Where do I go from here (Heat Damage)?

[TokyoReina]

I'm in a hate relationship with my hair right now and I'm really trying to figure out what my next goal should be. I transitioned for 2 years and I cut my relaxed ends a few months ago. There was already a small leave-out area from where I wore u-parts and weaves that was almost bone straight. Not long after I cut, I went to a stylist I trusted for a Dominican blowout. I wanted to check my length and trim. She was actually pretty cautious.

Well....I ended up with an overall looser curl and some very straight areas. Everytime I've flatironed, regardless of heat protectant or cautions...it's only gotten worse. Now my hair is a mess texture wise. Bone straight areas, wavy areas, curly areas...it is worst than when I was transitioning.

The upside is it's almost BSL and I do like that it's growing back well and still thick. I'm not sure I have it in me to do another long transition but I have no idea what to do now. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[sunnydaze]

Sorry to hear this.

So it is the one section that was left out that has heat damage right? Any way you could cut that section off a bit and blend into layers?

 

[TokyoReina]

The heat damage is all over and very varying. I'm considering keeping it straight since that's the only way it's uniform. But I'm not sure if that would eventually cause my hair to be less healthy.

 

[hnntrr]

Check the heat straighten naturals tag! There's prolly info there you can use. If you want it curly there are lots of heatless curl you can use to give ur hair a break (rollersets, twist puta, bantú knots, braid outs,etc)

 

[Newtogrow]

I would keep deep conditioning it with a mix between moisture and protein. Lay off of the heat for a while. Try twist outs for uniformity and protective styling. I would stretch my hair without heat for a straighter look.

Good luck.

 

[GreenEyedJen]

Are you worried about losing your natural curl pattern or just the health of your hair? If you're worried about losing your curl pattern, you need to stop messing with the heat all together. Protein assists with curl formation. I would find out which protein works best for my hair and incorporate it regularly. Try protective styles or twist- or braid-outs for a uniform look.

If you're worried about the health of your hair, try to stretch your straightening sessions out for as long as possible. If you own a set of Caruso or steam rollers, I would start using them (if you aren't already). The steam effects puts moisture back in your hair every time you use them. They can be used for both curly looks and straight looks with body. Just adjust the size to match your needs. You can use them every day. When my hair is straightened, I use them every morning before work. They only take about 10-15 minutes to set. They've really improved the health of my hair and my straight styles last a lot longer. Of course, use a heat protectant every time you straighten. A good one is KeraCare Silken Sheen.

 

[Anonymous1]

My texture changed from straightening and I stopped blowdrying and flatironing. Now I rollerset and if my roots are really puffy, I will put the flatiron on my roots only. Lately I have been rocking braidouts(like today) and twistouts. I dc once a week and do protein bi-weekly

 

[Channy31]

Sorry this happened to you!
Keep up deep conditioning and protein treatments and just let your hair do it's thing for a bit.
Heat damage isn't the end of world.

 

[ChristmasCarol]

Aww, that's messed up!

I would suggest trying a heavy protein treatment, such as Aphogee. My oldest DD was ready to cut off about 5" due to heat damage before I told her what to do. After several rounds of treatments, most of the curl came back. However, her heat-damaged hair wasn't bone straight, just drastically loosened. Don't know if that will work with severe heat damage.

BTW, you may want to just rollerset and only blow out your roots in the future...Good Luck!

 

[westNDNbeauty]

Unfortunately the damage is done. The only thing protein treatments can do for you now is to help strengthen your strands so they are less susceptible to breakage due to the heat damage.

If you are interested in your natural curl pattern, I suggest laying off of direct heat. Try styles such as braid-out and twist-outs. Add rollers to the end so that it will curl. This will help mask the uneven textures.

You can use indirect heat for things such as deep conditioning or helping a braid set or rollerset to dry your hair faster.

 

[bhndbrwneyes]

I'm in a hate relationship with my hair right now and I'm really trying to figure out what my next goal should be. I transitioned for 2 years and I cut my relaxed ends a few months ago. There was already a small leave-out area from where I wore u-parts and weaves that was almost bone straight. Not long after I cut, I went to a stylist I trusted for a Dominican blowout. I wanted to check my length and trim. She was actually pretty cautious.

Well....I ended up with an overall looser curl and some very straight areas. Everytime I've flatironed, regardless of heat protectant or cautions...it's only gotten worse. Now my hair is a mess texture wise. Bone straight areas, wavy areas, curly areas...it is worst than when I was transitioning.

The upside is it's almost BSL and I do like that it's growing back well and still thick. I'm not sure I have it in me to do another long transition but I have no idea what to do now. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Do you think the stylist put some sort of temporary smoothing treatment in it that loosened the curl pattern? Maybe in a few weeks after several washes whatever is in it will get washed out and your curl pattern will be back? I'm hoping this is the case and sorry to hear about your situation. Maybe try tons and tons of curl defining creams to make those curls pop back.

 

[PinkSunshine77]

This is what I would do. I'd cut out the damaged hair and get me a fly (sorry old school chick here) glueless lace front (or a few) and keep my real hair moisturized and protected under until I gained my length back. Is it a lot of your hair that's damaged? IF you don't want to do such a drastic cut, transition out of the damage, the way you did to go natural and when your healthy hair is a decent length, cut off the damaged ends. You can even clip the damaged ends gradually as well over time. Oh and NO MORE HEAT!

 

[Fhrizzball]

You can wear semi straight styles via rollersets and wet sets. I would lay off the heat and incorporate protein into your hair regimen. you can try to blend your hair with rollers on the ends and whatnot and slowly trim at the ends. If you don't feel up to transitioning you can BC as is. There's always the lace wig and other protective styles route if you don't feel secure in the short hair length. But I would try to go on a no heat regimen as you said that's only making it worse. That coupled with protein treatments may help your hair get back to the way you've known it to be.

 

[PinkSunshine77]

Hey i'm not sure if you can do this one, but I'm going to save up and get one of these

http://www.divaswigs.com/7-stock-full-lace-wigs#filter=[range:000_29000]

Lakiastar on Youtube (she's the bomb with the uparts, lacewigs) shows you how to cut the lace, how to flatten the wig to make the part more natural here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpAvL6Ecnfc&list=FLPVyhpq-StDp33KRXBKNdfA&index=6

I am so drooling over the one she got. I want it in Jet Black, but not as long as she has it in the video.

 

[TokyoReina]

I'm considering transitioning again but the idea of cutting off all the hair I've grown out over the past 2 years and going another 2 (at least) just to get where I am now...I guess all the teary and depressed transitioning days are still fresh in my mind. At this point I care more about length and health than I do I about my texture.

I'm going try to up my protein treatments and lay off the heat. I transitioned with wigs (I made my own with closures). I hate to go back to them but I suppose that would help a great deal. I've never done lacefronts but I've been browsing them.

After spending two years transitioning just to end up with the mess I have...it just saddens me and make me wonder why I even bother. I don't want to spend the next couple years struggling the way I was before.

 

[PinkSunshine77]

I'm considering transitioning again but the idea of cutting off all the hair I've grown out over the past 2 years and going another 2 (at least) just to get where I am now...I guess all the teary and depressed transitioning days are still fresh in my mind. At this point I care more about length and health than I do I about my texture.

I'm going try to up my protein treatments and lay off the heat. I transitioned with wigs (I made my own with closures). I hate to go back to them but I suppose that would help a great deal. I've never done lacefronts but I've been browsing them.

After spending two years transitioning just to end up with the mess I have...it just saddens me and make me wonder why I even bother. I don't want to spend the next couple years struggling the way I was before.

((hugs)) I know how you feel! I had the thickest, hair longest I've ever had in March, I got slack lately, and my hair broke off. Ruined all of my progress over the past 3 yrs. Hurt my heart :/