Thick dense coarse hair anyone?

[ncgal25]

Hi all -

My shoulder length hair is so dense and thick. I want to get it thinned out & layered & stop coloring it. The shape of my hair is actually triangular.

Its been 8 weeks since my last color & I have the skunk tail look on my top roots (brunette with gray regrowth - real pretty eh?) I say I want to stop coloring but deep down Im scared to go gray & I really dont know how to transition?. My hairdresser is all about coloring. I mentioned transitioning & she talked me out of it

So anyway back to the dense coarse thick ends? What do you all recommend?

Im just feeling so blah about the way I look. Ive been doing hot oil treatments & deep conditioning, but its not really helping with the texture.

[RitaCeleste]

Don't thin it! Once its thinned, it will be shot threw with different lengths of hair and appear even bigger. When those thinned hairs grow out, they add volume. I had mine thinned for years before I even knew my hair wasn't that thick anymore! Have long layers put in to get rid of the triangle look if you want to shape it up. When I stopped coloring my hair, my roots were like wire. Today I played in AVC and baking soda to soften my hair. Its softens it, just dries it out. Bring on the oil and deep treatments... Oh the fun! You could try Henna for covering greys, there is a whole big section devoted to kinder coloring.

[Tisiloves]

For a quick fix with the colouring I would suggest temporary colours to ease the transition, or just color oopsing all the old dye out.

If you want to stick with permanents I recommend either gradiated colour (ie dye your roots gradually lighter and lighter like a reverse ombre), or my friend's method for going from black to blonde gracefully, the reverse highlight. This takes a while (you probably need to do it over 6-12" of hair so it can take a while, but may be preferable to the big chop). Basically when you do your roots you leave out "highlights", as you do successive root jobs you leave out bigger and bigger highlights (best combined with using lighter and lighter dye), until you're all virgin at the roots.

I'm afraid I can't really help with the ends, other than to suggest a good clarify and an SMT. (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=128)

[brave]

Mine is coarse, and fairly thick. I used to get it thinned but I don't think it helped and the logic behind it is kind of awkward -- you can't go through and find those hairs you thinned before, so if you keep thinning it will just keep getting thinner and thinner and things will stick out weird. What helped me most in terms of "oh dear god so much hair" was getting thick blunt bangs cut. Bam, tons of hair taken care of. No heavy sheet of face-covering hair that has to go somewhere else.

Layers will help add a little swing and bounce. I have them right now, grown out from when I was shoulder length. Otherwise yeah, the hair kind of overwhelms.

Maybe for moisture, try CO-ing? It works well for my hair but I am very very dry.

[Pixie0763]

Conditioner only washing has made a big difference in my thick, course hair.

I also use Argan oil on my hair. Put a couple drops in my hands, rub them together, and then rub it through just washed & toweled damp hair.

Semi-permanent hair dyes are also much less damaging than permanent.

[duchesswannabe]

I'm just letting it do its own thing after years of thinning, layering, shaving the nape of neck, coloring and foam rollers. Got sick of all the work. Put back in a metal-free rubber band as carefully as I can (well, I still commit the cardinal sin of tightening it while it is in the rubber band or it will just pull on my scalp if sitting too low) or a barrette or two or three. Got sick of being self-conscious about it. World, here I come. :D

[Catia]

Coarse hair needs moisture. Constantly. I am all for coloring (I do it) but it does contribute to the dryness that is our enemy. I'm not trying to talk you out of it, but if you need more ammunition in your arsenal, that thought might help ;)

Also, taken from the experience of those I know that thin their hair, it made the tumbleweed effect SO much worse. We want our hair to lay down sleek so the weight of length helps.

I do think LONG layers are wonderful (short ones are too hard to control) to offset the triangle effect if you desire that. Just be aware that to make layers look as intended see point #1 - moisture, moisture, moisture.

Coarse hair can withstand just about anything in theory, but my mother and I (solid "C"s) both experienced more supple moist hair when we gave up cones. The longer we stayed off them, the calmer our hair became. I don't think that you have to give them up completely, just be aware of the need to get some moisture into your hair past that silicone barrier. I am just too lazy to clarify and keep track so for the most part I keep cone free.

Our hair type is also perfect for all kinds of oil. It locks in moisture with the added bonus of holding our hair down. :thumbsup:

Coarse hair really is a beast of it's own kind, but it can be tamed :puppy:

[Sheltie_Momma]

The best way to combat triangle head at your length is to put in some layers about 2 inches from the bottom - tell them you want chunky blended layers that only go up about 2 inches from the bottom. Tell them no thinning, no thinning shears and absolutely no razor cutting (Sliding the scissors down the hair) because all of these things will just cause you to have a ton of frizzy coarse flyaway ends that look like damaged hair.

Try conditioning with lite coconut milk or with the Shea Moisture product line, thick coarse hair can really benefit from oils.

For myself I kept in layers until I hit waist so that I didn't have a big old puffy triangle look. After that I started towards all one length. All one length just wasn't practically at my thickness in the shoulder to waist range (think of all those up-do's where you "tuck the ends in" - it would have been like tucking in a broom!)

[RitaCeleste]

I bought expensive Meadowfoam seed oil, but what I use most of the the time is extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil I picked up in the food section of Walmart. I also found out I liked the fruit of the earth 100% aloe gel that was in the lotion section. Pick up some honey and try some of the recipes floating around with these ingredients. I can't try every high end product I hear about but these things I can afford to play with.

[UltraBella]

My hair is thinned with a razor after my layers are cut and I LOVE it. Definitely has never caused my hair to look bigger and there is no way my hair would lay so nicely without it. I can't live without my layers and thinning, my hair would be a enormous lifeless heap otherwise.

[Toadstool]

Yup, I have the thick, coarse hair - drives me insane. Dyed it yesterday and looks like a wig. Was trying to dye it back to natural colour so I can have a go at going grey again, but it ended up sort of purple blackberry colour.
Have you joined the Renegrey thread? They're awesome.

[RitaCeleste]

There really isn't a running thread for coarse hair, maybe we should keep this one going for a bit. I am curious about anything that softens it. I kinda declared war on mine awhile back. Developer softens it, baking soda softens it, neither of these seem ideal. Coconut oil pre-oil and CO leaves it nicer, well the colored part. I can and will try anything reasonably cheap!

[Amber_Maiden]

My hair is thinned with a razor after my layers are cut and I LOVE it. Definitely has never caused my hair to look bigger and there is no way my hair would lay so nicely without it. I can't live without my layers and thinning, my hair would be a enormous lifeless heap otherwise.

I'm with you. My hair would be gigantic if I never had it thinned or layered!

[Hollylocks]

Hello to my fellow Thick/coarse/mediums! Would be great to get this thread up and running again :)

[lithostoic]

My boyfriend's mom has 2c coarse and extremely thick hair. So enviable! Her half up is bigger than my whole ponytail.

My boyfriend's hair is probably 1b, and just as coarse and thick as his mother's. So lovely.

[hayheadsbird]

I like this thread! Glad it's been revived.
I have layers in the last 3 inches or so from growing out a bob, and I actually find it works well. My hair lies quite well most of the time avoiding the triangle look.

[Hairkay]

My hair is medium thick.