Wearing "No Heat" Styles Causes My Natural Hair to Break Off!!!

Crystalicequeen123 said:
Umm...you mind telling us your secret Lovegymnasts? :sekret: :look:
Click to expand...

wash weekly
moisturizing deep conditioner mixed with extra virgin olive oil and virgin coconut oil weekly (30 minutes with heat, 30 minutes without)
Protein deep condition monthly
clarify (baking soda) monthly
final rinse: very cold apple cider vinegar rinse
a lot of moisturizer when styling hair (Lustrasilk mixed with extra virgin olive oil and wheat germ oil)
rinse hair daily (warm then cold water) and then spray with moisturizer mix (cold water, Lustrasilk, extra virgin olive oil, and wheat germ oil)

Heaven City!
 
I've came to the same conclusion and changed my regimen earlier this month. I plan to straighten my hair more often (every other month versus every 3 months). I plan to wear my flat iron for 3 weeks. The next week will be bunning styles. Then I'll just do natural styles for one month and repeat the process.

I'm hoping this helps my hair
 
EllePixie said:
Hey Pooh, thanks so much for sharing and I definitely agree with you regarding manipulation and breakage. For me, low manipulation is KEY and I have been retaining length well. I have some SSKs, but not an abundant amount because I keep my hair as moisturized as possible. I do wash n gos daily and only manipulate my hair lightly when I style (I add product in two sections now by smoothing/scrunching it in), and put my hair in puffs at night to keep my hair from matting against my head. A lot of people have asked about tangling from wearing my hair out all the time, but since I cowash daily, I lightly detangle my hair with lots of condish under running water to keep it from getting too tangled, which is another reason why I opt for daily styling rather than stretching wngs for 5+ days.

To the others on the thread who do not want to be heat trained and retain length, please don't get discouraged. You just have to learn what your hair can take.
Click to expand...
I'm a daily cowasher too but I only detangle once a week. So lightly detangling may help even more.

lovegymnasts said:
wash weekly
moisturizing deep conditioner mixed with extra virgin olive oil and virgin coconut oil weekly (30 minutes with heat, 30 minutes without)
Protein deep condition monthly
clarify (baking soda) monthly
final rinse: very cold apple cider vinegar rinse
a lot of moisturizer when styling hair (Lustrasilk mixed with extra virgin olive oil and wheat germ oil)
rinse hair daily (warm then cold water) and then spray with moisturizer mix (cold water, Lustrasilk, extra virgin olive oil, and wheat germ oil)

Heaven City!
Click to expand...

So you rinse daily rather than cowash daily, hhmmmm.....

I'm getting some good ideas from this thread. I just need to figure out what will work for me and my hair.
 
Hey Poohbear, it's funny you started this thread, we have very similar hair and this is something I kinda noticed a while back, but I think I found a remedy.

See, I kinda used to think what you said in your OP, but with the length of my hair, straightening often would be too time consuming and damaging, so I read up on it and talked to people.

This may sound like a lot of work, but it's not. Whenever you are wearing your hair naturally, make sure to separate your ends into sections. Don't allow it to dry in a puff or a big section. Coat the ends in a heavy oil like castor and twist the sections. Do this for buns also and roll the sections around the base of the pony. I think the cure for the breakage and splits is a very heavy coating/moisturizer on the ends and then tucking them away in sections.
 
Poohbear said:
I've come to the conclusion that wearing "no heat" styles cause my natural hair to break off. I have 4a/b tightly coiled hair texture. Last year, I went back and forth between wearing my hair straightened and wearing my hair in natural styles. I kept thinking it was heat usage that was keeping me from retaining length, but now I think otherwise. I've noticed that when I wear my hair straightened, I do not get breakage.

When I wear my hair in natural styles -- whether it's a bun, twistout, puff, etc. -- I get breakage along with all types of splits and single strand knots. Every time I would see broken hair ends in my sink, I would feel so discouraged. I would try to pass it off as normal breakage in my mind, but I still felt like it was keeping me away from my goal length. I've been armpit length forever!!! For the New Year, I was planning on staying away from heat, but my hair was still breaking off while avoiding heat since November 2010. I would moisturize my hair and everything!

I also feel like certain products have something to do with breakage too. I use more products when my hair is in it's natural state. When my hair is straightened, I only use grease and/or oil. When my hair is in it's natural state, I'll use moisturizer, creams, oils, grease, and conditioners to either moisturize or style it a certain way.

So this year, I've changed my mind... I think I'm just going to keep my natural hair straightened. This will be less manipulation on my hair and less use of products. I feel like this may be the best thing for my hair right now. I have natural hair but I like straightened hair as well. I just stopped relaxing because I hate the burn and smell of relaxers. So I'm hoping this will work for me.

Anyone else feel this way about natural hair?
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Long Hair dont care on youtube has a lot of success with this type of mild heat training. She blow dries
 
I have this problem as well, I dont always flat iron, but I always blowout w/comb for best results. Your hair may not react the same way as other peoples-Gotta do what works for you!
I also prefer the shine, body, and length of my blown out hair.
I dont consider my hair 'heat-trained' at all, been blowing it out for years and it has maintained the same characteristics/curl pattern all the while
+I can flat iron to 'swangin' straight and it stays the same.
For me natural hair is all about the versatility.

Eta: I also really dont have the time to do the 3day hair processes in which I would stretch with braids/twists/air drying + I still do not get smooth and shiny hair that moves, and this is a requirement for me.
 
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lovegymnasts said:
Heat is not necessary.
After a lifetime of dry brittleness, my hair is so soft now that it makes my heart melt and I will have moments of total awe and amazement.
Really!

I have never straightened my hair and truly have no plans to until I hit at least waist length and that is just to see what it looks like.

If someone wants to use heat to straighten their hair that is great but it is not necessary to be able to grow long natural hair.

Yes, type 4 hair gets single strand knots but that is a natural characteristic of our hair. Yes, I believe in minimizing them but I am not going to get frustrated with my hair because it is doing something that by it's very nature it is supposed to do.

I think that is like getting mad at a baby for crying. You would like to minimize it but that is what a baby does. There is no benefit in letting it frustrate you.

And yes, I also think that many times the impression is made that you can not grow long natural hair without heat.
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^^Right on!!

I agree with OP that buns, puffs and twistouts lead to tangles/breakage, but, for me, heat will never be a healthy alternative to retain length. I followed a similar regimen to longhairdon'tcare as a child and my hair was never longer than SL.

For me, protective styling and making my styles last for weeks far outweighs daily styling and being all done up or whatever, although I'd say I wore some pretty cute Pstyles. I maybe wore my hair "out" a total of three times last year. :yep:
 
Poohbear said:
I know some people mentioned wearing a bun to retain but I hate wearing buns! I've tried wearing my hair in a bun for a good amount of time, but it has a damper on my mood for some odd reason. I like wearing my hair either down or out. Plus I have to re-do my bun everyday which I do not like to do.
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Same here, Lady--I much enjoy wearing my hair out, I just dont like having my hair pulled back or "secured"LOL. I dont too much get into 'protective styling', although I may do yarn braids during the summer--moreso out of laziness than trying to 'protect.
 
I've had a similar slllump Poohbear. I did regular heat (blowdrying once per month). Then I tried to avoid heat. It seems like nothing was getting me over the slump. I tried every conditioner under the sun, even highly raved ones like aveda...still nothing. I just started oil rinses w/castor oil and it has softened & moisturized my hair like never before. Furthermore, I was something like u w/flat ironing. I can't get my hair straight using no product. I tried. I was leaning towards something greasy or slick but never found the right combo-- (and sticky silicones weren't doing it). I did an oil rinse, and was able to finally glide the flat iron (and comb chase) over my hair and get shiny soft results. It has been awesome these last 3 weeks. These rinses also help the conditioners to actually respond to my hair. I really dislike protective type styles and will not wear them on a regular basis; nor do I believe they are required to grow hair. Anyway, I also got the tangle teezer and it has helped to cut down on detangling time tremendously. Here is the link on oil rinses, give it a try, it may give you the moisture you need to begin retaining beyond apl! http://www.longhaircareforum.com/ha...-discussion/150965-dont-sleep-oil-rinses.html
 
Nichi said:
Hey Poohbear, it's funny you started this thread, we have very similar hair and this is something I kinda noticed a while back, but I think I found a remedy.

See, I kinda used to think what you said in your OP, but with the length of my hair, straightening often would be too time consuming and damaging, so I read up on it and talked to people.

This may sound like a lot of work, but it's not. Whenever you are wearing your hair naturally, make sure to separate your ends into sections. Don't allow it to dry in a puff or a big section. Coat the ends in a heavy oil like castor and twist the sections. Do this for buns also and roll the sections around the base of the pony. I think the cure for the breakage and splits is a very heavy coating/moisturizer on the ends and then tucking them away in sections.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your advice, but this is the thing... I do not allow my hair to dry in a puff nor a big section. Whenever I wear my hair naturally, this is what I do... I separate my ends into 6-8 sections and coat my ends as well as the whole section of hair with either a creamy conditioner or conditioning cream or grease. But even with doing that, my hair still shrinks to nothing while its airdrying. I do not like the look. I'm not going to walk around with shrunken twists nor a puny little bun.

I know the cure for breakage and splits is coating the hair, moisturizing the hair, and protecting the hair, but I do not feel like doing that every single day. Shrunken fuzzy little twists do not look right on me. There was a time last year where I was doing the "juice" challenge where I was moisturizing my hair everyday with S-Curl and putting it in a bun. I got tired of doing all that work to put my hair in a nice smooth bun. I don't like dry looking shrunken looking buns with frizzy edges. So I had do re-do my bun everyday and moisturize it everyday and re-brush it everyday because of shrinkage and dryness. Not trying to be negative but that's how I felt about just me and my hair, no one elses.
 
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I agree, I lose less hair when its straight. I wore my hair in cornrows under a wig for 2 weeks when it was time to wash and take it down I used a ton of conditioner to detangle before I washed, after I thought all the tangles were out I washed........after I rinsed I noticed 50% of my hair was matted together. I spent 2 days pulling each individule hair out of all the knots I was not about to cut nothing:nono:

Well I saved my hair...but I am now going to re-evaluate my techniques I have decided that I am going to blow dry my hair every 2 weeeks and just do braidouts on my blow dried hair and flat iron every 3 months. I also save soo much money becuase all I will use is Oyin handmade Burnt sugar pomade for styling my braidouts and my daily moisturizers are oils.
 
EllePixie said:
Hey Pooh, thanks so much for sharing and I definitely agree with you regarding manipulation and breakage. For me, low manipulation is KEY and I have been retaining length well. I have some SSKs, but not an abundant amount because I keep my hair as moisturized as possible. I do wash n gos daily and only manipulate my hair lightly when I style (I add product in two sections now by smoothing/scrunching it in), and put my hair in puffs at night to keep my hair from matting against my head. A lot of people have asked about tangling from wearing my hair out all the time, but since I cowash daily, I lightly detangle my hair with lots of condish under running water to keep it from getting too tangled, which is another reason why I opt for daily styling rather than stretching wngs for 5+ days.

I agree that doing twists often, especially each night, is a lot of manipulation. Every time I have tried a style, the manipulation caused some breakage since I had to detangle/stretch my hair. I love my pony puff but quickly realized that wearing my hair like this caused major tangles in the middle of my head because the hair was all grouped together and shrinking. Any style with blow drying causes breakage for me (RIP big blown out fro), even if I blow dry on low, so I stored my blow dryer away.

My main thing is that I just let my hair do what it wants to do - trying to "change" my hair in any way can be a risk.

To the others on the thread who do not want to be heat trained and retain length, please don't get discouraged. You just have to learn what your hair can take.
Click to expand...

EllePixie,
You can do daily wash-n-gos because you have a pretty uniform hair texture and a nice shape to your hair. Your hair has volume after it dries in a wash-n-go style. Mine does not. It looks puny and flat after a wash-n-go. Plus, I have uneven hair lengths and the top/front part of my hair is kinky "straight" while the rest of my hair has pen spring sized tight coils and kinks all over. In order for my hair to look like your wash-n-gos, I have to do a curly twistout.
 
Poohbear said:
I've come to the conclusion that wearing "no heat" styles cause my natural hair to break off. I have 4a/b tightly coiled hair texture. Last year, I went back and forth between wearing my hair straightened and wearing my hair in natural styles. I kept thinking it was heat usage that was keeping me from retaining length, but now I think otherwise. I've noticed that when I wear my hair straightened, I do not get breakage.

When I wear my hair in natural styles -- whether it's a bun, twistout, puff, etc. -- I get breakage along with all types of splits and single strand knots. Every time I would see broken hair ends in my sink, I would feel so discouraged. I would try to pass it off as normal breakage in my mind, but I still felt like it was keeping me away from my goal length. I've been armpit length forever!!! For the New Year, I was planning on staying away from heat, but my hair was still breaking off while avoiding heat since November 2010. I would moisturize my hair and everything!

I also feel like certain products have something to do with breakage too. I use more products when my hair is in it's natural state. When my hair is straightened, I only use grease and/or oil. When my hair is in it's natural state, I'll use moisturizer, creams, oils, grease, and conditioners to either moisturize or style it a certain way.

So this year, I've changed my mind... I think I'm just going to keep my natural hair straightened. This will be less manipulation on my hair and less use of products. I feel like this may be the best thing for my hair right now. I have natural hair but I like straightened hair as well. I just stopped relaxing because I hate the burn and smell of relaxers. So I'm hoping this will work for me.

Anyone else feel this way about natural hair?
Click to expand...

Yes, I have quite a lot of breakage when I air dry my natural hair!! I too decided to wear it straight, with roller sets
 
My hair is the exact same way. It seem as though my hair never retained any moisture and was always tangled.When its pressed, it gets very oily and its tangled free.
 
BUMP!! Does anyone, including Poohbear, still use this "more heat" regimen?

I'm really toying with this idea. I believe Pooh and I share the same hair characteristics (fine, 4b, med density) and I'm quite tired of the knots, tangles, and breakage that I get from manipulation of my hair. I've flat ironed my hair once in this almost 3 year journey, and have probably used a blow dryer on it no more that 5 times in that time. I keep my hair protected most of the time, in twists and deep condition once every 1-2 weeks. I do all the right things but still get tons of midstrand splits and have to sit with a pair of scissors any time I manipulate my hair. It's getting frustrating and I'm starting to wonder if more heat may actually help a little. I certainly don't want to heat train. Just looking to use it to keep my hair stretched beyond what a twistout, braid out, or bun (which all lead to knots because of shrinkage) can do. So any progress you can share would be great!
 
bumping again.... This is a great thread. I think I will try to blow dry my hair on warm and then do a twistout. I've lost alot of hair recently with my transitioning twistouts. I think it's too much manipulation.
 
It must be a cosmic enlightenment sort of thing going on because I've just come to this conclusion myself after being natural since 2004 and avoiding heat like it was the plague. I'm now shampooing, deep conditioning, detangling, blowdrying and evening straightening when I feel froggy. My hair seems to be doing much better, but its definitely not doing any worse. And I now get my desired styles with less shrinkage.
 
FtrDrO - yes, I still use heat on my natural hair. Whenever I go back to airdrying, I get breakage.

Moisturizing my hair with a watery-like product too often will cause breakage for me too. My hair likes oils and grease-like products better. Keeps my hair soft.

I do not get as much breakage as I used to now that I blowdry my hair after every wash. After blowdrying, that's when I style my hair into a natural style or flat ironed.

As of right now, I've been laying off the flat iron just so I can have some thickness and volume to my hair. I've been wearing bantu knot outs on blowdried hair which has been fun!

Also, incorporating Aphogee 2 Minute Reconstructor into my hair regimen as stopped breakage for me as well. I use this product after shampooing my hair. Then I rinse it out after 5 minutes or so.
 
Thanks Poohbear! I'm glad to know that it's been going well for you. I'm going to try to use more heat (maybe once a month) this fall/winter after I take down these twists and see how that goes.
 
I've come to this realisation recently. I am going to flat iron once a month. Then use tension method and blow dry my hair every week. I just purchased a soft bonnet dryer to help with roller sets and I am sitting under it now so just seeing how that goes :look:
 
melissa-bee said:
I've come to this realisation recently. I am going to flat iron once a month. Then use tension method and blow dry my hair every week. I just purchased a soft bonnet dryer to help with roller sets and I am sitting under it now so just seeing how that goes :look:
Click to expand...

I'm not fully natural as yet.... 1 year post, and this sounds like a great regimen. I realize when I blow dry my transitioning hair, it feels strong, doesn't break off, and I love that I can comb it from root to tip. When I'm fully natural I plan to continue to blow dry also, not sure how often I'll do so and when I also plan to treat myself to getting my hair flat ironed monthly from a stylist. I don't see myself doing styles on wet hair all the time.
 
Wow! I started this thread almost three years ago. Since then, I have found a way to achieve no heat natural styles without experiencing significant amounts of breakage or that dry brittle feeling. The key for me is using just water as my moisturizer and pomade (grease) as my sealant. My primary styles are braid-outs and wash n go's. I also found that curl activator gel worked for my wash n go's, but I do not use it anymore because of the stickiness and shrinkage.
 
I think I may start to incorporate heat into my hair reg. Ive been natural for almost 10 years now Ive tried it all literally every suggested way to hold in moisture it hasnt been quite successful for me. Leave in conditioners dont work they only make my hair hard and dry it out and I've tried alot of em. The only way my hair has really felt soft was when I would flat iron. Ive been going back and forth with myself for a long time with this and feel that my hair is the healthiest when its straightened.

I only plan to use heat once a month wash every 2 to 3 weeks as low manipulation works best for me.
 
ctosha said:
I think I may start to incorporate heat into my hair reg. Ive been natural for almost 10 years now Ive tried it all literally every suggested way to hold in moisture it hasnt been quite successful for me. Leave in conditioners dont work they only make my hair hard and dry it out and I've tried alot of em. The only way my hair has really felt soft was when I would flat iron. Ive been going back and forth with myself for a long time with this and feel that my hair is the healthiest when its straightened.

I only plan to use heat once a month wash every 2 to 3 weeks as low manipulation works best for me.
Click to expand...

I gave up heat for a year, air-drying with a leave-in conditioner. I tried so many combinations - leave-in alone, leave-in with oil, oil or butter only, oil over / under leave-in, butter over / under leave-in. The results were exactly the same: dry, crispy and tangly hair.

I went to the hairdresser last month to get a trim, and she blow-dried my hair before trimming. I hadn't experienced my hair as happy as it was that day.

I've since started blow-drying my hair on medium heat after washing (with a serum to protect), using the tension method. I only wash my hair every two weeks, so hopefully it should be fine. My hair is certainly happier.
 
Poohbear -

This thread was a godsend. I don't know if you feel like looking thru my recent posts, but Frizzy Dry ****** Hair http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?t=731447
Was my cry for help, as I was tired of always having dry, thirsty looking hair.

Even with all the product junky ways I picked up, http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?t=730853 I couldn't find ANYTHING and I think I contemplated the creamy crack a few times, tho I really want the versatility of natural hair. I think I will at least blow dry. Wear it straight for 3 weeks, then in natural styles after that for a week... and then wash again by the 4th. I'm not feeling the washing and co washing every day either.

My hair never looks good... my wash n go style doesn't look good either and it should because I have 4a hair... I'm going to start this weekend. I'm going to blowdry it without flat ironing, just to see if that is enough heat to hold me over... but if not, I do have the flat ironing mastered... I just had hoped to be able to wear my hair out and in the wash n go state, because it seems so carefree and pretty... but my frizz is UNBELIEVABLE!

When I was relaxed, I was good just using grease or a creamy moisturizer on my hair like every 2-3 days. I could keep my hair looking good for WEEKS! I got turned out by LHCF... and I'm thinking it's time to go against the grain of the popular opinion on this board, and just do what worked before... use heat! I hope to report back in a few months with wonderful news!
 
Hey krikit96 :wave:

I checked out the link that you posted and noticed that you have tried these products:

Kinky Curly Knot Today
Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie
Coconut Oil
Tressemme Naturals Conditioner

I've tried these products too and they all made my hair dry/dull-looking. I've had a love/hate relationship with the Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie but it never worked consistently for my hair. I have returned all these products to the store except for the coconut oil which I use for other things occasionally.

EcoStyler Olive Oil Gel has been working pretty good for me for setting my hair in braidouts, twistouts, or flexirods/permrods. Dax Pomade (grease) is the other product that has help my hair to be less frizzy and more shiny. I also just recently revisited 100% shea butter that is made by RA Cosmetics. It's been okay so far. I also started back using Aussie Moist Conditioner as well.

I've also had a love/hate relationship with wash n go styles. Sometimes they turn out nice enough for my liking, but most of the time, they are an ultimate fail no matter what products I use and whether I blowdry or not. Right now, I've been doing braidouts and twistouts with flexirods.

I haven't used the blowdryer with the comb attachment to rake through my hair dry since the month of May. However, if my hair isn't dry from a style, I may use my blowdryer to blow air on my hair to dry and stretch it out without using a comb attachment.
 
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