Hair breakage along parts

by Annie
(L.A., CA)

Hello:

I am natural, and I wear my natural 3c/4a hair in twistouts all the time. I've noticed that although my hair still looks thick, it's not as thick as it used to be and that I have a lot of broken off hairs that are about two inches long all over my head.

I usually make between 8 to 11 twists to do my twistout. I wash/condition my hair, detangle in sections, rinse, and then apply avocado butter (or whatever else I use) to "set" my twists. I let it dry overnight and untwist and fluff the next day. I don't comb my hair again until 7 days later when I wash it and start all over. And I always sleep on a satin pillow case or with my hair up and in a silk scarf.

I'm not sure what I could be doing wrong that is causing the breakage. When I detangle my hair in the shower, I don't notice a ton of hair shedding, yet those darn two inch long areas of hair obviously show that breakage is occurring.

Any ideas on what could assist me?

Thanks!

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Nina's Response

Hi Annie,

One of the most frustrating things in hair care is suffering from a hair problem and not being able to determine the source so that we can correct it.

I am going to make a guess that it could have something to do with how you are parting your hair. Try parting it in various ways when you do your twists. Make sure they aren't too tight.

Are you rinsing out all of the conditioner when you do your hair or are you leaving some of it in? Sometimes hair can get too soft if conditioner is left in too much and this can cause gradual breaking of the hair because it is very fragile.

Try using something other than avocado butter.

Look at how you put your hair up every night. What do you notice about that section of hair when you put it up?

What about when you comb it? What do you notice about that section? Do you do anything different to it that you don't to the other sections?

Sometimes we can't determine the exact reason that breakage is occurring and in that case, I would suggest trying a new hair style and coming up with new methods to do your hair. You can either do that all at once or do it gradually over time to see what makes a difference in the breakage.

In the meantime, use a light protein conditioner like ORS Hair Mayo to strengthen your hair.

Nina Dyoran, Editor, Long-Healthy-Hair-Advisor.com