VENT 4As: Dull Hair No Matter What?/Texlax Demons

[MissMeWithThatIsh]

So my hair's chin length to the beginning stages of BSL... and no matter what I do... it seems like I have no sheen or shine in my hair.

It looks like only chemicals - texturizers - will give me sheen or shine, which is unfortunate as I've been fighting the texturizer demon for quite a while. I wanted to make sure I was certain, and learn to maintain my hair.

Overall, it's looking like, being natural will not work for what I want for my hair. I want to be able to wear it out, but shrinkage annoys me, and although it's my hair's natural inclination, I'm not interested in having a tight, curly fro most of the time. It would be a pain to detangle- been there, done that. I want sheen or shine, I don't like that dull, matte look, I seem to get unless I use Vaseline, and trust, I can never smooth it down the way I would like a la Chicoro.

While mavens like Chicoro and Finally Free have been able to perfect their methods, I have a horrible urge to let my hair down - at least for a little while - and get a trim and a straighten (that I won't fear sweating out and won't look "dry" after the fact) - before I jump up on more wigs.

I love wash and gos, and have tried shingling, but the various textures (including a 3c patch at the back of my head) are at war with each other, making styling evil and dreadful.

 

[Pandora1975]

I don't have an answer, but I feel your pain.

 

[dynamic1]

Are you just venting, asking for help/ideas, or about to texlax and looking for support?

Keep in mind your hair will not always look shiny with a mild relaxer either.
It may make it easier to straighten.

 

[MissMeWithThatIsh]

Are you just venting, asking for help/ideas, or about to texlax and looking for support?

Keep in mind your hair will not always look shiny with a mild relaxer either.
It may make it easier to straighten.

any and all of the above

when i used a relaxer, I definitely had sheen.
i only get bling shine when i super straighten

 

[tash85]

Girl, you must be in my head.
I tried shingling for the first time yesterday and I could not believe the varying amount of textures in my head. The entire top half is about a 3c and the underneath is a definate 4a. What I'm left with in defined mini coils at the back and defined curls at the top.
I don't think it looks bad but I'm starting to get to a point of sheer frustration. Shrinkage and i are about to have some harsh words. I'm considering bkt'ing to see if it will loosen up the curl pattern at the back after a few applications.

Don't despair. I feel your pain too

 

[tash85]

Girl, you must be in my head.
I tried shingling for the first time yesterday and I could not believe the varying amount of textures in my head. The entire top half is about a 3c and the underneath is a definate 4a. What I'm left with in defined mini coils at the back and defined curls at the top.
I don't think it looks bad but I'm starting to get to a point of sheer frustration. Shrinkage and i are about to have some harsh words. I'm considering bkt'ing to see if it will loosen up the curl pattern at the back after a few applications.

Don't despair. I feel your pain too

 

[PinkPebbles]

You can try a rinse / glosser.

 

[Nonie]

So my hair's chin length to the beginning stages of BSL... and no matter what I do... it seems like I have no sheen or shine in my hair.

It looks like only chemicals - texturizers - will give me sheen or shine, which is unfortunate as I've been fighting the texturizer demon for quite a while. I wanted to make sure I was certain, and learn to maintain my hair.

Overall, it's looking like, being natural will not work for what I want for my hair. I want to be able to wear it out, but shrinkage annoys me, and although it's my hair's natural inclination, I'm not interested in having a tight, curly fro most of the time. It would be a pain to detangle- been there, done that. I want sheen or shine, I don't like that dull, matte look, I seem to get unless I use Vaseline, and trust, I can never smooth it down the way I would like a la Chicoro.

While mavens like Chicoro and Finally Free have been able to perfect their methods, I have a horrible urge to let my hair down - at least for a little while - and get a trim and a straighten (that I won't fear sweating out and won't look "dry" after the fact) - before I jump up on more wigs.

I love wash and gos, and have tried shingling, but the various textures (including a 3c patch at the back of my head) are at war with each other, making styling evil and dreadful.

OK, I think the first thing you need to do is not worry about getting your hair to look like anyone else's. I know when someone has your texture then it's easy to believe that if you used the same products, you'd get the same results. But if you do that, you set yourself up for disappointment.

So first and foremost, get to know what products work well with your hair. What products make it soft and easy to style and less likely to tangle. Now look at your hair on its own and admire its uniqueness. Pooka posted a pic of her afro puff in another thread and I was simply smitten. It wasn't blinding like type 3 hair might be but it was fluffy, and looked like a soft cloud. Just gorgeous!

Your hair does not have to be smoothed down flat like Chicoro's to look right. Personally I have never tried to do that coz IMO if I did, my hair would look as if I smeared on slug slime. (That's why I never got those "set dos" where the hair is frozen into place and looks plastic. Granted the wind won't mess up your do, but I don't find it attractive at all.) So if you can get your hair to smooth down the way it will allow itself to be smoothed down, even if not perfectly, you'll be surprised how that slight difference will give it a unique softness. In other words, focus on getting your hair to do what it can do and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Case in point, I love when cornrows end in a puff in the back. When my hair was shorter, I pulled it off and loved how it looked.

I could not wait for my hair to grow longer so I could wear a BAA puff in somewhat a similar do. BTW, the only product I used was S Curl and I plaited my hair at night. The slight stretch from plaiting for the night is what gave me the stretched 'fro puff you see above and here as opposed to the shrunken 'fro puff. So I imagined a stretched puff when my hair was longer would just be BAM!

So along came the day and I made bigger cornrows coz heck, my hair was all grown up nah! I used S Curl again, and plaited my hair in the back to stretch overnight and knew this would be the day I'd no doubt stop traffic.

NOT!

On the contrary, my BAA not only shrunk to about the stretched length it was above when I had shorter hair, but instead of at least having a nice uniformly round puff, I got a lumpy puff that I initially thought looked so ugly it was oogly. The cornrow "tails" refused completely to blend with each other to form one solid cloud but instead clumped into separate mounds. Try as I did, I could not get my hair to do what *I* wanted it to do. So I gave up and went to work with it like that. And guess what, it turned out to be one of the best creations I've ever worn.

Of course I took credit for it calling it my Lisa Simpson do after catching a glimpse of it in the mirror and being so pleased with my look. But I would not have discovered that my hair was capable of this unique do if I was so busy trying to get it to do what I see other folks' hair doing.

If you love wash and gos, then enjoy them. If you don't like shrinkage, braid your hair to stretch it and if you don't then use a "wet product", you should be able to wear your hair less shrunken. That can make a difference between wearing this and wearing this.

There are also Curlformers that you can use to sorta stretch your hair--although I'm yet to figure out how to separate them once you do that into the sort of image I have in mind, so scratch this suggestion--unless you don't mind walking around with tubes on your head.

ETA (Maybe I should take my own advice and accept that I'll never get the separated look I envision and so make do with the results I get. :scratchch )

 

[Evolving78]

i have 4a dull brown hair and in order to get it to have that sheen look, i color it jet black. from what i am reading, it sounds like you are just not feeling the natural look. being natural is part of you because that is what you were born with. your conflict is that your natural texture does not work for your idea of the way you want your hair to be. if you feel comfortable with straight hair then that is what you need to do. no sense in beating yourself up trying to make your natural texture do something it wasn't meant to do. being natural is not a hairstyle. it is a part of life. in order for you to be comfortable with the way that your hair behaves, it will take a transition of the mind. so if relaxing/texlaxing will make you happy camper, then go for it.

 

[vkb247]

I am definitely feeling you. I started to henna for the shine but haven't got that. I think that naturals get better results from henna and I have been considering transitioning. I also have a problem laying down my natural hair and I prefer a sleek look.

I love my texlaxed hair but I still get lots of shrinkage so I am thinking about doing an all over texlax corrective for looser curls but I also want to be able to do nice thick twists and braids and I love big hair. I think I will lose that part if I texlax further.

I don't know what to do with my hair and I am not liking it very much these days. Plus I measured it and realized that it is 12 inches (resisting saying only) after growing it for 30 months which pretty much means I am a slow grower or something else even worse.

Don't know what to do.

 

[Chicoro]

OK, I think the first thing you need to do is not worry about getting your hair to look like anyone else's. I know when someone has your texture then it's easy to believe that if you used the same products, you'd get the same results. But if you do that, you set yourself up for disappointment.

So first and foremost, get to know what products work well with your hair. What products make it soft and easy to style and less likely to tangle. Now look at your hair on its own and admire its uniqueness. Pooka posted a pic of her afro puff in another thread and I was simply smitten. It wasn't blinding like type 3 hair might be but it was fluffy, and looked like a soft cloud. Just gorgeous!

Your hair does not have to be smoothed down flat like Chicoro's to look right. Personally I have never tried to do that coz IMO if I did, my hair would look as if I smeared on slug slime. (That's why I never got those "set dos" where the hair is frozen into place and looks plastic. Granted the wind won't mess up your do, but I don't find it attractive at all.) So if you can get your hair to smooth down the way it will allow itself to be smoothed down, even if not perfectly, you'll be surprised how that slight difference will give it a unique softness. In other words, focus on getting your hair to do what it can do and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Case in point, I love when cornrows end in a puff in the back. When my hair was shorter, I pulled it off and loved how it looked.

I could not wait for my hair to grow longer so I could wear a BAA puff in somewhat a similar do. BTW, the only product I used was S Curl and I plaited my hair at night. The slight stretch from plaiting for the night is what gave me the stretched 'fro puff you see above and here as opposed to the shrunken 'fro puff. So I imagined a stretched puff when my hair was longer would just be BAM!

So along came the day and I made bigger cornrows coz heck, my hair was all grown up nah! I used S Curl again, and plaited my hair in the back to stretch overnight and knew this would be the day I'd no doubt stop traffic.

NOT!

On the contrary, my BAA not only shrunk to about the stretched length it was above when I had shorter hair, but instead of at least having a nice uniformly round puff, I got a lumpy puff that I initially thought looked so ugly it was oogly. The cornrow "tails" refused completely to blend with each other to form one solid cloud but instead clumped into separate mounds. Try as I did, I could not get my hair to do what *I* wanted it to do. So I gave up and went to work with it like that. And guess what, it turned out to be one of the best creations I've ever worn.

Of course I took credit for it calling it my Lisa Simpson do after catching a glimpse of it in the mirror and being so pleased with my look. But I would not have discovered that my hair was capable of this unique do if I was so busy trying to get it to do what I see other folks' hair doing.

If you love wash and gos, then enjoy them. If you don't like shrinkage, braid your hair to stretch it and if you don't then use a "wet product", you should be able to wear your hair less shrunken. That can make a difference between wearing this and wearing this.

There are also Curlformers that you can use to sorta stretch your hair--although I'm yet to figure out how to separate them once you do that into the sort of image I have in mind, so scratch this suggestion--unless you don't mind walking around with tubes on your head.

ETA (Maybe I should take my own advice and accept that I'll never get the separated look I envision and so make do with the results I get. :scratchch )

Aaah, finally! A glimpse of the mysterious yet always fabulous, Nonie.

I wanted to say that my straightened hair is dull and rough no matter what as well. It never gets "straight and silky".

My point in putting my nose in this thread, for being here in this threa,d is to say that what may be dull in comparison to someone else's hair, is a beautiful healthy sheen for your hair.

My [straightened] hair looks like brillo compared to most of the lovely ladies on this site with flat ironed or relaxed hair. Lots of heads look like pure silk. Ahm..not mine, though. I know that mine will never look like that. But, it has come a long way from how it used to look so I just take that.

So I guess I am [trying] to say that although what your hair may have to offer may not be what you envisioned and that it may not look like other people's hair, it still can be and is beautiful. I hope this makes sense.

 

[hottopic]

So my hair's chin length to the beginning stages of BSL... and no matter what I do... it seems like I have no sheen or shine in my hair.

It looks like only chemicals - texturizers - will give me sheen or shine, which is unfortunate as I've been fighting the texturizer demon for quite a while. I wanted to make sure I was certain, and learn to maintain my hair.

Overall, it's looking like, being natural will not work for what I want for my hair. I want to be able to wear it out, but shrinkage annoys me, and although it's my hair's natural inclination, I'm not interested in having a tight, curly fro most of the time. It would be a pain to detangle- been there, done that. I want sheen or shine, I don't like that dull, matte look, I seem to get unless I use Vaseline, and trust, I can never smooth it down the way I would like a la Chicoro.

While mavens like Chicoro and Finally Free have been able to perfect their methods, I have a horrible urge to let my hair down - at least for a little while - and get a trim and a straighten (that I won't fear sweating out and won't look "dry" after the fact) - before I jump up on more wigs.

I love wash and gos, and have tried shingling, but the various textures (including a 3c patch at the back of my head) are at war with each other, making styling evil and dreadful.

I am texlax and found the secret to shine.. Stay away from oils or products with mineral oil. If you must use it, use it after you used a product that is water-based. So at least that way it seals the moisture in not keep it out. Also, use pure coconut oil on your hair and scalp. YES, Pure coconut oil, USDA Organic preferred. Look in the cooking isle at Wholefoods...

 

[LoveLiLi]

Are you texlaxed or natural?

When I was relaxed with a no-lye relaxer my hair looked dull no matter what. It was very straight, but dull and certain products (Pantene leave-in spray for one) left a film on my hair making the problem worse.

I needed a lye relaxer to get shine. Once I started using lye relaxers my hair was always shiny and Aveda USC took it to the next level - my hair looked salon fresh everyday.

Now that I'm natural, greases, pomades and anything with glycerin makes my hair look dull and leaves it dry, wiry and frizzy.

The right conditioner or butter along with a little gel along my hairline leave my hair shiny and sleek.

When I wear it straightened my hair looks the shiniest and silkiest when I air-dry and flat iron. Using a blow-dryer sucks all the moisture from my hair and leaves it dull and dry looking even after flat-ironing.

You may have to play around with products and techniques to find out what's making your hair look dull.

 

[MissMeWithThatIsh]

I texlaxed... with lye, as I know that gives me shine.. and kills a lot of the bulk. I can't say that I'm all remorseful about it, my hair looks almost the same, save for the back part...