breakage not stopping!

[bryana]

Why o why did I do this? I went to a salon and got dark brown dye applied to take me back to natural color (my roots were already natural/virgin but the bottom half of my hair had old dye in it). Everything seemed great until a few days later when my hair started breaking. I have never had a breakage problem! Split ends, yes. But breakage I've just never really had. My normal hair routine: I wash about every 4-5 days with Aveda shampoos diluted with water. I follow with ACV rinse. Then I condition with either Giovanni mixed with clear aloe gel or comparable conditioner without bad 'cones. I leave in for about 3 minutes then all set. I never blow dry. I never curl or flat iron. I threw those away 3 years ago when I began this growth journey. I did an egg mask immediately after noticing the breakage. I also had my friend who is a stylist come over and cut off 2 inches to see if that would help. Today I am about one month out from getting the dye job and I am still seeing breakage. Little pieces of hair stuck to my hands after running my hands through my hair when my length is past BSL. It is so depressing to think I've babied my hair religiously for 3 years now only for this to happen!!!

[Diamond.Eyes]

Maybe the dye she applied over the old dye on your ends had a reaction. Was the old dye on your ends from a box? Sometimes when a professional dye is applied over a box dye the minerals deposited from the box dye react to the peroxide of the professional dye and expand the cuticle and basically destroy a lot of the chemical bonds in your hair resulting in breakage.

I have been doing hair for two years licensed and three unlicensed and have seen so much of this. Not saying you used box dye, but a lot of people think when a hair dresser tells them not to use drugstore hair dye they are just scaring them into buying their services, but so many random harmful ingredients are put into cheap dyes that you never really know what you are putting on your hair.

My advice would be to baby the heck out of your hair with coconut oil and try a more intensive protein treatment. My favorite is the apHogee 2 step protein treatment for damaged hair. It comes with the instructions and you can find it at Sally's Beauty Supply or Amazon. I have had girls come see me who tried to bleach their hair at home and literally had chunks of hair falling out. The difference after the treatment was night and day. No more breakage.

I hope this helped you a little and I'm so very sorry that happened to you. :flower:

[lapushka]

3 years of virgin growth means that your "new" hair is about shoulder to APL, closer to shoulder I'd say. So the part up until BSL is still heavily damaged. All you can do is baby those ends and maybe do S&D missions to get the bad ends out.

[bryana]

I really appreciate the tips! I haven't used box dye since I was in high school, which was 14 years ago (wow). But I have had plenty of salon dye since then and also I used to be horrible with my hair before these past 3 years, just because I was ignorant and didn't know any better. I think my ends are pretty damaged health wise - they don't look bad though. They actually look quite healthy considering ... and bouncy after getting a couple cuts after that last dye job. I have a Sally's right around the corner from my house and I am definitely stopping to buy that apHogee on my way home from work today. Thank you thank you thank you ! I'll let you know how it goes!!!