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View Full Version : Might there be a more "vulnerable" hair type?



Colourful
November 20th, 2012, 09:05 AM
Hey, all. :)

I have one worry - no matter how much I take care of my hair it always ends with split ends and gets coarse & rough downwards. Even if I trim it doesn't take long before I already see the signs of new split ends. It is so soft on top but not so good at the bottom. This problem of mine hasn't really faded away when I started to wear my hair up more often. Pardon me, I rarely wear it loose. I also use oils and they do make my hair more smooth but you can still feel this coarseness. Might that just be that my hair has more vulnerable structure?

Curious to hear your thoughts. :)

JadeTigress
November 20th, 2012, 09:23 AM
I definitely think there's something to this. My hair is really fine, and I have the same problems you mentioned. I'm even back to all virgin hair now, and it's still a huge problem. But a girl I work with has coarser, curly, frizzy hair, that she flat irons sometimes, and her hair NEVER splits. She was telling me that she hasn't had a trim in two years, and she's just now noticing split ends. She showed me, and there's barely any. My hair is a thousand times worse, and I just cut three or four inches off a month ago.

melusine963
November 20th, 2012, 09:48 AM
Are you growing out damage, or even just growing out hair that you used to treat more roughly than you do now? Before I found the LHC I used to be pretty rough while brushing my hair, and would let it get tangled and caught in things. The result was a lot of breakage and split ends all the way up my hair shafts. Even after thoroughly S&Ding, it still took about two years of gently treatment, oiling, and updos for new splits to stop appearing at the slightest provocation. I figure it will take me another two or three years to trim off all my old, pre-LHC hair without losing all my length.

I would keep trimming and S&Ding patiently. It might take a while, but your hair will get better.

lacefrost
November 20th, 2012, 10:02 AM
Have you colored or used heat on your hair? Are you only recently putting your hair up? It sounds like you could be growing out some previous damage from your less hair friendly years.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by coarse. If you mean the bottom half of your hair is actually coarse (as in the strands are thick like thread) then it could be possible that you're growing out a previous hair type. For example, my hair is mostly coarse, but in the past 2 years, I've had a lot of new growth of fine hair. So now my hair type is both fine and coarse.

If you mean something else, please explain.

Hair that is typically considered more vulnerable is fine hair and curly hair. Fine hair because there is not much protein to withstand damage and curly hair because it has fewer and looser cuticles on the hair shaft so it's easier to tear into the shaft. If you have either of those traits, this is not to say your hair is doomed to never be soft all the way down. There are plenty of fine haired 4b women with hip+ hair. It just means you may have to tweak how you're handling your hair.

spidermom
November 20th, 2012, 10:45 AM
There is probably room for improvement, but honestly, I am as careful as I can be with my hair without making myself unhappy with hair obsession, and it LOVES to split.

Colourful
November 20th, 2012, 12:44 PM
I definitely think there's something to this. My hair is really fine, and I have the same problems you mentioned. I'm even back to all virgin hair now, and it's still a huge problem. But a girl I work with has coarser, curly, frizzy hair, that she flat irons sometimes, and her hair NEVER splits. She was telling me that she hasn't had a trim in two years, and she's just now noticing split ends. She showed me, and there's barely any. My hair is a thousand times worse, and I just cut three or four inches off a month ago.

A friend of mine has long straight hair which she wears down pretty much all the time and she also very rarely cuts her hair. Her ends are pretty split-free and overall the condition of her hair is very good.

I am having a trim in December and I hope I don't have to cut that much.


Are you growing out damage, or even just growing out hair that you used to treat more roughly than you do now? Before I found the LHC I used to be pretty rough while brushing my hair, and would let it get tangled and caught in things. The result was a lot of breakage and split ends all the way up my hair shafts. Even after thoroughly S&Ding, it still took about two years of gently treatment, oiling, and updos for new splits to stop appearing at the slightest provocation. I figure it will take me another two or three years to trim off all my old, pre-LHC hair without losing all my length.

I would keep trimming and S&Ding patiently. It might take a while, but your hair will get better.

Have you colored or used heat on your hair? Are you only recently putting your hair up? It sounds like you could be growing out some previous damage from your less hair friendly years.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by coarse. If you mean the bottom half of your hair is actually coarse (as in the strands are thick like thread) then it could be possible that you're growing out a previous hair type. For example, my hair is mostly coarse, but in the past 2 years, I've had a lot of new growth of fine hair. So now my hair type is both fine and coarse.

If you mean something else, please explain.

Hair that is typically considered more vulnerable is fine hair and curly hair. Fine hair because there is not much protein to withstand damage and curly hair because it has fewer and looser cuticles on the hair shaft so it's easier to tear into the shaft. If you have either of those traits, this is not to say your hair is doomed to never be soft all the way down. There are plenty of fine haired 4b women with hip+ hair. It just means you may have to tweak how you're handling your hair.

I wouldn't say I have treated my hair roughly at all - I've never been much of a straighting & blow drying girl. Even though I am a hardcore caregiver to my hair right now (compared to the past) I have always treated my hair pretty nicely. Well, except those dyeings, but last time I dyed my hair was a little bit more than a year ago.
BUT I did start to wear my hair up pretty recently. It just started to get on my way much more and there are also other reasons. Hmm, I've seen improvement when I started to wear my hair up more and more often :)

Oh, coarse. Sorry, I'm not a native English speaker so I meant coarse as not smooth. Sorry.

My hair is wavy. There are some spiral locks, but yeah, I am mostly wavy, but I do have lots of like.. baby hair locks. You can especially see it when I wear my hair up, then it looks like wires popping out everywhere :)


There is probably room for improvement, but honestly, I am as careful as I can be with my hair without making myself unhappy with hair obsession, and it LOVES to split.

Thank you all for your time and replies!:blossom: :)

P.S! I took a photo of my hair. Well, you can't really see much of the coarseness (below the black line) but it is there. Not much, but it's just not cool to fit with the rest of my hair.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/29/hair1di.jpg/

spidermom
November 20th, 2012, 01:36 PM
I would guess that the coarseness is the part that was dyed. It really does change the texture.

I've done nothing to mine in a long time, but still split-split-split!

lacefrost
November 20th, 2012, 08:45 PM
A friend of mine has long straight hair which she wears down pretty much all the time and she also very rarely cuts her hair. Her ends are pretty split-free and overall the condition of her hair is very good.

I am having a trim in December and I hope I don't have to cut that much.

I wouldn't say I have treated my hair roughly at all - I've never been much of a straighting & blow drying girl. Even though I am a hardcore caregiver to my hair right now (compared to the past) I have always treated my hair pretty nicely. Well, except those dyeings, but last time I dyed my hair was a little bit more than a year ago.
BUT I did start to wear my hair up pretty recently. It just started to get on my way much more and there are also other reasons. Hmm, I've seen improvement when I started to wear my hair up more and more often :)

Oh, coarse. Sorry, I'm not a native English speaker so I meant coarse as not smooth. Sorry.

My hair is wavy. There are some spiral locks, but yeah, I am mostly wavy, but I do have lots of like.. baby hair locks. You can especially see it when I wear my hair up, then it looks like wires popping out everywhere :)

Well, you are a wavy and it looks like a finey, so it would make sense your hair is more fragile than your friend's. Also, some heads of hair can't take a single straightening. It's rare but it might help explain what's going on with your hair?

Honestly, your hair looks like it's in great condition. I can't see splits, there's a lot of shine and it looks very soft. I would just keep microtrimming off your rougher ends and wearing your hair up. You'll keep seeing improvement.

Your hair is beautiful by the way.

Colourful
November 21st, 2012, 09:55 AM
Well, you are a wavy and it looks like a finey, so it would make sense your hair is more fragile than your friend's. Also, some heads of hair can't take a single straightening. It's rare but it might help explain what's going on with your hair?

Honestly, your hair looks like it's in great condition. I can't see splits, there's a lot of shine and it looks very soft. I would just keep microtrimming off your rougher ends and wearing your hair up. You'll keep seeing improvement.

Your hair is beautiful by the way.

Thank you very much of your time and insight. :blossom: It helped me a lot. I've never thought about my previous dyeing but it might be a reason why. So, I keep taking care of my hair and get some microtrimming from time to time.

And thank you, I really appreciate your comments! :cloud9: :)