Reasons for hair matting? (pics included)

bb09

New Member
Ok, I re-read your op--i responded in bold italics



It really sounds like you have some type of damage, perhaps chemical, or over abuse of protein or castile.
I'm gonna leave the protein alone! The only other thing that springs to mind, is my hair's underprocessed. After relaxers, my stylist doesn't dc -I know! I know! Then blowdries it with nothing. Depending on the relaxer or shampoo used, it can come out looking gorgeous, and sleek. Moisturised feeling. But that's when I get the holes in my hair sometimes. No tangles, but I'll get split ends (as always).
As you can see in those pics though, the ends were sticking together. My hair was relaxed as if I was just stretching. So she relaxed the NG, like you would, didn't relax the middle.. then I lost my relaxed ends, and just snapped off the thinner ends.


What's your water intake like? not drinking enough water can also wreak havoc on your hair. I take water with my vitamins:look:.. I drink 2 cups a day max, unless I'm exercising. I'll drink 3. But that's as far as I can go. Wow. I don't drink a lot in general. Do you notice a difference with your hair when you don't drink it then? When you DC, try heavily oiling your scalp before getting under the dryer. For some reason, this has been a lifesaver for my hair and my DC's work much better with the additional oil. I also oil the ends after applying DC.

Yeah, texlaxing has not been the best. I've been using protein or ceramides weekly for maybe 5 or 6 weeks. I've read sistaslick's article a lot of times, but how would you know if you have protein overload? Is the matting /tangles etc a big sign?

I've just been fingercombing:blush:. I used to use a shower comb, but the teeth are wide, so I found it fruitless..

I'll definitely start sealing my Dc's with oil. I was meaning to make a thread on that!

I wish I had a hood dryer. My hair gets Huge from blowdrying, so it wouldn't work. With airdrying, my hair comes out fine after (after moisturising /tying down with a scarf -overnight). But the thing is, the middle of my hair stays wet longest, so I can't moisturise and manipulate the rest of my hair till it's dried.. The last time, I fully airdried my hair loose, and while it dried quick -1-2 hours (good), I had tangless. It doesn't properly stretch your hair. If anyone can help me out with This! How to get your hair right While airdrying. (To just avoid the unnecessary breakage).
 

Curlykale

New Member
@ciccina -wish I knew where the smilies were on quick reply, but thanks for chiming in! Does oil rinsing block moisture though? I remember the one or 2 reviews where oil rinsing was going great for some people, but after a few Weeks, their hair was worse for it:nono:. It became dry. Is oil rinsing something you can do Before shampooing? I just don't want to end up blocking moisture from my dc. You said, oil melts well in conditioner, so would that mean, my dc really won't absorb?

I believe the dryness that some people could experience may come from buildup. I must add that I do not daily co-wash and I don't use silicones, so my hair is pretty "naked" when I oil rinse. I oil rinse just once a week after my shampoo, which by the way is quite cleansing (Giovanni 50:50). So I never experience buildup. i.e: my hair even has buildup if I co-wash everyday and it gets dry.

This is the thread from Sareca that changed my life, you can read about different experiences, hope it helps:
http://www.longhaircareforum.com/ha...-discussion/150965-dont-sleep-oil-rinses.html

I can't speak for other people of course, but my experience is increased moisture and lubrication. My hair gets dry only if it's on the oily side (i.e: if I apply oil to dry hair). So maybe the people who experienced dryness left their hair feeling oily, they didn't rinse the oil properly after using too much of it, or they didn't wash it out with conditioner once or twice or until it didn't feel oily anymore.

By the way, YES, you definitely can oil rinse before shampooing and it works for me. When I oil rinse before shampooing, I can use as much oil as I like without being afraid that it won't be washed out. I can drench it.

The reason why I don't believe it blocks moisture from the dc is that conditioners and deep conditioners are made out of oils/fats, water/liquid aloe, and emulsifiers that bind oil and water, giving a creamy uniform texture.
Part of your DC is absorbed, and the rest is rinsed. So, when you are adding a deep conditioner to your pre-oiled hair, it's just like mixing oil and deep conditioner. When you add oil to a conditioner you can see that it gets incorporated into it: that's because of the emulsifier.

The emulsifier and oil in your conditioner will mix with the oil that you have pre-applied and they will remove the non absorbed part of it it from your hair. It's the same principle that works for the oil cleansing method that people use to clean their faces (oil and sebum dissolve in oil, your face absorbes part of the oil and gets moisturized, and the rest is removed).

I hope the explanation is not too confusing as I'm not good at explaining this, but I can tell that my hair LOVES it and I feel that my hair still drinks all of the deep conditioner I use.

An important thing is that you have to experiment and make sure that your hair doesn't come out oily. If you apply oil to wet hair, you really will need just a little bit of it and it will work very well anyway. Just wait 3 minutes and then open the shower stream and you will see the mircle happen. So you won't need to do 57 conditioners to rinse it out, which is unnecessary and time and money consuming.
 
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Ms Lala

Well-Known Member
This sounds serious if none of the remedies people suggested are working. I initially thought it sounded like a major porosity issue. Maybe it's the relaxer. If I were you I would consult a trichologist or trusted cosmetologist asap.
 

bb09

New Member
This sounds serious if none of the remedies people suggested are working. I initially thought it sounded like a major porosity issue. Maybe it's the relaxer. If I were you I would consult a trichologist or trusted cosmetologist asap.
Ms Lala –someone here let me know about a person/salon in the UK who she loved. I should be going hopefully, sometime in November.

It’s not that nothing suggested hasn’t worked. I’m just waiting a bit longer between washes, cos I get fed up with it lol. Quite a few of the suggestions stuck out as things I should or shouldn’t have been doing:
- Detangling before shampooing –definitely detangling properly in general. I think the water hitting my (tangled) hair made it so much worse
- Avoiding drying shampoo –I’m gonna stick to doing kimmaytube’s buffering technique
- Washing in sections. I’m gonna atleast attempt to separate my hair or do it in halves
- ACV rinsing –I didn’t notice a difference when doing this, but I bought ph strips so I’ll start ph balancing my products
- Avoiding protein/ceramides -atleast for now. I know my hair hates heavy protein anyway

The detangling point esp hit me the most. I posted about it here: http://www.longhaircareforum.com/ha...ting-product-inside-sections-your-hair-2.html (Page 2). As well as the avoiding protein.

So I’m hoping the tangles and knots won’t be so ridiculous on Tuesday. But I still need to figure out when to moisturise. The middle of my hair stays wet longest, so even when drying it loose, I have to wait for my hair to fully dry. Then it’s a pain (literally) to detangle it. I don't think it's getting properly stretched.
And I’ll definitely discuss my hair not absorbing moisture dc’s like at all.. Nothing I've used has truly made a (lasting) difference. My hair only responds to protein conditioners.

ciccina -hi again, and thanks for the detailed reply!! I'll definitely try oil rinsing at some point again.
 

pjbapb

New Member
bb09;12107921The only dc i could Ever detangle with was ao gpb mixed with another one said:
If the AOGPB worked for you, why did you stop? Also, perhaps the oil rinse is getting rid of shed hairs that are no longer being eliminated since you don't do that anymore.
 

HeChangedMyName

Well-Known Member
Yeah, texlaxing has not been the best. I've been using protein or ceramides weekly for maybe 5 or 6 weeks. I've read sistaslick's article a lot of times, but how would you know if you have protein overload? Is the matting /tangles etc a big sign?

You know if you have protein overload if your hair is hard, wiry, easily breaks without stretching, and i'm sure there are other signs. I can't figure out how to benefit my hair with ceramides yet so I can't even suggest anything for them. I don't like how they make my hair feel I was using Ceramidas by Sedal


I've just been fingercombing:blush:. I used to use a shower comb, but the teeth are wide, so I found it fruitless..
Every Now and then you may have to comb it with a comb oherwise, your shed hairs stay in there and cause extra tangles. Man, your hair sounds like my hair twin. lol

I'll definitely start sealing my Dc's with oil. I was meaning to make a thread on that!

I wish I had a hood dryer. My hair gets Huge from blowdrying, so it wouldn't work. With airdrying, my hair comes out fine after (after moisturising /tying down with a scarf -overnight). But the thing is, the middle of my hair stays wet longest, so I can't moisturise and manipulate the rest of my hair till it's dried.. The last time, I fully airdried my hair loose, and while it dried quick -1-2 hours (good), I had tangless. It doesn't properly stretch your hair. If anyone can help me out with This! How to get your hair right While airdrying. (To just avoid the unnecessary breakage).

When I airdry I oil my hair up with coconut oil and maybe grapeseed oil, put it in a pony tail and just let it dry all day or over night, I wrap it in a scarf and usually will put my donut bun on it the next day so I dont' even have to worry about it
 

HeChangedMyName

Well-Known Member
My hair probably is porous. I bought ph strips tonight though. I haven’t really done anything to damage it –e.g. heatwise or dyeing. It's just Very underprocessed. The 1st two vids/pics were after my first relaxer -which didn't go well.. it was really really underprocessed.

Sometimes the underprocessing is actually damaging. That may be the culprit

I diluted it with water, and aloe vera juice. My hair didn't feel stripped from what I can remember. I'm not gonna re-use it, if it's gonna exacerbate certain problems.

Good luck. I'm still scared of castile. lol After years of abuse, I've finally acknowledged that my hair is fine and fragile and sensitive to things.

No DC works for my hair moisture wise. They all make my hair feel good, and saturated with moisture, till I rinse it all out. AO GPB is the only one that's made a difference -but it isn't moisturising. My hair actually takes longer to dry with it. And combined with a few others, (I think) it's given me slip

Do you rinse your DC with cool water? If not, try that, also, when you rinse your DC, don't over rinse it, like you would a relaxer. I have found, that once the goodies absorb into my hair, that rinsing the DC is actually quick because there isn't much left.

Yes!!! I used to get the thin spots. Now (for the past yr /yr and a half), I get split ends. How do you avoid your hairs getting stretched to the max? And what do you mean by as they tried to retract.. Can you give an example pls
I mean just like a rubber band shrinks back up after you stretch it, your hair should to the same. It does it much slower though. You can actually check a piece of shed hair and slowly stretch it and hold it up in front of you and you should see it shrinking back up. You can see how much your hair stretches before breaking. If it breaks really quickly then you need moisture, if it stretches a whole lot, then you need protein. That has been the only way I've been able to figure out what my hair needs.


The roux porosity control corrector conditioner –blue bottle.
I've used the abba ph balanced leave-in spray in the past -I can't think of the name! But it dried on my hair soo quickly. So I'm not sure if ph balanced products even work on me.

Ok, I noticed recently that they've changed the product name and it threw me off. Either that or I picked up something wrong. They have a line called "moisture recovery" that the lady at Sally Beauty told me was the same as porosity control.

Really? Do you use a lot? I remember the correct amount was something like ¾'s of a tsp for 2 cups or 500ml.

I've tried it with a lot of ACV and mixing it with water, and even mixing it with distilled water. My hair always comes out feeling horrible. I just don't fool with it anymore. I just use Suave Clarifying shampoo which seems to be doing great, and to shut my cuticles, I do my final rinse in water as cold as I can stand it. This is the best my hair has felt in years.
 

Honi

There is no board.
I'll probably use less acv if I'm using it with shampoo? ^

Hi bb09! It doesn't matter how much ACV you use. What matters is the dilution ratio that has to be right for YOUR hair. If it's too strong, the hair will tangle. If you start with the rinse, try a weaker rinse and adjust the ratio as you go to find what works.
 

bb09

New Member
If the AOGPB worked for you, why did you stop? Also, perhaps the oil rinse is getting rid of shed hairs that are no longer being eliminated since you don't do that anymore.
True. I think pre-shampooing with oil maybe did bring out the shed hairs. I stopped using the AO GPB regularly though, because of the state my hair's in. It detangles well, only when combined with other conditioners, and I think my hair needs moisture moisture.
 

bb09

New Member
HeChangedMyName, thank you !!. So ceramides didn't work for you?
Every point you made was great. Perhaps my dc doesn't properly absorb into my hair. I use loadss, but there's always a lot to rinse out. I'm gonna use a t-shirt or something and try to steam my hair. ..I just remembered, my heat cap is at home! So is there a point? Can i improvise somehow?
 

TwistNMx

New Member
aquajoyice -Thank you. I don't know why, but dc's make my hair tangle more. As soon as i rinse it out, my hair's back to normal -the effects do not stay, irregardless of the conditioner /dc used.

I comb with conditioner in and braid. Do not rinse it out. Creamy conditioners are best, as I use the CLM method. I'm a 4a, it it works great for me. HTH
 

bb09

New Member
Honi, hi! And thank you. Sorry for the late late replies. I've got a lot of work for uni.
I actually got my pH strips today:D, so when I wash and dc my hair.. have to do it all this weekend!, i'll see where I can pH balance particular things. And I know you recommended steaming, but could I do it w/o a heat cap? Mine is at home.. Should I just use a t-shirt, and leave it on for a while?
 

HeChangedMyName

Well-Known Member
HeChangedMyName, thank you !!. So ceramides didn't work for you?
Every point you made was great. Perhaps my dc doesn't properly absorb into my hair. I use loadss, but there's always a lot to rinse out. I'm gonna use a t-shirt or something and try to steam my hair. ..I just remembered, my heat cap is at home! So is there a point? Can i improvise somehow?

That could be. It takes time to get your hair to make a turnaround and work for you rather than against you. I'll tell you what I usually do, if I try something new. I pay real close attention to what my hair is doing, how it combs, what it feels like in my hands while wet, how long it takes to dry, how it feels dry. If I find that I don't like the way my hair feels, I'll leave my hair alone and then start next time with just one product to see what that specific product does for my hair. sometimes its hard to figure out what is working for you and how, when you layer multiple products.

For me, I have lots of products on hand, but my staples are
Suave clarifying shampoo
Aussie Moist and Hello Hydration shampoo
Nexxus Humectress
ORS replenish pak
Lacio Lacio
Lotta Body
IC Fantasia Shine Serum

That's it. It took a while to figure it out, but trying every raving product that was reviewed on the boards ripped my pockets and led to a few setbacks. Good luck and remember to listen to your hair. Just because something works great for one head of hair, doesn't mean it works for all of them.
 

bb09

New Member
I comb with conditioner in and braid. Do not rinse it out. Creamy conditioners are best, as I use the CLM method. I'm a 4a, it it works great for me. HTH
What's the CLM method? And sorry, I completely missed your post.
 

bb09

New Member
I just posted this to Nonie in my other thread (http://www.longhaircareforum.com/ha...ting-product-inside-sections-your-hair-2.html): I actually just clocked today that I'm getting demarcation breakage.!! I'm so happy about that lol, because it's not that my hair is shedding crazily. So the matting is probably my NG not having enough moisture. And the breakage is from the demarcation line. So That's something I'm gonna have to figure out. I'm due for a relaxer -gonna get one in 2 weeks (that would make it around 5 months since my last relaxer).

Thanks soo much for everyone's help in both threads. I'll save the replies and use it. I'm gonna need help with this demarcation breakage though. I get like 50 x 3 hairs on washday (I eyeball it.. 10 hairs x 5; then 3 lots of tangling).

So this is my update so far. Hair is still tangling.. Hopefully in another few weeks, I'll be done with the demarcation breakage and knots too. Can anyone direct me to any threads pls? My hair hates eggs! It tangles my hair BADLY, so how can I strengthen my hair, or reduce breakage at the demarcation line?
 
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