Help finding something that won't break my hair overnight...

[MagusBride]

I'm having trouble protecting my hair from breaking overnight.

I used to wear a satin sleep cap, but I toss and turn a lot in my sleep. Friction from the elastic band part of the sleep cap started breaking off the hair around my hairline, leaving me with a row of broken ~1'' hairs... I tried using another kind of sleep cap with a drawstring, but it didn't stay on overnight. I tried securing it to my hair with clips, but these tugged too much on my hairline - the risk of traction alopecia over time was too much.

Sleeping on a satin pillowcase with no sleep cap works better, but now the hairstyle I wear overnight seems to be breaking my hair off at the crown. I usually wear two buns, not too tight. But the hair around the crown area of my hair seems to break and slip out. I'm not sure what to do...if I sleep with my hair just down, the results in the morning would be horribly knotted (I have type-4 hair). My hair isn't quite long enough for a single bun to hold overnight unless I make it very tight, which has its own problems. I need to minimize pulling from the center of the crown area.

I know how to make two French braids in my hair, but I don't know how to keep the ends from unraveling without using small hair ties, which cause breakage at my ends. I tried sealing the ends of my braids with aloe vera gel; it worked, but I live in a very dry environment. My ends felt like they were going to snap off in the morning, so I've discontinued use of aloe vera gel because of my environment (it is a humectant). Furthermore, as a low-porosity person, gels are the worst thing to cause product buildup on my hair and lock out any moisture I try to put on it until next wash day.

What is the best solution for protecting hair overnight when just about everything breaks my hair? Sleep caps, buns, sealing the ends of braids with gel...ugh. All of it seems to break my hair in some way.

Sorry I've been asking so many questions here lately; I've been trying a lot of new things and running into setback after setback...

[neko_kawaii]

Any ideas why your hair is so dry and fragile? Are you addressing that issue as well?

[lapushka]

Why is it breaking though? It should not break from an overnight updo, not at all. Are you pulling it too tight, because "buns" on 16 inches of hair seems a bit... much. Especially curly hair.

Is your diet OK? What's that like? Are you healthy? Last time you had bloodwork done? That kind of thing, because this normally should not be happening.

[MagusBride]

I thought type-4 hair breaks easily in general for a number of reasons (less sebum traveling down the hair shaft, more jagged bends and loops naturally occurring in the hair, less protective coating than hair types 1-3, etc.), so I always thought breakage was a common type-4 problem.

I don't have any diagnosed health conditions right now, and the buns don't feel too tight - I don't feel any tugging/pulling at all. I'm open to more gentle alternatives, in fact I'm looking for them, but I don't know what else to do besides the buns that will stay overnight without causing similar damage.

I also take prenatal vitamins and am increasing my water intake. As far as I know, I have no nutritional deficiencies.

I think the root of the problem were my go-to protective styles, the sleep cap and the buns, causing friction. My hair does not withstand repeated friction well at all. All of my breakage is either right along the line where the elastic band of the sleep cap was, or its right along the points where my hair strands make contact hair ties (resulting in hair that is no longer long enough to stay in the hair tie, creating a bunch of shorter hairs around the crown area).

I've tried to stop using hair ties, including stain ones, but my curl pattern is so dense, thick and unruly that I can actually hear the snagging when I remove hair toys (for instance, my hair always gets caught in the hinges of alligator/duck bill clips somehow). So the big problem now is that I just cannot find any alternatives that aren't equally damaging.

[MusicalSpoons]

For securing the ends of braids, you can braid a bit of ribbon into the last several 'stitches' then tie them around the hair - non-damaging, and secure if you wrap it around a few times before tying them off.

[lapushka]

For securing the ends of braids, you can braid a bit of ribbon into the last several 'stitches' then tie them around the hair - non-damaging, and secure if you wrap it around a few times before tying them off.

Yes but her hair is 16 inches and dense/curly. She'd have to do corn rows and... I don't know about that.

[blackgothicdoll]

I thought type-4 hair breaks easily in general for a number of reasons (less sebum traveling down the hair shaft, more jagged bends and loops naturally occurring in the hair, less protective coating than hair types 1-3, etc.), so I always thought breakage was a common type-4 problem.

I don't have any diagnosed health conditions right now, and the buns don't feel too tight - I don't feel any tugging/pulling at all. I'm open to more gentle alternatives, in fact I'm looking for them, but I don't know what else to do besides the buns that will stay overnight without causing similar damage.

I also take prenatal vitamins and am increasing my water intake. As far as I know, I have no nutritional deficiencies.

I think the root of the problem were my go-to protective styles, the sleep cap and the buns, causing friction. My hair does not withstand repeated friction well at all. All of my breakage is either right along the line where the elastic band of the sleep cap was, or its right along the points where my hair strands make contact hair ties (resulting in hair that is no longer long enough to stay in the hair tie, creating a bunch of shorter hairs around the crown area).

I've tried to stop using hair ties, including stain ones, but my curl pattern is so dense, thick and unruly that I can actually hear the snagging when I remove hair toys (for instance, my hair always gets caught in the hinges of alligator/duck bill clips somehow). So the big problem now is that I just cannot find any alternatives that aren't equally damaging.

Nah, this is a myth. If you try to treat type 4 hair like type 1 or 2 hair, yes you will have more breakage than type 1 or 2 hair would have from the same treatment, which is where that misconception comes from. When treating your hair with care, i.e. not too much manipulation, not allowing product to build up, etc., you should not be having excessive breakage.

Wispies around the face are common; are you sure they are not just wispies? You mentioned in another thread using a BBB, which can cause that pattern of breakage.

Try securing the ends of your braids with satin scrunchies. Usually mine just stay because the curls curl around each other and hold the braid in place. If for whatever reason they decide not to (usually it's been a few days since I last washed so they are almost straight) I just tuck the ends back up into the braid.

[lapushka]

I thought type-4 hair breaks easily in general for a number of reasons (less sebum traveling down the hair shaft, more jagged bends and loops naturally occurring in the hair, less protective coating than hair types 1-3, etc.), so I always thought breakage was a common type-4 problem.

No it should not be breaking off that easily. Even for type 4!

[MagusBride]

I discontinued using the boar bristle brush after seeing warnings here, but I don't think that was the cause of this specific problem. Before using sleep caps, I didn't have 1'' hairs around my hairline. When I started using a sleep cap nightly for about 2 months, I noticed it. The breakage was so consistent that it looked as if it had been cut in a straight line around my hairline, right where the elastic of the sleep cap sits.

I think I will try smaller satin scrunchies, and the ribbons suggested by MusicalSpoons might work when my hair is stretched.

[blackgothicdoll]

I discontinued using the boar bristle brush after seeing warnings here, but I don't think that was the cause of this specific problem. Before using sleep caps, I didn't have 1'' hairs around my hairline. When I started using a sleep cap nightly for about 2 months, I noticed it. The breakage was so consistent that it looked as if it had been cut in a straight line around my hairline, right where the elastic of the sleep cap sits.

I think I will try smaller satin scrunchies, and the ribbons suggested by MusicalSpoons might work when my hair is stretched.

Aha. Another trick with the bonnet I do is fold the stretchy part up so that the satin sits against my hairline instead. I much prefer the satin pillowcase these days though, as it is easier for the bonnet to fall off like that.