Wow, Girl! How'd you break your hair off so fast?

[IDareT'sHair]

Being totally ingornant about Healthy Hair Care Practices and relying on the Salon/Stylist to determine what "Hair Health" was For Me.

Leaving something like that, in the Hands of Someone Else.

Believing that My Hair, regardless of what I allowed to be done to it, would always come back healthy & strong. Relaxing too frequently, cutting into too many different "styles", overprocessing, double processing etc.....

Basically, a Total Lack of Knowledge & Miseducation about Hair Healthy, Practices & Products.

*hangs head in shame*

 

[beans4reezy]

I used to get my hair braided a lot, which isn't bad, it was the prep work involved:
The braider would wash my hair and without dc'ing would blow dry my tangled hair; by the time all was said and done, there was a HUGE chunk of ripped out hair on the salon floor and the braider would start to braid the four strands of hair left on my scalp. I wonder why in four years my hair grew from a short cut to only shoulder length!

 

[bestblackgirl]

Not using scarf at night, and slept on 100% cotton pillowcase
not moisturizing
Always wearing my hair down
no DC and seal
Had no idea about moistuze/ protein

 

[kooskoos]

This may sound crazy, but I was not deep conditioning (the first time i ever deep conditioned was almost a year ago; the first time EVER!!!!!)

 

[Hersheygurl]

My pre-LHCF days were difficult, but the most damaging time for my hair was in High School. I did the following things...

Used heat on dirty hair *(yuck)
Used Dax or brown gel to lay down edges ( a lot)
Didn't wash as often as I should ( maybe 1-2 X a month, I know yuck again)
used a greasy poly scarf to tie my hair up at night and tied it very tight
scratched before relaxers and let my stylist burn me and not say anything to get as straight as possible
had a stylist " over-weave" me by sewing several pounds of hair on my small head. It was heavy and bulky ( yuck) I looked like a troll
no moisturizing and acting like water was the enemy for my hair
do DC'G ( hell, no regular conditioning)
getting weird asymmetrical cuts that grew out funny
overprocessing my already fine hair ( texlaxed is lovely!)
letting stylists jack me up



It is by God's grace that I have hair left and He smiled on me when I found this forum. I no longer go to stylists and my hair is healthier and longer than it has ever been.

blessings to all my LHCF sisters!

 

[Oasis]

-Not only did I overlap relaxers, I did it from root to tip every.single.time.
-Used flat iron and curling iron on highest temp every.single.day.
-Left micros in for months without washing.
-After I took my micros out I combed my hair dry with a fine tooth comb.
-Never moisturized or DC'ed ever.

 

[shamarie]

over lapping relaxers, pulling and snaping.

 

[locabouthair]

Leaving something like that, in the Hands of Someone Else.

And that was the BIGGEST mistake I made with my hair. I got soooo much breakage from going to stylists and they wouldnt wash out the perm properly and my hair would break off at the new growth. Then everyone would ask me what happened to my hair.

I get so angry when I think about how long my hair could have been by now if I left those stylists alone.

 

[hiphoprocker]

lol i was a mess now that i think about it:

relaxing from root to tip EVERYTIME
relaxing whenever i felt like it (tried to space them out but never on a set schedule)
permanently coloring blonde
then black
then blonde
then brown
all over a relaxer, a severely over lapped relaxer at that
glued in quick weaves minus stocking cap (couldnt get it to look right w/stocking lol)
colored blonde again
then too tight micro braids
and too tight kinky twist
than back black/brown (by now my hair won't even take a color properly)
more quick weaves (tons of quick weaves actually)

OMG!! its a miracle i didnt go bald!!! i've learned a lot.. i havent done ANY of these things since starting my journey...

what happens when you let a 18 year old loose in a beauty supply store with no hair education.. you guys tutored me!!

 

[IDareT'sHair]

And that was the BIGGEST mistake I made with my hair. I got soooo much breakage from going to stylists and they wouldnt wash out the perm properly and my hair would break off at the new growth. Then everyone would ask me what happened to my hair.

I get so angry when I think about how long my hair could have been by now if I left those stylists alone.

*AT BOLDED (And How Much More Healthiererplexed)

Relaxing eerr 3-4 weeks

Me Too Loca! Now we know: Nobody Will Take Better Care of Your Hair than You.

Regardless if You Don't Have the "Best" Skills, You have Love and You Have the Time.

And....You can Spend as much time on it as You want to.

When You Know Better You Do Better.

 

[Live4Me]

Heat!!!! Wash and blow dry weekly!!!!

 

[mzsophisticated26]

It was the stylist I was going to for 7yrs not me because I went to the salon every 1-2wks. She would relax my entire head every 4wks and then do the tapered part every 2wks. She would relax and double process color my hair the same day. I have never had hair past my ear when going to her because she was scissor happy and told me I need to keep short cuts because my thin hair. When she did quickweaves she would gel my hair down then spritz and glue weave in my head. I left her about 2yrs ago.

 

[DigitalRain]

Hot curling hair every morning.
Not using a neutralizing shampoo post relaxer
Sleeping in rollers
Using mediocre conditioners.

 

[Pooks]

1. Moisturising, DCing (in fact using conditioner at all), PSing were all foreign concepts to me so I never did them, never. I did always shampoo twice though, everytime, squeaky clean strands which were then almost impossible to detangle - who'd heard of washing in braids and then following up with a DC?

2. Treating my hair like it was the enemy when it was time to comb it (which I did roughly on dry hair)

3. Letting hairdressers press my hair with grease (several passes), over and over and over until my hair wouldn't revert, would smell like burning for days and days, thinned out to nearly nothing and then would just break off. If I had pictures from then, I'm sure I would look at them and cry.

When I finally slowed down on my heat usage and started getting a DC along with a blowdry, number 1 still got me and my hair just kept breaking off shorter and shorter and shorter. I got so tired of people asking why I had cut my hair...

Thank God for the knowledge I now have from this board!

 

[LisaLisa1908]

My biggest mistakes:

1. Leaving everything up to my stylist. I love him, but I have to be responsible for my hair.
2. Dryness/lack of moisture. I thought I just shed a lot of hair; no, my **** was DRY! Now that I moisturize on a regular basis, my shedding has dropped a LOT and my hair feels much better.
3. Wearing my hair down ALL the time. No wonder I could never get much past SL. Protective styling is my friend.
4. Six straight years of streaks. *smh* I stopped getting them last year and they're almost all the way grown out now.
5. Getting blown out EVERY other week; that really contributed to my dryness. Unfortunately, my hair does not respond well to roller sets (gets HUGE) and I live in a cold weather climate so I have to have a dry head at least half of the year. I'm trying to work with that since it's about to get cold here; I'll figure something out.

 

[Fine 4s]

By applying so much heat every two weeks and sometime in between with the curling iron...

 

[anon123]

By cowashing daily and detangling with a wide tooth comb in the shower almost every time for two weeks straight. I don't generally have huge setbacks, but that was the biggest one.

The second biggest one was washing my hair in twists and letting it dry without undoing or detangling them.

 

[natstar]

Not trimming
Not deep conditioning with conditioners made solely for that purpose
Using too many moisturizers/softeners. My hair is inherently soft and thin, I needed to get my moisture/protein balance in check.
Over manipulation with some styles

 

[hillytmj]

*AT BOLDED (And How Much More Healthiererplexed)

Relaxing eerr 3-4 weeks

Me Too Loca! Now we know: Nobody Will Take Better Care of Your Hair than You.

Regardless if You Don't Have the "Best" Skills, You have Love and You Have the Time.

And....You can Spend as much time on it as You want to.

When You Know Better You Do Better.

ITA with your statements. I know that I was clueless about doing my own hair, but after getting frustrated, I just dove in. I've learned so much, through this board and trial and error. But you're right, we have the love, time and patience for our own hair, so no one else will take it quiet as seriously or have the same amount of patience.

My mistakes:
*Relying on the stylist for everything and thinking they are the only hair experts (despite the fact that none of their clients had hair longer than shoulder length)
*Bleach highlights on relaxed hair
*Over combing dry hair
*Improper moisture

 

[brebre928]

I'm back with more...lol

-Using Pink Lotion
-Using Hair Grease
-Relaxing from Root to tip
-Letting the relaxer sit until my scalp was on FIRE :burning:
-Dying my hair with a permanent color by Dark & Lovely and then wondering why my ends were so thin
-Putting blonde streaks in my hair and not taking care of it and still wondering why my hair was fallin out.
-Relying on the stylist to take care of my hair

 

[PatTodd]

The first time....repeated "coloring" + cotton pillowcase = back of head completely broken off

The second time...overlapping drugstore box relaxer + repeated shampoo washing in shower + blowdrying from soaking wet + never deep conditioning + petrolatum hair dress + hard plastic brush + daily bumping ends with curling iron..

= all my hair on bathroom floor

 

[ellehair]

letting the dominican salon blow my hair from root to tip week after week.. they blew it right off of my head..
Prior to LHCF!!

 

[goldielocs]

Hindsight is 20/20...

Multiple colorings- red, blond, brown, black
Not DC- at all
Blowing out my 'fro every week- it was cute though
Being inconsistant with wrapping hair at night
Using too many bee's wax products
Using oil to "moisturize"
Not keeping hair off my clothes

Thanks goodness for the LHCF

 

[lovenharmony]

One word....RIO.

 

[LovinLea]

what broke my hair off was having this as a wash routine:
lather hair 2x
condition hair 1 minute
blow dry with no product on it

my hair was sooo dry, dryness = breakage

also, Motion Moisture Plus. for some reason, that product broke off my hair. once i stopped, so did the breakage.

 

[Blaque*Angel]

EVERYTHING!!

 

[Aveena]

Flat Ironing my fine strands with hight heat... I now am nervous with anything more than 300 degrees

Combing dry hair.... even my relaxed hair should be treated with a detangler before I go to work with a comb or a brush.

 

[MangaManiac]

1) Not washing my braids properly
2) Not finding a braider that wouldn't braid too tight
3) Never moisturizing my hair
4) Never trimming my ends
5) Too much heat and leaving it on my hair for far too long
6) Never deep conditioning
7) Washing my hair with shampoo 2-3x per wash
8) Knowing absolutely nothing about caring for my hair
9) Lack of interest in researching healthy hair care practices

 

[phychugirl]

One word.

BLOW DRYERS.

In my book, they're even worse than flat irons when used the wrong way. And I was WAAAAY WRONG.

 

[jamaraa]

Bad combs mostly.