Bunning makes my ends look destroyed?

[Obsessed1]

Hey everyone,

I've been putting my hair in a fake bun for years, just twisting the hair and wrapping it around itself and securing with a scrunchie. The issue is that it makes the roots and part of the length look silky and then in the morning my ends look ravaged, bent kinky and mangled. I assumed it was the way the scrunchie was compressing the ends so last night I tried tucking my ends into the bun to protect them and it looks so much worse.
I have a lot of bleach and heat damage but its worse at the front of my head (pretty much every 3rd hair has multiple little balls up the shaft and split and fraying ends), my longest ends aren't as bad. So I'm trying to use no heat hair styling but everything's making my hair look terrible. What am I doing wrong? Thanks :)

[Quasiquixotic]

Well, bleach and heat cause damage. And even once you stop doing, using them, the damage remains. The only way to fix it is to cut. I personally prefer length.

So to minimize the effect you can do a thorough S&D session - sit in good light and go through all of your hair with very sharp only-used-for-hair scissors and cut out all the splits and kinks you find.

Next you can add moisture and protein to your hair. Protein can help with bleach damage by increasing the strength of your hair, but the cost is its flexibility. Like bulding a wall out of bricks, it's stong, but won't bend. If you do a protein deep treatment, you should follow it with a moisturizing one. I like the Aussie moist. Or you can use the LOC method - on wet (Liquid) freshly cleaned hair add a few drops of Oil - coconut or olive tend to be on hand - to your palms and work that through your ends. Follow with a small amount of leave in conditioner, that's the C.

Additionally if you put your hair up the same bun, in the same place, with the same item everyday, it will cause mechanical damage. Twisting can as well. Have your tried a hair fork or stick? How long is your hair? Claw clips can be a good, inexpensive, option for shorter hair.

Basically stopping the heat (awesome - that goes a long way!), and if you want too the bleach, along with time and slowly cutting out splits so they don't travel up should help. Generally pampering and varying bun, location, and "toy" can help as well.

If you bleach because you don't like your color, henna can do wonders to strengthen hair. But it's a perminant - as in forever ever - thing. So be really sure you want orange red hair first.

[Obsessed1]

Thanks for your advice! My hair is damaged but it's layered so the longest parts of my hair are underneath which had the least bleaching over the years. I have naturally kinky frizzy hair with sharp bends in it even when my hair is virgin but my hair is very damaged around my face now and some more damage throughout. But my ends themselves look like they always did, if they air dry they look ok (for me, probably not according to people that have straight silky hair but I don't have that hair type. It's specifically the bun that is making the ends look insanely kinked, bent and messed up. Air dried loose they just look dry but my hair has always looked dry cause it's blonde, wavy and frizzy. So it's some weird way something is pressing on them. It looks sooo much worse if I have coconut oil in too, if I sleep in a bun compared do if I bunned it clean. I really need to check out hair forks but I like something that feels extremely secure and would be hard to sleep in forks or clasps. Twisting is the only thing that makes my hair look healthier and styled in a way I can tolerate so I'm not sure what other styles I can sleep in to make my hair straighter and less frizzy.
Yeah I wouldn't touch henna with a 10 foot pole, just spent 220 and damaged my hair a lot getting a temporary red dye bleached out that just clung to my hair...

I'm going to do S&D and get as much trimmed professionally every 6 weeks that I can tolerate and I'm trying to grow out my natural colour, I won't touch bleach or my straightener anymore. But I also dislike the state of my air dried hair a LOT so it's getting frustrating. I dry it tied in a low pony tail to make the roots straight which I don't know how much damage that causes. I'm considering sleeping with my ends wrapped around a big foam roller...

Sorry, find it hard to type properly on my phone, and I am in a bit of a state over my hair because I used to like my hair because it was always blow waved or straightened. Now I just don't know what to do with it

[Kimberly]

Maybe try braiding instead of twisting? Or a "caterpillar" pony with multiple hair ties down the length?

[veryhairyfairy]

I used to get this problem when my hair was both shorter and drier.
My best advice is to try and find a way to bun your hair that doesn't leave those weird ends (try a lazywrap bun maybe; high up on your head if your hair is shorter than APL).

Other than that, I found that my ends didn't like buns because they were dry and not very flexible, so here's what I would do, routine-wise:
1. Clarify (buildup can lead to hair feeling dry and crunchy)
2. Deep condition
3. Oil the ends after washing with 4-10 drops (start by using 4 drops and work up-any cooking oil you have on hand should work, I personally loved coconut oil when I had very dry ends)
4. Oil soak before normal washes (I don't oil soak before I clarify because it doesn't make sense to me- add at least a tablespoon of oil to your ends and midlength and soak for 1hr+)

If your water is hard you may need to chelate the minerals off of your hair; minerals from hard water cause buildup (dryness, inflexible hairs).

Good luck! :thumbsup:

[Quasiquixotic]

Sounds to me like you are describing a very curly 3c-4 hair. I don't have a lot of experience with that hair type but moisture moisture is the key for my daughter who is much curlier than me.

I second pre oiling.

There is also a thread for type 3 and one for type 4. If I can find them for you later today, I'll link them here. The ladies there have awesome advise and know how.

:grouphug: it gets better. I am growing out henna from 2014 and the first year of a big change like this is the hardest. I want you to know, it really does get better.

[Annalouise]

I used to get this problem when my hair was both shorter and drier.
My best advice is to try and find a way to bun your hair that doesn't leave those weird ends (try a lazywrap bun maybe; high up on your head if your hair is shorter than APL).

Other than that, I found that my ends didn't like buns because they were dry and not very flexible, so here's what I would do, routine-wise:
1. Clarify (buildup can lead to hair feeling dry and crunchy)
2. Deep condition
3. Oil the ends after washing with 4-10 drops (start by using 4 drops and work up-any cooking oil you have on hand should work, I personally loved coconut oil when I had very dry ends)
4. Oil soak before normal washes (I don't oil soak before I clarify because it doesn't make sense to me- add at least a tablespoon of oil to your ends and midlength and soak for 1hr+)

If your water is hard you may need to chelate the minerals off of your hair; minerals from hard water cause buildup (dryness, inflexible hairs).

Good luck! :thumbsup:

Veryhairyfairy-
How does one "chelate" minerals from the hair? do you buy a chelating shampoo? I've never seen one before. That is a great idea I have very hard water.
Thanks for the tip. Can you recommend a chelating shampoo?:)

[veryhairyfairy]

Veryhairyfairy-
How does one "chelate" minerals from the hair? do you buy a chelating shampoo? I've never seen one before. That is a great idea I have very hard water.
Thanks for the tip. Can you recommend a chelating shampoo?:)

I know I've see Ion's swimmers shampoo recommended, but when I had hard water I used citric acid and vinegar to chelate.
I used miracle water (1/4-1/2 teaspoon of citric acid in a gallon of water) to wash with so my super hard water didn't touch my hair, and occasionally I would do a more concentrated vinegar rinse (1/4 cup vingar to 2 cups water) after washing and rinse that out with miracle water.

Here's a thread on the miracle water: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=128756

[Annalouise]

Thanks veryhairfairy:)
Something to consider... I'm much too tired nowadays for a lot of fussing... probably do a chelating shampoo now and then to remove
hard water buildup. vinegar makes my hair stiff.

[Obsidian]

I would clarify and chelate. You can get suave daily clarifying shampoo for a buck or two at most grocery stores.

[Annalouise]

I would clarify and chelate. You can get suave daily clarifying shampoo for a buck or two at most grocery stores.

Oh that's a good idea! No sense spending a lot of money when you only use it once in awhile.:toast: