Advice for thinning natural hair?

[Singing Skies]

Hey everyone, I hope you're all having a wonderful day. I have a little problem with my hair that I've been having for a while. My hair is SUPER thin, it's see-through (like feathery) and there's barely any thickness when it's put in a ponytail. I hate it, but I'm also afraid to cut my hair and start fresh because I'm trying to reach tailbone length. Here are some pictures below:

Washed and dried, no detangling done (plus, what hair type do you guys think I am? I can't completely figure it out):
IMG-1723.jpg (https://i.postimg.cc/13HRzKhf/IMG-1723.jpg)

Blow dried:
IMG-1725.jpg (https://i.postimg.cc/L86KxKw8/IMG-1725.jpg)

Any advice as to what to do? Should I cut it off to shoulder length and start fresh-ish, or get trims more often? And maybe some product recommendations? Routines to try? Anything? (A bit desperate if you couldn't tell here :doh:)

Thank you!

[Ylva]

I don't know a thing about natural hair so I will refrain from giving any advice, but I just wanted to say that your hair looks really beautiful! :)

[WyntreBlossom]

Not sure what to do about your current hair to gain thickness. which your hair is beautiful BTW. But to avoid further thinning avoid heat like straighteners and blow dryers and avoid brushes. Don't detangle when wet. Try a wood comb. Oils help too.

[*Wednesday*]

Has your hair always been natural? Or have you been growing out a relaxer? Your ends do appear thin, and personally I would microtrim. When was the last time you had a trim? Also, do you wear protective styles?

The picture before your hair is straightened, is it fully dry? You appear to be a 4b\c

[spidermom]

Teeny tiny trims of the thinnest ends on a regular basis will result in thicker ends over time.

[lapushka]

My mom has featherweight hair as well (i). From your pictures though, you seem to have quite a bit of hair! So I wouldn't panic, there is thinner hair out there.

I would leave it be. Do you wear it curly often? If so you might want to check out the curly girl method by Lorraine Massey (it's a book), or the site tightlycurly by Teri LaFlesh.

Welcome to the forum. :)

[Singing Skies]

I don't know a thing about natural hair so I will refrain from giving any advice, but I just wanted to say that your hair looks really beautiful! :)

Thank you! I'm happy you think so. :)

[Singing Skies]

Not sure what to do about your current hair to gain thickness. which your hair is beautiful BTW. But to avoid further thinning avoid heat like straighteners and blow dryers and avoid brushes. Don't detangle when wet. Try a wood comb. Oils help too.

Ahh okay, thank you. I am avoiding straighteners, but not so much blow dryers because I don't like dealing with my curly hair (I'm tender-headed too, so combing it is a pain). However, blow dryers seem to not be working too well either because the roots end up getting all curled up after a day or two. Where do you find wooden combs? I actually want to replace my plastic ones for that, but I can't find them anywhere. I do use oils. ^^

[Singing Skies]

Has your hair always been natural? Or have you been growing out a relaxer? Your ends do appear thin, and personally I would microtrim. When was the last time you had a trim? Also, do you wear protective styles?

The picture before your hair is straightened, is it fully dry? You appear to be a 4b\c

No, my hair wasn't always natural. I've been growing out a relaxer for 4 or 5 years now. I'll try micro trimming, but how often do you do that? Is micro trimming down once a week or so? The last time I had a trim was about a month ago. I do wear protective styles sometimes, but do you have any recommendations as to what to do?

It's almost completely dry, there are just a few water droplets the wouldn't go away. :D Thank you for your input, I was thinking 4A/4B is more of my hair type, but 4B could be right. Not so sure about 4C because my sister's hair is a lot curlier than mine.


Teeny tiny trims of the thinnest ends on a regular basis will result in thicker ends over time.

Okay, I've never tried that! I'll test it out for a while to see how well it works.


My mom has featherweight hair as well (i). From your pictures though, you seem to have quite a bit of hair! So I wouldn't panic, there is thinner hair out there.

I would leave it be. Do you wear it curly often? If so you might want to check out the curly girl method by Lorraine Massey (it's a book), or the site tightlycurly by Teri LaFlesh.

Welcome to the forum. :)

I do hear a lot that I have a lot of hair, so that may be right, but the thinness is bothering me so much and I don't like doing anything with my hair because of it. :'D I don't really wear it curly considering it's super hard to manage, but I've actually been wanting to try wearing it like that to see how much I like it. And it may leave it healthier by not blowdrying it so much :D Thank you for your recommendations!

[WyntreBlossom]

Ahh okay, thank you. I am avoiding straighteners, but not so much blow dryers because I don't like dealing with my curly hair (I'm tender-headed too, so combing it is a pain). However, blow dryers seem to not be working too well either because the roots end up getting all curled up after a day or two. Where do you find wooden combs? I actually want to replace my plastic ones for that, but I can't find them anywhere. I do use oils. ^^

I find most of my hair supplies online or random stores in my community like sally's. Amazon is good, but there are severall good hair toy/supply websites out there depending on your location around the world and if you want to pay international shipping haha.

[lapushka]

I do hear a lot that I have a lot of hair, so that may be right, but the thinness is bothering me so much and I don't like doing anything with my hair because of it. :'D I don't really wear it curly considering it's super hard to manage, but I've actually been wanting to try wearing it like that to see how much I like it. And it may leave it healthier by not blowdrying it so much :D Thank you for your recommendations!

Oh I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions. Leaving it curly is a big decision & major choice, definitely do it well-prepared. :flower:

I will join those who've said microtrimming. There's a whole entire thread dedicated to the practice here!

Again, welcome! :)

[*Wednesday*]

No, my hair wasn't always natural. I've been growing out a relaxer for 4 or 5 years now. I'll try micro trimming, but how often do you do that? Is micro trimming down once a week or so? The last time I had a trim was about a month ago. I do wear protective styles sometimes, but do you have any recommendations as to what to do?

The last few inches could be the relaxer that needs to be cut off to release the fullness of the ends. I've seen most women normally trim that off, last few inches of any remaining relaxer. Your hair will tighten up with some shrinkage. I think once you do that your ends can grow nicely one texture and play more up on the Curly Girl as Lapushka suggests.

[lapushka]

The last few inches could be the relaxer that needs to be cut off to release the fullness of the ends. I've seen most women normally trim that off, last few inches of any remaining relaxer. Your hair will tighten up with some shrinkage. I think once you do that your ends can grow nicely one texture and play more up on the Curly Girl as Lapushka suggests.

I think OP might be fully relaxed, or that the rest of the hair has at least some texturizer on it, or so? I'm just guessing. Singing Skies, correct me if I'm wrong! :flower:

[Singing Skies]

I find most of my hair supplies online or random stores in my community like sally's. Amazon is good, but there are severall good hair toy/supply websites out there depending on your location around the world and if you want to pay international shipping haha.

Okay, I'll do some reasearch and see what I can find. :D


Oh I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions. Leaving it curly is a big decision & major choice, definitely do it well-prepared. :flower:

I will join those who've said microtrimming. There's a whole entire thread dedicated to the practice here!

Again, welcome! :)

It's okay! I'm even thinking of going curly to see how it is for me. Looks like microtrimming is winning, so I'll definitely try that haha. And thank you for the welcome!


The last few inches could be the relaxer that needs to be cut off to release the fullness of the ends. I've seen most women normally trim that off, last few inches of any remaining relaxer. Your hair will tighten up with some shrinkage. I think once you do that your ends can grow nicely one texture and play more up on the Curly Girl as Lapushka suggests.

Right, I'm going to cut it off gradually so that the last of the relaxer will go away, probably by the time this year ends. I examined my hair earlier today and there is indeed some relaxer left. By shrinkage, do you mean my hair with actually coil up more once the relaxer is finally gone? And I'll look her up once I have time. ^^

[Singing Skies]

I think OP might be fully relaxed, or that the rest of the hair has at least some texturizer on it, or so? I'm just guessing. Singing Skies, correct me if I'm wrong! :flower:

What do you mean by OP? My hair does have some relaxer left in it, but do you mean all of my hair is still relaxed in a way? Sorry, just a little confused as to what you mean.

[Ylva]

What do you mean by OP?

OP means original poster. That's you in this case. :)

[lapushka]

What do you mean by OP? My hair does have some relaxer left in it, but do you mean all of my hair is still relaxed in a way? Sorry, just a little confused as to what you mean.

I thought from your first picture that that was texturized hair in some way. Or maybe I am confused with the blow out? Because I'm sure your natural hair is waaay curlier. No? :)

OP = original poster, so you!

[Singing Skies]

I thought from your first picture that that was texturized hair in some way. Or maybe I am confused with the blow out? Because I'm sure your natural hair is waaay curlier. No? :)

OP = original poster, so you!

Ohh I see! In the first picture, that’s my hair after a wash, dried (almost completely) and NOTHING done to it, so that’s its completely natural state (except the ends apparently). The second is when I was done blow drying it.

[lapushka]

Ohh I see! In the first picture, that’s my hair after a wash, dried (almost completely) and NOTHING done to it, so that’s its completely natural state (except the ends apparently). The second is when I was done blow drying it.

It's pretty, even though I thought in my silly mind, it would be curlier somehow. :hmm: My bad! :o

[*Wednesday*]

By shrinkage, do you mean my hair with actually coil up more once the relaxer is finally gone? And I'll look her up once I have time. ^^

If you are not ready you don't have to cut. Your natural hair looks very healthy and beautiful.
The majority of your looks natural. The last inch or 2 appears to be the end trails of relaxed hair. It looks thinner than the rest of your hair with less curl. You can microtrim or cut the line of demarcation (natural and relaxer meet). If you do a final cut, your natural hair ends will "spring" once the relaxer is gone. Your ends will be fuller.

Congrats on going natural. 😀

[enting]

I'll agree that it looks like some microtrimming might help the feathery look at the ends. It looks like your hair is nice and thick at the roots, we just have to figure out how to coax that all down the length :)
I think we also have a thread or two for type 4 hair somewhere around the forum, maybe some other 4's can chime in with some more tailored advice?

[Singing Skies]

It's pretty, even though I thought in my silly mind, it would be curlier somehow. :hmm: My bad! :o

Thank you, and that's okay! I do that sometimes too :D


If you are not ready you don't have to cut. Your natural hair looks very healthy and beautiful.
The majority of your looks natural. The last inch or 2 appears to be the end trails of relaxed hair. It looks thinner than the rest of your hair with less curl. You can microtrim or cut the line of demarcation (natural and relaxer meet). If you do a final cut, your natural hair ends will "spring" once the relaxer is gone. Your ends will be fuller.

Congrats on going natural. ��

Yeah I'm definitely not ready to cut, so I'm do microtrimming. And thank you! I actually thought about it today, and considering I went natural about 5 years ago there's no way it could still be there (I've been getting trims every 5-6 months since then) so I figured those thin ends are actually heat damage, considering I straighted my hair a lot (I stopped about 3 months ago).


I'll agree that it looks like some micro trimming might help the feathery look at the ends. It looks like your hair is nice and thick at the roots, we just have to figure out how to coax that all down the length :)
I think we also have a thread or two for type 4 hair somewhere around the forum, maybe some other 4's can chime in with some more tailored advice?

That's right :) I know about the type 4 hair lurking around here somewhere, so I'll ask them for some input ^^

[AutobotsAttack]

To be honest, those thinner ends are pretty much what’s left of your relaxed hair. You can opt to slowly trim those, or grow your hair out some more. That demarcation line, right above it where your natural hair ends looks thick much like the rest of your hair. So it’s really up to you. I wouldn’t worry so much about it.