Hair breakage

That aside though, I've just noticed that my hair has become really brittle and if I pull on the ends they just snap off. Not a lot of it snaps, but a about a centimetre from the end of the strand.

 

I'm a bit worried about this and I'm wondering if there are any products or treatments I can use to help with the breakage? I have thickish wavy hair and I flat iron my hair every other day, so it's more than likely that the straightening is a big factor in the breakage, however it was fine before the Xtenso.

 

At the moment I use Nu:u Straighten and Shine when I'm straightening, the purple Fashionista goo when I'm blow drying, and Redken moisturising shampoo with the Smooth Down Conditioner.

 

Any tips or past experiences would be great!

 

You need to do protein treatments ASAP to stop the breakage. Nexxus Emergencee works great for that. Another great product is Joico K-Pak deep penetrating reconstructor (also a protein treatment). Do the protein treatment once a week for the next 4 weeks, or until you see improvement. After that, do them only once a month. Switch to Redken all soft shampoo, and change the smooth down conditioner to the Smooth down butter treat. After doing the protein treatments is very important that you deep condition, otherwise your hair will feel like straw.

 

To deep condition just put on the Butter treat, cover your hair with a plastic cap and go under a dryer or heat cap for 15-20 minutes. If you don't have a head dryer or heat cap, then try applying heat with the blow dryer or simply keep the plastic cap on to create some heat. You need the heat to open up the hair cutticle so the protein and the conditioner can penetrate.

 

What kind of flat iron are you using? If is not a professional 100% ceramic (not just ceramic coated) iron, GET RID OF IT NOW! It will keep killing your hair. If you were using a cheap iron before you got the extenso, then your hair was in bad shape to begging with. So that made matters worst. If you need to get a professional iron, go to Folica.com and get either a Sedu or a Solia. Get the one inch. The smaller ones are better.

 

When you say Fashionista purple goo, I'm assuming you mean the smooth and shine. That is a really great product. Mix it up with a little Sebastian potion 9 and put it in your hair before blow drying. You can skip the straighten and shine stuff. I would also help to lightly spray your hair with Redken All Soft hair addictive. Do not rinse it out. Leave it in, after applying the Smooth and Shine/potion 9 mixture. Then you can blow dry. After your hair is dry, apply Redken Smooth Down heat glide to your hair. Go easy on it. One or two pumps (depending on hair length) is all you need. Divide hair into sections, and flat iron the individual sections of hair.

Your hair, will be soft, shiny, smooth, frizz free and it will stay like that until your next wash. Allowing you to not have to wash your hair every day. Wash only 3 times a week. Since your hair and scalp have been damaged it will allow the natural oils of your hair to come out and condition both, scalp and hair.

 

My hair was terribly damaged by Thermal Reconditioning about 3 years ago. It was falling out like crazy. My bathroom floor looked like a rug every time I would brush my hair. It was breaking all over the place. That's when I started to do some serious research and learned all about protein treatments and stuff. I also learned that chemicall straightening is something that has to be studied besides the general training stylists recieve. Is like a specialty. So unless the stylist is a chemical expert, chances are, they will mess up your hair. Since we don't know any better we blame it on the product. My stylist is a great stylist. I though just because she had a certifacate hanging that stated she was trained in TR (Bio-Ionics to be exact) she knew what she was doing. Well I was wrong, and ended up with damaged hair and a bald spot on my frontal hairline which took two years to grow out. Don't get me wrong, I still go to her for hair cuts (she is great at it), just not for chemicall treatments.

 

Once hair is damaged, it can't really be repaired. But you can re-condition it and make it better by following the steps above. At least it will buffer the damage, and make your hair look healthy, keep it from breaking off, until you grow out the damage.

 

Hope this helps. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.

 

Much love, Shary

 

I use GHD straighteners at the moment, but think that they may be too hot for my hair and they can be very painful when my hair flops back down onto my head!

 

I spoke to somebody today who recommended that I use Redken's line of Extreme products to help repair my hair, but will definitely check out the two recommendations you made.

 

I will definitely not get my hair chemically treated again, it was such a waste of money. I read all about the stories of people not doing it properly and for that reason I went to a very well known company that has salons all over the world so I thought it would be fine. Sadly not! :(

 

Still, I'm due a haircut so hopefully I can try and chop out some of the damage and it won't look too bad.

 

Thanks again for you help! x

 

I just wanted to say that I use X-Tenso in the salon and it is an excellent Curl Reducer/Curl Smoothing product. You should contact L