How can I deal with this kind of damage?

[MissBubble]

I don't know what to do with my damaged ends any more...
I try to be good with my hair, haven't used any heat form many years, I occassionally dye the roots only, but I used to chemically dye all of it, so the ends were dyed various times.

I have dry and very thin hair but co washing and oil treatments seem to work well.

However, my ends have the type of damage that is called offshoot or right angle, after googling it and watching pictures.

Micro trimming doesn not seem to help as the damage and the angle might be inches above the ends.
I S&D them when I do a session. I have no split ends or any other kind of damage. But I believe that in case I dont cut it, the hair will break by itself at some point since it is very fragile at the angled spot so it will cause a split end.

What can I do to prevent this to happen to more hairs? I believe it is spreading more and more.

[allycat]

My hair gets those kind of right angle bent ends from any use of protein. Eliminating the protein source and doing a good moisturizing treatment fixes things. Just a thought.

[meteor]

First, I'd recommend avoiding any additional damage: no overlapping of dyes, no heat styling, using only good quality detangling tools and being very gentle with hair, containing hair whenever you can (updos, braids) and sleeping on silk satin (or other smooth materials).

If you can stretch washes, I recommend it too, because there is lots of mechanical damage, hygral fatigue and exposure to harsh surfactants involved.

It's great that you are co-washing and using deep oil treatments, I think you should keep up with that. Maybe using a few drops of oil between washes on ends could help, too. I find oil really useful for length retention.

Many people get good results from SMT (conditioner + honey + aloe vera) or its modifications (e.g. without aloe, with oil, ACV, etc).
Also, I think damaged hair is a prime candidate for hydrolyzed protein: you could do a DIY treatment with gelatin (http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.ca/2014/04/gelatin-protein-treatment-recipe-update.html) or get a commercial product (Aphogee 2-step, Joico K-Pak, etc).
Damaged/porous hair responds well to deep conditioning and patch-repairing ingredients like hydrolyzed proteins, penetrating oils, cetrimonium bromide, ceramides, 18-mea, panthenol (B5), amino acids and artificial peptides, some silicones... Damaged hair allows more into hair than virgin, low-porosity hair.
Here is a good article on deep conditioning: http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2012/10/deep-conditioning-everything-you-need.html

[meteor]

I would assume the "right angle" damaged ends are bent by some specific hairstyle or hair ties, but it could be also loss of elasticity (so I'd oil the ends or use a leave-in) or cuticle damaged/chipped (so I'd use heavier conditioner, with patch-repairing ingredients I mentioned above). I would imagine these ends could be caused by build-up, you should probably clarify from time to time.

Also, there's an old thread on "right angle" damage and maybe some ideas will help you: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=42381

[ravenreed]

I get right angle bends when I use oils. I am not sure why.

[meteor]

I get right angle bends when I use oils. I am not sure why.
Hm, interesting. Do your ends also become a bit stiff and hard when you get those right angle bended ends? If so, I'd suspect over-oiling. I guess a wash should fix it.

[ravenreed]

I don't recall my hair getting stiff. I had to trim my bends off too. TBH, I have mostly given up oiling because it causes me more trouble than it is worth. I oil pre-wash once or twice a month if my hair feels drier than normal. That is it. For me the trick to not having dry hair is to CO every other day. I think I have low porosity hair and that might be part of the problem with oils.


Hm, interesting. Do your ends also become a bit stiff and hard when you get those right angle bended ends? If so, I'd suspect over-oiling. I guess a wash should fix it.

[jacqueline101]

I'd say maybe you need a micro trim to fix some of the damage. Then I'd try moisture balanced by protein. My hair has white dots and v type splits. I find that oil, up dos, and balance of protein and moisture helped plus as others said satin pillow cases and sleep hats. Good sharp shears for s&d hair ends. I do think these will help. I'd try using a blend of oils. Maybe some of the lighter oils.

[MissBubble]

Thank you for your suggestions.
My washes are quite stretched, every 5-6 days, my hair doesn t get greasy so it is fine with it. I co wash only but i use shampoo every 3-4 washes.
The oil that I mainly use is coconut, i use it after washing and in between on my ends, every other day more or less. I also use a mix of coconut, almond and castor oils 2-3 times a month overnight.
I also use a conventional oil by kerastase sometimes after washing.

Could it be the coconut oil that causes it?

[Kaelee]

My hair does that from updos sometimes, but a wash fixes it. Are you sure is not just temporary die to a particular updo?

[meteor]

Could it be the coconut oil that causes it?
It could. You could check how your ends behave when you leave coconut oil out.
Coconut oil made my ends stiff when I used a lot of it, especially when it gets cold and it solidifies in hair.
Not everybody does well with coconut oil or any oil at all, you might want to look into some lighter oil or a mix of oils.

[ExpectoPatronum]

Your hair sounds kind of like mine. My hair doesn't like the heavier oils. I've found that less oil is more of us low porosity gals. Even the oils that supposedly do get absorbed into hair just stayed on and left mine feeling coated.

I did find that my hair likes a good soak in jojoba oil before a wash. I've read that it's the closest to our scalp's natural sebum. You could try that before a wash? I don't use any oils after washing my hair, except maybe a drop of argan oil or two before I braid it the next day to tame some flyaways.

[CremeTron]

It could. You could check how your ends behave when you leave coconut oil out.
Coconut oil made my ends stiff when I used a lot of it, especially when it gets cold and it solidifies in hair.
Not everybody does well with coconut oil or any oil at all, you might want to look into some lighter oil or a mix of oils.

Ahhhh Hahhh! Thank you! I did not know this. I ended bleaching and rebleaching the front of my hair a few times last month and I put coconut oil on every day and it and the surrounding hair becomes stiff and really strange until I rinse it out.

I appreciate repeated bleachings are bad but my hair usually stands up to chemicals very well, it is my scalp not hair that is easily damaged or reacts badly to change. Anyway I have been working late and in the cold but yesterday washed my hair and stayed home and my bleached patch was curly and a normal texture.

Thanks, this is one of the reasons I frequent this board as I feel I know what I need to about my hair but obviously I do not and I am learning all the time.

[meteor]

CremeTron, I'm glad I could help with understanding the stiffness and strange feeling in hair. But I should add that my hair never suffered from over-oiling with coconut oil that solidified. It just looked terrible (white flecks of oil on hair) and felt stiff and crunchy, but absolutely not a problem after I washed it out. Actually, I always experienced great hair days after washing out that stiffened oily mess. I think of it as a "hair mask" - can we really expect hair to look gorgeous while it's marinating in a heavy oil treatment?

I just don't want this crunchy business to turn you off from oiling, especially pre-bleach oiling, which is quite protective against peroxide damage. And since you have 3c/4a curly hair, you can probably benefit from it even more (curly hair tends to be drier as it gets less sebum transferred from scalp to ends due to curly/kinky texture).

Science-y Hair Blog has a great article on pre-poo oiling and how to make it work for you. I highly recommend it: http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.ca/2014/03/oil-pre-shampoo-or-pre-wash.html

[maybeinthemtns]

Just to add on to the coconut oil discussion - coconut oil has a "freezing point" in the lower-mid 70s (fahrenheit), which is why if you buy a jar of pure coconut oil, it's solid. When I oil my hair, I wrap it up in a (fake :P)silk scarf to hold in some of the heat from my head, which does the trick (because obviously coconut oil therefore also melts somewhere in the mid-70s). But yeah, room temperature is enough to cause it to freeze, and it can feel really nasty. I don't know if this is what is causing your issues, but even just a tiny amount of heat is enough to melt coconut oil, so if that's it, it's a pretty easy fix! Just put something on your head to hold in a bit of body heat while the oil soaks in. A towel, a showercap, a scarf, saran-wrap, anything. Good luck!

[ErinLeigh]

I had those. The only thing that got mine back to normal was lots of moisturizing conditioners. I still used my protein conditioners but what seemed to fix those ends were things like SMTs and deep conditioners that claimed Moisture. I also started using oils (olive and avocado at that time I believe) around that time so the combined effort smoothed them out in good time. I did trim them too but they remained until I added conditioning treatments. During this time my hair was very very dry as you can tell. Once I got the protein/moisture balanced things were normal again thank goodness.


Mine were pretty bad
http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af244/coconutcraze/Mobile%20Uploads/2d8af114-a199-473a-a408-11d8f247f758_zpsd9658e87.jpg (http://s1012.photobucket.com/user/coconutcraze/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2d8af114-a199-473a-a408-11d8f247f758_zpsd9658e87.jpg.html)

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af244/coconutcraze/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps3a80f5a5.jpg (http://s1012.photobucket.com/user/coconutcraze/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps3a80f5a5.jpg.html)

[Verdandi]

I get those from coconut oil or when I accidentally put a conditioner with protein in my SMT. Took me a while to figure that out. I agree with those who told you to try something moistureizing :)

[Agnes Hannah]

I have used hair dyes before joining LHC, only semi's but they are still damaging. Now its roots only to prevent further damage until I can go dye free. My hair is baby fine and thin so needs lots of protection, however, i am naturally greasy skinned so my scalp gets good amounts of sebum. When I wash, I wash roots only then condition the ends twice the method that Lapushka talks about. It works for me too and protects my fine ends, so I highly recommend it. My last trim was last October, when I cut off one split end, since then I have found none. I also use a silk sleep cap and pillowcase. I use serums as well as coconut oil and prefer them as the oil can be a bit heavy. Hope you find a solution to your problems.x

[Lizzie_Bennet]

I recently started noticing those right angles, too. Now that I think about it, it coincides with when I started using coconut oil on my sleep-braid tassel. Maybe I'll try switching to a different oil for nights and keep coconut as an occasional pre-poo treatment. Or, as maybeinthemtns mentioned, keep it warm until it soaks in. I'm glad I saw this as I never would have suspected the coconut oil as the cause.