If you have heat damage chances are you have a decision to make. Do you live with your damaged curls and continue to use heat so that your hair looks uniformed? Do you big chop? Or if you do not want to do any of those things what are your options?
Well you do have one other thing you can consider and that is transitioning. In other words you can allow your original curl pattern to grow out while you slowly remove the damaged ends.
Transitioning requires a bit of an adjustment and a lot more effort when caring for your hair while trying to blend both textures in the healthiest way possible. This post will give you 4 tips on how to successfully transition from heat damaged hair without chopping off all of your hair and starting over.
What is heat damage?
Your hair strand is shaped based on the structure of the keratin bonds in your hair. When these bonds are broken, your once curly hair becomes straight. In most cases the hair can move from straight back to curly again when the bonds are temporarily altered however with heat damage, the changes are permanent.
High heat usage can severely alter the structure of your hair strand making some of them appear stick straight despite what you do to make your hair revert and become curly again.
For some textures the appearance of heat damage might just be looser curls all the way around that is uniformed, for other textures that have severe shrinkage the damage is very noticeable with most of the hair shrinking when wet and straight pieces everywhere as if random pieces of hair were chemically relaxed.
living with heat damage is not an option if your hair is constantly dry and breaking because of it. The strand will be very porous, thin and weak, and you will find it very difficult to maintain moisture in your hair which makes the idea of transitioning almost a must.
How to transition from heat damaged hair
1. Stop using heat
This is probably the most obvious of the tips because the use of heat is probably what got you in this mess in the first place. Eliminate heat from your regimen all together so that your hair can successfully heal and become stronger as you take care of it.
Flat irons*, curling irons*, curling wands* are all a no no when you are transitioning from heat damage.
Janele Telemaque
Hey Traveona idk if you still tryna go natural but these are the steps i took almost exactly when i went natural. especially the first and last one.
Thanks Davida
Having to deal with two different textures has been a true challenge for me. I’m trying not to big chop so I need some motivation ladies. I know how to take care of relax hair but this is a new beast to be reckoned with.
Thanks for the tips. My hair was straightned in April 2015,i now have heat damage a whole section of my hair but everytime i wash it i see the curls coming back.. Can you please give me more tips?
I feel like my hair is damaged which scares me. I don’t want to have to cut it off. I’m also afraid of my hair falling out. What do I do?
I honestly need help
The front right section , some of it is heat damaged and i already started to cut some of it off
So now the back and left side of my hair is full and good but the front right section is short and still heat damaged and i dont want to do a big chop since is only a little front section thats damaged