Taming 4b and the teen monster

[Zuppy]

Ladies from the 4b brastrap length thread, I feel you on those days of jacked up hair back in the day! I resorted to braids for many years, my hair would grow significantly but I never new how to take care of it once I got some growth and it would break right off after a few weeks of a no-lye relaxer.

Now, I have a 13 year old with fierce 4B hair. She did great with kiddie perms until about a year ago. Her hair was past her shoulders just above bra-strap and healthy. Well.. she started acting-out - feeling those pre-teen ways and I thought I'd teach her a lesson by not taking care of her hair and not buying her all those fancy teen things(essential stuff only, food, basic clothing, and school supplies) Well that beautiful hair went to heck from her taking care

of own hair with Jam and the tightest ponytail she could get. Her hair is now ear and neck length and she aint happy

She now sees the importance of her Mother and the respect I deserve

. We now have an understanding, she respects me and behaves and NOW she's my vounteer guinea pig (while im in twist). I'm trying to grow her hair back to what she had and better.

We started with Shamboosies methods and expanded on that from this hair care board and others. We stopped with the no-lye relaxers, now we use Lye only, deep conditioning, essential oil, leave-ins, and protective styles.

We recently took out 3-weeks of braids and the new growth was something!! We are going on vacation next week and she will need it braided for that so I did not want to relax it until we take the next set of braids out! She was horrified at the thought

- well...

We first did essential oil-growth mix overnight, washed in the morning with therapee(nexxus), Protien(Emergenee Nexxus) and deep conditioned (Humatress (Nexxus). We did leave-in with Biolage leave-in Tonic, and Giovanni Direct Leav-in mixed with 100% aloe vera and a few drops of E.O. Ylang-Ylang. We roller set under the dryer for ONE HOUR AND HALF

!! Wrapped it and it looked really good with almost no shedding. BUT! We are in the NYC area and it is wet and humid right now - So after a day a few days of day camp she came home looking pretty sad (the new growth was showing its curly ways! I got really concerned about breakage, So after three days we washed again - deep conditioned and did the Leave-in thing again and put it in a wet ponytail. We'll now she tell's me they (kids at camp) think she has indian hair (I guess 3A or 3C hair??) The texture is soft and wavey and the new growth is tamed!!

I'm doing my own challange with her hair and mine when I get it out of the kinky twist (let me know if you wanna see that I'll post a pic, it's a great hair break with with-out all the little braids to take out) If anyone wants to join this 4B challange let us know!

 

[Norma15]

yea you should post a pic and see her progress

 

[ballet_bun]

I would love to see some pictures. Pleas post some when you get a chance.

Ballet Bun ...

 

[ngaa]

hey zuppy i'd lik to join in the 4b challenge as well, jus need a few details. I wont be usin braids tho, jus weaves and twists and my hair's still naural...pm me or reply here with a pic coz u kno we wanna see and also details of the challenge

 

[Zuppy]

Hey yall,

Thanks for replying. I've created an ablum on Yahoo for you all to view. I just had my PC upgraded to XP, and am a little clumsy with it.. so I hope it you will be able to view the link. You might have to cut and past the link into your explorer address bar if the link doesn't work.

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/telady2000/lst?.dir=/Hairsummer03&.view=t


My twist are over a month old... and still going strong.. By the way... this is a great style or natural hair as well as a break for relaxed heads.

My daughter had just washed and conditioned we were about to put it in a ponytail - she has about about a 6 weeks of new growth.

 

[Ladibug]

Would love to take on my first challenge since I am sure that I have the unruly 4b, seemed thick and cruel when I was young am trying to comb it out, but now that years have past...it feels thin. So what is the challenge exactly? I am in braids currently (s/p rollover car accident, dislocated shoulder and shoulder surgery)....but vitamins and preparing for a challenge will keep me going. I have mid ear to neck hair...every hairdresser here will jack me for my newest growth if I let them, would love to have my new growth look anything remotely like what your little described . My hair wet after my 1st set of braids came out (with multiple tangles, after being wet by my african debraiding friend)...little did I know....that new growth looked like shriveled poodle hair! Awful.... I decided right then, transitioning not for me....either Phytospecific Phytorelaxer (soy based relaxer) my friend is raving about or Design Essential's Lo Lye relaxer.....
gotta be true to my love of thick, straight, even hair.

Ladibug

PS- What is Shamboosies method?

 

[Zuppy]

Wow, I can't believe you dug this old post up! Shamboosie's method is to wash hair every 3 or 4 days, using the best products such as Nexxus Therapee and conditioning with Nexxus Humatress, doing protien once a month or so. It's been a while since I read his book and I've modified my regimen so many times... but I think I've got something good right now. I mostly stick to Nexxus products - I do wash every 3 or 4 days. After I deep condition with Humatress I use Pantene smooth and sleek as a rinse and my hair feels fantastick.. I did put a Phyto relaxer in my hair about 3 weeks ago - which has also helped my hair feel silky...but the combonation of Nexxus and Pantene's S&S is wonderful. I alternate between the design essentials serum and the NTM(nutrogena triple moisture) serum, I like the design essential better for setting my hair and the NTM for flat ironing, which I've only done once since my relaxer. I also use a little Keracare foam setting and hot six oil. My home roller sets make me feel like I came out of a salon. I don't have enough new growth to deal with righ now but the way my hairs been feeling with this latest regimen I think I will be okay.

As far as my daughter's hair.. well... she's been living with her dad... so her hair has had a set back.

I know I didn't give you much on shamboosie, try doing a search there's plenty of post on his methods. I still use his basic method which is to wash hair more often.

 

[iwantlongerhair]

I'd like to join the 4b challenge cause I definetly know what your daughter is going through.