My Battle with Heat Damage/Length Check



Heat Damage - September 2011

A few months ago I wrote a post about my heat damage and included a picture. Since then, I've continued to use minimal heat and continued to cut the heat damage from my hair.  I've included a few pics of my journey below.
    

The pictures shown here were pre-trim. The photo from October was on stretched hair, and the January photo was on lightly pressed hair. I will keep my hair at about the same length until I have trimmed off all of my damaged ends. I'm hoping to continue cutting one to two inches of pressed hair every few months until I've cut off all of the heat damage. I expect that it will take until July of this year (or about two full years from the time that I first had my hair pressed by someone other than myself) to have a head of completely healthy hair.

10/15/11 Length (and thin ends)

1/30/12 Length (and thicker ends)

When I did my first post on heat damage, I said that I felt like I was transitioning, and that hasn't changed. I have had to be very careful over the last 18 months to keep my hair moisturized where the heat damaged hair met new growth, I've tried to condition my hair regularly, and I've kept my hair in protective styles, in part, to protect the damaged hair from the strain of regular styling.



 



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Unknown growth, heat damage, maintenance

I was scared....

After 15 months of being heat free, I straightened my hair! I decided that I wanted to: 1) do a length check; 2) trim my ends, and; 3) see how bad my ends would look with pressed hair.  After my last experience with heat, my hair responded with breakage, stripped ends, and by just being plain old damaged. This time around I wanted to see if staying away from heat, fairly regular trims and my commitment to natural products have made a difference. I was scared, so I tried to do as little as possible.....

Supplies

1. Shampoo, conditioner, deep conditioner
2. Jojoba and Coconut Oils
3. 15 large rollers
4. Hooded dryer
5. Clipping shears
6. Ceramic flat iron

Steps

1. I took out my twists. I did not comb through my hair, but I did try to finger detangle as I took them out. I then put my hair in 10 large twists.

2. I washed my hair with a hydrating shampoo, then conditioned with the anti-breakage conditioner that I've been using to co-wash, then mixed a cholesterol based deep conditioner with some hair mayonnaise, covered my hair with a plastic bag, and deep conditioned for several hours.  I think that you could get the same results from deep conditioning under a hooded dryer, but I wanted to use as little heat as possible.

Generally when I wash my loose hair, I put my hair in four sections and wash each section of hair separately, and may even comb through my hair in those sections. This time I was trying something new, and I didn't take my hair out of the twists as I washed and conditioned.

3. After I rinsed out the deep conditioner, I took out each twist and combed through each one and oiled it with jojoba oil.

4. When my hair was loose and oiled, I added a small amount of coconut oil to each section of hair as it was rolled on to the 15 large magnetic rollers. I then sat under the dryer until my roots were nearly dry. I tried to make sure that I kept my roots as stretched as possible while rolling my hair. (It took an hour for my roots to begin to dry - but that was probably because I took such a long time to roll my hair that it had begun to air dry).

Taking out the rollers

5. If I were just trying to straighten my hair, I would have spent more time under the dryer and tried to dry it completely in the rollers, then used my small ceramic flat iron to run over each section of curls. Since I did want to trim my ends, I combed through the curls, then took small sections of hair (about half the amount of hair on each roller) and on medium heat, did 1-2 passes with my flat iron.

Combed out the roller set

6. I trimmed about half an inch of straight hair from each section as I pressed it.   

After the press and trim

Oh and yes - my hair is continuing to grow, but I have been keeping it about the same length as I grow out my heat damage. I could feel the difference between the virgin hair and the heat damaged section, but my ends didn't end up looking as bad as I feared. Please share your tricks for straightening your hair.

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Unknown hairstyles, heat, heat damage, straight, trim

I Feel Like I am Transitioning....

I didn't transition from relaxed to natural by trying to slowly clip my relaxed ends. Both times I went natural I had a short cut, grew it out with some braids and BC'd 5 months later. Now, four plus years into being natural (again), I am trying to grow out my heat damage while slowly cutting off the straightened ends. This feels like I'm transitioning four years into being natural!

Over the past few years I periodically pressed it myself in order to trim my ends and do length checks. I never had any problem with heat damage UNTIL I decided to get fancy. I took a recommendation for a shop run by people known for getting hair STRAIGHT. Well it was straight when it was done, and it stayed much straighter than I wanted it to be through the shampoos, conditioners, and overnight deep conditioning that I did two weeks later.  I then did my hair in twists (the style I had been wearing for a month or two prior) - hoping that I could train my hair back into its previous curl pattern. Finally, after another week or two and quite a bit of shedding and shredding, I cut about 1.5 inches off of the ends of each of my twists. It helped. Somewhat.

New growth vs. thinner ends

I've been maintaining three textures for the last 14 months. I have 7-8 inches of healthy hair, almost normal ends, and a straightish patch near the middle. I keep trimming my ends, and hoping that it will all be uniform soon. Luckily because of my twists I generally don't have to think about it, but every once in a while I miss the fact that I could count on my ends being as thick (or as thin) as the rest of my hair. Now there are random patches where the ends are very thin, and others where there is no damage at all. At least there are a few positives.... I've become more creative with my twists because I'm trying to preserve as much of my hair as I can; I am better about keeping my hair moisturized; and I have realized that my roots are growing in thicker than they were in the past because I have cut down on manipulation, use more natural products and don't use any heat.

Have you had to "transition" while being natural? What did you do to damage your hair, and how did you fix it?

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Unknown heat damage, maintenance, transitioning, twists

Heat damage and two-strand twists

About a year ago I had my hair straightened.  I've had my hair professionally braided a few times but this was the first time in about five years that I'd let someone else DO my hair.  Prior to that point, I've washed, cut, permed, trimmed, pressed, braided, twisted, etc. my hair myself.  I had been two-strand twisting my hair for about six weeks when I decided that since I hadn't had anyone else do my hair in a long time, and since I was going to attend a special event, that I would get it "professionally" straightened....mistake! 

The mistake wasn't letting someone else do it, the mistake was letting a person who seemed surprised that I liked my hair in its natural state be the one that I trusted with the supposed temporary straightening of my happily kinky hair. I got a few suggestions for who to go to, but I waited until the last minute - and I went with the woman that was physically closest and that could do my hair in the middle of the day.  The process consisted of a wash, a deep condition, then a blow dryer being blast at my scalp until my strands succumbed.

I will say that my hair was STRAIGHT.  So straight that its been a year and I still haven't gotten rid of all of the ill effects.  After washing my hair and recognizing that it wasn't snapping back to its previous glory, I washed, conditioned and deep conditioned my hair (several times). The deep conditioning helped, and I started to see my curls come back.  I continued to deep condition, and I went back to my twists, but over the next several weeks my hair began to shred and shed.  I then cut between 1.5 and 2 inches off of the ends of my twists, which got rid of the worst of the heat damage. Then I kicked myself for having done that to my hair.   

To this day, the ends of my hair are still thinner in the middle and front sections of my hair (see above), and I also have 4-5 inches of hair in the middle of some of my twists which is straighter than it should be. (It is residual damage at what was the root of my hair at the time it was pressed.)  My ends have recovered, but I will have to do a series of mini chops in the future.

After I had my hair straightened, I promised myself that I wouldn't use heat on my hair for a year.  My year is up.  I've learned how to trim my hair while it is still in twists instead of from straight as I've done in the past, and I've decided that if I ever go get my hair straightened again, I will go somewhere with a different hair philosophy.  Anyway it was a lesson learned....

Another lesson learned is that two -strand twists are a fantastic protective style. Even if I hadn't suffered the heat damage, I'm glad that I turned to the twists. I've been able to protect my strands from too much manipulation and from any heat during the last year, and I've been able to style my hair in so many ways that I was able to create a book of styles. As you can see from the photo, I've experienced a good amount of growth during the year that I've been doing the twists. I'll continue until the damage is all gone.

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Unknown heat damage, maintenance, straight, trim