Trying to grow out dyed & heat processed hair, Need Help!

[PinkOrchidLilo]

I recently posted in the "New Here" section of the forum, and I need help :/

"Hello there everyone, I've been recently looking at many posts around the forums and have decided to make an account. I've been really stressed out lately with the condition of my hair every night since I've cried and have been worried every time a strand of my hair breaks off .. in January I went to get my hair highlighted for New Years, you know New Year new hair? and it was a complete disaster. My hair had been dyed black before this but I still insisted in getting highlights anyways. To my dismay, my hair was broken all over even parts of my bangs were fried. I was disappointed and I hated my hair so much I just wanted to go back to black. About a month after I went and dyed my hair black again, I was relieved to not have the highlights but my hair was still in not a very good condition. I also have used heat styling tools such as blow dryers and flatirons which I know weren't good. My hair was always long I used to have waist length hair in middle school and soon as I hit 11th grade came the dying, heat styling & cutting to new styles. I just want my natural healthy hair back, I clearly know nothing about hair products and exactly what to use so I was hoping to come here to find others who have experience what I have. I'm planning to grow out my hair and not dye it nor use heat styling but also I have prom and graduation in June and I have no idea how I will be able to do my hair with my dry ends and all of this broken hair. PLEASE I NEED HELP :'("


I just recently started to try and grow out my dyed hair, I've messed up my hair from dye and heat and my hair is driving me crazy. Every night I've cried because of the condition of it right now. My ends are brittle, dry, and keep breaking off in long lengths and short ones. I'd give anything to get my long beautiful hair back that I had before. Its stressful enough that I have prom and graduation to look forward to in June and I completely have no idea how I will be able to do my hair. I'm in severe need of help because of this I don't even want to leave my house & its slowly breaking me down and taking a toll on me. I hope to hear from someone who's experienced this as I have.. It's very heart breaking for me and as a teenage girl of 17 I can't bare to cope with what is happening. Please I'm begging for someone to help me here because honestly I don't have one clue how to go about this ..

[HylianGirl]

Don't worry dear, I know what it's like, I had waist length hair, and then I bleached it planum blonde, wich was a disaster, then I did a straight perm on it and proceeded to blow dry and flatiron it everyday... the results: I lost 1/3 of my hair =( but now I'm recovering it =D Here's what I did:

Stop chemicals right away! They'll only damage your hair even more, and stop heat styling! I know it's difficult, but I see you have BSL hair, so you try to use some styles to hide it's bad state, I recomend french/duch braids and buns. Protect your hair from wind and mecanical damage.

Be careful when washing it, use gentle shampoos, and preferably try CWC (condition-wash-condition) in it you put conditioner in your length, and while it is on your hair, you put the shampoo on your roots, then rinse, and put the conditioner again, and leave it on your head for some minutes before rinsing.

I also started to deep condition my hair 2-3 times a week, with heavy conditioner for damaged hair.

Have you heard of coconut oil? You can get it at natural food stores for like 6 dollars, use a little of it on your hair as a leave in, and for deep oil treatments, it's the most moisturising thing I've used.

Good luck!

ETA: considering the amount of prossecing your hair has gone through, you might consider some protein treatment. Also, have you heard of seek and destroy? It's a great way to get rid of split ends without sacrficing length here's a tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M87-nchXYsI (remember to use hair scisors that are sharp! Blunt ones will cause more splits!)

If in the future you still want to change your hair colour, you could try henna, it is great for the hair, and you can get info on it on the herbal hair care section, you can get your hair black using henna + indigo.

And by gentle shampoos, I mean sulphate-free ones (they make a huge diference!), sulphates are too harsh for the hair, specially if you wash it often!


ETA2: How do you detangle your hair? Consider purchasing a wide toothed comb without seems, and star detangling from the bottom to the top, not the other way arround, and be gentle! People here say to treat your hair as an antique lace, keep it in mind ^-^ also when drying your hair with a towel don't 'cause friciton! gently squeeze the water out. And if your hair is straight don't comb it while wet, only when dry, or it is is curly/wavy, don't comb/brush when dry, or you'll ruin your waves/curls! Try to put your hair up on your sleep, to avoid tangles and friction, besides, it'll make your hair tangle-free be the morning ^-^ and also avoid styling your hair with spray, mousse and stuff, the only build up on your hair and very important, don't back comb it! It will 'cause damage.


Also take a look at these articles, they really help! http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=191

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=8

[PinkOrchidLilo]

Thank you so much, I'll take your advice and hopefully my hair nightmare will be over :( my hair is also in a v-shape so I don't really know how I'd be able to get rid of as much damage as possible during my trims. Its very devastating for me to have to go through all of this especially at my age and during senior year. Most of my roots are soft and going a little more to the middle of my hair the ends start to feel tangled and dry. The ends are the hairs that look the most damaged also. Its really horrible for me to even look at sometimes.

How do you do a Protein Treatment? My hair is naturally fine and is a bit wavy, but from the heat styling my waves have been destroyed, but hopefully I could regain back my wavy texture :(

Believe me when I say this, I WILL NEVER DYE MY HAIR AGAIN even if I start to gray my hair will not be tortured with anymore hair dye.

& Sulfate-Free shampoos; any suggestions you have on some good ones? & When I need to clarify my hair what should I use? I'm such a newb when it comes to these things about hair because I never had to worry about it

I've thrown out any styling spray, gel, or mousse I had in my house everything is gone & I am currently using a satin pillow case to sleep on.

[heidi w.]

You're in good company. You are 17 so you're young. I am unclear of your commitment level to have gorgeous long hair, but the first thing you need to decide is to stop dying it. This will be a bit of a struggle, I imagine, as you have a mental image and idea of what you want it to look like which as recently as January (of this year, I presume) you colored.

First, hair of any length takes time to grow. Long hair is an exercise in patience, and a lot of it. My hair took approximately ten years for the bulk of it to grow, and add on another 5 or so for the rest of it to grow. I'm now at about year 20 of growth.

Second one just has to resolve to do what it takes to have beautiful hair. For you, that means stop dying your hair. You're only 17 so there's no gray or anything like that to worry about, unless you're prematurely gray, which I somewhat doubt.

The most immediate idea are two things I have for you.

1. Get to a licensed professional hair colorist and have them perform a strand test to check protein. I wonder that you don't have an issue with too much or too little protein. A common indicator of protein problems is hair suddenly, and a LOT of it breaking off.

2. You need a strong conditioning session. I mean a deep conditioning treatment where you leave it on a while, such as 30-60 minutes. That licensed colorist can likely help you, but you can also do it at home. Many like SMT (Snowymoon's Moisture Treatment); some like Fox' Shea Butter treatment (both home recipes you make). I simply use Biolage's Conditioning Balm. I have used Mayonnaise in the long distant past. I use oils on occasion. Ask about how people do deep conditiong treatments since you're new and can't yet see a lot of the other boards, yet. People will help you.

3. Since you've colored your hair, for the meanwhile, use products for color-treated hair. Maybe that professional colorist can recommend something.

4. Then the final thing is to fairly immediately transition to washing hair properly (not pile it on the head and scrub about as this creates a lot of tangles; and detangle the hair prior to a hair wash.); use a comb to detangle the hair (not a brush); and a few other basics.

I really wonder that you have a problem with protein going on. Allow a licensed person to conduct a strand test to find out. And don't color your hair.

heidi w.

[heidi w.]

Thank you so much, I'll take your advice and hopefully my hair nightmare will be over :( my hair is also in a v-shape so I don't really know how I'd be able to get rid of as much damage as possible during my trims. Its very devastating for me to have to go through all of this especially at my age and during senior year. Most of my roots are soft and going a little more to the middle of my hair the ends start to feel tangled and dry. The ends are the hairs that look the most damaged also. Its really horrible for me to even look at sometimes.

How do you do a Protein Treatment? My hair is naturally fine and is a bit wavy, but from the heat styling my waves have been destroyed, but hopefully I could regain back my wavy texture :(

Believe me when I say this, I WILL NEVER DYE MY HAIR AGAIN even if I start to gray my hair will not be tortured with anymore hair dye.

& Sulfate-Free shampoos; any suggestions you have on some good ones? & When I need to clarify my hair what should I use? I'm such a newb when it comes to these things about hair because I never had to worry about it

I've thrown out any styling spray, gel, or mousse I had in my house everything is gone & I am currently using a satin pillow case to sleep on.

Don't assume it's a protein issue: find out decisively by working with a licensed colorist (not all hairstylists are good with color; yeah, you'll have to shell out some bucks, but you'll more than likely be glad you did). Because if you're wrong regarding the protein issue, or wrong in the wrong direction (as in needing more or needing less), then things can go very badly for you. You think you have it bad now. It could be far worse.

At some point, one way or another, you'll need to cut out all that damage. New growth is new hair. Ya jes gotta give it time. That's it.

heidi w.

[whitedove]

First off - breathe, you have 3 months to get your hair better before graduation.

There is no instant magic to get your hair back to normal. But you do have plenty of time to get there.

Coconut oil/baby oil is great start, also using hair sissors to SnD will improve your ends. I think these and doing CWC will give you your first real results. I joined the forum reasently too. I have not done much else to my hair but this and my hairs health improved greatly after 2 weeks.

[Madora]

A great part of dealing with long hair is how to detangle it gently. This article explains how to do it:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=230

[spidermom]

I suggest you get a new hair cut that will get rid of the worst of the damage. Go as short as you can stand it, then maintain that length will small trims until the damage is gone. You can find attractive things to do with your hair at every length. Even super-short hair can be super-cute.

[LaceyNg]

here is an EXCELLENT article detailing how tofind out if you need moisture or protein:
http://voices.yahoo.com/the-fine-art-protein-moisture-balancing-for-393904.html

also, this one is verymuch worth a read!:
http://pittsburghcurly.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/protein-vs-moisture/

my hair for some reason doesnt like protein. even using coconut oil, which generally prevents protein loss in hair, gives me crunchy ends. i know a lot of longhairs love it though.

what i find that my hair likes best is jojoba oil. from what i'm read about it, it's a liquid wax that of all the "oils" most closely resembles the hair's natural sebum.

also, you might think about going 'cone free. some people like cones, some dont. but the general athought is that cones sit on top of the hair and seal them. so to my understanding, moisture cant get in as well if you use cones. if you're interesting in trying a new washing method, i think your hair woudl love CO (conditoin-only) washing. basically, you use a cheap, cone free conditioner (like suave or V05), massage it on your roots, let it sit for a bit, and then rinse. some follow up with a deeper conditioner for the ends, and i think you should just since your hair needs extra love right now. for a deep conditioner thats protein and cone free, i love garnier's 3 minute undo. it comes in a tube, and it pretty cheap. i leave it on for a while though, like when i'm taking a bath or something.

so basically

-- jojoba oil
-- switch to CO washing with suave or V05
-- deep condition with garnier 3 minute undo

and you'e not going to like this part...

-- cut off a couple inches. that way you can stop the splits from moving pu the hair shaft and breaking off even SHORTER!

and please do keep us updated with what yo uend up trying, and how it works for you!

oh, and we love pics ;)