Mystery Breakage

[BraidedBunch]

Hi LHC,
So here's the deal. I'm having mystery breakage at moderate to severe rates all of a sudden and I don't know why, or what the best course of action is.
Here's some background.
My natural hair color is a reddish blonde (I guess ginger blonde or strawberry blonde) that has darkened and moused up over the years. I had a "moment" last year when I thought it would be a fun idea to henndigo my mid lengths and ends to black for a reverse ombre look. It was beautiful but horribly unprofessional looking in my opinion and I wanted it gone ASAP. I did very gentle bleach applications on my ends over a few months to slowly lift the indigo (yes, it actually lifted, you can see in my avatar pic), and I was very, very lucky to dodge the green. Probably only avoided it due to natural red undertones. I don't know.
I decided after undergoing that damage to simply henna over everything, including my roots that lost some of their luster over the years, and came out with a beautiful shade of deep red/light auburn after two rounds with pure henna. I'm in love with my hair and it's never been prettier in my life. No more experiments, that is over with.
My ends LOOK really good, healthy, no visible splits, etc. But, every time I finger comb my hair, I get .5" to 1" long broken bits all over the place. My hair looks extremely healthy and feels good to the touch, and I don't know why it's breaking all of a sudden. It didn't break after the first henna, just about 5 days after the 2nd.
I'm worried that I'll lose length over this. There are hundreds of them with every finger combing session, and believe me, I am amazingly gentle when I finger comb.
I sleep in twin English braids, use One n' Only Argan Oil leave in oil treatment, and I use OGX Biotin & Keratin shampoo and conditioner. Wash every other day to every 3rd day. APL hair verging on BSL by 2 to 3 inches.
I don't want to have to trim, of course. Like I said, my ends look fine. But how do I stop the breakage? Is the protein in my S & C bad for my henna'd hair? I tried a few days sans argan oil leave in and it broke even worse so I know that isn't the issue.
Help!

[Suortuva]

Well, your ends have gone through a lot. Hendigo was enough to damage my hair...

[TreesOfEternity]

Are all those fallen hairs breakage? How do you tell them apart from shed hairs? How are they different? (Just the length or the fact that they don’t have the bulb)

[BraidedBunch]

Are all those fallen hairs breakage? How do you tell them apart from shed hairs? How are they different? (Just the length or the fact that they don’t have the bulb)

No bulb and they're really really short.

And yes, the ends have gone through a lot. It's just weird how the breakage happened so suddenly. There was none for the past 2 months and I guess the hair just "quit" or something.

[Ylva]

When I suffered a lot of breakage at the ends due to over-bleaching, they were also fine for months. Sometimes it takes a while for the true extent of the damage to show.

[Laurab]

Hm. Maybe it's a protein overload? I think i've read that Henna acts as a protein treatment, and that plus the keratin might be too much for your hair.

I'm reading an article about it, the five signs they list of protein overload are:
Your hair snaps off when you do the hair strand test
Unusually dry/lifeless and brittle
lacking the natural shine/luster that it used to have
Heavy shedding and tangles
Feels very straw like and stiff.

If you think that might be it, this article (Here's the link: https://trialsntresses.com/natural-h...otein-overload) recommends stopping use of any protein products, using a clarifying shampoo, and moisturizing it like crazy (deep conditioners and leave-in conditioners).

Good luck!

[EdG]

I too get "mystery breakage" - 1cm long broken ends whenever I comb.

As far as I can tell, the underlying problem is that the hair has been weakened (mechanical damage by combing out lint in my case, chemical damage by bleaching in your case). It is not visibly obvious that the ends are weak, but this becomes apparent when combing.

There isn't much one can do other than to grow out the damage.
Ed

[BraidedBunch]

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate your responses. I never would have thought of protein overload, perhaps I'll give the protein products a break and see if that helps reduce the breakage.

I'll grow it out and baby it in the meanwhile and never play with color again. Gotta just embrace the red and love myself in my own skin.

[MusicalSpoons]

If you tie your braids off with elastics, that won't help already fragile ends. Elastics are what kept ruining my hair before I discovered sticks and forks through LHC. Depending on how thick your ends are in the braids, you might get away with the small telephone cord ties or small satin scrunchies, or perhaps the terry towelling type of hair ties. I personally use satin ribbon - braid it in for the last few stitches then tie it round the ends, damage-free.

There is also the issue that perhaps braids aren't protective for you. If they shred and expose the ends of hairs all through the length of your braids, they can be damaging, especially sleeping on them. Or braids might be fine, but I'm mentioning it just in case. (For some they are the absolute perfect protective style! For my hair, sleeping in a braid is a guaranteed, effortless shortcut to hundreds of split ends )

What material do you sleep on?

The protein in your products used so often probably isn't helping, but protein overload you can usually feel by the ends feeling crunchy / tangly before they start breaking off - so my gut feeling is that it's not the only factor.

[Zesty]

I'd blame the bleach etc before I'd blame protein. I think it'd take a heck of a lot of protein to cause hundreds of ends to break off in a single combing session. Sometimes there's a lag before breakage begins. I'm sorry you have to deal with that. I imagine that after that hair has been trimmed out, the breakage will stop. Just baby the heck out of it in the meantime. (It sounds like you're doing well otherwise.)

If you tie your braids off with elastics, that won't help already fragile ends. Elastics are what kept ruining my hair before I discovered sticks and forks through LHC. Depending on how thick your ends are in the braids, you might get away with the small telephone cord ties or small satin scrunchies, or perhaps the terry towelling type of hair ties. I personally use satin ribbon - braid it in for the last few stitches then tie it round the ends, damage-free.

There is also the issue that perhaps braids aren't protective for you. If they shred and expose the ends of hairs all through the length of your braids, they can be damaging, especially sleeping on them. Or braids might be fine, but I'm mentioning it just in case. (For some they are the absolute perfect protective style! For my hair, sleeping in a braid is a guaranteed, effortless shortcut to hundreds of split ends )

What material do you sleep on?

The protein in your products used so often probably isn't helping, but protein overload you can usually feel by the ends feeling crunchy / tangly before they start breaking off - so my gut feeling is that it's not the only factor.

Agree with all of the above (as is common for me and MusicalSpoons ). Sleeping in a braid causes matting and splits for me for sure, and I have never found them to be particularly protective. It may not be a factor in your case, BraidedBunch, but perhaps something to think about.