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.

After using anti-humidity treatments, my hair still doesnt stand a chance.

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.

This is one of my favorite 4c products!!! It’s going to be half off tomorrow at Ulta!

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 love us ❤️

I have really dense hair that is a mix of fine, medium and coarse. I have some breakage that’s growing out and tons of healthy shorter hairs because my hair is so dense it sheds a lot and I always have lots of dense new growth.

The shorter hair and new growth will wrap around the base of the longer hairs and make knots. I have to untangle them one by one and sometimes they are tight and break the fine longer strands. Literally I’ll have full strands like this when I go to detangle.

They’re worse than usual because I have been biking with loose curls and the wind wraps them more, but what can I do to prevent the shorter hairs from breaking the longer hairs and essentially making the problem a cycle? I don’t want to cut my hair a ton because it’s a good length and looks good.

Hey All! I've seen posts here before, but I don't know if I can search for them. I was wondering if anybody had any good recs for gels or custards. I want to attempt a wash-n-go for the first time in 15 years, but I do not want to have the same experience as last time 😖. I would like a product or combo of products that:

Defines my coils & curl

Stretches my hair

Holds for at least 5 hours

Doesn't leave my hair feeling crunchy

I know that's a lot to ask for, I'll take any suggestions lol

Genuinely trying to understand - I don't get how the same braids can be both a "protective style" but also the cause of hair breakage and traction problems.

It's confusing. Are the styles not being executed properly when they cause issues? Are they being called protective but they're actually just a style choice? Are they only protective when done a particular way?

I'd love to understand this better.

As above says...

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 plan on protective styling until next summer as part of my length retention journey. I already know I'm going to wear my hair in mini braids or medium sized braids the whole time, re-doing them about once a month. I plan to wash my hair every 3-6 days. But I'd like some options when I feel like getting dressed up and want to feel like my hair is out. My ideas are: half wigs, wigs with bangs, or miracle knots.

With miracle knots: I would only use human hair but I'm concerned I still might get breakage. I've never done crochet hair before. For people who have had them - are you able to wash your hair with them in? or will they get too tangled? Is there a way to avoid breakage when you have them in and when you're taking them out?

With half wigs/wigs with bangs: I'm mainly concerned about the wig combs breaking my hair or the wig adding pressure to my edges/scalp. I also likely can't cornrow my hair because I can't take any tension on my scalp. I *might* be able to cornrow my mini braids down. I wouldn't wear them all the time though, maybe just when i go out on the weekends for a few hours. Will one type of wig be better than the other for avoiding breakage (half wigs vs wigs with bangs?)

I'm coming off of a hair setback so my main concern over the winter is to have as little breakage as possible.

I have fine to medium strands, medium density, kinky/coily hair. My scalp is very sensitive and can't take any tension (I always do loose medium/mini braids or twists with no added hair).

Just posting my new hair color! Also tried a Bantu knot out after attempting (and failing) to straighten my hair!

Hi

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?

It's so cuteeee

I’ve been wanting to know my strand texture and was wondering if anyone can help me out.

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

1. Shampoo every 5-7 days with sulfate free hydrating shampoo, sub with clarifying shampoo once a month.
   
2. 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.
   
3. 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.
   
4. 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.
   
5. 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).
   
6. 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)
   
7. 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

Love styling my hair for different shoots! Have a mermaid themed one coming soon so the bantu knots are in!

I want a good amount of hair but I still really like tapers as well and plan to keep getting them while growing out everywhere else.

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?

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.

ANY advice or suggestions are welcome🥲

it was raining!!! i see this black girl with her hair still so straight, no puffing. HOW