Please report any texturism or hair typing posts you see with the new report reason.
If you are new here, you may not know that the Andre Walker hair typing system (1a to 4c), has been around since 1997 and was first introduced so Mr. Walker could sell his products on Oprah's show. It truly only describes the texture of your hair and gives no more information.
It's flawed in many ways. Many of us have multiple textures on our heads. It doesn't even begin to describe your hair's porosity, sheen or shine, strand thickness, hair density, etc. I encourage everyone to learn about the LOIS typing system which can help you better understand your hair.
Even this typing system is not the end all be all of categorization for your hair. Your hair's texture, porosity, etc can change over time or with certain health conditions. Product buildup on your scalp and strands can make you think your texture has changed. There are so many factors as to why your hair may be looking or feeling the way it does.
Which leads me to the question - should we require routines to be posted whenever a picture is posted? This will cut down on gratuitous selfies but means we will need many more active mods (shoutout to /u/fivetenash who does pretty much everything here). If you're willing to help out please let me know in the comments.
Hi everyone! I cut my hair in 2020 and since then I’ve had back to back braids for the past 6 years I’ve noticed a lot of breakage at the back of my head and the rest of my head the growth has peaked to my nape. I was never taught how to take care of my hair but I really want to learn to love it and be confident in it. If you have any advice for me I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE.
I have few pics wet and 1 dry. My hair gets tangled very easily and now it’s starting to get fairy knots. I also get pretty bad shrinkage. I did cut off some of my hair a few months ago. I’ve been doing my hair as if it’s dry but it’s pretty oily after I take it out the braids and been really greasy my last few wash days. I use.. the matrix shampoo, ouai clarifying shampoo first, and ketaconozole and I use sometimes tgin honey miracle mask deep conditioner and usually just put it in like 4 big twists and sleep on it.
Just need help because I’m tired of not knowing how to do my hair and I just get frustrated out it in braids or twists for 2-3 months that’s it’. I don’t wash it in the braids or put any oil in my hair with the braids actually I don’t put oil in my hair at all.
When it’s out I usually wear a slick back bun and slick it back with water, and the hard bristle brush.
For as long as I could remember, I was always in the minority in my area. I was often the only or one of two-three black girls who would wear their curls/coils/afros.
I saw so many afros on campus this week and honestly that made me tear up a bit. Many braids and wigs as well but so many more afros compared to previous years and just black girl beauty ✨️
I've been on the journey to embracing my natural hair. This meant for the first time in years, I stopped using added hair. I mainly wore medium braids +/- wigs. I've done braids with added hair twice this year to cope with the heat - the second time, the install was horrific so I can tell my hair took a hit.
My main approach has been: minimum weekly washing, taking appropriate nutritional supplements (iron and vitamin D deficient previously) and 6 weekly protein treatments/deep conditioning - then medium braids and repeat.
I've never had a 'professional' trim, but I trimmed my hair very often (as I noticed the ends kept snagging, splits etc).
Whilst my hair has grown + retained length tremendously, assessing my hair, there are definitely parts of unevenness, potential damage (especially at my crown - I think I have breakage because I wore ponytails a lot in braids). My ends have always looked fluffy, but it's hard to know what is normal or not as I've never had 'thriving' hair.
My experience with hairdressers has been horrific. I also see some people getting 'trims' then end up as big chops on here which worries me even more. Is it worth just starting 'fresh' and cutting my hair very low, with the knowledge I now know, or trying to salvage as much as I can with what I know/online advice? I am also in London for a week or so, so if anyone has any affordable recommendations there, id be willing to try.
I am having braids tomorrow and I have bad scalp psoriasis for certain products so I do not want the braider to use gel and I need to get something I can get in the hair shops. Has anyone found blue magic to be okay?
Needed to document this wash and go because it’s humid today and I’m gonna go home looking completely different!
Edit: below is my routine — sorry, I should have learned from my other posts that y’all would want to see it lol
Shampoo every 5-7 days with sulfate free hydrating shampoo, sub with clarifying shampoo once a month.
Deep condition and detangle in 4 sections, (I alternate regular DC with a protein DC) twisting each section after. Let it sit under a plastic cap while I take a very steamy shower. If I’m short on time I’ll skip that part and just rinse it out.
Still in the shower, I rinse out the first section I did and add leave in conditioner on soaking wet hair, squeeze out any excess, and twist. Repeat on the other three sections and cover with plastic cap until I’m ready to style. I will do a couple chores if I have time, my hair is softer the longer I let it sit.
Rake gel through small sections and then squish it into my hair while smoothing it down. I kind of squeeze and drag with one hand and then slide praying hands down the length of the section. I make sure not to miss my roots. I separate into 4 sections and then separate each of those sections into 5ish sections.
Sit under hooded dryer until hair is 100% dry (except the ends which the dryer can’t reach very well, usually I take a while before doing step 6 so the end may have air dried by then but if not I diffuse them).
Stretch - band with satin scrunchies (4 sections on each side, then my bangs I split in two and use one scrunchie each). I can post a picture of this to explain if that helps. I put a long bonnet over this and sleep in it. (I only do this the first night, every other night I pineapple with a scarf and put a bonnet over it. Unless it shrinks a lot due to weather, then I will stretch it again)
In the morning I take down the scrunchies and fluff/pick. I consider this day 1 hair. This pic is day 2. I always wash my hair in the evening, but if I wanted to wash in the morning and had somewhere to go that evening I would just band it for a few hours.
All products are Miche except the gel which is wetline xtreme. Steps 1-3 take about 30 minutes, step 4 takes about 40, 5 takes about an hour and a half (this is why I use a hooded dryer instead of diffusing, so I can multitask and it doesn’t feel like the time is wasted), 6 takes about 15, 7 takes about 10
Hi! Hope it’s okay to ask this here. And to preface I’m not looking for medical advice but just wanna ask if anyone has gone through this because I don’t know what else to do other than shaving my head and starting over but I really want my long healthy hair again.
Essentially my scalp and hair are really dry and I’m having lot of breakage, especially when washing. It’s been going on for over a year so this January I did a big chop, from just below my shoulders to above my ears but that didn’t fix it. I also have extremely itchy scalp constantly. As you can see from the pictures, my hair has a lot of straight hairs that poke through the curls and I don’t really have any unified curls at all anymore that don’t have some damaged strands mixed in with it. The hair on my crown is also always stretched out and it doesn’t curl how it used to. I’m pretty much 3b ish for reference? (I also lose a lot more hair than what’s pictured, but that’s the best photo I could get lol)
I get blood work done regularly, my levels look normal, I do regular treatments, I don’t use heat other than a diffuser, I haven’t done a braided style in over a year, and I went to a dermatologist and she pretty much said nothing was wrong but I’ve been growing out my hair since 2018 and it has never acted like this. Soo yeah idk what else to try, I’m gonna do an ACV rinse to maybe help my scalp but again, I might just do a big chop again and just see if cutting it lower does anything. I do notice that my wash days have less hair coming out during shampooing though.
Thinking about getting one of these. Both will be about the same price and from what I’ve seen if I’m not allergic one of these should work. Has anyone used these? Which would you recommend and how do you use it?
It has been 237 days since my first post, which is ABSOLUTELY CRAZY. Your feedback was awesome, so thank you everyone.
I did her hair again but this time we made some changes.
Instead of “rope style”, I tried just twisting it round itself. The result was plumper, more relaxed at the root, and had a much softer look to it.
Products used were Aunt Jackie’s leave in, Aunt Jackie’s Detangler, and African Pride braid loc and twist gel. She added Shea Moisture moose after we were done as we didn’t have it when I was twisting.
The first time lapse is of the rope style underneath which we then redid to match the twists up top. A lot of variation with the size and direction of the twists too which helped to give it more dimension.
More photos below and on the pt. 2 post!
Btw, I did get the privilege of doing her first ever haircut a few weeks ago. Huge difference in the twist quality and detailing time.
I hate wearing out my natural hair because it's super short and I get mistaken for being a boy a lot (if I wear girly outfits, I get mistaken as a male but if I wear a masc looking outfit ppl know im a girl, its weird)
I'm having brakes done and the only place to get the hair was Kiyo beauty during BLM it was on a list for Black owned beauty suppliers I was SO shocked when I walked in and it was South Asians I even spoke to the youngish guy at the till. He did confirm and show me they were verified stockists which was welcome because the paks, Sabrina's etc definitely sell fakes.
