How To Avoid Hairline Breakage or Damage on Curly/Coily Hair

Loose Styles Help to Avoid Hairline Breakage. Flat Iron & Wash N Go!

Baby Girl & Curly Edges

                                             
 Natural hair and receding, damaged, broken edges. Recently my eyes keep honing in on severely pulled back puffs, ponytails and buns. They're at the mall, the beach, out on the streets. It's devastating. What quickly catches my eye is the hairline. I'm seeing lots of broken edges. Not even just the little girls, but young and old alike--so this post is for everyone.

SOME CAUSES ARE: Tension styling (buns, ponytails, weaves, heavy/long length dread locs, etc). At times, chemical treatments are to blame. My daughter lost her entire hairline after a professional relaxer application. Thankfully, it grew back in.

SOME SIGNS ARE: Broken edges have puffy hairline of hair sticking up. No, that's not your "baby hair".  I also see the receding hairline where the whole hairline is gone and it starts further back than the hairline is supposed to. That may mean that the hair may be permanently gone at times. The tension from pulled back hair styling will also cause tiny little bumps to show up at the area that is being pulled too hard. The hairline may also become itchy. These are all signs that the hair is being pulled back too taut.

I notice with my youngest daughter that she has lots of broken hairs along her hairline. I recently put her hair into two strand twists for almost 1 month in an effort to give her hairline a break.

The styles that cause her hairline damage are any styling that has be be pulled back with tension. That would include buns, ponytails, puffs, and anything else that gets pulled at all day. I make a consistent effort to remove her hair from those styles with tension for bedtime. My niece also has broken hair along the hairline. This is not a permanent situation, the hair can be restored to it's original length, it's just going to take some time and the proper care.

Weekly styling of Dimple's hair will include deep conditioning, moisturizing, and hair styling that does not rely on a tension "pull back".

Here are a few ways to avoid breakage at the hairline:

• Pre plan the hair's texture. If it's not the plan to wear the hair out curly the next day, then the hair has to be stretched overnight (with braids, twists, bantu's rollers, whatever). This way, the next day the hair will be stretched and easily styled without forcefully being "pulled" into submission.
• Understandably there are chaotic nights were nothing gets pre planned, so here's what can be done in the morning. Wet the hair with water (not soaking, just dampen the hairline and wherever else you're gonna want to be easily manipulated. Use your favorite hold styling gel and apply that to the hairline. Brush the hairline back with a soft bristle brush. Guide the hair into the direction that you want. All of this is being done without tension so far. Just water and a styling product is making the hair sleek. Finally, use your hands and smooth the hair into the direction that it's supposed to go for the styling. Without pulling hard, secure the hair into the chosen style of your choice (one ponytail, two ponytails, ideas are limitless), and then secure with a snag free hair clip. Make sure all the while not to pull too tight. Ask yourself (or your child) "is this too tight?" or "will I get a headache?" You want to eliminate tension, while making the hair appear sleek by use of products and water.
• Wear loosely held styles or loose styles. I love two strand twists for the fact that they group the hair together, so that even if the hair is worn in a ponytail, it is not that easy to break off the hairline.
•  Long Length, Heavy Locs may need to be styled in a way that avoids constant pulling at the hairline. Half up, half down styles are great. Positioning a high bun will also avoid the stress from the length. Always wearing long, heavy locs down (or loose) will damage the hairline. 
• Short length hair should not use buns or ponytails as a styling option often. If there is not enough hair to leave some slack in the style, then it will only pull on the hairline and cause unsightly breakage.  

When I don't get a chance to properly care for her hair over the weekend so that she can wear it loose or loosely held, I pull it back into a ponytail or bun. Lets face it--buns and ponytails are a quick hair styling solution! And of course, it needs to be "neat", so it's pulled taut, and laid down with gel. This is a recipe for breakage.

DO YOU HAVE BROKEN HAIRS AT YOUR HAIRLINE? IF SO, WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS TO AVOID FURTHER BREAKAGE AND FIX THOSE EDGES?

 The photo above (left) shows a distressed hairline. Little bumps, broken hairs, weakened volume at hairline. To give the hairline a break, all sorts of tension styling was eliminated by working in the direction that the natural hairline rests upon. Cornbraids (not tight), drop braids, and loose hair styling (like braidouts without any pulling) will help restore the hairline.


--------------as always, stay beautiful                   -----------------Tia

Tension Free Hair Styling

Two Strand Twists AND Fine, Thinning, Short Length Hair!

Protective Styling is Great For Hair Length Retention

After an exciting week of hanging out with the Sister In Law (or SIL) as she so "uniquely" put it LOL, we decided to try out some two strand twists. This mocha beauty has an even tighter coil than my last twist adventure that I did on my friend, Kay. My sister in law's hair somewhat resembles cotton. If I had to guess, it would be considered something of a 4C (you guys can tell how into the hair typing I am). NOT. I do, however, find the variety of curl shapes, sizes, weights, and all that good stuff to be pretty amazing.

Protective Styling (for example wigs), is GREAT for length retention....
It's extremely important to consistently care for coily hair even while it's being placed in a protective style. Two strand twists are excellent for easy care and maintenance of hair while not being manipulated for weeks at a time.


I want to capture some "specialty" twisting techniques via video. These techniques will address tightly coiled hair, hairline capture, and directing unruly twists. I also want to share how I "beef up" finer strand hair that has a course texture. I've come to find that course textured hair holds two strand twists THE BEST.

First up, her hairline has suffered some damage (I think courtesy of the weaves she used to wear quite often). She speculates that the hairline damage is as a result of bad relaxers. Either way, both procedures (weaves and relaxers) can tax the hair and cause damage if not applied safely and only on an occasional basis. I was not knowledgeable about how to work with a damaged hairline.

She has lots of breakage, and in some areas, the hairline is about 1/4'' in length. Add her strong shrinkage to the picture, and I definitely faced a new arena. I welcomed the challenge--since that meant I would get to put 2 strand twists on her sweeeet textured hair!

Here are the steps that I took in order to do 2 Strand Twists on Thinning, Short Length Coily Hair:

1. Dampened and then put some Olive Oil on the Hair. (pre poo). *I did this because I wasn't sure how her hair would react to the shampoo. This served as a sort of "buffer" between us and possible tangles!
2. Clarified (I used V05's Clarifying Shampoo). At first, I didn't get a lather. This was probably because she typically coats her hair with "Doo Grow", and then puts her hair under a wig. There was definitely product buildup on her strands. I Shampoo'd 2 times.
3. Deep Condition. I used my favorite home-made Avocado, Honey, Olive Oil, Mayonnaise Conditioner Treatment. AWESOME Results.
4. Steam Treatment for 20 minutes (with the Deep Conditioner on her hair). This helps to infuse the moisture into the strands. I also did this step because we didn't have time for her to sit with the conditioner on her hair for 1 hour.
5. Rinsed out the Deep Conditioner after steaming, then I conditioned (with Giovanni 50/50 Conditioner). Detangled with the conditioner on her hair (in sections). NO TANGLES! She says that her hair is not typically easy to detangle!
6. AIR DRY (a bit). T-Shirt dried the hair a bit. Blow Dry (Tension Method) a bit. KEPT THE TEXTURE IN HER HAIR. WILL NEED THE TEXTURE TO HOLD THE TWISTS PROPERLY.
7. Used Giovanni's Wicked Texture Sculpting Pomade to twist her hair. This allowed me to direct the twists where I needed them to go. Also, this helped to lay down her hair (which otherwise may have "stood up". This pomade is an all natural product that does not leave a residue, and seems to add moisture! I LOVE IT!

Want to "Fill Out" Sparse Hair Sections? Pinning Back the Hair Does the Trick

For those of you who are concerned about your "open forehead" section, this is what I did:

She has at least 4.5'' length in the front of her hair, however, her hairline is damaged. I sectioned off the front and directed the section that I would lay down towards her forehead. I pinned that section down so that it would air dry in the direction that I want it to (forward). This now becomes her bang area. I twisted her bang area using the Giovanni Wicked also, while directing the twists towards her forehead. After about 15 twists, I used bobby pins and pinned down the bang until it dried fully. When she sleeps with this, she will sleep with a satin scarf, which will further lay down the hair in the direction the style was done in.

After Air Drying, T-Shirt Blotting, & Finally Blow Drying Slightly

Now, because of her thinning areas (on the crown section), I chose to pin her hair back a bit. Pictures are a great way to track growth progress. I told her that if she kept the twists in for about 3 weeks, that would help her with length retention enormously! Also, if she's able to get her hair twisted once a month, this would be a nice break from the day to day wear and tear on her fine tresses. She lives in Georgia, so I wouldn't be able to twist her hair up, but I wish that I could!

Either way, she can wear her twist out or wear her wigs while her hair is cared for and placed in a low manipulation style. This will ensure length retention, and hopefully will allow her hair the fill out a bit more.

We will try to keep up and update on this coily haired angel's beautiful mane. I look forward to posting more information on her and her luscious locks!

Meantime...........................................................................................stay beautiful.

tia


P.S....I don't often see the Giovanni Wicked Hair Wax in the stores, so I buy mine online. If you don't find it in your local drug/grocery store, check out Amazon's prices.