Heat Damage...

Daina

Well-Known Member
Hi Ladies,

For those with heat damage just curious if you are going to transition out of it or if you are going to cut your way out?

If you are transitioning out of it, what is your Reggie to treat that area as delicately as possible? Do you do anything special? How much damage do you have and how long are you willing to live with it?

For those who say cut, how much have you had to cut? How much did it set you back from your ultimate length goal?

My heat damage is a little odd as I have damage in spots near the root on the right side and on the length on the back left side. These are really my only 2 spots and they are a result of too frequently visiting a Dominican salon in my area. My issue is I can't really cut it because it's not everywhere and I don't know what to do with the damage at the root?

I decided to transition out of it and trim as needed. The only issue now are my WNG'S are not uniform. I deep condition weekly and have been using Olaplex for the last 3 weeks. I am grazing BSL so not sure I would be willing to cut to the length needed to remove all damage.

Come on ladies, who else and share your tips! Has anyone transitioned successfully or is the answer cut and be done?
 

Prettymetty

Natural/4b/medium-coarse
I don't ever wear wash and go's so I don't care about my heat damage. It's mainly on my ends and it's a combination of color/heat.

My hair is strong and my ends aren't porous or dry. I moisturize the ends every other day with Mane n tail conditioner. I try to spray my hair with water daily.

I prepoo every wash day with Kerastase Therapiste repairing treatment and I do a 30 minute dc after every wash. My trim schedule is once every 3 months and it's for vanity purposes.
 

Daina

Well-Known Member
I don't ever wear wash and go's so I don't care about my heat damage. It's mainly on my ends and it's a combination of color/heat.

My hair is strong and my ends aren't porous or dry. I moisturize the ends every other day with Mane n tail conditioner. I try to spray my hair with water daily.

I prepoo every wash day with Kerastase Therapiste repairing treatment and I do a 30 minute dc after every wash. My trim schedule is once every 3 months and it's for vanity purposes.

Thanks @Prettymetty, I stopped doing WNG's in the winter because I didn't want to go out wet everyday but I was thinking of doing them again for the summer. I also get a lot more tangles and SSK's when I have a WNG so definitely need to find a summer routine. Love my braidouts which have been working well for me but my hair takes a VERY long time to dry. Maybe I can return to wet bunning 1 or 2 weeks a month as it gets warmer.
 

LdyKamz

Well-Known Member
I was just thinking about this. I have heat damage in the 2 finest parts of my head. The very front and the very back. I always wear manipulated curly styles when I go curly so I guess I don't really care. But sometimes I get nostalgic for my old wash and go. My hair used to look so nice. The weird thing is as my hair gets longer those fine spots start to lose their curl pattern with or without heat. I feel like at some point I'll accidentally transition out of the heat damage as I get better at taking care of my hair and doing regular trims.

Oh and my heat damage hair is still OK. It moisturizes well, never really feels dry and does the same thing as the rest of my hair. The only difference is I can use less heat to make those parts straight.
 

Daina

Well-Known Member
I was just thinking about this. I have heat damage in the 2 finest parts of my head. The very front and the very back. I always wear manipulated curly styles when I go curly so I guess I don't really care. But sometimes I get nostalgic for my old wash and go. My hair used to look so nice. The weird thing is as my hair gets longer those fine spots start to lose their curl pattern with or without heat. I feel like at some point I'll accidentally transition out of the heat damage as I get better at taking care of my hair and doing regular trims.

Oh and my heat damage hair is still OK. It moisturizes well, never really feels dry and does the same thing as the rest of my hair. The only difference is I can use less heat to make those parts straight.

@KammyGirl, my HD hair also appears to be okay as well. Sometimes I have a little more shedding in those areas but I have still been able to grow and retain length. Being purposeful about adding protein and ceramides to my reggie has really made a big difference. Also deep conditioning with heat or steam has really helped.
 

faithVA

Well-Known Member
I had heat damage all over except the 1 to 2 inches at the root. I opted to cut all but 2 inches. If I had to do it over I would have just done monthly protein treatments and trimmed every month. It took way longer to grow back than it would have to just transition.

For those little sections you have transitioning is the best way. In the winter you will be glad you have all of your hair.
 

Daina

Well-Known Member
Thanks for sharing @faithVA ! I would have to go way too short to be truly rid of it all...I had very short hair once and the novelty of it quickly wore off as I was not prepared for the maintenance and up keep needed.
 

Dee Raven

Well-Known Member
I got really bad heat damage from a stylist once several years ago. I couldn't wear wngs after that. So I did twists, twist outs and braid outs. Then once it grew out to about armpit length, I big chopped. In my case, the heat damaged hair didn't need more babying than usual, it was just straight. It was actually HL at the time, so you would think my ends would be breaking off, but they weren't.
 

Daina

Well-Known Member
I got really bad heat damage from a stylist once several years ago. I couldn't wear wngs after that. So I did twists, twist outs and braid outs. Then once it grew out to about armpit length, I big chopped. In my case, the heat damaged hair didn't need more babying than usual, it was just straight. It was actually HL at the time, so you would think my ends would be breaking off, but they weren't.

@Dee Raven, thanks for sharing your experience. My ends have actually been pretty good. I'm still working on mastering finger detangling but my hair has really benefitted from less comb usage.
 

Coilystep

@imperial_acquisitions
I don't have heat damage but I do wear wash n goes 99% of the time. You may want to invest in a hooded dryer so you're not going out with a wet head. My hooded dryer was $60 and was a great investment. However how many times are you washing and wetting your head? I wash my hair once a week so technically even if you did wash your hair and didn't set under dryer just wash when you're not going anywhere. I also don't get my hair staightened. You may want to try finger coiling for a more uniform look. Use small sections for uniform look check out my profile pic for an example. When I wear in finger coils I can get 7+days out of it.
 

Daina

Well-Known Member
I don't have heat damage but I do wear wash n goes 99% of the time. You may want to invest in a hooded dryer so you're not going out with a wet head. My hooded dryer was $60 and was a great investment. However how many times are you washing and wetting your head? I wash my hair once a week so technically even if you did wash your hair and didn't set under dryer just wash when you're not going anywhere. I also don't get my hair staightened. You may want to try finger coiling for a more uniform look. Use small sections for uniform look check out my profile pic for an example. When I wear in finger coils I can get 7+days out of it.

@stephanie75miller, you have beautiful coils! I will have to check out YouTube as I'm not familiar with the technique. I typically co-cleanse and dc once per week. I have a hooded dryer but it creates a lot of frizz for my WNG's. I typically try to use a diffuser instead. I only get 2 days out of a WNG.
 

Coilystep

@imperial_acquisitions
@stephanie75miller, you have beautiful coils! I will have to check out YouTube as I'm not familiar with the technique. I typically co-cleanse and dc once per week. I have a hooded dryer but it creates a lot of frizz for my WNG's. I typically try to use a diffuser instead. I only get 2 days out of a WNG.
Thank you @Daina just give it time and patience the first 9 months after I big chopped I couldn't get 2nd hair to save my life. I literally did my hair everyday. Sectioning, shingling, finger coils and YouTube were a life saver for me. I really don't finger coil any more because it takes like two hours to do now and I'm always taking breaks and it turns into an all day process ain't nobody got time for that :look:
Now I just stick to sections and shingling. My hooded dryer has a built in diffuser so no frizz. This is what I have http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Hotter-Professional-Turbo-Ceramic/dp/B006HIIJNE
I got it at my local beauty supply store and it was only $60 so I don't know why it so much more expensive on Amazon link.
I think technique is more important than products. Come over to the fall and winter wash n go challenge thread. It has ton of info and even the title says fall n winter many of us wash n go year round.
 
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