC alot atleast 2 times weekly.
Anyways after i add my products my hair is still tangly. It has knots and I feel like this is taking away from my thickness. What can I do ?

 

[Nonie]

ok well I am having another issue with my hair. It is just so tangly. And it shrinks up to the MAX. Real tight and I feel like detangling is ripping and breaking my hair. I try to just finger comb and my hand snags and gets caught in tangles and knots. The denman snags and so do wide tooth combs. They all are uncomfortable and hurt my scalp.

Do I need to get a detangler.

I always oil my scalp before washing either overnight or for some hours.
Then I poo
cheap conditioner
(usually here I would be finished and then i'd rinse, add a lil bit more cheap contioner, either style or just add oil)

Now I also DC and I want to DC alot atleast 2 times weekly.
Anyways after i add my products my hair is still tangly. It has knots and I feel like this is taking away from my thickness. What can I do ?

How do you wear your hair at night?

OK, I'm probably gonna be stoned for saying this but I have never understood why the Denman is supposed to be so hawt. Methinks brushes just rip at your hair even when they come all dressed up and wearing a nametag as posh as Denman. So I'd suggest you lay it down and step away from it.

Do you baggy? Do you braid your hair for the night before baggying? I have a lot of shrinkage but this simple remedy has never failed me. My hair is a little past shoulder length and if I style it when wet, it shrinks to this:

Yet knots and tangles are not an issue I suffer from. Why? Coz I don't wear it out often, and because I stretch it in braids.

Now when my hair was about as long as yours, I wore it out more often, but braiding at night with nothing but S Curl in my hair kept it tangle free and oh so soft. This was one of my styles:

The only tool I used in my hair was the pick below and yet I had no knots or tangles.

I honestly only ever had to detangle my hair the one time I wore a twist out and then instead of retwisting each section at a time for the night, thought I'd finger comb all of them. Remember I don't use products so you can imagine what a chore that was. Got overwhelmed and just braided the big mess for the night. In the morning, I was faced with this:

Remembering Happily Me's detangling/fingercombing method using conditioner on dry hair, I applied Organix Vanilla Silk and it provided the slip I needed. Painstakingly I separated the strands taking advantage of how easily the slid against each other with conditioner applied. This was my hair when I was detangling. It was so cute to watch the tangled mess turn into cute spirals that just went boing when I let go.

And then I rinsed and had beautifully detangled hair:

So for you, my advice is use a comb and braid your very well moisturized hair at night so combing in the AM will be easy. Then at night take small sections at a time that are drenched in S Curl. Comb, then braid and baggy, and welcome to a world of easy haircare with no detangling time necessary.

 

[tocktick]

ok well I am having another issue with my hair. It is just so tangly. And it shrinks up to the MAX. Real tight and I feel like detangling is ripping and breaking my hair. I try to just finger comb and my hand snags and gets caught in tangles and knots. The denman snags and so do wide tooth combs. They all are uncomfortable and hurt my scalp.

Do I need to get a detangler.

I always oil my scalp before washing either overnight or for some hours.
Then I poo
cheap conditioner
(usually here I would be finished and then i'd rinse, add a lil bit more cheap contioner, either style or just add oil)

Now I also DC and I want to DC alot atleast 2 times weekly.
Anyways after i add my products my hair is still tangly. It has knots and I feel like this is taking away from my thickness. What can I do ?

1) How often do you detangle?

2) Do you detangle in sections?

3) Do you detangle wet or dry & what is on your hair when you do it?

4) How do you style your hair on a daily basis?

To avoid shrinkage, I use bentonite clay. Prior to that, I would band my hair daily to stretch it out. When I had a twa, I would sometimes do twistouts. I find regular co-washing also helps keep the tangling at bay.

 

[10WordzOrLess]

I Don't know about the hard water or how to tell. Does TX have hard water? Anyone know? I will try that method. Right now I am going to try my Kinky Curly again because last night I did it and i had to put my scaarf on and go to bed before the style set so now I have to start all over. It didn't look good anyways. My brother said my hair looked like a dry jherri curl and my sister said it looked shiny and wet. GRRRREEEEAAAATTTT!

YES...YES...YES...oh yeah and YES TEXAS HAS ROCK HARD WATER (IMO). I live in San Antonio, and I'm pretty sure its one of the reasons I had problems with my relaxed hair. I was pretty diligent with my hair care, but my hair was still SO VERY DRY. So that's my experience with Texas water.

I think your hair looks CUTE! I'm seein' some curlie-q spriglets, am I just imagining that?! Your texture looks nice to me.

But have you tried overnight treatments yet? I know someone already mentioned it, but I'd like to second that! I was really frustrated with how dry my fuzz was, and then I did a couple of overnights with a cheapie (I'm using V05 herbal escapes), Put my Shower cap on, tie my scarf on top, and wash out in the morning. It made a big difference in how soft my fuzzies were after two nights. I was eyeballing S-curl for a minute, but after the overnighters, my spriglets were lookin pretty good:eyebrows2.

I shea butter in the morning, seal with olive oil, and my moisture is retained. TAKE THAT TEXAS!

Don't give up yet! I'm pulling for you!

 

[aquajoyice]

I've been doing a lot of research on people that have BC'd and all of their stories are similar. They say how in the beginning they all had regrets about going natural and how they thought styles were limited. However, they also say not to let that phase stop you from going natural. I would say stick it out your hair will thank you in the end.

Here is Youtube channel that I love and it's all about natural hair:

http://www.youtube.com/user/curlychronicles

As far as the current state of your hair I also heard about something called "Scab" Hair. Do some research on it becuase that may be why your hair is so resistent to moisture. I would look into getting a good Chelating shampoo and trying to rid the hair of any mineral deposits. My hair is texlaxed and it took me a long long time to find anything that would moisturize my hair. And found that my hair is all about natural products. I add EVOO, Honey and things of that nature into conditioners that never worked before and my hair was finally showing signs of moisture. Since this is a new phase of haircare for you be patient and just try different things out. Just remember your in the discover phase so don't forget to have fun with your hair!

 

[Geminigirl]

1) How often do you detangle? I used to detangle daily when cowashing daily. i am trying to cut back on manipulation so I detangle maybe every few days and I am trying to go a week now

2) Do you detangle in sections? Yes of course. I atleast know this. Four sections actually cause I have so much shrinkage it's hard to make a lot of parts.

3) Do you detangle wet or dry & what is on your hair when you do it? I detangle wet in the shower usually.

4) How do you style your hair on a daily basis? The only way i know how. A wash and go or a puff.

To avoid shrinkage, I use bentonite clay. Prior to that, I would band my hair daily to stretch it out. When I had a twa, I would sometimes do twistouts. I find regular co-washing also helps keep the tangling at bay.

I will look into this clay cause I have major shrinkage. Which wouldn't bother me if it didn't come with tangles and knots. Where do you get this clay at? I am still trying to get the hang of twistouts I may just try again.


NONIE- Thanks for the tips. Here is what I did last night without even reading your post.

My puff was nice yesterday because Ihad braided it the night before SO last night in preparation for bed I just sprayed my dry hair with detangler cause it was soft but DRY and I didn't want to comb it dry and then parted it into four sections. I cornrowed eeach section so that I have four cornrows on my head. I then sprayed them with moisturizer. I also oiled my scalp and massaged before all this. So today I am going to take down the braids and then moisturize with my mix if necessary. The night before yesterday I used the scurl to braid my hair and my hair was ok feeling. NOT super soft but softer then it was. I get my best softness using glycerine and aloe vera. And that is what I spritzed my hair with when I took it out yesterday morning and I had softenes all day even through the sprinkle showers.


I think I may try and limit my washes to once a week or twice a week if I can get by with just detangling and braided in up at night. This also helps to stretch my fro. I only used a pick during the detangling process.

 

[tocktick]

I will look into this clay cause I have major shrinkage. Which wouldn't bother me if it didn't come with tangles and knots. Where do you get this clay at? I am still trying to get the hang of twistouts I may just try again.

1) How often do you detangle? I used to detangle daily when cowashing daily. i am trying to cut back on manipulation so I detangle maybe every few days and I am trying to go a week now

Imo, some heads can't handle dentagling every few days. There are some people who detangle every other day and even daily when they co-wash. They are gentle and retain length.


2) Do you detangle in sections? Yes of course. I atleast know this. Four sections actually cause I have so much shrinkage it's hard to make a lot of parts.

If you don't already, make your parts on hair with conditioner on it. It can be harder to do on dry hair that is prone to shrinkage.

3) Do you detangle wet or dry & what is on your hair when you do it? I detangle wet in the shower usually.

Maybe you should try creamy conditioner with some oil (olive works great) mixed in for dentagling instead of just water.

4) How do you style your hair on a daily basis? The only way i know how. A wash and go or a puff.

Sometimes, those styles can promote tangling and major single strand knots. The shaking action during the WnG process is not good for some hair. A puff (on shrunken hair) can lead to the ends looping together more and shed hair can caught in there too. This is why if you're going to do these styles detangling more often may be a necessity. I would advise stretching your hair by banding, braids, twists, flat-twistouts, corn-row outs etc. That may also cut down the amount of times you need to detangle.


I'm in London, so you won't be able to get the clay where I do. However, I've heard some U.S ladies state they buy "Aztec Healing Clay" (bentonite clay) at Whole Foods.

 

[Geminigirl]

OMG girl don't make me go to whole foods tomorrow. I will call them first.

I def detangle with condtioner on my hair wet in the shower. that's what I meant. I will add some oil in. I love oils on my hair. My hair loves oil especially as a pre poo or for massaging. Thanks!

I am going to be doing the four cornrows on my hair for now cause it's easy. When I actually have somewhere to go and look cute I will try something more fun like twistouts.

 

[Janet']

Geminigirl,

How's your hair going? I see why you felt it necessary to BC and I think that you look cute with the short style. Can you update us?

 

[Rapunzel*]

you and your hair look beautiful, maybe u can try a half wig

 

[DDTexlaxed]

I think your hair is gorgeous. Why is your sister laughing at you? I am so jealous of you because you can cornrow! You have a great support system here at LHCF. Thanks to your thread, I found a lot of good tips on products and regimens to copy. Thanks so much!

 

[carolinetwin]

JBCO is the truth for dry hair that's all I'm gonna say

 

[Geminigirl]

the best moisturizer you can use on your hair is african unrefined shea butter mixed with organic coconut oil. that combo right there is better than any product i have ever used and i have tried everything mentioned on this board.

I haven't brought myself to just use coconut oil but I LOVE LOVE LOVE shealoe on my twists. I found my mixer and I use shealoe mixed with JBCO and once I added Lavender EO it smelled wonderful. Keeps my hair moisturized for days and I know I would have super defined twistouts if I chose.

Geminigirl,

How's your hair going? I see why you felt it necessary to BC and I think that you look cute with the short style. Can you update us?

My hair....right now. We are in a battle. It has dramatically thinned out and I think it's because I have strayed from what I was doing in the summer. Anyways I LOVE my hair now, even though it's getting on my nerves now. It's gotten alot healthier and im not having as much trouble with shrinkage.

I like to wash and braid my hair in big plaits and let it dry overnight then twist on dry/damp hair with my shealoe mix. I love it. So far so good. Because of where I work I have to keep my hair twisted all the time. So it's ok because it is helping me protect my fine strands.

I noticed that I have some breakage throught out my hair that I was kinda sad about. All I know is I can't wait til I can rock my big hair. It's on I mean flowers, headbands, clips, accessories. I daydream about this daily. I'ma be fierce lol.

Anyways here's some pics of my hair this year. On June 22 It will be one year since I chopped. I'll have to take some pics and see the difference.

Here is my hair after Bentonite Clay. I love this stuff by the way. Thanks for the recommendation. This is like the best cleanser ever!

Here are my twists before I trimmed they were stiff, tangly, frizzy. Here I twisted with Mango Butter I think.

Here they are after a trim and using my shealoe...ahhhhh

here is my playing with my hair after I took it out of one of my first pony puffs:

Check out the nape

Ok that's enough cause I can and will get crazy with the pics. All in all I am very happy. I just think I need to pick back up the henna and oils because my hair is dying. As soon as I can I will incoporate this back in my reggie. Right now I just don't have the time



ETA-Oops sorry for the big pics, guess I didn't resize those. Anyways I hate that scalpy look my twists give. I just grab and twist. I don't have time for parting lol.

Oh and Caroline I have def found The JBCO. LOVES it. Never letting it go. lol.

 

[vainღ♥♡jane]

your hair is so pretty GeminiGirl! i love your twists too. i don't understand why mine don't look like that. and i have been practicing too. ♥

 

[likewtr4chklit]

Thanks for updating!!!! Your hair is fab, I thought it was fab before. I'm glad you have fallen in love with it.

 

[Geminigirl]

your hair is so pretty GeminiGirl! i love your twists too. i don't understand why mine don't look like that. and i have been practicing too. ♥

Hey VJ! I'm right handed and I know I used to twist to the left. Now I twist to the right and I am able to get them tight. Also applyinhg product to my roots helps to get the twists even tighter.

 

[Nonie]

BE STILL MY HEART!!!

Geminigirl, your twin puffs are DARLING!!!! OMG, simply GAWGEOUS!!!!

 

[Geminigirl]

Awww thanks. I would love to wear my hair like this this summer, I want can't wait til they are huge twin puffs.

 

[lala]

You look cute to me. I can't touch your hair to see how it feels, but I'd start with a filter as others have suggested. It just seems to me as if you need a whole new range of products. If you recently transitioned, you may need to revamp your regimen to gain softness.

 

[30something]

Your hair is so pretty!!!

 

[melissa-bee]

Your twists like soft and moisturised, and your nape is looking good, good job, i hope you're happy with your hair now.

 

[vainღ♥♡jane]

Hey VJ! I'm right handed and I know I used to twist to the left. Now I twist to the right and I am able to get them tight. Also applyinhg product to my roots helps to get the twists even tighter.

OMG! i totally twist to the left too. maybe that is the culprit. ♥

 

[poookie]

at the original post: girl whatchu talkin' bout? your original BC hair was gorgeous, & your updated pics are even more gorgeous!! when i did my BC, my hair looked just like yours. & i had to BC for the same reason you did: the combo of my relaxed hair & natural hair looked downright crazy!

i've got to say though. your updated pics are SUPER inspiring. i can't wait until my hair gets longer!!!