Hi there! I mentioned briefly in my previous relaxer update post that I had to trim my hair, and the main cause of this was the breakage I experienced in the last 2-3 months. When you are on a healthy hair journey, breakage is the enemy because it keeps reducing the amount of hair that you retain.
As you can see in the picture above, my ends were very uneven because of the breakage that I was experiencing. And as a result, I didn't retain much/any length in the past 6 months or so because I had to trim most of the progress off.
At first I thought the breakage was caused by the tension between my new growth and the relaxed hair strands. But even after my relaxer session. I continued to experience breakage and dry hair... much more than what I am used to seeing in my hands after moisturizing or detangling my hair...
When I got back from holiday first thing I did was a heavy protein treatment. But even after this, the breakage continued. I tried my Parnevu Hair Mayonnaise for the past two wash days, and I have since seen a slight improvement (product review coming up soon)
I have since decided to give my hair a break and put it in a protective style. I plan to do another trim/search-and-destroy if things do not improve after taking my crochet braids out in 4 week's time.
These are the other things I plan to do to keep the breakage at bay:
1.) Daily moisturizing, alternating between my moisturizer and water
2.) Keeping my hair in flat twists or braids when it's not in a protective style, so that I can keep the manipulation to a bare minimum
3.) Medium protein treatment every other wash day, and not only when I notice the breakage. I haven't been too consistent on my protein treatments, because I thought my pre-poo step with Aphogee 2-minute Keratin Reconstructor was enough to give my hair strands the necessary protein. So I will be more diligent with this going forward.
What else would you do/ have you done to manage breakage? Share your thoughts below, and thanks for stopping by :-)
It seems like you have a pretty solid plan, Becca. You can also try layering the protien reconstructor on your ends to give them extra strength. I've done that and keeping up with dusting.
ReplyDeleteThanks Uzo! Will look into layering, haven't tried that for a while
DeleteDid you do a strand test recently? That's how determine what to do each wash day. Hope your breakage comes to a halt soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip Tomi, yes I assess my strands every time I moisturize them so that I have an idea of whether I need to focus more on protein/moisture for the next wash day.
DeleteDid you do a protein treatment before your PS when you went on Holiday? Sometimes its the different climates since you are back home I think your hair will settle in.
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Hey Lebo, actually I think you are spot on, we went to Europe and boy was it hot there! The extreme weather changes probably made things worse for my hair, and I did not have a protective style.
DeleteHey Becca. Love your hair and sorry about the breakage. Just a thought: in addition to the above tips you could also check your moisture-protein balance perhaps. All the best :)
ReplyDeleteHey Loice thanks for stopping by! I will keep checking although I do check how it feels when I moisturize, perhaps I need to make sure that all the products I use are not working against my plan. I use a lot of products with coconut as an ingredient, and I have been thinking of reducing my usage of those products...
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