Share your SetBack Story's and what you did to overcome it...

devin

Well-Known Member
Well I am working on getting over a setback as we speak. I told my sob story last week on how I had put in an install and left it in for about 2 1/2 months and then took it out and "smartly" decided to put a clarifier on my hair and then it tangled something awful.:perplexed Anyway I got a relaxer today and saw that I have lost about 3-4 inches at least and a lot of thickness so I am back to where I started at the beginning of the year. Oh well you live and you learn. I know that I will not be wearing installs b/c they are just too hard on my hair and my edges and I apparently don't know how to care for my hair properly when I have hair sewn in. I was doing so well for the last two years. I have decided that I will get back to what helped me grow my hair in the first place and that is washing and deep conditioning once a week, moisturizing everday, bunning, minimal to no heat and stretching my relaxers 3-4 months maximum. WE SHALL OVERCOME!!:yep:
 

Wildchild453

When I hit waist I stop
I'll share mine even though its not for the faint of heart.

Mine happened in Dec 04. My hair was natural and I decided to let a 'stylist' straightened it w/ one of those combs you heat on the stove. Biggest mistake ever. Two weeks later I washed my hair and I had nice, damaged straight pieces. I couldn't do anything with it. Two-strand twist looked sickly and puffs were a no go

At the end of June 05, I went to the barber and had him buzz my head. I had less than an inch of hair when he was all done. Now its Oct 07 and my hair is just about APL with BSL not too far behind
 

devin

Well-Known Member
I'll share mine even though its not for the faint of heart.

Mine happened in Dec 04. My hair was natural and I decided to let a 'stylist' straightened it w/ one of those combs you heat on the stove. Biggest mistake ever. Two weeks later I washed my hair and I had nice, damaged straight pieces. I couldn't do anything with it. Two-strand twist looked sickly and puffs were a no go

At the end of June 05, I went to the barber and had him buzz my head. I had less than an inch of hair when he was all done. Now its Oct 07 and my hair is just about APL with BSL not too far behind

ouch!!:blush:
 

lunabelle

Well-Known Member
Well, I have never had an actual stylist because i'm very cautious with who I trust my hair with. Just this one time I decided to go to a stylist of a friend of mine's to get layers cut because her's were so beautiful. To make a long story short, I went in with SL hair and came out with my longest layer being neck length and the shortest hitting my ear.:wallbash: I couldn't believe it! She said I had split ends so she needed to cut a little more. WTF? Anyway those scissors must have been dull because my hair didn't grow back until TWO years later. I believe the turning point for me was keeping my hair in rods for about two months with dc every week. I couldn't believe the progress and neither could anyone else.:grin: I constantly had girls checking my hair for tracks.
 

bravenewgirl87

New Member
  • Trusting people who don't care about the health of their hair. If they don't understand their own tresses, then they won't get mine, either.
  • Getting a haircut. I could've worked with the damage and repair it. instead I took the easy road out.
  • Trying products for the blog. I love my sponsors.... but not everything works for me.
I'm getting there,tho. Look at the blog for updates. My hair is getting EXTREMELY full and thick. The length comes slowly, but its comming.
 

bluediamond0829

Well-Known Member
my major setback....ok the 1st one was the end of last year i decided i wanted to go natural. And the last relaxer i self relaxed(big mistake), then i got a sew in weave and then some micro size braids. Bad ideas. My hair has always grown the fastest from using synthetic braids(no weaves). But my hair ended up breaking off severly and i wasnt able to retain the growth that i had from growing out of my short cut, my hair had got longer in the back (from it being tapered) and had gotten down to bottom of my ear(hey that was alot of growth) and i was wearing wigs....why didnt i just keep wearing wigs i dont know(because i probably wouldve been better off and continuing the washing and conditioning like i was doing.) but i ended up going back and relaxing it with a stylist and getting it cut off....
 

dreamer26

New Member
I joined in 2006 and my hair was not in the best shape but it wasn't in the worse. After about 3 months of being here my hair took off. It started growing and thicking up real nice like. My husband ask me if had weave in it.

Well just as it started to hang pass the top of my shoulders I decided it was time for color. Well I put color in it to lighten it up. I did it my self and my hair began to break and break and break. I finally just took scissors and cut it off,up to neck length and some spots it broke off very short. I didn't have the heart to cut it all that short.

I am now back to less than square one but I'm doing the daily condition washes and using MTG which played a major role in the begining of my thickness. Keeping it moisturized and making sure it's healthy. I was taking Allure vitamins, I'm looking into Andrew Lessman now, and I'm taking flaxseed oil and drinking carrot juice. My pony tail has grown some and my hair is trying to bounce back. Not sure if it's the carrot juice or the flaxoil or both but my nails are growing like crazy, so I'm hoping my hair is not too far behind.

All I can say is know you hair and be careful because years of progress can be undone in a matter of minutes.

I keep saying I will post pictures I will one day.
 

shellyb

Member
After 2 years of being natural, wearing mostly braids, march 05 I decided I wanted something different. I had been researching the Japanese relaxer...aka thermal reconditioning. i knew that it probably would not work on my 4a hair, but I became convinced after reading all of the good reviews and talking to a stylist. It actually did work and looked nice for a few months..THEN I started to have new growth!:blush: (surprise, surprise....guess I should have thought about that before hand.) Since it was so expensive, I decided I could do it my self. :nono: I bought a kit at Sally's and surprisingly did a decent job applying it....or so I thought!:ohwell: Within a week, my hair started to shed... only a little. But as time went on, my hair was coming out by the handfuls...not breaking...shedding from the root! I tried doing protein treatments, which helped some. I eventually realized that all the protein in the world was not going to help my chemically damaged hair. There was only one thing I could do..... THE BIG CHOP!

There is no turning back....I'm on the road to recovery! I will never do anything that stupid again! LHCF has taught me a lot. Now I do wash n go's every day, minimize heat styles, do protein treatments, oil rinses and moisturize.

All is fair in love and haircare....you live and learn. Sometimes those "setbacks" makes us stronger....or should I say, makes our hair stronger! :grin:
 

luvmesumhair

Well-Known Member
Bump!

Well, I was almost BSL and had my "friend" give me a touch up/ Well, she gave me a touch up alright! She worked the perm all the way down the length of my hair. WITH A COMB!!! She was trying to straighten out the underprocessed parts of my hair. But now my hair is badly overprocessed! Next month I am thinking about cutting ALL the overprocessed parts out and concentrate on growing my hair from scratch over the winter. I already cut out a lot of hair and I am not back to shoulder length. But I keep getting reminded of how bad that section of my hair is after I wash it and could still see the two textures. The only way to get a smooth finish is if I rollerset all the time.

I WILL NEVER LET ANYONE PUT A PERM IN MY HAIR UNLESS IT IS MY BEAUTICIAN!!!
 

tallygirl

Active Member
My setback was caused by my cholesterol-lowering medication (Zocor). Of all the possible side effects from this medication, the only one that I experienced had to do with my hair...:wallbash:. I worked so hard to take care of my hair and never in million years thought I'd fall into that small percentage of folks on Zocor that would suffer from any hair loss...Well, I'm back on the road to "hair recovery" and my cholesterol is under control...
 

lana

Well-Known Member
I was natural and my major setback came frow pressing my hair on a weekly basis. I have thick 4a/b hair and it grew out really nicely while natural and I pressed REALLY gently but each week the sink was full of small broken hair all over the place. I never realized that I was not retaining any length by breaking my hair off with that pressing comb. Thank you Sistaslick! Her posts made me realize the error of my ways and I PUT DOWN THE PRESSING COMB...

Now years later, I'm texlaxed with Mizani No-Lye for sensitive scalp. I do EVERYTHING myself after much trial and error I know exactly what my hair likes. I'm about 1.5" away from armpit length and this is the longest my hair has ever been in my life!

I've also recently put down the blow dryer (the secret to stopping hair breakage - no blow dryer - EVER). I airdry and flat iron once a week, but I'm considering rollersets. We'll see. Not sure that will work on texlaxed hair.

Lastly the worst thing I EVER did to my hair besides pressing every week was streaks of color on natural hair. I thought that since I was natural at the time I could handle one chemical process, my hair broke off to the demarcation line in most spots and the REST of my hair refused to grow adequately until I cut all that color out...

Two years later I'm texlaxed hovering above armpit length with thick "wind in hair" tresses trailing behind me. I'm happy! We shall overcome! (okay maybe that's too much) BUT, I'm happy!
 
Whoo just the thread I need right about now.


Okay diamonddollfla!!

Are we stalking each other? I just responded to your OP in the other thread.

I was thinking about your mishap when I came across this thread and was like, "WHOA" ! I never did that before!

Well just goes to show you, we all have our mistakes!!

Du courage! Tu va reussi!!
 

HisBestFriend

Well-Known Member
I am struggling through a setback right now. In April I decided to take the lye plunge and applied the wrong strength ORS to my head for way too long:nono::nono:. Well, it's August and I still have less than an inch of hair in the nape and my hair is still hella brittle. But I know that with moisturizing and DC one day it will be alright.

I put the pic in my fotki.
 
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Amerie123

Well-Known Member
i am so scared of set backs. i will read this entire thread before doing anything. but one thing i've learned so far is, do not try nothing if you are not sure how to do it.
 
BUMP

I'm experiencing one right now. I'm so upset. A few months ago I made a really stupid decision. I decided I wanted a funkier look and dyed a patch of hair red. I did it at home and it turned out kinda strange. The roots and first couple of inches of hair took the dye, but the ends didn't. I liked the color though. Well fast forward and it looks like over time the hair has broken off at the demarcation line. Now I'm stuck with a patch of hair that's about 3-4 inches long. It's so depressing because the rest of my hair has flourished, it's almost BSL, but it'll take a while for that patch to catch back up. This is finally that wake up call I needed. I've been dying my hair on and off since 16 and it's been the main reason for my hair woes. I figured that since I'm natural, my hair could take it. Negative. Never again will I lighten my hair. :nono:

I've gotten to the point where I don't even want to look at my hair, just touching that patch upsets me. I'm going to hide my hair for a while and just hope that by the end of the year it'll make some serious progress. I know what my hair needs now. It needs to be left alone. I'm going to revamp my regimen and hope for the best. Thank goodness I didn't attempt to dye the whole head.
 

locabouthair

Well-Known Member
Last year I went to a stylist and she relaxed my hair and the nape broke off to less than an inch. I didnt perm it for almost a year, I moisturized it everyday and it grew back.

Then, I started self relaicng and I let it process for two long and it broke off again:wallbash:

Right now I have my sides and my nape, that are broken off. All are growing but verrryyy slowly. My hair always grows slow.

Im thinking about hiding it up for a while cause looking at the broken patches make me wanna cry sometimes. All I want is SL. (I'm a broken off NL now) I dont think I'm asking for much.:sad:

My plan is to leave it alone, moisturize daily, DC weekly, and try to eat better and take my vits. I cant do any more than that.
 

IDareT'sHair

PJ Rehabilitation Center
You all are probably tired of hearing my :freakout: But here goes. My Setback came Thanksgiving Wednesday of '08. Prior to this, the same Stylist I had been going to weekly since about 2003, had begun to start acting funny. i.e. haughty, highminded, like she was doing me a favor.

When I would ask for a trim, she would give me a cut and she always did exactly what she wanted to do to My Hair. Regardless of what I said I wanted.

However, I had asked for a particular style and she "pretended" she didn't know what I was talking about and the next week, when I came in she had it on her Raggedy Head! ! ! Nevertheless, me, like a Fool, continued to go to her. I didn't know any better. She was all about "style" and Zero on Hair Health. I had always been at the "mercy" of some stylist on a regular basis since I was 16 years old. And a weekly client somewhere Post College.

This particular appt., she had several clients stacked in trying to make that last money b4 Thanksgiving and she put a relaxer in my hair, walked away and proceeded to work on 2 other heads, i.e. coloring, shampooing etc.....

Well, by December '08 my hair started to fall out in huge clumps daily. By Jan '09 I had lost about 90% of my hair overall. Patches .05 inches, 1/2 inch, 1 inch all over. I attribute it to Overprocessing, Overlapping, Improper Neutralization and General Overall Negligence. No, I did not Sue, but had a really Good Case.

I was/am devastated. That lead me to decide once and for all, to take Total Control of my Own Hair and the Destiny of My Hair. Which lead me here to LHCF. And it's the best thing that I have ever done for myself. I am Learning My Hair for the 1st time in my Life. It is Freeing, It is Liberating. I just wish I wouldn't have had to go through this. But such it life.:ohwell: I will be better for it in the long run. And able to help/encourage someone else. When I grow my hair back All On My Own.
 
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melodies815

New Member
The worst thing I ever did to my hair was not researching the type of water I was moving to when DH and I got married in Oct 2006. My skin and body are accustomed to soft water.

Here in East Anglia, GB, that water is straight tough. I did not know what was happening when my hair went from full SL to patchy SL to NL to lower EL in late 2007. I got braids to grow it back out for 6 months only to find breakage again in mid 2008. I got braids again only to find it breaking all over again by late 2008. I finally BC in Feb 2009.

It still sheds and really want to break. I can feel it....but it's growing normally because the lack of chemicals leaves it stronger against all the limescale in our water. I have a filter but it is not a perfect science.

We have exactly 4 weeks from this Saturday until we live in the US again permanently.

I love everything about Britain except the long winter and the hard water, and while I will miss the country and the friends I have made here, I am ready to have stress-free hair again....

Now, I am natural, low maintenance and happy. Hair is doing fine with washing and conditioning every other day, moiturizing with shea/cocoa butter and leaving it alone. I only comb every 7-10/14 days or so, I think. I don't do much to it now...

It's growing right along nicely...

That's my story.

cj


ETA: Know the water if you are intending on moving away from home....
 

LushLox

Well-Known Member
^^^melodie I can sympathise with that. I live in London, and I think we probably have the hardest water in all the UK. :nono: I immediately notice the difference when I go anywhere else in the country.

My hair made significant improvements when I invested in a shower filter. I researched long and hard when I first came on LHCF and a filter was one of the first things I bought, and I'm glad, it certainly was one of my best purchases. :)

My own setback were of my own doing; consistent pony tails broke off my nape and then consistent headbands (pure laziness) to hide the new growth, which subsequently resulted in breakage right up to the demarcation line. I'm just going to not relax that area for a while and baby it with moisture and DC treatments.

I've learned the hard way through this, but oh yes I have learned.
 

AngelDoll

New Member
Thank god no set backs for me. My hair is the healthiest it's ever been. Thanks to you ladies here on LHCF, I have learned so much.

Such true inspirations.:grouphug:
 

Mz.Shug

New Member
My hair setback was because of one thing....


HEAT


Break that habit and you'll kill a million birds with one stone.
 

DaPPeR

NIBERIANGIRL
Glued in weave pieces that I put in front of my hair from my sew-ins. Smh. Short hairs from where hair was pulled :nono: back to kinky twist.
 
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hillytmj

Well-Known Member
Believe it or not, I think NOT trimming has hindered my retention. I'm definitely a person who needs to stay on a regular schedule or my ends get raggedy and tangle against each other.
 

itsanaddams

New Member
Well last month, rather than trimming off 1-1.5 inches, she took about 5" and pretty much gave me a bob

Oh how I can relate... I was getting ready for graduation and went to my hairdresser... me in a rush, for obvious reasons, and she in a rush because she squeezed me in. Well you know the rest. As my hair was drying, my head really felt ... strange, and as the rollers came out so did the clippers.

When she was done ... it wasn't cute! When I got home, my family was in shock and I was stunned! My daughter went ballistic and unequivocally told me to learn to do my own hair.

It took a minute, because life kept getting in the way, but my hair is really doing well because of this forum. I've got to tell you it really sucks at present, because one's hair is one's glory, that and the fact that I HATE TA WAIT!

But with a really good regimen, my hair is probably healthier than it's ever been, so I am thankful to all of you.

While I wait, I remind myself, of the wisdom that says, that which doesn't kill us, makes us stronger (or torques us off, depending on the day.)
c ya
 
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Nayna

Unbothered
I think my setback was not knowing how to care for my hair initially after my BC. I was basically on my own with my hair and only knew how to do weaves and not care for my actual hair. It grew cus hair grows but I cut it in late 2006, it should be waaaay longer.
 

CaribbeanQueen

Well-Known Member
After giving birth to my DD, my hair was so thick and healthy. I was APL and going strong.. then the postpardum shedding began.

Oh well... I decided that I would continue with my regimen and keep caring for my hair. I decided to start self relaxing which was okay for a while, but then my hair began to break and break and break. After stretching for 6 months, I finally decided to go to the hairdresser to get a retouch....:nono:.

After overprocessing, practically frying my hair and trimming my hair unevenly, I left the salon so discouraged. This was 2 months ago. I am now like shoulder lenght in the front and about 1-2 inches past shoulder in the back.

I'm not great at self relaxing and after a million negative experiences, I dont really trust anyone else to do my relaxers. So I have decided to transition...Wish me luck!
 
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