Velcro ends....

[shawneez]

Since my hair was damaged this past April I have been cutting my ends monthly and still get knots that readily tangle. Is there anything I can do to manage these velcro ends to make growing out my damaged hair less of a pain?
Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[christine1989]

Coconut oil saved my ends! Using it regularly seemingly "repaired" the crunchy feeling ends and prevents them from drying out again when used consistently. I have also had great success with castor and jojoba oil for sealing in moisture. Another thing that really seems to help is not washing my hair with hot water. When it is washed with cold water it usually keeps it from drying out.

[Barniie]

I second the coconut :) It works very well for both moisture AND protein!

[jera]

I use squalane and castor oil. I still get them sometimes because I suffer from wicked bedhead. :o

[Heidi_234]

Coconut oil on daily basis. Also - shea butter seems to sooth those damaged ends. If I apply it before going to sleep, I wake up with soft manageable ends. If your hair dislikes oils and butters, doing moisturizing treatments (like SMT) regularly could help as well.

[lizzyjo]

Hi, shawneez! Whenever I have velcro ends, it tells me that I need a trim. I was going to post that you probably need to trim off the ends, but after reading christine1989's post, I've changed my mind. It's probably worth it to try to save the ends by using oil treatments before resorting to cutting off some length.

[serious]

I second the shea butter suggestion!
Cocoa butter melted and mixed with conditioner might help as well.

[Melisande]

I'm an adherent of the Fox sheabutter recipe. Sheabutter, oil (jojoba or coconut) and conditioner. It saved my ends.

[Captain Nikki]

SMT with heat, twice a week. I use Nature's Gate condish, aloe & molasses. Then after washing out, apply almond oil lightly. This works for my incredibly dry ends so it will work for anybody! Nothing else i have tried has helped.

[bridgetsgirl]

Clarifying worked for me when I was tempted to break my no-trim vow due to velcro ends. I agree with the coconut oil...it works best for me when I apply it to damp hair.

[.:Alma:.]

The best solution on my fine hair is mango butter on the ends before braiding for the night.

Don't give up. You can take care of them instead of cutting! (and then maybe dust trimming on a regular basis)

[Anje]

I get horrible velcro ends if my hair gets too much protein.

I'd suggest you try clarifying and coconut oil first, but if that doesn't fix it, try cutting out anything that says keratin, collagen, hydrolyzed ___, protein, and/or amino acids. Add a few moisture treatments and see how things feel.

[Juanita]

Shea butter is my favorite for dry ends.

[virgo75]

3 Steps take care of my ends:
1)clarify
2)SMT
3)coconut oil on ends

If it didn't work the first time, then I repeat. After that I just SMT a couple of days in a row and it's fine.

Hope that helps. :flower:

[cmnt831]

I don't know what kind of damage you have, but when I joined here my hair was super dried out and my ends were like velcro. You might try clarifying to make sure it's not build up, follow with a deep moisture conditioner (I really like Giovanni Smooth as Silk, but any thick non-cone condish would work) and then oil your hair (while it's still wet) with shea butter or a mix of shea butter and some other oil (like olive oil, which I also love) really concentrating on the ends. I just leave all that on my hair because my hair eats it up. Sometimes after my hair finishes drying, I actually have to add more shea butter.

I basically oil my hair every day and just leave it. I only wash it about once or twice a week. Your mileage may vary, but that's what works to get rid of my velcro ends without trimming. And, no, the oil doesn't leave my hair greasy, either. ;)

I hope you can find something that works for your hair.:flower:

[Capybara]

I've found that putting my hair up after applying oils and butters really helps soften the ends - it helps the oil/treatment soak in much better.

Clarifying, then adding moisture may help. Hope this gets resolved soon! :flower:

[spidermom]

Since oil attracts lint and dust to my hair, I think it makes Velcro ends worse. I like CHI Silk Infusion coney serum - only a drop or 2.

[Othala]

Plaster the ends with a mixture of conditioner, oil and shea butter. Then wrap them up in cling film/saran wrap and bun your hair, tucking the ends away out of sight. That'll sort it.

[ButterCup02]

Coconut oil and SMT's did wonders for my ends, also sometimes before I wash I will just put a ton of conditioner on my hair (dry) and clip it up and let it sit and soak up the conditioner for an hour or so before I wash. That helps a lot too! And makes my hair so silky smooth :)

[RadiantNeedle]

What do folks here generally use for clarifying?

[SharkDisco]

If you have very dark hair, you could try using Lush henna on just the crunchy ends. Clearly this won't work if you have lighter hair, unless you like the two-toned look ; ) Lush henna doesn't deposit as much color as BAC hennas, and it's full of cocoa butter. I've been doing this to revive my velcro ends, and it's softening them up as well as making them look thicker.

[Annalouise]

If it was me I would cut off the damaged hair. Because if you leave the damage then the knots are going to create more damage.
I think its better to cut off the damage then your healthy hair will be left in peace. Plus, it just feels so much nicer to have healthy ends. Why have hair that is a "pain"? You know? Cut if off and make your hair nice and healthy and then grow from that.

[LouLaLa]

SMT and braid your hair before bed- I found that when the ends were protected from friction my hair got better.

SMT really is a miracle!

[virgo75]

What do folks here generally use for clarifying?


I use V05 Kiwi Lime Squeeze Clarifying Shampoo - $.79. :D

[shawneez]

Thanks for all the helpful advice. I'm going to try a number of suggestions. Growing my 3 ft. of damaged broken off hair is such a painfully slow process. My damage was caused by a careless mistake my now EX hair dresser made this past April. She put some beautiful silver streaks in my hair to compliment my natural silver streaks. I'm brunette but 70% silver. The careless mistake she made is she bought what she thought was a new toner to use and didn't tell me. She bought prevana permanate platnium concentrated dye which you are only suppose to use like 1-2 drops added to a tube of clear gel. This is prevana's idea of a toner. My hair dresser put the entire tube of concentrated platnium dye on my hair not realizing you were only suppose to use only 1 or 2 drops and put it in a tube of clear gel before applying to hair. Anyway this destroyed my hair, it destroyed my natural hair color because the permanate dye went into my brunette hair and made it really dark next to my silver streaks so my hair looked like skunk hair. I was told to use clarifying shampoo to try and get it out which I tried and all my hair broke off badly. So now I'm left with terribly broken off damaged hair and I'm very upset that my hair dresser could have made such a CARELESS mistake. I had to go to a color correctionist to have the silver streaks my hairdresser put in dyed back to brunette because they ended up soooooo stark white as a result of the dye my hairdresser mistakenly put on my head turning all my brunette hair really dark. So basically my hair is a mess and the only thing I can due is grow it out. I now have 2 inches of new growth and I try to wear my hair up a lot because if I look at it I just get upset. So far I've cut off about 8 inches since this happened and some days I feel I should cut off a lot more but I've never had short hair before and don't know if I could handle the stress of a drastic cut. I guess I just need to be patient. I think once the hair on my head grows out to ear length it will get easier because I won't see so many broken off fly aways which is a daily reminder that my hair was destroyed. The hardest part about having my hair destroyed is that it was the one thing I was able to accomplish even though I've been really sick due to a growth pressing on my brainstem that has completely disabled me. I actually went to my hair dresser to have her put in a few silver streaks to "cheer me up" because I was feeling so down about my heath problems and she ended up destroying my hair instead! This Sept. I'm going to see a neurosurgeon that hopefully will be able to help me get my life back.
Thanks again for all your help......this site has given me wonderful support.

[little_cherry]

The very first thing I do when I have Velcro ends is use a clarifying shampoo....buildup can actually make your hair feel like the eds are Velcro. My water is hard here and I CO wash also, so I have to clarify once every month-2 weeks. After clarifying, I deep condition and then oil. Works like a charm.

[virgo75]

Wow, I'm so sorry that happened to your hair. :(

It should be up to the hairdresser who damaged it to keep doing whatever needs to be done to get it back to health. If they're not willing to do this, I'd seriously consider going to court against them as it was a careless mistake that could have been avoided.

3ft of hair = approximately 6 years of growth. So they should be willing to treat your hair until it is healed or grown out. If not, they should be willing to give you financial compensation so you can go to someone who will treat your hair.

I wish you all the best in your health and your hair. :flower:

[Deborah]

You poor Dear! I'm so sorry that you have had to endure, not only a serious health issue, but really bad hair care as well.

If I were you I'd trim off at least up to bsl, then wear it up every day, with a little shea nut butter in the hair from the ears down. This would allow you to remove the worst of the damage, on the theory that the longer parts are the oldest and probably sustained the most damage. Wearing it up would protect the hair, and allow you to use the shea nut butter without looking greasy. This might give you hair that is at least in better condition as you slowly grow out and trim off the bad as it is replaced by the good hair.

It will take a good while, depending on how fast your hair grows, but you can still look downright pretty in the meantime, and have hair that feels and looks healthier.

Best of luck with whatever you decide to do. :)

[spidermom]

Under these circumstances, I would say NO clarifying; that would be too harsh. Lots of TLC and keep trimming; you'll get ahead of the worst of the damage eventually. Do you use cones? The CHI that I mentioned earlier has been a miracle to me in terms of reducing the amount of tangling that I get.

[missmagoo]

I would agree with spidermom that some 'cones may be in order. I have fine tangly hair and I have found that I really need to use 'cones in moderation to help reduce tangles and therefore reduce extra damage.
Coconut oil, for me, greatly increases tangling- I can only use it overnight before a wash or else my hair is a mess.

[cmnt831]

I'm so sorry that happened to you. I would now say, don't clarify, but have you considered doing conditioner only washes? And then oil or do a moisture treatment that you can leave in. Putting your hair up does sound like a good idea in general as long as you're careful not to stress the hair too much with pins or elastics. And if you don't want to make a drastic cut, that's perfectly all right; the new growth will take over before you know it. :flower:

[shawneez]

Yes..... I am now washing only with conditioner and this has helped. It also helps my corrective color stay better. I am also using alma gooseberry on my scalp/roots which I add to a wonderful hair growth conditioner I recently found. I have to be careful when choosing conditioners as my hair is really sensitive to certain ingredients now. I was using john masters honey and hibiscus hair reconstructor every month which I love but had to stop using it because the stearamidopropyldimonium chloride in it was making my hair worse. I think they use this ingredient in hair products to stop static electricity or something like that. Anyway......I found a wonderful hair loss conditioner at www.justnaturalskincare.com which has very gentle ingredients that seem to agree with my hair. Here are the ingredients;
Purified Spring Water, Aloe Vera, Saw Palmetto Extract,
Jojoba Seed Oil source of Omega 9, Olive Flower
Essence, Hibiscus Flower Extract, Horsetail Extract, Soy
Protein, Passion Fruit Oil, Nettle Root Extract, Vegetable
Emulsifier, Pumpkin Seed Oil, Capsicum, Fenugreek
Extract, Birch Extract, Essentials Oils of Cedarwood,
Rosemary, Lavender, Sweet Orange, Patchouli, Pine,
Lactoperoxidase Natural Preservative, Panthenol (Pro
Vitamin B5), Vitamin E.
My hair really likes this conditioner and hopefully it will encourage some growth as well. Since it is $21 for 16 oz. I dilute it slightly with nettle tea or aloe to make it last longer.
As far as "cones" go if my velcro ends don't improve with shea or any of the oils suggested I will try cones on my ends to see if it will help.
Thanks again for all the great suggestions.

[kitten1986]

I do a mix of coconut oil and castor oil slightly warmed then distribute this on the lower portion of hair I leave it for a day or two then do a conditioner soak to get it out
I find that it really helps with my end :D

[Tressie]

I really don't have anything to add to the good advice already posted, but I did want to send you a hug, and prayers for recovery from your health problem and success with your hair as well! God Bless! (o: