When I first started my hair journey I went through a ton of times when I was in denial about some of my hair’s problems.
Denial is always a safe place for us to exist especially when we are just meeting our length goals and something goes wrong. For example, just when your hair is starting to get past a certain length you realize that your ends are so dry and so broken that there is no way you could claim the length that you have because you have to cut your hair.
You might feel a bit disappointed and even rock with the raggedy ends for awhile just so you can have a bit of comfort but in the back of your mind you know what you have to do.
This denial bliss never lasts long, for many of us who have cared for our own hair for awhile know from experience that hanging on to bad ends is just as painful if not worse than getting your hair cut too short.
The thing is there is a lot that can happen to your hair during hair growth cycles and throughout the years as your hair grows. No regimen is perfect and we cannot control the environmental impact on our hair so all we can do is the best we can to care for our hair and catch problems before and as they come up.
As you get to know your curls you will find your self doing a bit of self diagnosis here and there and for those of us who are still having trouble determining how our hair behaves this post will help you to identify the signs of hair damage and what to do about it quickly.
1. Dry hair
If your hair is dry even when you moisturize it with your daily spritz or add a moisturizer to it then you need to do something with a little more impact. Dry hair breaks easily, feels rough, and tangles like crazy.
To combat it we suggest doing a weekly deep conditioning* treatment including moisturizers and emollients depending on the season you are in. Read this post about dry hair now to see exactly what we mean.
2. Split ends
Split ends are easy to detect because they are physical traits that are pretty obvious. If you look at the ends of your hair you will see the little splits on the strand that have to be removed. The only effective way to deal with split ends is to cut them off because the split only gets worse as the damage progresses. Read this post for more on slit ends.
3. Weak strands
How do you know if your strands are weak? Maybe they snap easily or your hair appears dull and lacks ‘life’. Your curls are not clumping like they used to and all you are left with are frayed individual strands prone to damage.
Weak strands are easy to spot when you know what your hair should look like when your hair is healthy, and if you aren’t sure but you kind of think your hair is weak, chances are you are headed in the direction of weak strands anyway.
To fix this issue you need to do a protein treatment. This adds structure to your curls and helps your curls to clump and have the natural shine it used to have.
4. Heat damage
Have you been a bit excessive with heat? Heat damage is easy to spot because hair that was once curly is now stuck straight as if you added a relaxer to that portion of your hair.
The only way to get rid of heat damage is to remove the straight portions of the strand and do a protein treatment for affected areas that are not as straight as the rest. Read this post to learn how to successfully transition from heat damaged hair.
Smooth…
so beautiful