Forgive me, LHC, I know it's been a while...

[amaiaisabella]

since I've posted. On the plus side, my hair is finally the color I want it to be. Yay! :cheese:I've gotten it to a deep chocolate brown/black, and it looks great. Now, I'm not a fool, and I know the damage has finally taken its toll on my hair. I did have to trim 2 inches, and I'm considering trimming again, but holding off for a few reasons:
1) It doesn't LOOK damaged. The ends lie a bit stiffly straight, but that's when my hair dries straight. If I don't comb at all, it gets really wavy (moreso than before, I think that's a side effect of the past bleach), and the ends look fine. However, I can barely get a comb through it. Lots of broken ends as a result, but no splits.
2) Ever since I cut, it's much thicker. MUCH thicker. Like I was a i/ii before, now I'm easily a ii and moving towards a iii. No clue. My hair was never this thick when it was shorter, and it's only at APL now.
3) (Most obvious) I don't want to lose any length.

The major problem is, it's dry. Very dry. Even when wet I can feel it's dry. I've tried CO'ing with V05 after clarifying, I've slathered on conditioners, changed shampoos, gone from cones to sulfate free, the works. I honestly don't know what to do. With the dryness comes tangles. Bad tangles. Tangles I have to work out of my hair for almost half an hour, and coming from a finey who used to be a i, this is almost foreign to me. I usually wear my hair in a cinammon bun or high ponytail, so it's not that I'm keeping it down, but even when I comb it, put it up (not counting the ponytail as "up"), and take it down, boom! Tangles.

I don't think cutting it would do me any service either, but I really don't want to be miserable with my hair just when I've finally gotten to a color I can stay with. Help?

[Kris Dove]

Have you tried oiling? As you have thick dark hair you could probably leave oil in before braiding or bunning it.

Braiding is the best style for avoiding tangles imho- if you want to wear it up you could do a braided bun, or milkmaid braids. High ponies won't really prevent tangles as most of your hair is still loose even though it's held out your face iyswim.

[amaiaisabella]

Oiling was making my hair tangle worse for a while, but it's been years since I tried coconut. I've used olive oil, Nightshade's oil, and the Fox's shea butter cream mix. No go :(

[smileycat]

Check out Kirin's diagnostic tips in the article section. If your hair is already somewhat fragile, it will help you figure out what your hair needs (moisture, protein) before rushing into something that may make it worse. And if the ends are damaged, you may still want to consider a micro-trim.

[amaiaisabella]

I forgot to mention I did do the Aphogee protein treatment and it seemed to make things worse :( It's strong enough, it doesn't crumble at the ends, just breaks after tangling and is so dry. I'm thinking moisture, but I've tried SMT's and honey and that too seemed to be bad.

[Luckysock]

I've tried CO'ing with V05 after clarifying

Okay so you have tried clarifying - cause that would be my first guess... nothing fixed my nasty tangly ends like using a clarifying shampoo (Neutrogena)

When you oiled, was your hair wet or dry? if you only tried one approach, you might want to try the other... I just found that heavy oiling on wet hair 1-2 hours before the shower really worked for me...

I'm wondering about an ACV rinse - maybe get the cuticle to lye flatter, reduce the velcro ends....

try a few more things before you cut - but yeah if at the end of the day its just bleach damage, maybe those last 2 inches have to go :( sucks.

[FrannyG]

Oh, I know exactly how that is to have "invisible" damage. I've been dealing with it, while gradually cutting it out for almost 2 1/2 years now.

The first thing I would do is clarify and then do a deep moisture treatment, like an SMT (although I usually just use conditioner and honey--no aloe).

I might also try a deep oiling before washing my hair. Conditioner seems to work better than shampoo to remove the excess oil.

Also, I was cone-free before the damage, but after the damage made my hair rough, I did use cones. I firmly believe that using cones was the only thing that allowed me to keep my hair and not have to chop it all off.

The worst of the damage is gone now and I am cone-free again.

Oh, and also, I suggest ACV rinses as a final step.

[amaiaisabella]

Honey really seems to make things worse, almost. I've added it to my conditioner, and my hair felt coated and brittle. Same with regular SMT's. I've also oiled wet and dry, but I was debating going back to coconut since it's purported to absorb into the hair shaft. It didn't do much good for me 2 years ago, but I had different hair then.

I think I may have to find different cones. Garnier was terrible for me, but I vaguely remember the Dove damage line working a while back- almost too well, since my hair got so slippery. Maybe that would be better? Balance things out? :confused:

[SimplyViki]

:waving:

Slippery's good. I say go back to the Dove damage line, if it worked for you in the past. I think your hair tends to be pretty finicky about what it likes, so anything you find that agrees with it should be considered holy grail. :p

[spidermom]

Bleaching and dyeing your hair makes the cuticle swell, so that's probably why it feels so much thicker. I'd advise doing monthly protein and deep moisture treatments (I like Joico KPak), and use something coney to make it easier to manage.

And HI! Good to see you.

[amaiaisabella]

Hi to Viki and spidermom :)

I got the Dove coney shampoo yesterday, and my tangles have much decreased, but are still there. Unfortunately, my hair is now stiffly straight instead of my normal waves, so I've gone from one problem to another. Oy :(

[paper]

Hi amaiaisabella! :waving: I was maintaining Shoulder length, but decided to let my hair grow again. So, I've been hanging around here more often lately. We joined here the same time, it's good to see you! :D

[amaiaisabella]

I remember! I know you had gotten much longer than me, did you cut at some point? I think I saw one of your blog posts recently, your hair is looking quite thick and healthy! :flower:

[paper]

Yes, I cut back to chin length last December to get rid of dye. Thanks for the compliment! :flower:

[amaiaisabella]

You're welcome! I'm hopeful I won't have to cut and the cones can get me through the next couple inches until I can trim without losing too much. I should probably take a length photo one of these days, as well. :hmm:

[halo_tightens]

Hi!! :waving:

Nice to see you on the boards, my dear!

I don't know what will make your hair feel better, I'm afraid. I think I would probably play with lots of different oils and coney stuff if I were in your position... I don't know if that would be a good thing or a bad one for your hair, though. Sorry it's giving you trouble, just when you've gotten the color you've been after!! :grouphug:

[DarkChocolate]

I have also found that honey makes things worse for me too. It leads to crunchy ends. The only thing that works for me in correct dry ends is wetting my hair and putting virgin coconut oil on it.

[amaiaisabella]

Okay, so I went out and purchased coconut oil again for the first time in oh... 2 years? Did a deep oiling today and used a bit more than I normally would as a leave-in. I figure once I get it back up to par I can cut down on the amount used. Took a photo and was surprised at the amount of red still in my hair, but I guess that's the nature of henna. It doesn't usually show up in the sun, though:

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z20/amaiai64/0_IMAGE_258350x327.jpg

It's very soft and the ends don't feel crackly at all. It's still a bit wet though, but overall, very promising! Forgive the awkward angle of the photo, it's been a while :flowers:

[amaiaisabella]

Just another update that my hair is super soft, but still quite flyaway, so I've been keeping it up. The coconut oil seems to be a good thing, though :)

[SimplyViki]

Soft is good! Looks like the coconut oil brought out your waves.

[amaiaisabella]

It did, but I slept on my hair and they're gone today. My hair has a contrary nature, for sure!