By Audrey Sivasothy, author of The Science of Black Hair: A Comprehensive Guide to Textured Hair Care
Crown area hair breakage can be very distressing, especially when the rest of your hair is flourishing. It can also be frustrating when your hair’s hemline is shaped like a W rather than a healthy U or V because of crown area and middle area breakage issues. Don’t be discouraged! If your crown area breakage is not the result of a medical issue, there is hope for restoring your crown area to its normal fullness and length. The key is to isolate the crown area and pamper it to life. This article will give you 7 quick tips for encouraging hair growth in your crown area again.
1. Investigate. Is your crown area breakage caused by physical trauma?
It is helpful to determine the exact cause of your breakage, especially if it is caused by handling and physical trauma. Often times, mechanical damage is something you are fully aware of— how have you handled your crown air hair in the past? Is your sew-in done too tightly? Have you been rough combing your crown area? Wrapping? Have you been neglecting to fully moisturize the area? Applying too much heat? Did you overlap a relaxer? Have you been rollersetting too tightly? Has repetitive coloring affected your crown? Once you determine a physical cause for your crown area breakage, simply discontinuing the practice will turn your crown around in several weeks.
2. Diagnose. Is it a protein/moisture balancing issue?
Next, you will need to determine if the breakage can be fixed with either protein or moisture deep conditioning. You’ll need to read my article: The Fine Art of Protein and Moisture Balancing for help with determining your required product solution for your crown area breakage. More than likely, restoring the moisture balance will be your focus. Once you know whether your product focus should be protein or moisture, you’ll need to deep condition weekly with heat to restore your crown area. When you condition your hair, make sure that you section the hair in increments so that each and every section of hair, especially the crown, is treated. You’d be surprised the number of people who simply coat the edges, barely scrunch through the middle, and slather the ends with conditioner product. You have to get in there good and make sure the crown area gets some love!
You also want to be sure to moisturize (either protein or moisture-based) the crown area daily. Part through and really isolate the crown. Really focus your daily moisturizing efforts in the middle. Very few people treat the middle sections of hair to moisturizer on a regular basis.
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I’m going through this process as we speak! In April 2011 I got a sew-in that was waaaay too tight in the crown area. When I took the sew0in out, all I felt was my bald scalp. Its now been over a year and I have 5″ in my crown area. Didn’t know about massage…gonna try it!
Hi Elizabeth, what did you do to improve the crown area? I’m currently experiencing this as I’m transitioning as well (7 months). My styist says that there is nothing I can do…it’s just the weakest and most coarse area of my head.
i’m sorry but your stylist is not correct.
you should follow the steps outlined in the article – esp. deep conditioning, gentle detangling, no heat, and avoiding (too tight) weaves.
+1 to merry, also treat your crown more delicately than the rest of your hair.
Step 1:
Find a new stylist (this may hurt, because you 2 may have a beautiful relationship or she has done the hair of your cousins, aunties and mama and ‘nem). But the same stylist that worked as your relaxed hair stylist may not be the best for your natural hair. I know from experience that breaking up is hard to do. And if this is not the case your stylist may very well be aware of self haircare is far less costly than a sew-in and may just be preying on the unfortunate. Either way, it may be time to move on.
Tinea capitis can destroy the crown area of the scalp and cause hair in that area to be coarser than the rest.
This article literally came at the perfect time. I’ve been experiencing breakage at the crown for a while now…even before I started transitioning. I just walked out of the salon and my hair stylist told me that there’s nothing that I can do. The crown area is just the weakest and most coarse area of my head, smh. I think I need to work more on the protein/moisture balancing.
Thank you for this article.
I agree with you Carla. I’ve basically been moisturizing my crown everyday. You know how most people say their “kitchen” is in the nape of their head…mine is in the crown…lol
Me, I started taking Biotin 5000 mcg since Dec. and at the time my crown area was thinning out like a circle of some sort, but as of today 5/16/12 by hair in the crown section has filled in so much it’s unbelieveable how full my hair has gotton. I think all I lack was Vitamin B and plenty of water help a lot.
I have has this issue for a number of years and don’t know what to do although I oil this area with emu or castor oil twice a day. I think it started because of stress. There is a very slight improvement since I started oiling this area but I am still frustrated by this area. It is much much shorter than the rest of my hair.
Hey all! I have noticed that my hair around my crown breaks easily, is thinner and does not curl like the rest of my hair. I’ve read that dandruff (which I have a bad case of) can cause scalp damage and lead to breakage, So I’ve started gently cleansing and oiling my scalp more often, and I’ve quit trying to “smooth my edges” and so far I have seen a big improvement! :-)
I’m also experiencing this for years, in fact. I’m finally tired of covering up with my wigs. I went to see a dermatologist who instructed me to take 5000mg of Biotin and gave me a prescription of Holnate (a protein cream)
She didn’t make me any false promises and told me since I’ve waited YEARS to seek medical attention, it may take awhile but I’m glad I’m on the right track.
She also told me to use hair products that include Aargan Oil (listed early in the ingredients – at least 3rd in the list) Creme of Nature has a product line that satisfies that.
i recently reclaimed my crown by regular deep conditioning with moisture and protein.
i don’t get why people say deep conditioning is pointless. it has helped turn my hair around in the last year.
this section is no longer rough like it use to be and it is growing.
but, i don’t understand how a ponytail is bad for the crown area since it seems like it would have the least amount of tension/pulling in this style. seems like your edges would suffer the most in a ponytail.
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My problem is breakage in the back back of my head. I have biotin but I’m afraid to take it because I’m battling my acne right now and they say biotin can cause you to break out.
Hi Brittany! You are absolutely correct, I’m a living example that Biotin can break you out (and for a 40 year old…that ain’t cute!). I used it the entire month of April and noticed about a pimple or two every week. I stopped using it in May…NOT ONE pimple. Try this recipe I started using last month as I noticed my crown not being as moist/healthy as the rest of my hair. The homemade recipe which deep conditions TERRIFICALLY is by Naptural85 (my FAVORITE YouTube vlogger), all I did was add 1/2 of an Avocado and add Greek plain yogurt (sometimes my hair screams for a little extra protein!)
Hope this helps! http://youtu.be/aSa_F2jyiyM
I had to cut my hair right back to a TWA because my crown area had broken from 4 Inc to 1 ½. I am just nursing my hair back to health and find the weekly deep conditioning treatments with moisture help. My crown is a slow grower, but I am hoping, by paying extra attention to this area by massaging there should be some difference.
Thanks for the tips BGLH!
Hi Audrey,
2 quick questions. 1. in point 4 you said “Keeping ponytails and buns damp underneath can also weaken the hair…” How is that so? shouldn’t you try to keep ends as moist as possible to prevent breakage?
2. Seeing as how the protein/moisture balance is SO delicate and too much protein can result in severe breakage, is DAILY use of a protein-based MOISTURISER advisable?
i have locs again now so it’s a none issue for me. when my hair was loose natural though this area was more wirey and didn’t grow and thrive like the rest. it was a totally different texture. it wasn’t from weaves, wigs or braiding because i didn’t do any of those. i was told that i just had to baby that area, maybe even use different richer products on that part of my hair. using a comb (even a wide tooth) could rips the hairs (i would hear popping) so i mostly finger combed that area. it was really challenging because i was always focused on it. now that i’m loc’d again that hairs are strong, don’t need special care, thrive and are growing long. i think it comes down to manipulation, if you have an area like that anywhere in your hair you have to barely touch it and of course avoid the obvious stressors. oils on the scalp do help improve the elasticity of hair. good luck. it’s a frustrating problem!
I did a post on this topic a while ago as well.
http://hairscapades.com/2011/11/09/crown-of-glory-or-thorns/
My crown (especially the left side) is definitely more coarse, wiry and curly than the rest of my hair. So, I try to finger detangle gently (I very rarely use a comb at all), really pile on the moisture (Vatika oil when pre-pooing, conditioner to detangle, deep conditioner, leave-in, water-based moisturizing styler and JBCO to seal). I also protective style 5-6 days a week and have seen my crown grow a lot as you can see from the pics below (I had a combo of new hair and breakage; the 1st pic is July 2011, the 2nd is Jan. 2012).
It’s still nowhere near as long as the rest of my hair. But, I’m going to try to grow it out even by keeping the longest length in the back trimmed at the same length … we’ll see if the crown catches up. I went for a trim of my whole head last month and asked for a 1/4 – 1/2 inch of the crown, but I don’t think she did a good job. And, my next trim, I’m going to take the advice in #7 as it makes a lot of sense!
that’s phenominal growth for 6 months! i also like this pic comparison. i think i’ll take some to see how my hair grows/looks after 6 months. with locs things should thrive just fine but still it’s imperative to baby the area in the ways you described. thanks!!!
Thank you!! You know, I actually use these pics in a post on my blog about keeping a photo journal. Because my first reaction looking at the area in January was to think that I had NEW breakage!! Then, I remembered that I had taken a shot of the same area the prior summer. So, when I compared, I realized that I actually had experienced a lot of growth and not new damage! If I hadn’t done that, I might have had my hair cut! So, just goes to show how helpful photos tracking progress/setbacks can be!!
Thank you!
Shelli
two different hands
Hairscapades, thanks for the pics. Your crown looks great now! I was starting to feel like I was just stuck with a bad patch of hair. Your pics are proof that that’s not the case.
Thank you Pinkpanda! As I mentioned above, having photos of the area really helped me recognize that things were improving!!
Here is the link to that post for anyone interested!
http://hairscapades.com/2012/01/25/breakage-vs-new-hair-update/
Shelli
Watch out for blood pressure medications too. Beta blockers can take you crown and temple hair out.
I think this is my fav article by far! I have had this problem for years too. It grows… but it comes in very fine. I have a twa,so in some areas you can see the thin spots.(it don’t bother me too much but it would be nice to be covered)
My hubby wanted me to try hair growth products like re-grow and those other chemiclas with medoxil in it… but i really don’t want to use that stuff. Plus my scalp is sensitive.
But this article made me think back to my relaxer and stylists days when I would lather that stuff right on the top of my head like lotion then when I wanted a sprial set she would have those rollers in so damn tight like she was trying to roll the scalp in too.. and then my ass would be under that dryer squinting cause then my whole scalp was exposed from those rollers it just torched my skin to DEATH! In addiditon to me being a coloring fanatic since I was 16!!! LMAO! so i’m like all the above is true for me when it comes to damage.
But now…. i’m excited and i’m going to put some of these to work and re-love my scalp.. THAnks! :)
I LOVE deep conditioner but I may be one of those that don’t rub into the “meat” of the area. I also heard that i’m going to
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what if its from chemical damage from using a product that actually did more damage than good follicure used it some years ago the thicken my hair it damaged my hair in the spots where I applied the product it changed the texture I think from the bulb .