From the category archives:

Heat Damage

Post image for Ask Kcurly-Breakage and Flat Ironing

Ask Kcurly-Breakage and Flat Ironing

by kcurly on July 21, 2011

in Ask Kcurly,Heat Damage,Straight Natural Styling,Tips

An email from SRM:

Hi,

I love your site!  I am a BC and have been for about two years now.  I flat rion my hair or press and curl it with the comb frequently and am experiencing a lot of shedding.  Mainly short pieces of hair.  I took a break from flat ironing for a few months and did some protien treatment and deep conditioning treatments and my hair felt healthier.

Now I want to wear it straight but have the breakage again and as soon as I walk out side, my hair poofs and reverts very quickly.

Oh, and I workout six days a week, sweating in my scalp often.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

SRM

SRM, thanks for the email. I think you know what needs to happen. Sounds like the flat iron needs to go.

To be clear, if you’re getting a ton of short pieces of hair that do not have a white bulb (hair follicle) on one end, then you are experiencing breakage, not shedding. I hear a lot of people use these terms interchangeably, but it’s important to establish the difference.

Your hair has a natural shedding cycle that it is always going to do. The rate of shed may be increased or decreased by internal factors (ie pregnancy). Breakage is caused by damage or weakness of the hair.

If you want to be sure which is which, examine each hair closely to see what the deal is.

If it were me, I would give up the flat ironing. Especially since you work out so much. I am guessing that “frequently” means every week or more? That’s a lot of heat and a lot of potential damage. I would find that very frustrating: the breakage and the constant flat ironing. Your hair obviously doesn’t like it since it flourished during your break from heat. If you don’t stop completely, at least decrease the frequency with which you flat iron.

If you are still wanting to wear a straighter style, I would suggest trying rollersets on very low heat or air drying. I would also suggest that you leave your hair alone as much as you can. Don’t stop working out because… body /health > hair …any day of the week.

To decrease reversion, perhaps you should try some products that fight humidity. Sabino Moisture Block is highly recommended.  Though I have to admit that these types of products don’t always have the best ingredients.

Also, I don’t know where you live, but in an area of high humidity, you may be better off leaving the straight styles for the fall/winter time when you won’t be battling moisture in the air.

I know this probably isn’t the answer you want to hear, but that’s all I got!

Love, peace, and hair grease!

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Post image for Ask Kcurly–Hooded dryer/ heat damage/teen hair groups

Ask Kcurly–Hooded dryer/ heat damage/teen hair groups

by kcurly on May 2, 2011

in Ask Kcurly,Healthy Hair Tips,Heat Damage,Rollersetting,Teens and Natural Hair

Hi Kcurly! I stumbled upon your website, and it’s giving me even more encouragment to go natural. But I have a question. Is it ok to roller set my hair while tranistioning and then dry it with a hooded dryer, or would that change the texture of my hair? I’m wondering if the constant heat would make the natural hair straight over time as it grows out. (I didn’t want to do the big chop until a year or so of growing it out.) Thanks for your help, and I love your website!

Sincerely,

Kaity

Kaity,

Thanks for the email. If you’re going to use heat, doing a rollerset and sitting under a dryer is better than using direct heat such as a flat iron. There is also not a bunch of manipulation. However, it is still heat and therefore still has the potential to damage. Think about it, some of those hooded dryers get pretty hot and the rollers can burn your hand when you touch them.

Always use a heat protectant and try to use a “low” setting. You may even want to just sit under the dryer for about half the time you normally would and then let it air dry the rest of the way. Or you could just air dry completely.

Now, having said all that, some ladies can use high amounts of heat without damage. Though I personally would not risk it.

Thanks for reading

 

Hi.
I was reading your review on Bee Mine Deep Conditioner. I love that stuff. I was wondering if it could be used daily and if you do regular conditioner first THEN deep conditioner, or just one or the other.
Melissa

Melissa, I wouldn’t use a regular conditioner before I used a DC. I like to use a DC on relatively clean hair, whether it be freshly rinsed or shampoo’d because I feel it absorbs the moisture better.

As for using it daily…that would probably be too much for me. Not to mention too much money ;) However, that’s not to say that you can’t do it. Just be sure your hair is not getting overly moisturized. You will know it’s too moisturized when it feels mushy.

The best thing you can do is experiment. Just because it doesn’t work for me, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you!

Take care

Hi, my name is Stephanie. I’m 14 years old and have recently decided to go natural after realizing how beautiful natural hair is and how unhappy I am with my relaxed hair. I’ve been going at it for a little over a month now & it is truly a trial and error process finding the right products for my hair. Its been quite fustrating and aggravating. Honestly if it was up to me, I’d chop it all off right now. For the fact that I know how quickly society will judge me, I’ll be getting trims until it’s all gone. I’m just not comfortable yet rockin a TWA. Its times like this I wish I was older, but anywho.

I came across your blog by liking some facebook natural hair groups & they’ve been a lot of help. I saw the article you had on Teens going natural and enjoyed reading about people going through similar things like me. I also realized that I have no transitioning friends and barely any that are natural. I think it would be really good to have a natural teen group or somethin. If you know any of their emails or contact info I would much appreciate you giving it to me because I’d love to not have to just go through this experience alone. Have a blessed day & keep up your blog, its amazing. God Bless

Stephanie.

Thanks for the email. Congrats on your decision to go natural! I know high school can be a rough place in general especially when you are going against the grain. We 20 and 30 somethings think we have it rough changing our hair (and we do) but it’s a whole different animal doing it in a high school environment.

And please don’t wish you were older. Think instead about when you are older, how you will look back on these days and feel such pride that you went natural in spite of those around you.So anyway, on to your question. There are several great sources for teens out there.

Nappturality has a teen forum where you can interact with other teens going through the same thing. I like Nappturality for new naturals because there’s no straight or relaxed hair floating around to take your eye off the prize. Just remember, that they don’t allow talk of heat usage or texlaxing.There’s also a blog called Curly and Young. It’s a blog that caters to young ladies. I’ve checked it out and she’s got not only her own experiences but also features other young ladies.

Also, I am sure that there are probably some other young ladies at your school who would love to go natural but have the same fears that you have. It might be worth starting an after school group where you ladies learn and talk about natural hair. I know there are a few universities that have groups such as this.Anyway, I’m going to post this question on my blog to see if we can get some other suggestions for teen online groups.

Take care and thanks for reading!

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