Heat Damaged

Hello Ladies!

From Sept '09 to Dec '09 I either pressed or blow dried and flat ironed my natural, shoulder length hair...Well, I've noticed that now, when I do a wet twist out, if it stays twisted, my texture looks 'forced'. Also, I have really bad bed head to the point to where it becomes straight after a few days.

I noticed that every time i ran my fingers through my hair, every hair that came out was split multiple times alont the length of the hair. SO I PULLED IT INTO A PONYTAIL AND CUT 3" OFF! I still have plenty of hair to spare, but my hair holds no sheen after it's dry, and I just don't even love my hair like I used to. It was suggested that my hair is heat damaged [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


What I'd like to know from you all is am I going to have to cut more of my hair off to get it to behave normally again? Also, what are a few product that I can use to help nurse my damaged hair back to its helthy and beautiful self?

Thanks in advance, y'all!

I'm sorry.

Post this over in the Natural Big Sisters thread ...

It can be. I recently had to chop about 4 inches of hair that, no matter what it would not revert. Happy to say it's growing back though.

But I will say start with lots of Deep Treatments (weekly) and be tender with it. Eventually, with TLC, my hair started coming back. This was coming off of almost 2 years straight of flat ironing.

Let it grow!
I noticed about year and a half ago that although I have not had a relaxer in 15 years, my hair was stick straight due to flat ironing. I transitioned out of this over the last year by wearing my hair in buns and blow drying on occasion but never using a curling iron or a flat iron after that. Now my hair is longer curly than it was when it was straight, in just a year.
It takes patience but the rewards of beautiful, long curls is well worth the wait.
And remember, try not to use direct heat but if you do I recommend Organix Coconut Milk as a moisturizing heat protectant. You can buy it at CVS. And if you are going to wear your hair straight one day, wet it when you get home at night to re-activate the natural curl. A year goes by fast.
Rita

I am realizing that I had the same problem. Too much flat ironing really relaxed my natural curl. I just had a couple inches cut today to add shape and the curls are popping out again. It's pretty short, but hopefully will grow back. I think between cutting off the damaged parts and deep conditioning, you'll see a difference faster than you think.