HELP THIN, FRAGILE hair HELP

[Louise Clark]

I just joined this website. I feel like I am at a point of desperation. My hair is hip length and BABY FINE. Has been this thin my whole life. I LOVE my long hair but it is so thin. For the last year I have had to wear a hard hat at work and probably will be in this line of work for at least 10+ more years. At first I would braid my hair and dangle it between the harness and bottom lip of my hat. DESTROYED the hair around the hair line! Found a bandana cumbersome. I am thinking of making a tight stretchy cover to cover all my hair. I have started loosely piling up all the hair on top of my head then setting the hat down then tightening the band snuggly. I have new growth! But it looks like I have bangs, almost. I am looking for a solution, lotion, potion any advice to help manage the thickness. I noticed most of the gals on here have beautiful thick hair. Question... does your scalp get sore? Mine does and my hair is thin. Am I doing something wrong? Oh yeah, my hair tends to be oily, but has improved some with age (I am just a young pup at 28). If I am not at work I can go everyother day with a wash/condition. If I am at work it is a must EVERY day because my scalp gets oily. I try to just wash my scalp then condition everything. I have started using Aussie's sham/cond for greasy roots/dry ends and have found it better than anything I have EVER used. Mosturizing sham leave my roots heavy/ greasy.

HELP ME PLEASE!

Any advice is definately welcome.

Thanks

[florenonite]

I just joined this website. I feel like I am at a point of desperation. My hair is hip length and BABY FINE. Has been this thin my whole life. I LOVE my long hair but it is so thin. For the last year I have had to wear a hard hat at work and probably will be in this line of work for at least 10+ more years. At first I would braid my hair and dangle it between the harness and bottom lip of my hat. DESTROYED the hair around the hair line! Found a bandana cumbersome. I am thinking of making a tight stretchy cover to cover all my hair. I have started loosely piling up all the hair on top of my head then setting the hat down then tightening the band snuggly. I have new growth! But it looks like I have bangs, almost. I am looking for a solution, lotion, potion any advice to help manage the thickness. I noticed most of the gals on here have beautiful thick hair. Question... does your scalp get sore? Mine does and my hair is thin. Am I doing something wrong? Oh yeah, my hair tends to be oily, but has improved some with age (I am just a young pup at 28). If I am not at work I can go everyother day with a wash/condition. If I am at work it is a must EVERY day because my scalp gets oily. I try to just wash my scalp then condition everything. I have started using Aussie's sham/cond for greasy roots/dry ends and have found it better than anything I have EVER used. Mosturizing sham leave my roots heavy/ greasy.

HELP ME PLEASE!

Any advice is definately welcome.

Thanks

There's a thread about wearing hair under a hard hat somewhere here, if you do a search for it you should find it, which should help you with that.

I found it! http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=232&highlight=hard

Is your hair thin due to breakage? If so, try to contain it as much as possible in updos, etc. If it's not breakage, take a look at your diet and make sure it's healthy. Some people just have thin hair naturally, and hopefully one of them will jump in with suggestions for dealing with that, as my hair's really thick so I'm of no help.

If you're using shampoo for greasy hair daily that could contribute to the scalp pain: I know I can't wash my hair more often than every other day (and that with a shampoo for normal hair) because my scalp is sensitive and gets itchy, etc.

You mentioned that you condition the entirety of your hair. I have fine hair, too, and it gets greasy if I condition the scalp, so I apply conditioner from the ears downwards, and I often condition then leave that in whilst I shampoo.

HTH!

[girlcat36]

I have had sore scalp and I never used to know why until I read somewhere that fungus can cause sore scalp, so I would suggest scalp massage with tea tree and lavender essential oils for that. I don't get the soreness as often anymore, but when I do I use tea tree oil. Cures it pretty quick. My hair is thin and fine but I am having some success with scalp massage and brushing my scalp with a Boar's Bristle Brush.

[florenonite]

I have had sore scalp and I never used to know why until I read somewhere that fungus can cause sore scalp, so I would suggest scalp massage with tea tree and lavender essential oils for that. I don't get the soreness as often anymore, but when I do I use tea tree oil. Cures it pretty quick. My hair is thin and fine but I am having some success with scalp massage and brushing my scalp with a Boar's Bristle Brush.

I forgot to mention that I use tea tree oil shampoo as well, which might help with my scalp.

I thought about mentioning a BBB, but be careful as some fine-hairs find breakage with the BBB, though it does help with growth as well as with distributing oils. If you do it at night you may find in the morning that your hair doesn't need a wash anymore.

[girlcat36]

I only use my BBB on my scalp with the rest of my hair in a ponytail.

[florenonite]

I only use my BBB on my scalp with the rest of my hair in a ponytail.

Oh, that's a good idea. I don't worry much about breakage because I have too much hair as it is, but I've seen other people on the forum caution against using one on fine hair because of the breakage it can cause, although that is lessened by only using it on your scalp. If you do it this way it won't be much good for distributing the oil, but will still help with growth.

[Louise Clark]

Thanks, I know I have some tea tree oil, I will try it tonight.
My hair has been thin since birth. When I put it in a pony tail it is easily only 1/2 inch in diameter. I can use my 2 year old's hair elastics. Her pony tails are almost as thick as mine are!
BBB's don't do really well for me I have found the best thing is slowly combing my hair with anything from an el-cheapo to wide tooth comb. I seem to lose the least amount of hair that way, although the process is slow. I comb each 1/2 from one side to the other. The start at the bottom method seems to make me lose a lot of hair.

Tea tree oil seems to be good for a lot of things.

Thanks again

[Guenever]

My hair has been thin since birth. When I put it in a pony tail it is easily only 1/2 inch in diameter

You do realize that we measure the pony circumference and not the diameter for the thickness indicator, right? :blossom:
Just to note =)

[Louise Clark]

Oh I forgot to mention, I have started going grey for about the last three years, and I am actually quite happy about a couple of aspects of it. My grey hair is not fine at all! It is quite thick! AND it is a little curly! Both firsts for me, I have stick straight hair. My mother tried to get me a perm at her hair dresser when I was a teenager and my hair is so straight that it didn't even curn a little bit.
Straight hair has it's advantages though, it is so easy to cut straight along the bottom I either go to a barber or have my husband trim it!

[Louise Clark]

No... I didn't
I have it braided right now and the circumfrence of that about 3''

[florenonite]

Hmm, a circumference of 3" is actually pretty average, unless you're measuring the braid bumps rather than the base of the braid (ie measure above the braid because the actual braid will be thicker)

ETA: I multiplied the diameter you gave (0.5) by pi (3.14) to get the circumference of your hair and got 1.57", which seems nearer the mark for thin hair, so I'd recommend you measure without your hair in a braid.

[Louise Clark]

That was around the whole thing bumps and all.
Okay, put it in pony tail 1 3/4"
Maybe when my hard hat damage gets longer in a few years it will be better!

[florenonite]

if it's 1 3/4" with the broken hairs shorter, then when they get longer you might reach ii!

[jojo]

have you tried doing a coconut oil deep oil? i know since ive been doing them my hair feels much thicker. I think the coconut oil helps plump the hair shaft up.

[Lipbalmbabe]

I personally love fine hair, but castor oil is great for thin hair

[holothuroidea]

I have fragile baby fine hair, too, and the best advice I have heard here is to "treat it like delicate lace."

You really need to treat it gently and pay attention to what might damage it. My hair was depressingly thin when it was long but I hope now that I am taking good care of it and treating it right it will be of average thickness.

A couple of other things:
-Don't let your hair tangle. If you hair tangles when you wash it, work on different washing techniques. Sleep with it in a braid, keep it up when it's windy, stuff like that.
-Detangle in the shower with conditioner, never dry.
-Only brush when it's completely dry.
-Do not dry with a terry cloth towel, use a t-shirt to blot dry instead. Never rub the hair to dry.
-Oiling after washing prevents tangles. Some people have the same results with using products containing silicones.

Hope I could be helpful!

[Dragon Faery]

Welcome! :)

Your own idea about the cap will probably help the most for hard hat damage. If you incur damage while sleeping, a satin pillowcase can help. My hair is easily damaged even though it's much coarser than yours, and sleeping on satin has helped me a lot. You might even want to make a satin cap or liner of some kind for use with your hard hat? Satin and silk are also good for regulating temperature, so maybe it would be more comfortable, as well?

Good luck! I hope you find something that works!

[roundforest]

I don't think the OP will be back, they started this thread almost 4 years ago...

[holothuroidea]

I don't think the OP will be back, they started this thread almost 4 years ago...

Oh geez!! Thanks for pointing that out, I hadn't noticed. I hope my post will be helpful for someone who does a search at least.

[Dragon Faery]

Whoops! Thanks for the heads up. :) didn't notice the date.