Hair fork users - Am I doing it wrong?

[AchtungCurly]

I got my first wooden hair forks! Hooray! One is two pronged, and one three.

I have followed all kinds of instructions I find online, and it doesn't matter which fork I use, I hear the SNAP of broken hair. It's probably only one or two, but I've never done this with my hairsticks, or my "starter" knitting needle fork.

I've checked, double checked, and asked my brother to check, and there are no bumps or unsanded parts on these forks. My brother even took them to work and resanded and refinished them, mostly for my piece of mind, because he called me insane and said they were perfect before he touched them.

So why am I breaking hair? Is that normal? Like I said it's probably only one or two individual hairs, but I think we all know what a disconcerting noise/feeling that is.

Any and all advice (including agreeing with my brother on my mental health ;) ) is welcome.

Thanks

[terpentyna]

This will happen to me sometimes, and my hair is straight... I usually sick them in slowly, and kind of jiggle them around when I feel a hair or two has gotten itself in a sticky situation.

[jasper]

Is your hair twisted tightly? If the fork is smooth, I imagine it must be the tension. Forks can increase the tension on strands as you insert them because of the spacing and the bit of springiness of the tines. Not that you're going to feel like doing a lot of experimenting if you hear that snap a few more times, but you could try knot style buns that don't need twisting. And the lazy wrap doesn't need twisting and usually holds with a fork for me.

[Lippytoes]

Yeah, to me it sounds like you might be making your buns a tad too tight for forks. It took a while for me to find the tension that works for me, with forks. It's a lot looser than when I use hairsticks.

[AchtungCurly]

Thanks everyone! I'm now positive it's the tension. I do make fairly tight buns for sticks, so I just assumed that forks were the same. I'll be trying looser buns and see if that works.

I fall into that trap of "if it's not tight, it'll fall out" all the time as it is. Makes perfect sense I'd apply that with a fork. :)

[AchtungCurly]

Just used a loose lazy bun with a fork, and naturally, you were all right!!

Thanks again!

[Lippytoes]

Yay, glad it worked out!