so - i have highlights (bad i know!!!) and iveb een noticing the hair is breaking like crazy lately... anything i can do to stop it (other than continue my conditioning frenzy? )

Dust. That's where you go through your hair and trim off individual split ends with a really sharp pair of scissors. You could also try a deep moisture treatment, get a satin pillowcase, use a seamless wide-toothed comb instead of a brush (that definitely helped me), and wear your hair up more often.

HTH! :D

i shoudl add its breaking off liek up near where my roots are! its liek kind of kinky and looks liek it broke off... i ordered that satin pillowcase i cant wait :D!!!

When you had the highlights done did the colourist use tint or bleach to lighten? If it was bleach then it sounds like it was overprocessed. Bleach will eventually dissolve the hair so if your hair is so brittle its snapping then i'm not sure anything will really fix it. Have you tried oiling? I personally would saturate the hair in an oil like Sweet Almond, Macadamia Nut, Wheatgerm, Coconut, whichever you find the most moisturising and leave that in for as long as possible before washing out. Then you could try switching to CO washing, oh and definately avoid heat styling. Aloe Vera gel will also help to put moisture back into the hair.
I've been in this situation before, i bleached my hair all over and i had sections breaking off, especially around the crown where it rubbed against the pillow so i can sympathise.
Good luck with it and let us know how you get on.

yeha! thats exactly whats happening :( oh well whats done is done right

i have a question about oiling - how do u do that with CO washing?

I put oil on my hair to help protect it. I use a variety of oils; jojoba oil, coconut oil, sweet almond oil, shea butter, mango butter and cocoa butter. Sometimes I mix them and other times I use just one of them. Jojoba oil is the closest oil to the sebum in skin. I oil my hair daily to protect it and I do a heavy overnight oiling the day before I wash. Since I don't CO I can't tell you how oiling effects it.

I think you should do deep oil treatments+ dusting

I CO and often do a heavy oiling before a wash, for me there is no problem getting the oil out. I just leave the conditioner on for a good while, half an hour or more. That said, my hair is weird, i don't use a light conditioner for my first CO wash, i use a heavy one, then i often use treatment after too and i still get fluffy hair!
Don't despair over this, just concentrate on really protecting your hair and filling it with moisture. Also using a leave in of some description plus misting might help.
Good luck, i hope you sort this out, i really do know how upsetting this situation can be!

If its colouring damage then maybe a protein treatment. I have highlights and use Joico K pak fairly regularly. Definitely less breakage since I started using it :smile: Might be worth doing a search on Aphogee which is a super dooper protein treatment - I've never used it but heard good stories for extreme breakage.

Good luck :flower:

also you could look into the Redken Extreme line.
I've used the Cat treament with good results.

I feel for ya.
I had a perm (many many moons ago...)
and when I went in to a different salon for a trim a few
weeks later (hated the perm, hense the new salon)
the stylist told me my hair was severely damaged.
Then she showed me.
A lot of my hair where my middle part is had broken off.
In the mirror, I had an actual 'moses parting' of the hair
with the breakage hairs sticking straight up.
I had a major panick attack.
Wish I knew then what I know now.
I would've done a deeeep moisturizing treatment; perhaps
with oils. Deeply saturate hair, bun it and leave it in overnight; then wash out in the morning.

I also like the Joico line, especially the k-pak reconstruct and the k-pak styling elixir.

good luck. it will get better :flower:

I'll 3rd the K-pak recommendation!

If you have any Sally Beauty Supply stores in your area, you might try the generic version of the Joico K-pak reconstructor. I use it once a week and it really seems to help my fried hair.

Treat it with extreme care, and detangle very gently with your fingers before combing to reduce breakage, and make sure to take your time combing, starting from the ends and working your way up through the length a bit at a time.

Hope it's better soon! :flower:

Is the breaking suddenly?

If yes, it may well be a protein issue -- a protein imbalance, either too much protein or too little protein.

So, your hair is colored. Are you using a leave in conditioner as well as shampoo/conditioning? The leave-in could be tipping the scales, especially if you're a fine hair type. Many leave-ins don't work as well for fine hair types, and a select few of these products do instruct in teensy weensy writing that fine hair types should rinse it out. what other products are you using?

Coloring. mmm. How recently did you last color? I don't know a whole lot about coloring really, but there could be something going on if the breakage is sudden and relatively recent, as in the past 2 weeks, you colored.

If you intend to seek a protein treatment, you may indeed actually causing a bigger problem, especially if you have a porosity issue, which most people who color do. Porosity is where hair is unable to hold on to product such as conditioners really well; it's like so much grains of sand through the fingers. Now, you're probably not that severe, but this could be a part of the picture.

I recommend a hot oil treatment as a first step to resolving the breakage. You could use a combination of VO5 hot oil (warm to a temperature you can touch...not overly hot) and Jojoba Oil (basically 50/50--and HobaCare is the best Jojoba Oil on the market). Wash the hair, come out of the shower, warm a wet towel in the microwave, remove with tongues. Meanwhile, coat the hair with the oil concoction and wrap the warm towel around the hair. When it cools wrap another warmed towel around the hair (use a towel that will wrap the whole length of your hair)--the second towel was warming in the microwave while doing the first wrap. Wrap the hair in the towel at the point you can touch it without burning yourself.

The difficulty about porosity and protein imbalances, is we can't really tell what degree it is (porosity) and which end of the spectrum (protein imbalances--too much or too little). However, if hair is suddenly breaking off in droves, most often it's a rather clear sign that there's a protein imbalance. That's the clue.

You may need to seek the counsel of a qualified salon professional to determine things. You can also go to a bookstore and at least look at Mary Beth Janssen's book, Naturally Healthy Hair. Great book; great suggestions; great home recipes!! Covering every possibility of hair concerns.

Hope this helps.

i have had my entire hair bleached 5 times then highlighted and dyed over it repeatitively.

i use redken CAT reconstructor. i think. its in the spray bottle. its protien. i spray on a bunch, let it sit, rinse it out. and then repeat one or two more times,

then follow with redken extreme DT (rescue force i think?)

tyou can put tge reconstructor up at your roots its not greasy and wont weigh it down. jsut strengthen.

well rigth now my routine is CO + leave in condish all week - i wear it up about 4 days a week but i have to blow dry maybe once a week for meetings :/
on saturday i have been doing a water down claryfying shampoo then hask+placenta which my hair seems to really like (even tho it kind of grosses me out haha) i did do a hot olive oil treatment i really liked that - i also will try some of these protien treatments!!!

hmm i shoudl def start a journal so i dont lose track! haha
thanks everyone for your ideas!