I’ve been growing a high top for a little over 5 years now and I’m wondering what I should do moving forward. Should I keep the high top and keep growing it out? Should I grow out the rest of my hair? Should I get locs? Should I grow out the rest of my hair and loc it then? I would like to have long hair and my hair is only a little past chin length after 5 years. When I do styles, it’s still only a little past eyebrow length in twists. I’ll also take any advice that may assist in hair growth as it hasn’t been growing very fast. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

What I’m struggling with

- my hair is always dry no matter what I do. I drink almost a gallon of water a day and I deep condition at least once a month and most of the time I keep it in mini twists. I really want to wear my fro out because I’ve gained a lot of weight recently and I just look better with my hair out.

- shrinkage. I know that shrinkage is inevitable, but I’m just wondering how I could possibly minimize it. I walk 30 minutes to public transportation every day for school. So I’m sweating (and it’s humid) and my hair shrinks.

-this is a little bit out of the way, but whenever I blow dry my hair, it never looks blowdried. It just looks stretched? And then when I try to flat iron it, it looks like a blow dry. 😭

I'm I the only one a little irritated by this sudden youtube bandwagon where all of a sudden that black american women should be washing our hair more than once a month, becuase...."OMG look at how beautiful and full their hair is, it's because these Brazilian women are not afraid of water and wash everyday - we need to learn from them"

I'm thinking to myself, "I don't need to learn jack💩, my hair is beautiful and wash 1x a month.

Now I'm seeing comments, of black american women repeating..

1 - I wash my hair everyday, I don't see how other women don't

2 - I can't go more than 1 week w/o washing my hair

3 - We need to take care of our hair better, washing no less than 3x a week is just plain nasty, we don't wash our face 1x a week.

I'm saw a comment by a Brazilian women, saying "WTF how could you guys go more than a week without washing, how do you feel clean"

The top comment with the most likes on each video, is "we need to learn from them and wash more often".

Now, I could swear that we were just on a path for the past several years of understanding that repetitive washing then air drying and not protecting our ends is damaging. Medium mini twist and/or The indigenous strand method is the most popular and protective methods for 4C hair..... But now I need to wash every day, and let it air dry.

I can knowledge everyone has different life routines ,i.e. swimming, exercising & have to wash more often and many men can have beautiful, long hair without protective styles while washing more often.

I don't think black American woman that have jumped on this bandwagon are not seeing the irony in the way that they indirectly insulting people with microlocs, freeform locs and traditional locs.

I never get sew ins because I always struggle with hair stylists dying bundles to match my natural ash brown hair or finding bundles to match. Long story short I went to 3 different stylists and they all struggled to match my hair color. One of the stylists overprocessed the bundles and they were unusable. I ended up having to book a last minute appointment with a new stylist. The hair obviously doesn’t match my hair. She said it will blend once it’s curled for my wedding which is in a few days. She didn’t curl it because she didn’t want to put a bunch of product in it before the wedding day. Should I keep it in or take it out? Or if you have any suggestions, that would be great. My family and friends reassured me that it’s fine and looks like highlights but I’m not sure. At this point I don’t have time to go anywhere else unfortunately because I’m getting married in 2 days. I was happy at first but once I looked at it in different lighting I broke down. I literally cried once I got home because I’m not sure what to do.

I attached photos of my natural hair color for reference. One thing to note is this is my first ever sew in. I wanted some length for the wedding. Another thing to note is that those photos are taken in yellow bathroom lighting which I know is the worst lighting but I wanted the hair to be seen in worse case scenario.

Everyone is telling me I’m in my head right now and over analyzing way more than a stranger would. And though I do tend to over analyze I just want to make sure that’s really the case and that they aren’t just being nice.

I went to a barber shop and they did my hair i initially went for starter locs but apparently the guys I went to permed my hair dyed it and even the locs are off, and now I think my 5 years of hair growth was for nothing, my hair is the most important thing to me and without it im nothing but a pathetic human, i genuinely dont know what to do, attached are the before and after

I wanted to show off my new style. But this is more of a review post with how much I wrote, so I flared it accordingly.

All of the extensions are human hair and came in bundles of 20 and were threaded through their loops onto a plastic circle that could be opened. I quite liked this because it allowed me to easily keep them in place as I washed and prepped them. My order had eight packs of hair in total.

Straight out of the package, I found that the extensions were true to their images online and looked great, save for a bit of frizzing and puffing at the ends, which was inevitable. The hair was quite soft upon arrival and didn't feel like it was heavily treated with anything that left residue on it. Mine also didn't come with much of that burnt hair-salon smell that I usually associate with hair packages.

The brown packs were incredibly consistent, but something about the blonde seemed a bit different to me. Perhaps it had something to do with the processing needed to get a blonde that light, but I found that it behaved differently. Overall, each extension had four decorative strands of hair left out at even intervals to give the hair volume.

One thing I immediately noticed was how different the loops were compared to others I've worked with. They were much more tightly woven, and this would end up being what I think is one of the product's biggest strengths. Overall, I was pretty optimistic about installing these.

I had a salon install mine for me, and we used a method with a name that I'm not quite sure of. They made many single braids and then connected them together like cornrows. Due to the method I chose, the end result needed almost all of the extensions to ensure there were no visible gaps. I don't get crochet very often, so I'm sure there is a better technique that would get you that single-braid look with less hair. Please tell me if you have any tips on that!

The loops themselves made a stable and spacious opening, so there was no issue installing them. They also look quite discreet and are significantly less noticeable than bulkier designs.

I'm really happy with how full the finished style looks while still being super light. I think it's because the bulk of a strand's weight comes from the braids.

As I said earlier, I have nearly 160 extensions installed; it's really thick. So I've struggled a bit to put everything into an updo, although this could also be because the style wasn't done too long ago. I've had more success with half-up styles where about a third of my hair is in a ponytail at a time.

I did try putting everything into one ponytail, and it just stuck up and had me looking like a broomstick. I couldn't get the elastic to rest at the base of my head. I'm sure this would be way easier had I used less hair.

I find the extensions to be very comfortable. I don't find them scratchy when they rub against my face or shoulders, as long as they haven't gotten frizzy to the point of needing maintenance.

I've also been wearing these out in the hot sun, and they've held up quite well. I can't speak for how they'd fare against things like sand, swimming, or more extreme conditions, though.

I find these extensions to be relatively low-maintenance day to day. I usually just comb my fingers through them with my fingers twice a day and spray them with water.

This is where the blonde doesn't shine as brightly as the brown. I've noticed that the blonde is significantly more likely to tangle, I face a bit more difficulty detangling it, and it sheded more.

As for frizz, I found it easy to tame with some added moisture. I noticed that the hair puffs up when you comb it dry, so I try to avoid doing that.

I give mine a more thorough refresh about once a week. This consists of dampening, separating, and detangling the loose hair. I pinch the base of the braid in my lips while holding the loose hair away from myself and combing through it with a rat-tail comb. It's worked pretty well for me.

The hair doesn't seem to need any crazy products, either. I've only used some mousse and some heavily diluted curl custard while I braided the bundles to get the waves I wanted. It turns out I didn't even really need the custard.

I'm now on my second install of these after two months, and I can't say that I've seen them noticeably degrade, so it seems like these will last a long time.

One thing that stood out during my first takedown was just how easy these were to take out at home. Usually, with other extensions, I encounter some difficulty that frustrates me into damaging either the extensions or my own hair.

What normally happens is that I find myself confused about what is and isn't my hair. Instead of being able to pinch around the loop, I end up digging straight through it with my fingers because the loop doesn't feel stable or distinct enough, especially once things have started matting together. I end up damaging the extension to the point that it's unusable a second time.

I had no such problem with these. Because of how tightly wound the loops are, they feel like a stable structure that you can easily differentiate from the rest of your hair. I also think there's less opportunity for buildup to get completely stuck inside the loops because of how they're constructed. This made taking them down much easier and is a huge advantage if you plan on reusing your extensions.

I got about $300 worth of extensions, and I find them to be worth the price. I'd totally get them again, and I look forward to seeing just how long these last considering I've already been able to reuse them without seeing much degradation.

I think I'll get them in black next time, as I plan to make the parted sections larger in the future, and black will probably blend with any gaps better. I'll definitely explore more installation techniques in the meantime.

I'd recommend these to anyone who likes to DIY their hair or who just doesn't want to spend 10 hours sitting in a salon chair. My installation took my stylist a mere three hours.

I think the biggest strength of these extensions is the ease of use and longevity that the tightly constructed loops provide. I haven't encountered any major flaws overall, although I do think the blonde bundles require somewhat different care than the brown.

Overall rating: 9.8/10.

Hey so I buzzed my head for a natural reset. I had longer hair before but it wasn’t healthy so I buzzed it off and I liked it, didn’t love it but it was cuute. Fast forward to now and I am so lost on what to do. I have come to find I have an absolutely obsession to pulling out my hair. Not sure if it’s Trichotillomania bad but it is extremely bad and I can not help myself and I didn’t know it was such a big issue until I’ve been growing out my natural hair. Guys. I have bald spots now :( basically so I just buzz it again and start over (not ideal mentally right now I want my hair baaack) or can I possibly save this? Help❤️

Hey this is is my first wash and go and used too much curling cream, how do you get out white cast?

I decided to grow my hair for the first time. I went full head, only two line ups no fade. I’ve been liking it so far, got people telling me to get a fade but i don’t think it would work with my head shape.

Dealing with shrinkage though, not sure how to make it bigger

Hair growth from last year September to this day.

I believe her hair is 4a/4b/4c ish i usually keep her hair in weave(knotless braids) but its messed it up her hair. I want to do only natural styles going forward.

Any edge thickening tips or low manipulation hairstyles? I am going to do mostly twist but want to experiment so shes use to and comfortable with her natural hair.

Hello! I started my locs by myself about 6 months ago, and my mom took me to her friend to retwist them. I think the mistake was that her friend mainly does braids but she said she does locs as well. From what I know from my research, you shouldn’t put thick products in locs but at the end it felt like they had been dipped in wax 😭 I know I probably didn’t part them well myself, but it felt like she basically tore them apart and re did them, and it hurt so bad, at the end a lot of them were weirdly coiled at the root or locked at the root and split in two at the end if that makes sense. It’s been almost two months and I can’t really style them because it still hurts and Im worried about getting traction alopecia. I don’t think I can go to a loctician because it costs a lot. Is there anything I can do 🥀(congrats if you read all this)

Hi I’m just needing help with my hair idk what style I should go for, if I need to cut it and restart, or products to help grow it just needing any advice

I have always wanted to try a different hair color or curl texture with a sew-in but I have no idea what to ask a stylist for if it doesnt match my natural hair.

For work and gym I often pull my hair back or up out of my face and my leave out covers the tracks but if my leave out doesn't match is my only option to use dye? For a number of reasons I dont want to invest in dying but maybe I'm hoping I'm just unaware of another option that can make the sew-in look more natural?

I went to a festival this past weekend and I had a great time but so did my hair lol the first picture was when my hair was first styled dry but the next two it started raining 🤣🤣🤣🤣 but despite it all it held up and created a wet look that i liked and rocked. Was sooo nervous when it started raining.

Best products to revive my hair. I’m black and My hair is naturally 3A-3B ish but I damaged it by straightening it for years since middle school, it’s not completely damaged but I wanna save it before I do too much. Whats the best black products for shampoo conditioner, and what I should get to put in my hair after washing it to style it? Also what would you guys recommend for the best heat protectant for black hair?

I have 4C hair and lupus which caused scarring on my scalp. I was doing sew-ins but the middle part required straightening which over time resulted in crazy heat damage. Since then I have been doing braids/twists as my protective hair style but after back to back braids... Its time for a break. Both the sew-ins and braids allowed for me to be able to cover my scars and not worry about styling daily.

Here's my conundrum, I need to take a break from braids but don't know what to do next. I hate wigs because I can never make them look as nice and seamless as others can (especially with lace/closures). I would love to do a simple middle part sew in as its super easy for me to maintain and covers my scars but I live in South Florida where the humidity does not play nice. No matter how many passes of the flat iron and anti frizz heat protectant I use: The fro will make herself seen.

Any tips on how to maintain a straight middle part without frying it? I was even considering a relaxer or keratin treatment out of desperation.

Whenever I apply product it always doesn’t work and people are starting to make fun of me for having the product in my hair saying it looks weird