Sometimes, it be like that.
By Christina of The Mane Objective
There is a lot of support for ladies transitioning from relaxers, but I can’t completely identify with their struggles. I wanted to do this post to support the ladies who have managed to steer clear of the creamy crack, but overdosed on the heat. Transitioning in a new crop of hair from the heat damaged stuff can be challenging, frustrating, and discouraging. Hopefully this post will shed some light and provide some help.
I know somebody out there understands the sheer frustration of having multiple hair textures going on, especially in that transition from heat damaged to 100% healthy hair. Somewhere between my heat damage, new growth, and my scalp’s own identity crisis, I have about 4 textures going on in my head. Each texture likes to annoy me in its own special little way — my super straight left side refuses to naturally curl, my right side forms perfect ringlets (but makes my hair look lopsided, juxtaposed against the left), the front of my hair likes to wave instead of curl…and my crown has a mind of its super-coarse own. With that being said, I have learned that the “n’ go” part of a wash n’ go is actually a no-go for me.
As I have spent the last 6 or so months transitioning from self-inflicted heat damage (not my proudest moments), I have adopted a styling routine that allows me to coddle and slowly clip my heat damaged ends while playing to my hair’s strengths. Sometimes, I even opt for a style that gives me a sense of pattern uniformity. A successful heat damage transition rests upon understanding the following things about your hair:
- If your hair is heat damaged, your original curl/texture will not return, no matter what you do. When hair is heat damaged, the protein structures in it are melted – irreversibly. This differs from relaxed hair, where straightness is achieved through a breaking, swelling, and realignment of bonds within the cortex of the hair itself.
- Although not chemically altered, heat damaged hair is still weaker than your normal, healthy head of hair. In my humble opinion, heat damaged hair may be slightly stronger than relaxed hair. (Please note that this is just my opinion, based upon my own observations of my heat damage vs. those I know with relaxers). This is not to say that you have clearance to treat your heat damage any ol’ kind of way, but more so that your chances for length retention in a successful transition are more likely to occur if the proper steps are taken.
- Not all hairstyles are meant for heat damage transitioners. Stick to what looks good on you, and what your hair responds best to. That’s the best way to maintain sanity along the ride. A little further down in this post, I’ll discuss what styles have and have not worked for me.
- Treat your textures differently. My healthy new hair requires a lot more moisture and heavier sealing than the heat damaged stuff does. Therefore, I’ll moisturize with my leave-in spray and seal with something heavy, like Shea Moisture Coconut Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie. My heat damaged hair has a finer texture, and I can get away with leave-in spray and aloe vera.
Now that we have set the foundation for understanding heat damaged hair, let’s move on to the fun part: styling!
I have attempted many styles – some with success, others with complete failure. But hey, that’s the learning curve. As I mentioned previously, some styles do not look good on heat damaged hair. Those styles for me were:
- Mini-Twists: Heat damage hair tends to have a tapering effect. The hair closest to your scalp is generally the thickest, and sections get smaller and smaller as you get closer to the ends of the hair. Mini-twists left me feeling like my hair was thinner than it actually was.
- Chunky Braids: Because of the tapering effect mentioned, chunky braids never worked for me. Not to mention my hair is layered, and braids would become progressively shorter the closer I got to my face.
- Chunky Twists: Ever notice how healthy, natural hair “stays put” for the most part, when it is twisted… all the way to the ends (a’ la Naptural85)? Heat damaged hair, well at least my heat damaged hair, tends to unravel at the ends – forcing me to use scrunchies. This is fine for a night-time set to get cute waves for the next day, but as a style it doesn’t work for me. I am a full-time Director for a Non-Profit Program. Walking around with multicolored scrunchies is not in my cards.
Styles that do work for heat damaged hair, that blend, conceal, or make the most of my multiple textures have been:
Bantu Knot-Outs
I covered this one a while ago, and you can catch all the detailed instructions here. Sure, they’re a pain to sleep in, but the inconvenience pales in comparison to the cute super tight (or super loose, depending on how big your knots are) ringlets you emerge with. Perfect camouflage for multiple textures — it stretches my more shrink-prone textures while giving definition to my straighter side.
Braid-Outs
Braid outs are probably the least complicated of all the prep practices, and will produce anything from tiny crinkles to gentle waves, depending on how small are large your braids are. Just prep with your favorite moisturizing product(s), braid, cover, and undo the next morning!
Flat Twists
Admittedly, I am still trying to master this one. Since flat twisting is just like cornrows (with two pieces of hair instead of three), I pretty much suck at it. Even with my sub-par twisting skills, I manage to get some great, cooperative curly waves all over, instead on just 1/4 of my head.
Flexi-Rods
They are a complete and utter pain to sleep in (worse than the Bantu Knots), and you definitely have to take the time to learn how to get your hair around the rod correctly to achieve the uniform curls you seek. But once you do all that, the result is well worth it.
Buns
The boring bad guy of the bunch. I resort to bunning as my go-to protective style 80% of the time. Sometimes I’ll mix it up and do a hump-thingie in the front, or a flat-twist crown around my hairline. Buns are definitely great for me, and make the transition from work to gym time seamless. I usually wear a twist or braid out on weekends, and use the manufactured texture from those to add some definition to my buns throughout the week.
What are some of your go-to transitioning styles?
I do those styles and my hair isn’t heat damaged :-)
so what?
Hey! Dont be rude to her…
I have trouble with the heat damage at the moment and right now I got cornrows in to avoid straighning my hair and let it grow. But I need to get the ends trimmed but does any one know if pure shea butter is good for damaged hair
Raw Shea butter works great for me but not for others. Definitely worth trying.
ok thank you i will try that and i have used natural oils on my hair such as lavender oil and rose mary oils
buns!
This has been most informative for me! I even appreciate the use of language and imagery you used as it describes me perfectly. I have about 90 textures of hair myself (this week at the beach proved it!) It has been most frustrating as I’m afraid to leave the “HEAT”. My flat iron and hair are both “burnt out” and I think it’s time to properly take care of my natural hair… I’m just afraid :-(
Thanks for this post!
Christina, Thanks for sharing, my daughter’s hair became extremely heat damaged due to the Egyptian hair straightening process (very HOT blow drying technique).At first we loved the silkiness of it, but soon realized that her hair was shedding and unable to revert back to its natural curly state. The mini twists didn’t work for her either, but we are having luck with the Bantu knots and flexi rods. Braids continued to shed her hair. We’ve since found a stylist who specializes in natural hair. It took a year to damage it, I hope the worse is now over.The shedding has completely stopped and her hair looks 100% better.She has around 3 textures now, straight (ends) wavy (mid), curly (roots), ends are trimmed approximately every 2wks.
OMG FINALLY A POST FOR ME! I never hear anything about heat damage! Just transitioning from perms! Thanks for this. It is good to know I am not the only one goin through this! Good luck with your healthy hair journey!!!
Mine was heat and color damaged. I have the same issues. I still sport twists, I use a perm rod at the ends of the hair at the front of my face to keep the ends together. I also get a curly q effect when I take them out in the morning.
OMG, this article basically sums up my hair journey right now! I have all the same issues.
After 3 years of being natural, one day I just decided I wanted to wear my hair straight for a while (just for a change of pace), and went overboard with the constant flat ironing. I also wasn’t taking any protective measures when straightening it (like using a heat protectant,or using lower heat settings)….the heat damage got to the point my hair literally will not curly AT ALL! So now I’m back at square one with transitioning.
8 months into no-heat transitioning and it’s starting to wear on me dealing with the multiple textures, and only being able to wear braid outs, bantu knot-outs, and buns!
“The big chop” isn’t for me, so I guess I’ll just have to keep going through the process…I can’t wait until I can do wash-&-go’s again! My impatient, lazy side isn’t a fan of all this parting, braiding, and twisting! LOL
Great post! I’ve been perm free for 4years after 3years with a perm which I got after my natural hair got badly heat damaged. However, for those 4 years the flat iron was my hair’s best friend until I decided to be heat-free 2 months ago. I like working with bantu knots because they’re a style I can work with throughout the week.
unless your ends are split or there is breakage, heat damage is not damage, lol
But it is irreversible, right? The curls can never come back. That’s damage in my opinion. :(
then it’s just irreversible until the roots grow out. I just feel like heat damage is the wrong term. I’ve been hearing it so much when the hair is not damaged and healthy. Just one more thing to obsess about I feel.
I think it depends. My friend had some heat damage on her hair, and her curl pattern loosened. And her hair isn’t falling out, its still shiny and looks health. I guess it depends on how much heat you use, once or twice a week is okay, but everyday will definitely stop your hair from reverting back! :)
I agree with Belle. In my younger days, if I fried my hair too hard, no amount of water was bringing it back and that is not cute. It is damaged.
SN: I’m so glad I have only one texture of hair on my head. My 1 texture drives me crazy enough. I can’t imagine what it would be like if I had several AND be transitioning, recovering from heat damage, etc. I’m sure ya’ll ladies need an award for patience.
I JUST did a post on my blog about this. I never had a relaxer, but after flat ironing monthly, my texture was defintely changing. My hair wasn’t really “damaged” per se, but my curl pattern was definitely looser after applying heat. I hated that, so I opted to only straighten for trims which is about 2 to 3 times a year.
Since I’ve stopped straigtening as often, my hair has thrived and my curl pattern in my new growth has remained in tact. I’m still able to do wash n’ go’s but I have to “scrunch” the bottoms to make it more uniform with my other curls. I also do twist outs and braid outs. I get away with the ends looking “funky” by adding perm rods, to fake the curls at the bottom. Buns are defintely my go to style most of the week as well. I get super creative with my updos and buns.
Hi all :)
Thanks for this article!
I’m dealing with this myself right now… I flat ironed my hair a few weeks back (for the first time in a year) and I have some strands that won’t go back. Well, they’re not going back at this moment, at least. Some are straight, and some are a looser curl pattern. So until it grows out that means buns and bantu knots for me.
On the flip side of it though, having to stick to buns and bantu knots might work out for me, seeing as these are protective styles, which generally I don’t like to be bothered with anyway. So hopefully all of my hair will thrive and do better.
Thank you for not cutting all your hair off and taking the easy way out!!! I went to my friends hairdresser for a wedding trial hairstyle and when I washed my hair I could have sworn she put some relaxer in it…I’ve been doing no heat for every 3 months and protective styling for a year just to get my hair to grow for my wedding and one trip to the salon took everything away from me :( but I don’t plan on cutting, I’ve had it all cut before and I promised myself to never go through it again!! Good luck…please keep us updated and know that somebody else out there is heat damage transitioning with you
I feel your pain! I had been transitioning from heat damage in the front portion of my hair which left me with multiple textures and split ends for a year. For a full year, I trimmed my ends once per month an avoided ALL heat styling and did protective styles a majority of the time. I finally was free of the damage in March of this year and in April I got cast for a hair commercial and the stylist burnt another front section of my hair COMPLETELY straight. I have a full fro with a straight bang. I was so upset! One year down the drain!
I know how that feels :-(
Great article. Didn’t know that heat could also badly damage hair. Now transitioning to no heat natural hair.
My hair would never grow long even in my younger days. It would grow a certain length, then stopped. I’m in my 30s and have finally figured out what I was doing wrong. I was overperming and using too much heat on my hair. I also wasn’t doing protein and moisturizing treatments. My routine now is to wash once a week and alternate with either a protein or moisturizing treatment. After I perm my hair, I always follow up with a protein treatment a few days later. I also perm my hair every 8-10 weeks. My hair looks pretty rough by 10 weeks, but it’s long, thick and healthy. When I perm it, its always noticeable much longer. It’s growing so fast that I can hardly believe it. I also stay away from the curling iron. I curl my hair maybe once a week. I mostly pin my hair up in a small bun. I know it’s not the most flashy hairstyle but if you guys want long, healthy hair you have to make the small sacrifices to get there. Haven’t you noticed women with long, pretty hair usually pin it up. That’s how they get it to grow. Wear it down on special occassions. I was so tired of wearing the fake hair, now I’m proud of my own hair. I no longer see any limits on my hair and I will grow it out as long as possible.
I am currently growing out hair that, in my my opinion is damaged by heat. The problem is, that my new growth is so curly, and teh ends are so striaght, I end up with an afro by the roots and the ends do not curl or crinkle from the flat twist, braid outs or twist outs that I have attempted. I am going to focus on perfecting the bantu know, but does anyone know what I may be doing wrong to end up with th afro at the roots and a slight wave on the ends. PLEASE HELP!
I’m do happy someone could explain the “melted part of my protein structure.” Finally a decent answer besides just HEAT DAMAGE! Because my hair still looks healthy, it’s more silky and shiny, it just won’t revert. I hear protein treatments are good for it and I tried it and it worked. Yogurt, Egg and a few other things(naptural 85 protein treatment). Also the cherry Lola I’m gonna try after a couple of protein treatments. Clarifing washes, too. I think there really hasn’t been enough research to say that it’s irreversible. And I hate the words heat damaged. I’ve fried my hair with a flat iron before and my hair turned yellow and dropped off immediately- that’s heat damage!! What some of you have and I have, I think is just a breakdown that needs TLC to be built back up. More washes may help too. This is just my opinion though. Thanks again for your article. It is VERY helpful. I’ll be trying the Bantu knot out and flex rods!! :)
Girl you are speakingmy language! I have relaxer and heat damage and I’m goin gthrough transition and it has been rough! I do the little twist backs and then secure the hair with bobby pins as my protective style, but I could do braid out or the flat twist on a weekened. Thanks.
Thank you so much for this article. After wearing sewins with the front of my hair out my hair is now straight in the front and it will only wave when wet. And recently I have been getting blowouts and the left side of my hair has really relaxed curls while the right side of my hair has tight healthy curls. I flat twist my hair in the front and two strand the rest (using natural85′ s technique) it helps mask the “uneveness.” I am going to try to keep away from heat. Thanks for the great article!