How to stop breakage?

[Joylene]

Hi Ladies

I am so at my wits end with my hair. It is damaged and breaking off. It's really depressing me, as I feel as though I have tried everything and nothing is helping.

I have hair just past my shoulders. It is fine to medium and thick and wavy. It is light brown, and I used to get blonde highlights throughout the top. For the past 2 years, I have only been getting the roots highlighted. I want to dye my entire head dark brown and be done with bleach, but every time a stylist puts low-lights in to test out a color, the color comes out greenish. Even though I warn them that it happens, they guarantee me that they will do it "right". I have asked them to put in a warm toned filler to counteract it, but they said that fillers are not used anymore.

I used to wash,blow dry and flat iron every other day. But i used a wide tooth comb when wet, and never touched my hair with a brush.

For the past 3 months, I have been stretching my washes to every 2 days. I have been brushing my hair with a BBB in order to make if fluffy and not as stringy. I have also been air drying. It seems like since I have been doing this, I have even more breakage throughout the top. Now I have all of these inch long hair along my part line. I think it is all from the brush, even though I was extremely careful when brushing it.

I have tried using expensive products. I have tried oils. I have tried protein treatments (aphogee, nexxus emergencee, kpak). I have clarified, moisturized, tried vinegar rinses... This has been over the course of two years, not all at once.

I don't know what to do next... I work in a professional setting and i cannot go to work with my hair a mess. I have to at least do something to it.

Any ideas?

[furnival]

Are you sure that the inch-long hairs along your part are definitely breakage? They could be new growth coming in. :)

[Joylene]

They are definitely breakage, because they appeared within a few days

[spidermom]

I'm sure that at least some of the short hairs you are seeing are new hairs. They can sproing up rather suddenly. We all have them, although they seem to show up more on us wavy or curly types. I feel perfectly comfortable with using product to smooth mine down when I want to look more polished/professional. Pomade, wax, and/or styling putty works pretty well for this. A little goes a long way, so if you try it, start with a tiny amount. Teeny-tiny.

Do you know any up-dos such as buns, french twist, etc? If not, learn at least a couple. Most of us wear our hair up quite often because it protects the ends.

I've watched a stylist do highlights, and it looks pretty much impossible to avoid overlapping a bit when doing the roots, so that's probably part of why you're seeing breakage. I'd ditch the brush if I were you and stick with the wide-tooth comb. You can hang your head down and blow-dry the roots a bit on cool to help your hair not look so flat and stringy.

[swearnsue]

In addition to what spidermom suggests, instead of going for root touch ups maybe you could try henna treatments. Henna would strengthen your hair. You can mix henna with indigo for a brunette color too. Mehandi.com and hennasooq.com have some excellent information about that. Good luck and you've come to the right place for some good advice!

[Anje]

I'm sure some of what you're seeing is new growth that just hasn't been smoothed down by blow drying.

I suspect you'll see vast improvements if you can stop flat-ironing entirely. Pull your hair back into a low pony or something like that instead.