What happend that day..?! My hair never looked the same again.

[Emme76]

Anyone else damage their hair so badly that it never looked the same again...even until this very day or for a long time? I wrote about my nightmare is another post but thought I would start a thread to see if there are others like me out there...

When I was about 15 years old I did a home perm. My lovely sister helped me. It was in the early 90´s and everyone did the home perm. I wanted to be like my friends so I did the very curly perm at home. BUT it didn´t turn out curly..just damaged..very very damaged. I had to cut it ...and cut it...but it never really "healed". During that time I also colored it alot. My hair was very very abused. But for the last 10 years I been much better to my hair but never got that beautiful mane back that I had before that awful day.

Now I am going to try for the last time...to get my hair "back"..and I have all of you to help me and the great support from LHC!

I do not color my hair but I do tint it still, but it doesn´t damage it the same way. I will try everything to make it like it was...or more similar. I had lovely curles..now it is more like fly away crazy waves :rolleyes:!!!!!

Tonight I am getting the coconutoil, I use oliveoil that my hair seem to like. I am also trying to find out if my hair likes cones or not. And I am trying to cut back on my blowdrying....it is difficult!!!!!

Thank you for lissening!!!! Anyone else with similar experience?????

/Emme

[Xandergrammy]

I have no advice, but you've come to the right place. It sounds like your hair needs some TLC to start behaving like hair again. Remember that hair changes as you get older though. When I was 15, my hair was stick straight, but after I hit 25 or so, it started getting wavier (and more unruly!!). Good luck to you.

[kimki]

Yup, I coloured my hair black when I was 17. Then I bleached it, coloured it, highlighted it, chopped it, straightened it etc etc. Last August I stopped all that and noticing improvements all the time. Henna really helped as did all the tlc and advice on here.

Good luck to you! :D

[Kirin]

there is hope, i promise you!

mangled, bleached, dyed, bleached, dyed, permed, heat treated, blow fried, curling ironed to death...... I lost hair, I lost body, shine, everything, lank lackluster thin hair and receeding temples so far back i thought i was going bald.

Now, i dont go whole hog on haircare, but eliminating all chemical processes, banning the hair drier and curling iron and ditching hairsprays, my hair is coming back!

Sadly age has a way with things, I'll never have the glorious mane i had when i was 12..... but that is life, but i'll make the most of what i got!

[Carina]

I have bleached it,permed it and all the heat abuse.....poor hair.But that was a long time ago.I'm much more gentle now and I think long and hard before I color or cut it.Welcome to lhc Emme76:D.

[jojo]

hi Emme76,
I have in the past from the age of 13 to 35 committed every crime known to hair, dyed, bleached, permed, straightened and blow fried!

I got all my waist length hair cut,not by choice but by a snippy happy hairdresser who mistook 2" for 20" but at least it got all the dye from my hair so i suppose she did me a favour! This was on December 21st 2005.

I found LHC in august last year and it has been my saviour! I have learnt so much (and met some of the most genuine people who i regard as good friends).

If my hair can be reformed to its natural glory in just 7 months, anybodys hair can. Im still learning but oils coconut, almond oil my hair loves. ACV rinses are also great in restoring shine.

I am sure you will be happy in our ever growing (pun intended!) community so welcome aboard. I look forward to reading your posts and watching your hair grow. xx

[spidermom]

I had a neighbor who had stick-straight hair, got a perm, and her hair stayed wavy/curly ever after. It was the weirdest thing. She cut all the perm out over the course of about 2 years to keep her hair at shoulder length, but as far as I know, her hair never went back to being stick straight. It defies all logic.

[TheSpottedCow]

Yes, I bleached my hair from dyed black to blonde at a salon, and they bleached it four times in one day (or five, I forget), and then highlighted it and dyed it. I had chemical burns on my entire scalp, and lost hair from both hairloss and breakage, about 1/3 of the total volume at the scalp, and the ends were baby fine. After that my hair was completely ireparable, and I dyed just the already damaged part back to dark, and allowed my roots to grow after that. It's all gone now, but for many years it was so bad that it had no movement. If I twisted my hair or bent it it would stay in that position, and would not grow. I maintained between APL and BSL, but my ends were always just a few strings. I was afraid to have short hair. But anyway, sometimes I wouldn't trim for a while and it would just get shorter from breakage.

That hair has been cut off now entirely and it's all virgin, however, I believe that the initial hairloss I had from the chemical burns (my scalp was literally an open wet sore for two weeks, very painful and bled often too) never fully reversed itself. I decent amount grew back, but my hair is still thinner. The part that grew back is now BSL length on me (where as the rest is past waist. I have layers cut to integrate this unintentional short layer), so I doubt any more will grow back.

ETA: the salon told me (I was like 15) that bleach wont damage hair no matter how many times they do it (unless the hair turns white. hair is only damaged when it turns white, in their opinion), and put 40 vol. developer on my scalp.

[Myeka]

You've come to the right place. My hair was destroyed when I first found LHC and hadn't looked good since I first started dying it when I was 12. But that time I had decided to bleach it. It looked baaaad. Fried beyond help. But that was almost a year ago and now my hair has never looked better. The girls and guys here are hair geniuses, you'll learn a lot!

[sweetkandi]

Some of these damage stories are scaring me. Mine is damaged too....highlightened, dyed, bleached, now dyed again. Trying to get back to brown to let my natural color blend in as it grows.

[Emme76]

Feels good to know I am not alone even if I do NOT wish this upon anyone. It is just weird how it can take so long for hair to repair. My big damage happend when I was about 15 and now I am 31. But during this time I have colored, flatiron, blowdry and so on. I guess I never gave it a chance to repair itself.

I am going to try the cassia treatment, and get come coconutoil and cut out cones for a while and see if that helps...cut back on blowdrying ALOt and wear my hair up more to give it a rest! I think my hair needs a vaccation time big time :rolleyes:!!!!!!!
It is just hard when I am going to partied or dinners out. Then I would like to look better and my hair tends to do so when I blowdry. Anyone know of a good "natural" way to protect hair when blowdrying? I used bedhead but it has cones in it and I am trying to cut back...:)!!!

Thank´s for your support and stories...
/Emme

[jojo]

I had a neighbor who had stick-straight hair, got a perm, and her hair stayed wavy/curly ever after. It was the weirdest thing. She cut all the perm out over the course of about 2 years to keep her hair at shoulder length, but as far as I know, her hair never went back to being stick straight. It defies all logic.

ive heard of that before, do you think perming distorts the cuticles? it also defies the theory that the roots don't know what the ends of the hair are doing, strange phenomenon for sure

[jojo]

i occasionally blow dry on a cold setting if im in a hurry but to be honest my hair looks better if i just air dry it now. It does take some getting used to.

Another good thing is to look on the forum for somebody with the same hair type as you, ive only just found my hair twin! but it a good way to see what works for them and if they have photos all the better, it gives me so much hope seeing that one day i might no will! have the long hair i dream of!!

[tiny_teesha]

well i ruined it with at home bleaching. But once it grew out it was fine. I still have remnants from sholder down of it, but the regrowth is as good as it was before the mishap.

[tiny_teesha]

spidermom- unless she was starting puberty? That's when most hair changes in texture and shape etc.
But a friend of mine had to cut the perm out and it did come out. But maybe when we cut our hair so short to get the scalp cool perhaps it reacts if we have the gene and changes the hair. Like with siamese animals, the coolder hairs are darker, maybe humans have something like that we don't know about yet?

Or the perm reacted with her hair. Or the roots DO know what the ends are saying. It defies my personal logic but who says i am RIGHT. i may be so!