Newbie here :0)

Hello all!! I am new here. New to the board and semi-new to being natural. I had a HEAD full of hair growing up. Im talking about 8 hours in the salon just for a press and curl when I was younger. I begged and begged for a relaxer and my mother gave in when I was 12. I'm mad she gave in lol. Shortly after the relaxer, I started to do my own hair and have friends do/play in my hair. Basically everything went downhill from there. I still had a decent amount of manangable hair but nothing close to what I had.

I did my first BC back in March 2005. I added some color and rocked a TWA and two strand twist for a some months, finally decided loc up that November. Kept the locs til 2007. Cut the locs with the intention of staying natural and got a sew in. Silly me, I realized that it was not feasible to have a sew in of bone straight hair with natural hair when I went to the club and POOF. The very next day I put a relaxer in my hair. Decided that natural hair wasnt for me and maintained a sew in, braids, my own hair with relaxers for the next few years.

May 2010, BC'd again. I had my last relaxer July 2009 (its my anniversary )) and was left with a TWA. About two weeks after the BC I went back to the sew in but knew I was going to have to work to maintain, especially in the summer, especially in the HUMIDITY. I was able to do so for a while. I had a small section of my own hair out that I flat ironed to match the texture of the bone straight weave. Big mistake. After about the 4th wash I noticed my hair wasnt curling any more. I googled to see what was the deal and realized I basically burned my hair straight and there is no turning back.

So here I am now. I took my weave out last weekend and I looked re-damn-diculous. All of my hair curls except that one area. It looks bizzare. I tried to do a twist out and that was a fail. The straight hair basically stayed straight....didnt budge. I cant just wear my TWA because of this one area that looks to be relaxed. Like maybe I decided i didnt want the relaxer anymore after I did that certain section [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]. I tried a twist again last nite and put wet set rollers on the straight part and that helped alot. I dont think my hair is long enough to get the full effect of a twist out. Still not feeling this too much.

I am thinking about going to get my hair braided this weekend, just to make it through the remainder of the Summer. I did notice with my sew in my hair almost doubled in length in about a mouth and a half. I also entertained the idea of a sew in but I would have to get a bang in order to get a closure, that way all of my hair will remain braided up. I had a bang last summer and that thang just makes you sweat about 30x more in the heat.

Has anyone experience burned hair? If so, did you cut it off or work with it? Does it revert back after about 100 washes? lol

I look forward to this journey and learning about my hair. I think once I get my hair down packed it should be much easier styling and maintaining.

Welcome to Curly Nikki!

I have a sew-in currently but before I was wearing hair that was straight, therefore I had to straighten my leave out. WRONG IDEA! Because I think I experienced the same thing and it was from heat damage!! Yipes! So, what I did was get a curly type of hair so that I wouldn't have to use a flat iron all the time in order to blend in with my sew-in. I've been deep conditioning my leave out every week and moisturizing and my curls are coming back..
SUGGESTION: Give it the TLC that it needs! Simple, but effective.

I never had to cut the hair..the curls are much looser then the crown persay but its slowly coming back...Let cutting it off be your last resort...GOOD LUCK!

Thanks for the info. What deep conditioner do you use? Im gonna try to mirror your process and hopefully get the same results because I definitely need it lol

I use Lustrasilk Mango Butter (cholesterol), it comes in a jar and its a faint orange color..I keep it on for abt 30 min - 1 hr and wash it out followed by a leave in..hope it works for you!

thanks...definitely gonna try this...starting tonight [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I decided after 3 weeks of being natural that i was going to straighten my hair with a flat iron to see really how long my hair was. WRONG choice i had damaged it so bad with my chi iron that I had no choice but to cut it. I thought it looked a hot mess with those straight parts. But some people had it come back after a few months but knowing me impatient after a month i said thats it i am cutting it. Do i protective style like braids or something so that you do not have to think about it. I had twist and keep thinking about it so when those twist was looking a hot mess I cut.

I'm having a similar issue with my hair. I flat ironed my hair all through my long transition and most of it stood up to the abuse, but not all. The front left of my hair stayed almost straight except for right at the root. After not straightening for almost a month now the hair is finally waving up. To get all my curls to look similar I either rod my whole head or bantu knot the straighter parts while twisting the rest. It actually blends pretty well. You could also try pinning back the straight part under a headband or just braiding it to your scalp depending on the location.