Naturals: WORST mistakes you ever made as a natural?

[BraunSugar]

1. Washing my hair loose.
2. Detangling after washing instead of before.

 

[StarScream35]

My worst mistake as a natural was finger detangling and then not detangling enough and NOT manipulating my hair while it was dry. My hair started matting at the roots and trying to plow through that stuff was hell on wheels. I followed other people's advice and nothing worked.

So after a little experimenting I decided I needed to use a wide tooth comb for detangling and needed to detangle on dry hair at least every other day. No more matting!

Now the shrinkage is another story. I have yet to deal with that.

 

[Melaninme]

Let me see where do I begin:

First mistake was not embracing my natural strands as they grew back after shaving my head bald ( I wore a wig for almost a year before revealing my natural strands to family and friends).

then I suffered from the following:

1) Combing my hair when dry
2) Washing it loose as it got longer (sections is the key)
3) Blow drying my strands using high heat (to dry it quickly)
4) Blow drying my wet strands while combing/brushing through to my ends
5) Not trimming/dusting my ends

 

[MaintaintheSexy]

Hanging onto unhealthy ends for way too long for the sake of length. I've been natural for over three years and just got a trim last month. It has made such a difference in the look and feel of my hair. Now I can get to my goal of APL now that my ends are healthy. Ladies, pay attention to your ends please it does make a huge difference.

 

[LuvMyPink83]

1.Wetting hair daily in the shower and wearing it in a ponytail but only combing it like every two weeks, if that
2. Sleeping every night with my hair in that same ponytail

I've learned my lesson. Now I never sleep with it loose and I keep it styled in twists or braids after it's been combed all the way through.

 

[YaniraNaturally]

Not strand testing/reading ingredients. AVEDA be curly is my only setback because I just put it in my hair without even thinking. As a result my hair dreaded right up which for me means too much protein. Thankfully I was still transitioning so some of it was permed hair but it was my worst mistake ever.

 

[Bajanmum]

Hanging onto unhealthy ends for way too long for the sake of length.

This for me.

Thinking my hair liked protein, when in fact it's protein sensitive and not moisturizing my hair with water when it so obviously needed it.

 

[ChocolatePie777]

Heat damaging my hair (I prob.would have been waist on my way to hip by now)

Coloring (I would have less splits and breakage and also I wouldn't have had to cut so much....plus I hate the color

Also detangling with a boar brush......omg I'm an idiot

 

[Trini_Chutney]

Trimming my nape over, and over, and over. It would get tangled the most so I kept cutting in off. It' a few inches shorter than the rest of my hair now. Looking back I probably should have braided it and bobby pinned it down or something.

 

[fluffyforever]

1. Washing and drying my hair loose and not in sections
2. Sticking to all natural products
3.Denman usage
4. Not triming on a regular basis
5. Not using clear rinses to smooth, add more sheen/shine and thicken strands.

 

[Gryphyn]

I used a hot comb to straighten my hair regularly...and there went my nape

 

[BonBon]

I used a hot comb to straighten my hair regularly...and there went my nape

I think you're nape went on the same place my bangs did lolerplexed

Its grown back now but I learned my lesson.

 

[ellebelle88]

1. Washing and drying my hair loose and not in sections
2. Sticking to all natural products
3.Denman usage
4. Not triming on a regular basis
5. Not using clear rinses to smooth, add more sheen/shine and thicken strands.

fluffyforever what clear rinse do you use?

 

[fluffyforever]

fluffyforever what clear rinse do you use?

I've been using john frieda clear glaze 2x a week in my cowash or dc. My hair really looks shinier and feels smoother and stronger. I've notice a lot less breakage. it's only been a month, but I'm in love.

 

[felic1]

Let's bump this for all of our new ladies!!!! Welcome to LHCF!!!

:welcome3:

 

[kandake]

Cut my hair while it was in a braidout. Ended up cutting 4 inches in the back of my hair when I only meant to cut about an inch and a half. That cut was impulsive and stupid.

 

[crimsonpeach]

I have several of these.

1. Transitioning using heat. I wanted to go natural but wasn't ready to big chop so I after talking with a bunch of my friends who were natural I decided to flat iron every 2 weeks. What I did not consider was that the people I consulted were "straight" naturals. They never wore their hair curly. When I officially big chopped over a year later instead of a medium sized fro I had to cut down to a true TWA because of the heat damaged. I basically wasted a year transitioning. My hair doesn't do well with heat at all.

2. Coconut Oil. After big chopping I read everything under the sun and coconut oil along with olive oil was a staple among many naturals. I did a prepoo with coconut and my hair revolted. Hard/tangled hair. I would keep revisiting it and the same thing would happen. Listen to YOUR hair! Now I run far far far away from coconut oil.

3. Allowing my hair to shrink. Tangles, tangles, tangles. I was out one day got caught in a sudden rain storm. Instead of once I got home and detangling, I decided to rock a puff the next day. I had a cute, shrunken puff that I loved but took hours to detangle on wash day.

 

[Adiatasha]

Very helpful

 

[atlien11]

This thread was very helpful for me (i read it from cover to cover)—Bumping for other ladies who may find this advice helpful.

My worst mistake has happened just recently:

1. trying to put all of this hair natural hair in a smoothed top knot bun while wet
2. trying to put all of this hair in a smoothed top bun while dry erplexed
3. Trying to wash my hair upside in the bathtub in attempts to get all of this hair in a bun
4. Blowdrying my hair on low heat to get it in a damn bun

all of this required tugging and pulling and brushing and failed gel and a sore scalp...NO MORE BUNS unless its just my natural texture in a very loose bun. My hair is not going to get straight or smooth or stretched as if it were relaxed. Trying to pull it straight into a bun is not working or worth it.

 

[brebre928]

Bleaching my hair blonde

Letting my cousin braid my hair so tight, I ended up losing the hair in my crown area. Thank GOD it's growing back.

 

[NaturallyATLPCH]

Jumping on Bandwagons and listening to what errybody said...now I do what works for MY HAIR.

Believing the so called "bad" products were harmful to my hair. My hair isn't picky, it just wants to be moisturized.

 

[curlyTisME]

Overtrimming!
Too much moisture!

 

[traceedeebee]

This thread brought me out of lurk mode.

1. Putting too much moisturizer on my hair. I let it dry overnight in a fro. I awoke to a super tight twa that was a nightmare to detangle.
2. Blow drying wet hair without stretching it a little first.
3. Blow drying from the roots instead of starting from the ends.
4. Being so rough when I detangled that I pulled my hair out from the root. I had a tiny bald spot. It's grown in but serves as a constant reminder to be gentle.

 

[Dayjoy]

Constantly going to sleep with my hair loose. This leads to marathon detangling sessions and before, simply put, ugly, smashed hair. I'm surprised I'm still seeing growth. Not as much as it should be, but I don't consider myself having had a setback or anything. I just get SO sleepy at night.

 

[Misseyl]

I'm newly natural so I'm signing on to learn more.

 

[Qtee]

Too much heat.. Bleaching the front.. Relaxing when I got tired of flat ironing all the time.,. Not being patient with my curls...I got frustrated around BSL because it was SL curly...

 

[frida1980]

Believing that natural hair is invincible and never adding moisturizers or oils.

And in a big hurry, I decided to fix the edges of my frizzy pony puff by using some cheap gel and a fine tooth comb. The damage was so immense, that I never had managed to grow it out after all these years.

 

[tinycoils]

About 8 months after being natural, I let a regular salon do a press and curl on me. They 'said' they were experts with natural hair. This chick pulled so much hair out blowdrying, and she used a marcel iron. I smelled hair burning. Well, long story short...she gave me an uneven cut and some of my hair did not revert. I cut those pieces out because I was still at the twa stage and wanted to wear my twa.

The lesson: Don't let just anyone do your hair. No one will care for your hair like you.

I did the same exact thing. The salon assured me that the could work with my hair and I basically left with a mohawk - really short on the sides and longer in the middle. I was so uneducated when it came to natural hair I let the cut it curly

It was definitely a learning experience to say the least.

 

[NaturalfienD]

Dyeing my hair was the absolute worst thing that I have done as a natural. I did not realize that the dye would cause my hair to become more porous than it was naturally and it was hell getting my porosity under control.

I think I knocked off six months of progress by trying to be cute ... thank goodness for Roux Porosity Control!

 

[soulglo]

Getting hair pressed for trim
Using curl paste to slick down my twists=recent nightmare upon takedown