What is this? Breakage? broken wave pattern? damage? (pic)

[shutterpillar]

So for as long as I can remember, my hair has had this funky texture to it. I have these frizzy hairs that stick out all over my head, all the way up to my crown. I have done things to help smooth them, like coconut oil, leave-in conditioners, anti-frizz creams, etc etc etc. And it does help, but it also leaves my hair looking flat. I've tried twisting my hair to help bring out my natural wave pattern and that seems to help as well, but of course only below ear level. I still have the frizzies on my crown.

I know I have damage, especially in the areas where I bleached my hair to achieve neon purple streaks about a year ago. But this is all over my entire head. My hair is SO shiny and soft otherwise, so I am completely baffled. Can anyone tell me what it is?

Also, excuse the quality of the photo. It was taken with my phone in a very poorly lit room (hence the orange tint) but it was the only light in the house where you could clearly see what I am talking about. If you need further evidence, then I am not above taking a photo with my actual camera in daylight. Also note the photo does not completely depict the frizz (if that is what it is) in all its glory. ;) It's really wild in the sunlight.

http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/ad351/ashmey86/Hair/hairfrizz.jpg

[luckyshot]

I'll be interested to see what others have to say. My hair has pretty much the exact same texture/frizziness. Some days the hairs on my crown area are just crazy. I've given up trying to tame it, I think it's just a part of my natural texture. I also have heat and dye damage on my ends, and I thought maybe that was why my hair had this texture, but I now have quite a bit of natural, undamaged hair, and it's the same.

[shutterpillar]

Yep, that's exactly how mine is, Luckyshot. I have about 4 inches of virgin hair on the top and it's the same. It's been like this even before I started coloring it, but I did heat style at the time (and had for about 5 years straight up until April of this year), so I was worried it may be damage from that.

:shrug:

[Ebrox]

aren't those baby hairs? if the ends of those shorter hairs are healthy I would say they are just growing.

[longforthis]

aren't those baby hairs? if the ends of those shorter hairs are healthy I would say they are just growing.

I got them too.

If you've tried moisturizing and such, that's probably it. I got plenty of those; I have 3a curly hair. My hair will NEVER be slick and smooth unless it was oily or crunchy. xD

Consider it a good, healthy growth sign a far as I know! :cheese:

[neko_kawaii]

I'd guess they are baby hairs. If you look closely and they have a smooth taper at the end that is what they are. A couple drops of jojoba oil on damp hair controls what would otherwise be clean hair frizzies for me.

[Idjit]

That's exactly what my hair looks like when I brush it dry. I either ignore it or add a drop or two of oil to my palms and then smooth it through.

[cwarren]

As long as you don't notice any white dots at the tip of the shorter hair or split ends, then its just the hair that's still growing and hasn't caught up to the rest of your length.

[shutterpillar]

That's probably what it is, then. The ends of the shorter hairs do not appear to be damaged.

neko_kawaii - i'll have to try out jojoba oil. I've also been meaning to try baby oil.

Idjit - what type of oil do you use?

[CaitlinMarie93]

I have the exact same problem. I have become really self conscious of it because I am afraid other people with think it's all breakage--especially on my crown. Like yours, the shorter hairs do not have white dots or splits so I am thinking it is just hairs that are still growing. Still really frustrating because no matter what I do, the shorter hairs will still flip outward. Oh well, I guess I'll have to learn to embrace them. :shrug:

[catamonica]

I have baby hairs all through my hair. My hair is healthy. I don't even worry about it. Your
hair is beautiful!

[akuamoonmaui]

My hair, too and it's pretty healthy. I don't use heat products, co wash most days of the week, have created my own 'poo bar that doesn't dry my hair, oil regularly....

I notice my hair gets like this more when it's dry. Oiling helps but I think we're just stuck with it.

[biogirl87]

Could be frizzy hairs crying out for moisture. When I don't put any moisture in my hair it tends to look this way all over.

[bunnylake]

SAME HERE. I mean, exactly.
I tried CO.
I thought henna might help smooth them out, but nope... took out my wave but left my weird frizz.
I just went back to using cones and my hair feels so much better. I guess cones are for me! But the frizz is still there...
Maybe there is a good smoothing conditioner or serum that works well but doesn't weigh the hair down? Someone here has got to know! I have heard good things about John Frieda products. I might try them.

[bunnylake]

Also, I find brushing with my BBB helps a little bit to smooth them out.
I also notice that they seem to calm down at the end of the day... I have no clue why. It seems that for the first several hours after I wash my hair - no matter what washing method - I have those frizzy baby hairs. Then by night time, my hair is mostly smooth. Does anyone else have that?

[biogirl87]

Bunnylake, I get that depending on the weather and how my hair decides to react to it. If it's right before or right after a rainstorm, my hair will settle down towards the end of the day but can also curl up more.

[Audhumla]

Hmm how careful are you with brushing?
You've typed you hair F/M the same as me and it took me ages to realise exactly how fragile my hair could be.
Another thing, with finer hairs I fins that cones make my hair stick up in a halo around my crown. If you use cones maybe try keeping them below your ears.
Last thing, almond oil through my hair before S+C wash or coating your length in conditioner while you shampoo your scalp has helped me.
Good luck getting to the bottom of it.

[anitacs9101]

Same problem for me. I am afraid they might be really high splits--I seem to have practically no splits on my ends but they seem to be riddled through my length. Some of them just look like baby hairs but in some lighting I seem to have a bunch of little 1-inch-or-so hairs that curve upwards. I think those ARE splits but I don't know :p

[Ambystoma]

I have these too but I think they must just be baby hairs since the ends of them all look very healthy (there are some that I guess are probably from ponytails from pre LHC days but others that are only an inch long and doing it too, so maybe they're all just babies?) . The worst thing is that they look like breakage and if I'm having a bad frizz day I feel that people will be assuming it's damaged even though it's really shiny and stuff :(

edit : and the other annoying thing? I had much less of a frizz problem when it was dyed and heatstyled *sigh*

[Elanadi]

Also, I find brushing with my BBB helps a little bit to smooth them out.
I also notice that they seem to calm down at the end of the day... I have no clue why. It seems that for the first several hours after I wash my hair - no matter what washing method - I have those frizzy baby hairs. Then by night time, my hair is mostly smooth. Does anyone else have that?

I noticed this same thing!!! After washing my hair, the frizzies are BAD, making a distinctive halo around my hair. A few hours after washing, when my hair is dry, I can brush my hair and it smooths the frizzies down. I am just now beginning to wonder if my hair is slightly on the drier side and this is one of the symptoms.

[shutterpillar]

I have baby hairs all through my hair. My hair is healthy. I don't even worry about it. Your
hair is beautiful!

Thank you for the kind words. :)


SAME HERE. I mean, exactly.
I tried CO.
I thought henna might help smooth them out, but nope... took out my wave but left my weird frizz.
I just went back to using cones and my hair feels so much better. I guess cones are for me! But the frizz is still there...
Maybe there is a good smoothing conditioner or serum that works well but doesn't weigh the hair down? Someone here has got to know! I have heard good things about John Frieda products. I might try them.

I use cones as well. I think I recommended the Pantene Ice Shine conditioner to you on the CO thread (which is what I use) and my hair has never been shinier or softer. It's just the darn baby hairs!


Also, I find brushing with my BBB helps a little bit to smooth them out.


I think a BBB would make my hair a poofy mess. LOL. If I use anything other than a tangle teezer or wide tooth comb, then it just makes the frizz and poof even worse.


Hmm how careful are you with brushing?
You've typed you hair F/M the same as me and it took me ages to realise exactly how fragile my hair could be.
Another thing, with finer hairs I fins that cones make my hair stick up in a halo around my crown. If you use cones maybe try keeping them below your ears.
Last thing, almond oil through my hair before S+C wash or coating your length in conditioner while you shampoo your scalp has helped me.
Good luck getting to the bottom of it.

I am excruciatingly careful with brushing. Like to the point where my husband says "arent you supposed to do it a little faster than that?" :p
I do use cones, but I have found that they seem to make the frizz a little better. :shrug: different types and heads of hair respond to different things. Thanks for the suggestion, though. I also CO wash, so shampoo is not an option for me besides once a month when I use it to clarify. I do use coconut oil before I wash, though.



edit : and the other annoying thing? I had much less of a frizz problem when it was dyed and heatstyled *sigh*

I know, right?! It's extremely frustrating! But, that was just the heat and products we were using masking over our natural texture. I'd rather learn to tame the beast than keep masking over it.

[shutterpillar]

Also, I know I did not quote everyone, but I wanted to make sure that everyone knows that each comment is very much appreciated. Thank you. :flower:

[eros]

I have the same problem :(
http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad32/adrianalima/hair001.jpg

[jacqueline101]

They're new hairs they will catch up to the other hairs.

[jesis]

I don't know if someone else already suggested it, but when my hair was more damaged and looked like this, I used to use a boar bristle brush to smooth it out. It works really well and it never pulled my wave/curl out.

edit: I should say that I still have my BBB and use it diligently when I'm having a frizzy hair day! Just make sure you use it on dry hair. :) You can look at pictures in my albums, the only reason my hair ever looked that shiny was because of my BBB and all of my curl remained. You can tell the difference between before using the BBB and after in my pictures.

[mamaherrera]

I have these too. My question is how to distinguish a broken hair from a tapered end? I see in my shed hairs, often a lot of short ,not long hairs, that in the light have white ends so I think (hmm, breakage) but you put them on the vanity or something and they have tapered ends, you don't see the white obviously, and then I think, no they must be just naturlly she hairs because they get thinner/pointed at the end. But can broken hairs be stretched and then end up looking like tapered ends as well?? If so, how do you distinguish and know which ones are breakage and which ones are naturally shed? I would like to know to reflect on my treatment/manipulation of the hair. But also, I don't see many hairs that are shed that don't have a white bulb, so I assume there must not be much breakage.

[panffle]

I have those too, and they bug me a lot especially depending on how the light hits it. I've got people pointing out that my hair is damaged (except it's not) and that I should cut it and whatnot... My mother is one who points it out all the time, it's really annoying...
I oil my hair lightly and it seems to help a little, I use coconut oil.

[spirals]

It looks like healthy new hairs. It also looks like mine when I brush it. I can tame it with oil, but not brushing is better. Have you thought of trying that? You are a wavy, so it's not unheard of. Try this: detangle in the shower with conditioner in it. Rinse and don't squeeze the water out. Use the water in your hair to distribute a leave-in conditioner by squishing it in. But still, don't squeeze the water out. Then wrap in a towel. I keep mine hanging over the curtain rod while I'm in there. The towel will absorb the water and leave the product. Microfiber towels are awesome for this, and they even have them at the dollar store now. You might get some nice, enhanced wave. I have at times used a bit of regular conditioner with some gel as a leave-in. I have also used the Shea Moisture curl milk. But if I only use 2 teaspoons of that for my thick hair, you'd need less, as I think you are ii?

[Idjit]

That's probably what it is, then. The ends of the shorter hairs do not appear to be damaged.

neko_kawaii - i'll have to try out jojoba oil. I've also been meaning to try baby oil.

Idjit - what type of oil do you use?

I use either Apricot oil or Vatika coconut oil.

[mamaherrera]

I am a ii. I'm going to try protein today and see if that helps. Like I said, I study them but just can't make a distinction as to broken or just tapered ends. I can tell easily the ones that have blunt ends as being cut or broken, that's easy. Let's hope protein helps. I do detangle in the shower and I don't squeeze water out, I'll scrunch it out before I squeeze.

[xoxophelia]

I think it is a combo of things. First, it looks as though you have been growing your hair without any major trims. That tends to make the hair look more tapered and the appearance of the hairs flipping out all over more obvious. If you heat styled frequently and dyed (with bleach) more than likely some of it is also caused by damage. Not the end of the world though.

You should try a conditioner like GF Sleek & Shine (cones) or Triple Nutrition and then don't completely rinse it out. When you get out of the shower very gently blot the excess moisture and then put a quarter or larger size amount of aloe vera gel with 2 drops of oil mixed in(I find coconut oil on wet hair sometimes makes these hairs freak out more so you might want to avoid that one.. EVOO is pretty good imo). Then do not touch your hair! See if it helps. I've been also having similar issues and this has helped considerably.

[MonicaJean]

I have that too, and I've just come to accept that it is a very common trait in wavy hair. :/ I try to figure that at least it gives me some volume and body. lol When I have second day hair and they've tamed down my hair is much flatter and thinner looking. I do smooth them out on top though with either a serum or oil though.

[CJCHair-stylist]

Its completely normal - its simply a hair type thing. The answer is that you have a bit more static in your body which is extremely common for your hair-type. You could try an Ionic hair-brush which works wonders for me. Your hair looks very healthy in my professional opinion btw. My hair does the exact same thing after washing, if there is lightning, you will not believe how much more my hair stands up. What does work beautifully though is this. After washing at night, I air-dry my hair using Madoras` air-drying technique (in articles TLHC) with my fingers only, usually while watching television. I take 2-3 drops of baby oil and rub it into my hands for about ten seconds before I work it through my hair with my fingers. Then I take my almost 100 percent dry hair and put it into a slumber net/ hair net (it looks like a cobweb). Its like the ones the old ladies used so their set hair doesn`t get messed up when they`re outside in the wind. I sleep with the hairnet on and wake up with beautiful silky smooth 80 percent frizz-free hair. Then brush with your BBB, Voila.

This works on most straightish hair types. The trick is to avoid all combing from shampooing, conditioning, air-drying, sleeping with hair net right through till the next day - do everything with your fingers and take your sweet merry time.

[CJCHair-stylist]

Girls another trick for pulling frizzies down is this - get hold of a bottle of light hairspray and the fattest blusher brush you can lay your hands on. Spray a little hairspray over the blusher brush, while the hairspray is still wet on the brush (or your own hands if you don`t have a blush brush), sweep the brush once over the frizzies and watch them get pulled down. This is what us stylist do for the commercial shoots to trick people into thinking the models have perfect hair. It works amazingly well.

[shutterpillar]

Thank you, everyone. Lots of different things to try! (I like that - i'm definitely an experimenter.)

For some reason I am experiencing very very little frizz today, so yay me! Don't know what the deal is, since i've done nothing different yet.

I'm going to soak up all this information and decide what to do first. I think I may just try a different oil and air-drying routine to begin with and see where that gets me.
Again, BIG BIG thanks to everyone who has posted. :flower:

[bunnylake]

I just used some Biosilk serum at my stepmothers house on dry hair. About 80% of the frizz was gone and my hair didn't feel weighed down or sticky at all, and I only had to use a drop.
I think I might have to buy this stuff! I think it's a bit pricy though.
Maybe like $20 for a smallish bottle. Not too bad since I only needed a drop and it seems to WORK!

[dwell_in_safety]

That's pretty much what my hair looks like, as far as hairs sticking out go. I think it's just growth, and I have a decent amount of taper, too, so that would add to it even more.