TRAUMATIC HAIR STORIES... what was I thinking!!?!?

[KrystalClear]

Vent here! Tell your "why did I do that to my hair" moments! And others lets encourage!

I'll go first!

I'm SO upset with myself. I did some very destructive things to my hair. First off, I have colored my hair 4 times since I've been natural ( I don't think that is what caused my REAL problems though)! The front I did a bleach to get my front pinkish/red (I'm crazy and get bored quick). Then, I did this other rinse color, burgandy, then I finally did jet black to stop the breakage (color it is now). I recently colored the BACK of my hair a sandy brown color, which doesn't seem to be breaking (it's growing better than the front was).

I did the worst thing EVER for me... I tried a texturizer! I combed through it like the box said (dumb move) and lost SO MUCH HAIR. I was SO scared. I have NEVER put a perm on my hair before, so I know I didn't know what I was doing! MY mom had done them for me, and it was always breakage city! But I was so fed up with my shrinkage I figured it would be WORTH it to have my hair hangin (so wrong!) Once I was done I felt like my hair was THE BOMB (lol). It was hangin'! I realized my new growth wasn't hangin like my other texturized hair and I did ANOTHER texturizer. The front of my hair ended up very STRAIGHT and stringy unlike the rest of my hair. (It was just a mess!). I HATED IT! I looked at it for 2 months like EHH this is SO UGLY. It was hard to detangle cuz the texturized part was SO fragile, my new growth wasn't.

Ever since the texturizer, I have had SO MUCH BREAKAGE. My hair has been WEAK and just ugly when hangin from the front due to the stringy RANDOM strands. I FINALLY (11/9/09) got the courage to just CUT OFF the stringy strands. I didn't cut ALL, but the parts that were REALLY breaking and looking retarded.

I now have random lengths in the front. Some are ONE inch long. But believe it or not, I felt RELIEVED and HAPPY because I MISSED my waves in the front. They were gone due to the texturizer. I LOVE my waves and curls. I want to chop off the rest of the stringy parts and start over, but I am SO FAR, I am gunna let the parts that AREN'T breaking grow to a length I LIKE, then chop. I guess we could say I'm now TRANSITIONING AGAIN! UGH.

The beauty of it all, the winter is a good time to HIDE hair.
HAIR GROWS BACK, and mine grows PRETTY fast too!
I'm not really sad, I'm just mad at myself for EVER giving up on my hair.
MY texture is beautiful and I miss that. So I will never apply a texturizer again. I don't feel like the color was what set me back, well the BLEACHED color probably didn't HELP... but not the burgandy or sandy brown I'd do again without fear IF i wanted color in the future!

I looked at pics from nov 2008, my hair now was/ is at the SAME length, in the front and sides- ( if not shorter ) as it was then. That tells me that the coloring and/or texturizing SET ME BACK! BUT, like I said.. IT'S HAIR, it GROWS BACK! You LIVE AND YOU LEARN your FIRST YEARS! I should be at APL (or RIGHT above it) according to my hair growth from Nov 2008 BEFORE the damage!

I rather know NOW than 3 yrs down the line, then I would cry! lol


NOW YOUR TURN! VENTTTTT!!!!!!!


BEFORE THE COLOR AND TEXTURIZER - a BRAIDOUT before my 1 yr anniversary:

After the crazy bleach/color, but STILL no real BREAKAGE:

My hair was okay after this too!
MY PROBLEM was the texturizer! My hair went down hill , breakage city. I Realized it's HARD to maintain 2 totally diff textures. One part needing protein, the other just needing moisture. I just gave in, and cut it! I need 4-6 inches to be BACK ON TRACK!

 

[jennboo]

First, your hair is absolutely lovely.

Second, i'd say the most traumatic (tear inducing) thing i've done to my hair was rinse it black. When i was relaxed my hair was brown...i decided it would look better if it were jet, jet black. So of course i went to the dominicans to have them apply a black rinse...

...When all was said and done i came out of the salon looking like Elvira. I looked horrible...the black was tooo stark of a contrast for my complexion...it made my har look dry...and because my hair was so thick it looked like i was wearing a wig. I cried my eyes out and tried everything to get the rinse out. I washed it 50-11 times in the shower. When that didn't work i went to 3 different salons to see what they could do in terms of stripping the rinse. I even went as far as suggesting that they bleach my hair to lift some off the color. All 3 salons refused to do the bleaching procedure because they all said that my hair would fall out if i did.

Terrible. My hair went through heck with all of the washing and clarifying and vigorous scrubbing. I'ts a wonder i still had hair on my head.

Never again.

 

[Arian]

I used egg in my cholesterol as a protein treatment. My hair was not happy. Tangle city!

 

[naturalpride]

This worst treatmwnt that I did to my hair was an avocado and banana puree conditioner which left my hair very dry

 

[Barbie83]

^^^ Oh sheesh, REALLY? That sounds like the most moisturizing thing ever!

 

[Scorpimini14720]

I don't have much to add (besides having green hair trying to go from black to blonde) but OP I think your hair was Beautiful!!! You do have a beautiful texture and thickness and it looks so soft.
I also did the color thing because then I was like, Oh well, I will dye over it if I didn't like the color, wear weave and/or it will grow back.... eventually. LOL

 

[La Colocha]

The worst thing i had done to my hair was a permanent color when i was relaxed. I bought jet black and i did not do a strand test. The first day it was ok but the second day it started to burn really bad, i washed my hair again and i got all these bumps on my scalp, then the bumps got infected. I don't mean to be nasty but my head was full of puss and my hair was stuck together. I ended up getting sick from the infection and went to the doctor, she said i did not rinse the color out all the way or i was allergic to it. I never tried color again. If i would have did a strand test it might not have been so bad. Totally my fault.

 

[newbiemom]

I went to a hair dresser that many of my coworkers went to. I don't know what type of relaxer she used in my hair but it came out nice. The following week I am wahing my hair and chunks of my hair is falling out. Huge tufts of hair. It ws horrible. I just sat on the bathroom floor crying and shaking. Til this day every time I wash my hair I watch. I am sooo paranoid.

 

[Beaute Noire]

Worst thing I ever did was Glued in Quik-Weave that ripped all my edges out in the front to baldness . I've pretty much incurred permanent damage to some parts so I never wear my hair without bangs/side bangs..​

jennboo: I love black rinses! :heart2:. I've been rinsing black for years but sometimes I feel trapped because I know that if I ever wanted to change my hair color I would have to add in pieces (like my *siggy*) because it's virtually impossible to die over black hair color without having to bleach the hair first , or growing it out/cutting it out.

What I have found that works to prevent the jarring "Elvira" look as you mentioned is to mix the black rinse with a dark blue rinse before applying it to your head. Sounds weird I know but it gives the color so much more depth and richness, and you don't end up with that flat black color which is never cute lol. This works for my complexion because sometimes black can wash me out.​

 

[prospurr4]

In 2005, I let the relaxer "marinade" for 30 minutes on a back section of hair I thought was resistant. When I finally rinsed it out, my SL hair was reduced to a stringy, nape length. Iono what I was thinking..

 

[Kerryann]

The worst thing ever to man is when i used bigen in my hair i landed it the hospital passed out and had head sores with a swollen face never again


Cutting my almost bsl hair because of Victoria beckem arse i loves her now its taking forever to grow back

Bleaching my hair was just wrong but it was fly

 

[MusicandWine]

Bleached my hair and did a relaxer myself within a week of bleaching. I tried to hang on to the stringy damaged hair as long as I could but decided it was time to find a salon to cut it off. It was the first time I cut all my hair off.

Now I'm transitioning and not looking forward to anymore chemical treatments.

 

[liteskinshowdy]

The worst thing I ever done is a quick weave wig glued to my hair (pre-lhcf) and also a black rinse. I went from past shoulder to chin length and very thin hair.

 

[danibot]

The worse thing I've EVER done is use Feria haircolor--I think it was called Starry Night. I went to get a relaxer and my hair turned blond.

 

[Avyn]

About a year after being natural I decided to flatiron my hair for the first time. I bought a really cheap flatiron and tried to straighten it without turning it all the way up ( I heard horror stories about heat damage). Well, my hair wasn't getting straight on the ends, so I thought they were damaged because they were rough and resistant, so I cut them off. I ended up cutting about 3 inches because they weren't straight and I underestimated the amount I was cutting.

If I had:
1. Used a better flatiron
2. Not been afraid to turn the heat up to at least medium
3. Stretched the ends before cutting
I would not have had such a major setback.

And because it was my first time straightening, I had no idea the amount of time it would take to regrow that 3 inches of hair. I did not realize my mistake until I bought a better flat iron and used some techniques recommended on here. My hair wasn't damaged, I just didn't know what I was doing. SMH...I was so mad at myself.

 

[ryanshope]

I haven't had too many since I became and adult but when i was 13 my mother took me from a jheri curl to a relaxer. I went from shoulder length to a halle berry cut pretty damn quick..like 3 months :-/ needless to say i would never subject my child to such an event...

 

[Rei]

bleached my own hair with Manic panic bleach, and this was before I knew what a DC was, so I just used a cheapie conditioner afterwards. My hair broke insanely fast, but I was so silly, I thought this was just more evidence that I had "bad hair" rather than the fact that I was relaxing on super and bleaching with harsh chems at the same times.

 

[shunemite]

When I was in high school, my mom's friend relaxed my hair. I went straight up from shoulder length hair to a Halle Berry length in 8 weeks. It was awful.

 

[remilaku]

The worst thing I have ever done to my hair was wear extension braids for months and months without letting my hair ever rest in between. My hair came out by the roots!

Another thing I did was clean up my newgrowth every time I washed my locs. I washed everyday. I had thining soooo bad!

 

[QueenLexy]

When I was in 10th grade I bleached my hair and it was fine for a week. Then I in put a relaxer(stupid me) and when I rinsed it out my bleached hair just fell out. It took forever to grow back.

 

[addaboutmyhair]

Tried a texturizer I bought at CVS. 'Nough said.

 

[Galadriel]

The worse thing I've EVER done is use Feria haircolor--I think it was called Starry Night. I went to get a relaxer and my hair turned blond.

Whoah...scary. I've used Starry Night before.
There's something about Feria dyes that my hair just doesn't agree with.

 

[Second2None]

Did the same thing, forgot if Beyonce was on the commercial it couldn't be trusted it faded into a lighter brown than my hair normally is and the shedding was horrible for a few weeks.

The worse thing I've EVER done is use Feria haircolor--I think it was called Starry Night. I went to get a relaxer and my hair turned blond.

 

[MarieB]

One n' Only Thermal Straightener; Sally's over-the-counter Japanese straightener. I over-processed without realizing it, and over time my hair broke off at the crown, not everywhere, just randomly. I had sections that were less than 1/2". When I went to a salon, and the stylist showed me the extent of my damage, I almost cried. So I bought a bunch of headbands, and got online. That was the start of my personal HHJ.

 

[krissyprissy]

One the worse things I have done was apply some African Pride Highlights to my hair in the front. All the highlights broke completely off. I was left with all these pieces of hair sticking straight up were the color broke off. Thank goodness I only used this stuff in the front.

 

[BostonMaria]

NaturalBrownBarbie, I'm ready to call the hair police on you! That's just straight up abuse! LOL

I haven't done anything crazy to my hair in the past 3 years. I've had my own share of self-sabotage though. I remember spraying my ends with Paul Mitchell hair spray, then using the curling iron, loving the sizzzzzling sound and how perfectly curled up my hair would be afterwards. Yeah my hair broke off after a while and I didn't know why LOL

 

[Bene]

This didn't happen to me, but it happened to my cousin (who, I swear has to be one of the mentally challenged or lacks common sense). She's one of those people who thinks that, just because they have an interest in beauty and haircare, they know everything about it

So, we were in our teens at the time and she'd been dying her hair for years; one day she decides to relax her hair. She asked me to help her, but since I know nothing about those things, I politely declined, and sat back to read a book and every so often watch the expert in action. Mind you, she's relaxing virgin BSL hair by herself. Anyway, she gets the goop in, and sets the clock (she figures you start timing after it's been applied to the entire head), and then she decides since her hair is extra coarse, that she should wait a little longer to make sure it works. While she's waiting, she's saying "When I'm done, I'll relax your hair", I just shook my head, and went back to reading. (I never ever ever thought my hair needed a relaxer, but that's a whole other story)

So, I'm sitting there with a book, and I look up and say, "Um... don't you have to rinse that out?" She rolls her eyes at me and says "My hair needs it to stay in for a while."

I start reaching for the box and I'm saying "But the directions say you have to rinse it out...", but she snatches it out of my hand and says "Shut up, you don't know anything about hair. Read your book! I know what I'm doing, you can't even match your clothes right!" (and yeah, she was right about the clothes, because I'm a total retard about fashion)


Far be it from me to get in between a woman and her hair care, right?



So it starts to burn. She runs off to the bathroom screaming about the burning, and as she starts to rinse, I hear this brutal animal howl of anguish, like the gates of hell swung open and some great hooved behemoth came rampaging out in search for blood. So, I'm thinking "something's up" and as I come to the bathroom, she's shrieking and crying. Her hair is coming out in clumps!



Anyway, she didn't go completely bald and has enough hair to disguise any serious thinning. She wept for a few hours.



When she was done crying, I looked at her and said "Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna be relaxing my hair any time soon."

 

[NYAmicas]

Vent here! Tell your "why did I do that to my hair" moments! And others lets encourage!

I'll go first!

I'm SO upset with myself. I did some very destructive things to my hair. First off, I have colored my hair 4 times since I've been natural ( I don't think that is what caused my REAL problems though)! The front I did a bleach to get my front pinkish/red (I'm crazy and get bored quick). Then, I did this other rinse color, burgandy, then I finally did jet black to stop the breakage (color it is now). I recently colored the BACK of my hair a sandy brown color, which doesn't seem to be breaking (it's growing better than the front was).

I did the worst thing EVER for me... I tried a texturizer! I combed through it like the box said (dumb move) and lost SO MUCH HAIR. I was SO scared. I have NEVER put a perm on my hair before, so I know I didn't know what I was doing! MY mom had done them for me, and it was always breakage city! But I was so fed up with my shrinkage I figured it would be WORTH it to have my hair hangin (so wrong!) Once I was done I felt like my hair was THE BOMB (lol). It was hangin'! I realized my new growth wasn't hangin like my other texturized hair and I did ANOTHER texturizer. The front of my hair ended up very STRAIGHT and stringy unlike the rest of my hair. (It was just a mess!). I HATED IT! I looked at it for 2 months like EHH this is SO UGLY. It was hard to detangle cuz the texturized part was SO fragile, my new growth wasn't.

Ever since the texturizer, I have had SO MUCH BREAKAGE. My hair has been WEAK and just ugly when hangin from the front due to the stringy RANDOM strands. I FINALLY (11/9/09) got the courage to just CUT OFF the stringy strands. I didn't cut ALL, but the parts that were REALLY breaking and looking retarded.

I now have random lengths in the front. Some are ONE inch long. But believe it or not, I felt RELIEVED and HAPPY because I MISSED my waves in the front. They were gone due to the texturizer. I LOVE my waves and curls. I want to chop off the rest of the stringy parts and start over, but I am SO FAR, I am gunna let the parts that AREN'T breaking grow to a length I LIKE, then chop. I guess we could say I'm now TRANSITIONING AGAIN! UGH.

The beauty of it all, the winter is a good time to HIDE hair.
HAIR GROWS BACK, and mine grows PRETTY fast too!
I'm not really sad, I'm just mad at myself for EVER giving up on my hair.
MY texture is beautiful and I miss that. So I will never apply a texturizer again. I don't feel like the color was what set me back, well the BLEACHED color probably didn't HELP... but not the burgandy or sandy brown I'd do again without fear IF i wanted color in the future!

I looked at pics from nov 2008, my hair now was/ is at the SAME length, in the front and sides- ( if not shorter ) as it was then. That tells me that the coloring and/or texturizing SET ME BACK! BUT, like I said.. IT'S HAIR, it GROWS BACK! You LIVE AND YOU LEARN your FIRST YEARS! I should be at APL (or RIGHT above it) according to my hair growth from Nov 2008 BEFORE the damage!

I rather know NOW than 3 yrs down the line, then I would cry! lol


NOW YOUR TURN! VENTTTTT!!!!!!!


BEFORE THE COLOR AND TEXTURIZER - a BRAIDOUT before my 1 yr anniversary:




After the crazy bleach/color, but STILL no real BREAKAGE:



My hair was okay after this too!
MY PROBLEM was the texturizer! My hair went down hill , breakage city. I Realized it's HARD to maintain 2 totally diff textures. One part needing protein, the other just needing moisture. I just gave in, and cut it! I need 4-6 inches to be BACK ON TRACK!

OP, are you insane?

Your braidout was banging however.

 

[R4L]

I was platinum blonde and added blue streaks for school spirit.....forgetting that my cousin's wedding was coming up....

It looked great for the game, but by the time of the wedding it was getting greenish.....Since I was in college I didn't really care, until my mom reminded me about the wedding. I washed with a clarifying shampoo and conditioned a few times. I finally ended up just parting it WAY to the side and combing it over to try to hide the streaks. There are VERY few pics of me from that wedding.erplexed

 

[goodmorningruby]

I have done some horrendous things to my hair. Some of these stories have made me realize that my self BKT incident (my most recent and traumatic "wtf was I thinking?" hair event) in July wasn't so bad after all. But I'm still a little bitter....

I did NOT need this thread right now while I'm trying to decide on a new relaxer...

Funny thing, though. I had a dream last night that I was natural, and dyed a medium-big twist out with bright pink hair dye as if I were highlighting. I don't think it all broke off in the dream, but I woke up shaken. Come to think of it, it actually looked really cool.

Coincidentally enough I have had a bright pink highlighted(permanent) texturized afro. I used to experiment with hair dye a lot. You name it, I've done it. Up until the pink H.A.M., I was mostly just using wash-out spray dyes, and even afterwards. But when I went to my hair stylist at the time, this is all she could salvage from the damage I had accumulated with the pink afro mess:

My hair looks horrible in this picture (2003 or 2004), and I laugh at it now, but it was not cute at the time. It laid flat (my stylist was pretty decent), but I "fluffed" it up to give the volume it lost...so gross...

With that said, I'm off to deep condition, how can I not after this thread?...