Need a little advice please! colour

[hopefulred]

Just a few questions I need some advice on from you lovely LHCers.

1.Ever since giving birth to my second child (he is a month old) I keep getting night sweats (glamorous huh!!) so obviously my hair gets sweaty I only washed yesterday (am trying to only wash once a week) but had duvet over me so sweat quite abit so really don't want to wash again as hair is very damaged but will leaving the sweat do damage to my hair?? (Going to ditch the duvet in an attempt to get rid of the sweats)

2. I went to see a hairdresser today about having a big chop (from collarbone to ear) to get rid of a lot of the extreamly damaged hair and those horrendous split ends and she said that the damage won't travel up the hair shaft but will just snap off eventually but that it won't effect the healthy hair growing through, she was pretty adamant about this but everything I have read suggests otherwise. My virgin hair that's growing through feel so soft and strong I don't want to risk effecting it but if she's right it would mean I can do monthly trims and continue to use no heat through being able to tie it back (I'm a wurly!!)

3. Do you recommend a satin pillow (can't afford silk!) for sleeping on to prevent further damage to my hair? (Every little helps?)

4. Have you ever had a hairdresser totally ruin/fry your hair? Will you share your experience with me (helps to know your not the only one who has had their hair suffer from supposed professionals!! How short did you have to go and how did you cope with it? It's really effected my self confidence since they ruined my hair and I don't feel like myself/feminine any more because I can't style it or have it all the same colour as my natural because it's too damaged to dye the bleached hair right now, how did you get through hating your hair until it grew back healthy?

Thankyou all in advance

[Deborah]

As to your first question, I wash my hair once a week. I exercise enough that my scalp usually sweats five or six days a week. I just let it dry. It has never caused any damage, and it does not make the hair oily or at all dirty.

I have never colored my hair, so I have no personal advice on your remaining questions. Many here say that splits can and do travel up the damaged hair. I don't imagine they would affect the new, healthy hair though, but someone with bleached hair may have experiential advice on this for you.

Good luck with whatever route you take!

[sumidha]

1. Nope, sweat wont damage your hair in any way, just make it look a little funky, depending on your hair type. It might bother your scalp though.

2. In my opinion, the 'split ends travel up the hair shaft and destroy your hair' thing is a pretty major exaggeration. Maybe for some hair types you can get splits that just... keep going for forever, but I think it's pretty rare. Take a look at your split ends under a bright light, are they super long? If so, it might be a concern. If they're like most split ends, and just a centimeter or two long, along with white dots (a weak spot where the hair shaft will eventually break) then I personally would keep doing small trims and eventually the damage will be all gone. :)

3. If you're crafty at all, it's pretty easy to find silk at a thrift store and turn it into a pillow case. I often find large silk hippie type skirts, or you can buy two large men's dress shirts made of silk and use the main back pieces to make a pillow case.

[Robot Ninja]

1. I also let my sweaty hair go unwashed for days, and haven't had any problems. If you notice your hair is dirty or your scalp is itchy, you might want to look into conditioner-only washing.

2. The big problem with split ends is they snag on the healthy hairs next to them and damage them too. Since you're going to be cutting all the damaged hair off eventually, I'd say leave it at a length that is comfortable for you. But I am far from an expert on this.

3. Yes, a satin pillowcase is good for preventing damage, however, if you're already sweating at night it might make it worse, since non-silk satin pillowcases are made out of polyester. Or it might not; some people have no problems with them. You could also search thrift stores for a silk scarf to wrap around your pillow or sew into a pillowcase if you can sew; just make sure it's a slippery silk.

4. I've never had a hairdresser fry my hair, but if you want to dye it to match your natural color you can look into Adore hair color. It doesn't damage your hair at all, since it's a deposit-only dye, much like Manic Panic, except it comes in natural colors.

[x3leesa]

1. Nope, sweat wont damage your hair in any way, just make it look a little funky, depending on your hair type. It might bother your scalp though.

2. In my opinion, the 'split ends travel up the hair shaft and destroy your hair' thing is a pretty major exaggeration. Maybe for some hair types you can get splits that just... keep going for forever, but I think it's pretty rare. Take a look at your split ends under a bright light, are they super long? If so, it might be a concern. If they're like most split ends, and just a centimeter or two long, along with white dots (a weak spot where the hair shaft will eventually break) then I personally would keep doing small trims and eventually the damage will be all gone. :)

3. If you're crafty at all, it's pretty easy to find silk at a thrift store and turn it into a pillow case. I often find large silk hippie type skirts, or you can buy two large men's dress shirts made of silk and use the main back pieces to make a pillow case.

Omg I love the DIY pillowcase idea!!
Congrats on the new addition to the family Hopeful!!! :flower: My hair's pretty fried from hot tools and coloring it (when I hold up about 3 inches it mostly sticks straight up like "straw hair") :wail:. I plan on doing S&D's and micro trims because I'm not chopping off like 5 inches to get rid of the damage :justy: And doing a recent SMT really made my hair softer and the ends are more floppy like now lol.

[Robot Ninja]

3. If you're crafty at all, it's pretty easy to find silk at a thrift store and turn it into a pillow case. I often find large silk hippie type skirts, or you can buy two large men's dress shirts made of silk and use the main back pieces to make a pillow case.

You don't even need two. Only the side you sleep on needs to be silk, the other side of the pillow case can be any fabric you want.

I've never seen shirts made out of silk satin though, it's usually a different weave that isn't as smooth. If you can't get silk satin, I imagine poly satin would be better than non-satiny silk, no? (Unless you have a sweating problem with polyester, that is.)

[melesine]

You can get your hair wet without using shampoo or conditioner. Just rinse it with water. That will remove the sweat and feel really good too. At least I think it does. I'm not saying you have to, but if you want to you can.

[hopefulred]

Someone told me the salt in the sweat can dry your hair out and mine really doesn't need any help in that department!! Thankyou fir the replies so far, the split ends at really bad upsets me every time I look at them, I cannot wait til it's all healthy and long virgin hair. Im not very crafty but have a family friend who is so could ask her to see the silk on, it's a fab idea Thank you!!

Will defo look into the Adore dye, afew ppl on here have recommended it, fingers crossed they do my colour and it would be good for my hair and ease the demecration line so I can feel abit better about it until all the damaged hair is cut off.

[lapushka]

Why don't you do S&D sessions for your splits? You'll get rid of them and you can keep doing microtrims until your healthy hair catches up.

[vampyyri]

1. I wash my hair every other day, no adverse damage, I just condition it as needed.

2 & 4 (since they go hand-in-hand). I had to double process the brunette out of my hair and had two toners done in the same day at the beginning of my journey to natural. It was fried and brassy as all get out, but I trimmed off the damage as I went along and did semi permanent dyes to my lengths to help hide the demarcation line. All of that got trimmed off in the end, so I had nothing to lose.

3. I've tried a satin pillowcase before...I personally can't use them because I'm a super oily/sweaty person, it makes the problem worse for myself.

[spidermom]

I love satin pillowcases because they feel cool to my face. I'm constantly shifting my pillow around at night looking for the cool spot. By the way, silk is a fabric and satin is a weave. You can find satin in all kinds of fabrics - silk, polyester, rayon, cotton. As long as it feels nice and smooth, that's what you're looking for.

The last time my hair was fried beyond all redemption (new perm one year after old perm), I cut it short-short; I'm talking maybe 1/2 inch all over. You can always intensify makeup and wear earrings to compensate for crazy-short hair and/or use a wig, scarves, etc. As far as feeling good about myself after that, well, I confess that I had my moments of feeling like a particularly unattractive boy that way, then I sucked it up and got on with my life.

Oh, and on my hair, splits do indeed travel upward. I've found splits open as far as about 5 inches up the hair shaft, with little splits coming off each side. Once I see a lot of splits, I know I'm due for a major cut - like the 10 inches I've lost over the past week - because otherwise the condition of my hair gets worse pretty rapidly.