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View Full Version : Difference between coarse hair, and dry unhealthy hair?



coscass
February 4th, 2010, 06:26 PM
Okay, so my hair is pretty coarse. Since coming here it's improved GREATLY, but my problem is: I'm not sure if this is how naturally coarse hair feels/looks, or if I'm still lacking one final piece of the hair-puzzle.

I can definitely tell my hair is more moisturised since joining. Maybe it's because I don't have any aloe gel, but DT's to me don't do anything amazing to my hair, and I don't know why or what I should expect. My hair just feels..normal, I guess. Even when I tried putting the condish in dry and letting it sit for an hour or so.

I guess maybe I was expecting... more? That my hair would do a total 360 and start looking and behaving differently? I don't know what I was expecting. I AM satisfied, but feel as though I'm still... missing something.

Am I expecting to feel my hair be something it naturally isn't, and probably won't ever be? How can I tell if my hair is healthy, but just coarse, versues dry and unhealthy? My ends sometimes crunch still, when I rub them between my fingers (But I probably really need a trim).

I'm just sorta lost. Any ideas, suggestions?

P.S pictures in my IB if anyone needs to see them

Lisa Tregner
February 4th, 2010, 06:36 PM
Anytime your hair is at risk for breaking than it is just way too dry.

Arctic
February 4th, 2010, 06:54 PM
If your hair is wiry in addition to coarse, the wiryness can't be changed, at least I am not aware of how. I have lot of wiry and coarser than my normal hairs. They can become softer but the texture is always there.

Otherwise, at least you will notice in a longer time frame, if your hair is healthy. From your description it sounds like you have made lot of progress and improvements! :cheer:

christine1989
February 4th, 2010, 06:55 PM
I have a similar hair texture and I find that coconut oil helps a bit as a leave in but it is just not naturally silky like those with thinner, straighter hair.

bumblebums
February 4th, 2010, 06:58 PM
Hmm. Maybe get your hands on some fine hair... with permission, of course? The only way to know for sure what coarse vs. fine hair feels like is to touch it. I can tell you how my fine hair feels like when it is in poor condition vs. good condition, but feeling it for yourself is worth a thousand words.

Also, if your hair was damaged to any extent prior to your change of routine, it may never be fully rehabilitated. There is only so much you can do to rehabilitate dead protein. You can expect your new growth to come in in good condition, but it will take a while before you see enough of it.

peachrose
February 4th, 2010, 08:00 PM
I know what you mean. I have coarse hair and although I have some splits it is in great shape overall and has improved a lot. Our kind of hair never has the same "silky" texture as people with fine or medium strands. However when well conditioned my hair feels really soft and lovely but still coarse, does that make sense? There is certainly a difference between damaged dry hair and hair that is moisturized but still coarse. Things that are often too heavy on fine hair work great on my hair such as cocoa butter and olive oil. I would try a heavy oiling overnight or something, that tends to work well for me! :)

GoddesJourney
February 4th, 2010, 11:40 PM
If your hair is wiry in addition to coarse, the wiryness can't be changed, at least I am not aware of how. I have lot of wiry and coarser than my normal hairs. They can become softer but the texture is always there.

Otherwise, at least you will notice in a longer time frame, if your hair is healthy. From your description it sounds like you have made lot of progress and improvements! :cheer:

Me too. It seems like you have some frizzies from your pictures. It could be that this is old damage or because your hair is curly, or it could be that you have a bunch of stray coarsies like me. They will always be like that on my head even if they get softer sometimes. They are flat hairs that sort of spiral inconsistently, meaning they switch directions mid-hair and sometimes there's a stretch of straight. Who knew? Anyway, it's not so bad. I found sulphates make this way worse as does frizzy weather. They were doing alright for a few months on my head until I missed a wash and overshampood the next time. Back to frizzy... gaah.

Dreams_in_Pink
February 5th, 2010, 02:00 AM
I know what you're talking about. My hair's wiry and coarse all across my head (with a few fine strands mixed evenly) I'm trying to make it feel softer and moisturized, but i can only feel it when my hair's greasy :(

I guess that's our hair texture. It has advantages and disadvantages. Disadvantages are brittle ends, frizz and not looking as awesome as fine hair in natural (non-styled) shape. It also has some advantages :) Updos hold great, hair always has volume even if it's greasy, it's way easier to wet-set and style holds great, in my case i almost never get any splits (not sure if that's true for all coarsies) Besides, in my opnion, our hair looks "mightier" in extreme lengths compared to fine-haired, mainly because of the volume :D

halo_tightens
February 5th, 2010, 06:15 AM
I've actually been thinking about this lately...

No matter how moisturized my hair is, it will never have that silkiness and shine that finer hair can have. It also doesn't "drape" as nicely-- it's not limp enough, if that makes sense. It's stiffer.

I guess there are advantages, like Dreams_in_Pink mentioned. My hair has always been strong and thick. Still, I do often envy the LOOK of finer hair.

I guess we have to work with what we have, kind of like the whole straighties-vs-curlies thing!

Sheltie_Momma
February 5th, 2010, 08:07 AM
What a great question! I have really coarse hair too and have trouble knowing what's damage and what is just "my hair". For me, there was a specific point in time (April of last year) that I joined here and stopped all heat damage. The sad thing about that is that most of my hair is pre-LHC hair. The happy thing is that when I find a piece on the floor or counter I can actually see and feel a line of demarcation. When I run my finger down I can feel where the damage and dryness starts. My personal verdict - my healthy hair is still coarse, and still has the random spirals in it; however it is shinier, darker, smoother and tangles less than the damaged parts.

Nera
February 5th, 2010, 09:53 AM
There is a big difference. If your new growth is Coarse too, that couldn't possibily be damage. It's the structure of individual hairs that makes the difference, and that's more or less genetic. I have the same thing; I have healthy hair but it's still coars. The upper layer is shiny but underneath that it's coarse, has always been coarse and will never change.
But only because it isn't shiny, doesn't mean that it's not beautiful! It's kind of special, people regognize me because of my coarse hair. Also, long coarse hair is way more difficult to maintain, and it is it takes some effort to grow it long. That is why I constantly get comments like; wow, your hair is so long! It's amazing (and it isn't even that long, they just realize the difficulties of maintaining it. A lot of people with coarse hair also have a lot more hair, so that helps too).
You can change a lot about your hairtexture, but not much to nothing about your individual hairstructure. I hope this helps!(: