Hair Damage

How do you know your hair is damaged, for example from heat?
Is it also possible to damage your hair by not moisturizing properly while wearing it in its curly state?

when I first BC'ed i wasn't used to my hair, so it was hard for me to tell i had some heat damage. your "straight ends" may not be completely straight (as I assumed). My ends were kind of "in between" = permanently poofy no matter how much water/product was applied. since more ladies also have multiple different textures on their heads, sometimes heat damage is mistaken for having a looser hair curl pattern in that area (when it may really be damaged!). you can tell the difference by focusing on one clump of hair:

if it is looser then the rest of your hair...

inspect it, looking from ROOT to TIP- is it the same consistent curl pattern? if so, then this is most likely not damage and you just have more than one hair type (which is normal).

OR

near the roots, does it start off with a tighter curl pattern and then gradually become looser/bigger curls near the tip? your hair strands will all grow for a certain amount of time, until their "time is up" and then it will fall out (this is the hair cycle). it is not possible for one strand of hair to suddenly change the way it grows (i.e. suddenly changing the shape/appearance of the curls) in the middle of its life. so...this is probably damage of some type.

***also: there are many different ways to damage your hair. As Chrs said, lack of moisture = brittle hair. Dry hair is easier to break (think about how easy it is to snap a noodle of dry spaghetti before cooking it). Breakage can lead to split ends, etc.



hope this helps!

Thank you both very much!