Does anybody else just have crummy hair?

[Knittycat]

I hate my hair. I hate it soooo bloody much.
It is fine, thin, and splitty. Cutting off the ‘damage’ would involve cutting my hair back to a pixie and never ever growing it out, all while sulking constantly and hating on sight anybody with long thick healthy hair.
It isn’t chemically processed, I wash as infrequently as I can get away with, I’ve tried trims, s&d, I oil it, I don’t wear it in a pony tail, I avoid rubber bands and hair ties, I wear it in a bun pretty much all the time, I braid it at night and protect the ends with oil and a scrap of silk, I take vitamins, I’ve tried various methods of washing, I’ve tried expensive shampoos and conditioners, protein masks, moisture masks, expensive brushes, careful detangling, I’ve done EVERYTHING I can to keep my hair nice. (not all at once of course, but over a period of years)
And it repays me by being a splitty nightmare no matter what. My hair rarely looks good. I *never* have a smooth shiney 'do'. All it takes is an errant breeze, heck even just having the a/c on in the car, and it looks like I just woke up.
It feels nice, but it always looks like dreck.
I think I may just have to live with the fact that I have crummy hair.

[turtlelover]

I've known wavies that had a lot of splits and breakage from protein overload. Have you ever tried CO w/ a conditioner w/ no cones or protein over a long period of time?

[Honestwitness]

I also have 2a/F/ii hair and I definitely have some bothersome hair weaknesses, similar to yours. Although, split ends is not one of them, for some odd reason. I notice in your profile you say you use a BBB every day. I can't use a BBB or my hair gets too limp. I use regular s/c with SLS and cones. I have less trouble with my hair with the old fashioned s/c every other day. I also clarify with diluted lemon juice about every two weeks.

I have recently started using a light application of baby oil on wet hair after s/c and before 'plopping' in a towel. I like baby oil better than any other oil I have tried so far. I rarely comb my hair when it's wet. I scrunch it and let it air dry. Once it's mostly dry, I use only a wide-tooth plastic comb on it. I use a satin pillowcase and I also sleep in a sleep cap.

Nevertheless, I still have a section in the middle of the back where I have quite a few hairs that have a terminal length of about APL. This causes me lots of worry and consternation every single day. I am obsessed with this dilemma and struggle constantly with trying to camoflage this glaring deficiency. I'm so tempted to cut the whole length back to APL, so I can have a decent hemline. But I will lose so much length, if I do that.

So, although my pain is not quite like yours, I do feel your pain.

[beachgirlla]

I've known wavies that had a lot of splits and breakage from protein overload. Have you ever tried CO w/ a conditioner w/ no cones or protein over a long period of time?

turtlelover, can you elaborate more CO w/a conditioner w/ no cones or protein, I'm lost a little with these terms, lol :D

[Knittycat]

I've never done CO. I'm a bit leery about not using a shampoo. I did, however, use a cone&protein free conditioner for a year or so a few years back. I didn't see much of a difference though, and it wasn't cheap. I don't recall the brand though :/ I went back to tresseme and pantine.

[beachgirlla]

I hate my hair. I hate it soooo bloody much.
It is fine, thin, and splitty. Cutting off the ‘damage’ would involve cutting my hair back to a pixie and never ever growing it out, all while sulking constantly and hating on sight anybody with long thick healthy hair.
It isn’t chemically processed, I wash as infrequently as I can get away with, I’ve tried trims, s&d, I oil it, I don’t wear it in a pony tail, I avoid rubber bands and hair ties, I wear it in a bun pretty much all the time, I braid it at night and protect the ends with oil and a scrap of silk, I take vitamins, I’ve tried various methods of washing, I’ve tried expensive shampoos and conditioners, protein masks, moisture masks, expensive brushes, careful detangling, I’ve done EVERYTHING I can to keep my hair nice. (not all at once of course, but over a period of years)
And it repays me by being a splitty nightmare no matter what. My hair rarely looks good. I *never* have a smooth shiney 'do'. All it takes is an errant breeze, heck even just having the a/c on in the car, and it looks like I just woke up.
It feels nice, but it always looks like dreck.
I think I may just have to live with the fact that I have crummy hair.

You are not alone, I hate mine to no end, LOL

[Knittycat]

It's nice to know I'm entirely alone though.
I've never used baby oil. I currently use coconut oil on the ends, with an occasional heavy oiling. I've used olive, sweet almond, plain mineral oil in the past. So far, I like coconut best. It makes my hair feel the nicest. It still looks like cat yack though.

[shikara]

I feel like I have crummy hair for leaving down. It doesn't swoosh back and forth, a different texture underneath makes it hang funny, it took a full year to find a routine and products that work well, as well as a dull year to sort of figure out that Velcro thing. Although I wore a single braid for years, all of a sudde pn I cant anymore because it pulls no matter what I do! So yeah, youd actually be surprised how many feel this way. But I'm lovin' coming up with new upswept styles and wearing the tried and true! I can hardly wait to go to Claires and pick up a couple new bands I saw.

I went into your profile to get a look see but I can't really tell much because I didn't see a pic with it down!

[Mairéad]

CO tends to be pretty well suited to wavier hair types, though straight ones can certainly benefit. I've never really had splity hair but CO did help out the hair problems I did have like the greasy roots dry ends combo and my horrendous lack of volume.

Have you tried rinses? ACV is a good standby but catnip rinses are specifically for splity hair. What about cassia? No color but the glorious effects of henna.

[amanda_the_tall]

i'm in the same boat, except i don't have any wave to my hair really. its just pin straight, so it sticks to my head and tangles/looks like crap. what's really helped me is using pantene beautiful lengths deep conditioner (that isn't the exact name, but its as close as i can remember) and just using a comb, and air drying. i've found my fine hair hates protein (yours might be different). pulling it up in a bun sometimes makes my ends dryer if its still damp/wet. idk if any of that helped, but good luck!

[Knittycat]

Well, I wear my hair up almost constantly, and the light in my house is crap right now 'cuz it's night time.
This was the only photo I could find of me with my hair down. It's from 2009 so my hair is much shorter in it.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/15532_1292660161286_1373756576_30828211_8256370_n. jpg

[Knittycat]

Hmmmm. Catnip. I'll have to give that a try. That's something I haven't done yet.

[Mairéad]

Hmmmm. Catnip. I'll have to give that a try. That's something I haven't done yet.

Have you also thought about cassia? It's good for those who want the strengthening properties of henna but no color.

[Knittycat]

I use henna already. It makes me not hate my hair color LOL! (I shoulda been born a red-head)

[Mairéad]

I use henna already. It makes me not hate my hair color LOL! (I shoulda been born a red-head)

Oh well, haha. Nevermind then. I think we should all be born redheads. :D
On that note, look up catnip rinses on the forum. I haven't tried them personally since splitting isn't my hair's personal battle, but it's the first thing that came to mind.

[Hollyfire3]

I hate my hair. I hate it soooo bloody much.
It is fine, thin, and splitty. Cutting off the ‘damage’ would involve cutting my hair back to a pixie and never ever growing it out, all while sulking constantly and hating on sight anybody with long thick healthy hair.
It isn’t chemically processed, I wash as infrequently as I can get away with, I’ve tried trims, s&d, I oil it, I don’t wear it in a pony tail, I avoid rubber bands and hair ties, I wear it in a bun pretty much all the time, I braid it at night and protect the ends with oil and a scrap of silk, I take vitamins, I’ve tried various methods of washing, I’ve tried expensive shampoos and conditioners, protein masks, moisture masks, expensive brushes, careful detangling, I’ve done EVERYTHING I can to keep my hair nice. (not all at once of course, but over a period of years)
And it repays me by being a splitty nightmare no matter what. My hair rarely looks good. I *never* have a smooth shiney 'do'. All it takes is an errant breeze, heck even just having the a/c on in the car, and it looks like I just woke up.
It feels nice, but it always looks like dreck.
I think I may just have to live with the fact that I have crummy hair.

Yes! I understand, i feel like my hair looks and feels thin, its fried frizzy and damaged and only thick because of this (or so i think but half my hair is not damaged and is thicker than the part that is so...this may be subject to change, but it will always be too thin for me!), i hate the natural color, the lack of curls that seems to have developed over the last few months along with the breakage i was having from months of too much protein, even after getting the protein out and moisture back to normal, my curls are MIA, i hate that it won't grow fast enough i hate it doesn't look healthy, i hate that nothing works to help i hate every single strand on my head!

[Knittycat]

(((((((hugs))))))))

[Hollyfire3]

(((((((hugs))))))))


Thank you! We all need them, some more then others...it is just so depresing to see all these beautiful heads of hair on here and know i will proably never get that, not to mention my strange obsession with Piper's (see my avatar?) hair from Charmed...I. WANT. IT. LOL, no matter HOW unreasonable it may seem for me now, i WILL NOT GIVE UP!!! Yeah, nothing like some good capitalization to motivate me...and about the cassia thing, try it, i heard it was good for fine hair, my hair just kinda...umm poofed from it, but it would be good for you proabably. Good luck and hugs right back to you!:D