Breakage and Shedding

Understanding the difference between breakage and shedding is an important part of any healthy hair regimen. Many people use these terms interchangeably to refer to any hair that falls from the head. In its true sense, shed hair is hair that has reached the end of its growing cycle and naturally falls from the scalp along with its root attached. The root is a tiny white bulb on the scalp originating end. If a hair does not possess this white bulb, then it is not a naturally shed hairrather, a broken one. Shed hair tends to be longer in length than broken hairs which are generally short pieces of arying lengths. If you ha e stretched your rela!er for a great number of weeks, your shed hair will ha e the curly new growth present on the area ne!t to the scalp, and you will be able to see where the rela!ed hair begins. Some find that garlic shampoos or products with garlic e!tract help curb shedding. But remember, shedding is a natural, internal process and may not respond to topical, e!ternal treatments. So don"t be alarmed if nothing works for you. #hanges in diet, hormone imbalances, birth control pills, and pregnancy can also affect the rate at which hair is shed.

Breakage on the other hand is not natural, and is an indication of an imbalance of important forces within the hair strand. Broken hairs do not fall naturally from the head, but are typically a sign of mishandling or abuse. The proper treatments, will help stop breakage in its tracks.

$rotein and Moisture

Scenario %& 'im(s hair is breaking like cra)y and feels like a brillo pad. * ery time she touches it, pieces seem to +ust pop right off. Snap, crackle, pop. #ombing is impossible without tons of little hairs co ering her sink and back. ,er hair feels hard and rough e en when wet. She(s gi en it protein treatments because the product says its supposed to stop breakage in its tracks and rebuild the hair, but so far nothing is working and her problem is getting worse.

Scenario -& Trina(s hair is breaking like cra)y as well. ,er hair feels dry, looks dull, and is ery weak. ,er hair is too weak to withstand simple combing. It feels e!tra stretchy when wet and almost follows the comb as she pulls through to detangle. She(s deep conditioned and done hot oil treatments on her hair once a week. Since her breakage began, she(s stepped up the conditioning but her problem has gotten worse.

Both of these women ha e issues with breakage, but the solutions to their indi idual problems re.uire two ery different approaches. Before you go shopping for your hair care product arsenal, you must understand the difference between protein and moisture and what they mean for your hair. $rotein and moisture are the key cornerstones of great hair care. Maintaining a proper balance between these two entities is critical for the healthiest hair growth possible. The

two scenarios abo e perfectly illustrate what happens when the balance between protein and moisture is tipped too far in either direction. This section will teach you to effecti ely recogni)e the difference between protein based and moisture based problems and help you can organi)e your hair regimen to effecti ely combat these issues as the arise. $rotein $rotein is what gi es the hair its strength and structure. ,air is about /01 keratin protein by nature. $rotein is found most pre alently in products like instant conditioners 2bargain brands like Sua e and 3045, lea e in conditioners, protein conditioner treatments, and e en some moisturi)ers. Moisturi)ers Moisturi)ers are products that are water6based and nourish your hair deep within the strand. 7ater is the ultimate moisturi)er so water based products are best for really getting the best moisture benefit. $roducts with moisturi)ing properties tend to be your conditioners and other water6based products. Moisturi)ers may also be protein6based, but these protein based moisturi)ers do not ha e the moisturi)ing benefit that moisture6based moisturi)ers ha e. 8ood moisturi)ers will not contain ingredients like petrolatum, mineral oil, or lanolin. These are cheap product fillers. Be wary of products that claim moisturi)ing benefits and contain these ingredients. There is nothing moisturi)ing about them9 $etrolatum and mineral oil are sealants and ha e the potential to suffocate the hair and scalp and seal out the moisture it needs. Sealing in your Moisturi)ers& :ur hair naturally contains moisture, but because our hair is also naturally porous, keeping the moisture inside is a difficult task. Sources of outside moisture, or e!ternal moisture supplementation is a must for black hair. 7ater molecules and moisture from these supplemental moisturi)ing products easily passes into the hair shaft, but they pass out +ust as easily. The moisture you apply needs to held in by something. :il. ; light coating of oil on top will help seal the moisture inside. :ils are made of large molecules. These molecules are too large to absorbed by the hair strand. ;pplying oils to the hair and scalp will coat them and trap moisture that is inside on the inside and moisture that is outside on the outside. The key is to lock in the moisture within the strands with your oil. If you use oils without a moisturi)er or before one, the oil will seal the moisture out of the hair strand and lead to e entual dryness. This techni.ue of moisturi)ing and sealing has really been helpful to me and is a resonating hallmark of my regimen. Moisturi)ing success is all in the order in which you apply your products.

<*M*MB*<9 :ils =: >:T Moisturi)e. $erhaps a word like ?nourish@ would be better than moisturi)e. If I had a nickel for e ery time someone asked me to recommend a good oil that moisturi)es, I would be rich9 :il alone will not and cannot moisturi)e within the hair shaft. :il can only coat the outside of the strand, and gi e it shine6 the illusion of moisture. ;gain, the molecules that make oil are much too large to penetrate. :il molecules are ?hydro6phobic@ which means they repel and do not readily mi! with water. <emember, if you apply an oil product to your hair before you ha e added a moisturi)ing product, you ha e created a seal on your hair strand that water and moisture cannot penetrate.

7hen the Balance Tips, Aou Must 7et ;ssess

Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. ,air is not e!empt from this old adage. 8rowing out your hair is a constant battle between maintaining an e en protein and moisture balance. Breakage is the result of the hair chemistry being thrown off balance. . <emember 'im and Trina from the beginning of the sectionB ,air that is shifted too far on either side of the balance 2too much protein or too much moisture5 will break.

The Importance of 7et ;ssessment

Though health assessments can be performed on dry hair, determining your cause of breakage is often easiest on wet hair. ,air in its wet state e!udes the basic properties of hair666elasticity and strengthe!cellently. In fact, these .ualities are often e!aggerated on wet hair. Thorough and fre.uent wet assessments will help you maintain your hair(s health and condition. ,air in its optimal condition will not break when wet unless undue stress is placed upon it through aggressi e combing or detangling. ; balanced and healthy hair strand will stretch and break only under undue, or unusual types of pulling stress. Balanced hair will feel soft and supple, yet strong while wet. 7hen you comb through it when wet, it should resist e!cess stretching and will hardly break if you are careful. : er time, and with trial and error, you will be able to tell what normal stress for your hair is. If your hair does indeed break when wet, the way the hair breaks under these conditions will gi e you a sure indication of whether more moisture or protein is re.uired to regain the proper balance. ,ow =o I $erform a $roper 7et ;ssessmentB It will be difficult for you to wet assess your hair by holding a single strand and pulling on both ends. That type of stress would be considered CundueC stress, because no single hair is e er really sub+ected to that sort of tension at one time. ;ny strand of hair 2healthy or not5 that you pull on by both ends has the potential to snap depending on the pressure you apply to it. ,air should be wet assessed by the normal act of combing though it or touching6testing it. 7et ;ssessment Break =own

If your hair& 27et or =ry5 Stretches slightyDreturns to original length Dno breakingE you are balanced +ust stick with maintaining9 27et ot =ry5 Stretching a little more than normal then breaksE more protein

27et or =ry5Stretching, stretching, stretchingDno breakage yetE more protein

27et56 7eak, gummy, mushy, limp hairE more protein

27et or =ry5 3ery littleDno stretching then breakageE more moisture

2=ry5 <oughDtoughDhardDtanglyDbrittle hairE more moisture

UnsureE err on the side of moisture

For those of you +ust starting out on your +ourney to healthier head of hair, I recommend you begin with a more moisture friendly regimen before you incorporate the protein aspect. The reason being, many of us 2before our hair care awakening5 ha e naturally moisture deficient hair care routines and regimens6 especially those with no regimen at all. <arely ha e I seen a woman ha e hair problems that are a result of o er6conditioning her hair and too much moisture. I can guarantee you that almost GG1 of the time, poor moisturi)ing and conditioning are the issues that spawn our hair care inter entions.

7hen the Balance is thrown off by too much protein&

,air that is shifted too far on the protein side will break easier, both wet and dry, because it lacks elasticity. ,air that breaks with ery little tension or stretching is moisture deficient. ;ny type of stretching or tension will break it because the protein goes in and adds structure to the hair. Too much structure will make the hair rigid, decrease its elasticity, lea e it brittle and prone to breakage. This was the issue with 'im(s hair. She was feeding her hair more protein than she needed to maintain a healthy balance. If this describes your hair at any time listen up9 To correct this imbalance, you will need to go into a simple deep conditioning and moisturi)ing regimen. Aou may not be doing Cprotein treatmentsC per se, but you may be using other products that are protein hea y ingredient wise. I would watch out for protein in common products like lea e in conditioners, moisturi)ers, gels, and instant conditioners like Sua e and 304. $rotein hides in a lot of e eryday products6 so a oid those for a few weeks until your moisture balance is corrected. This will gi e your hair a chance to e en out the proteinDmoisture balance.

Should I schedule my protein treatments in ad anceB

I do not ad ise Cprotein6ingC on a specific schedule, simply because our hair is seasonal. Setting aside a week or two in your regimen for protein conditioning is +ust not effecti e at addressing your hair needs as they arise. It doesn"t know or understand our CschedulesC. It"s needs and wants change from day to day, week to week. The only product you must adhere to a schedule is the ;phogee Treatment for =amaged ,air because it can only be used e ery H weeks or so because of its strength. The other treatments in between that one should only be done as you need them. Sometimes that might be weekly, other times it may be e ery - or I weeks9 :nly your hair can dictate that to you. I"m sure you" e seen the threads where I discuss how to tell when your hair needs more protein6 or when it needs more moisture. There are ery specific ways to tell E5 :nce you get to know your hair more and more, it will be like second nature9 Scheduling is good for when you are +ust starting out and getting into the groo e, but you"ll soon start to see that your hair often has its own plan for when you need different things for it9 Then, scheduling kind of becomes useless in the grand scheme of hair care things. It also pre ents you from truly de eloping an understanding of your own hair because instead of looking for certain cues and signs, you are looking at the calendar. $rotein6ing on a schedule can e entually lead to protein o erload if you aren"t careful9 It is so much harder to bounce back from an o erload of protein than it is an o erload of moistureDconditioning.

,ow much is too muchB I totally agree that rela!ed ladies need more protein. If you are rela!ed or color treated, those processes ha e compromised the protein structure of your hair66so you kinda need the supplemental protein. >ot e eryone needs protein though, some naturals can li e without it... For the rela!ed ladies though, It"s like we" e all sustained different degrees of CdamageC from the rela!ing processes. Some people"s hair is more protein deficient by nature 2from the coloringDrela!ing5 so they re.uire more to keep the balance in tact. <ela!ing and coloring breaks protein bonds so depending on the type and degree of rela!er and le el on bond breakage you will need more or less protein than someone else. So you can"t say weekly, daily, or monthly protein is too much or too little because we do not know the true condition and specific needs of your hair to start with. ;t the end of the day, you must e!periment and get to know your own head of hair. Some proteins are stronger than others, but daily or e en weekly use of e en the milder protein treatments may result in an imbalance between the protein and moisture le els within the hair strands in some people. But honestly, its almost too hard to e en go by the Ctypes of proteinsC. Aou ne er know the percent composition of these products so though it may ha e a specific protein down the ingredient list, it might not be as strong as if it were higher on the ingredient list2greater percent composition5. The protein in .uestion could be I01 of the product or 0.I19 7ho knows9 Aou ha e to play around with different products to know how strong it is on your hair. Aou can"t really say C:h this is wheat protein so its gonna ery light9C :r Cthis is animal protein, so its gonna be ery hea y.C It would be nice if that were true all the time, but because the product percent composition really plays such an important role, label reading can only do so much. For e!ample, e ery product with keratin isn"t going to feel the same way across the board. Just like e ery product that contains glycerin or water isn"t going to feel the same9 Aou must e!periment and find your hair tolerance and it will ary from product to product, not necessarily protein to protein. For e!ample, some people think ;phogee - minute is a mild to tough protein, but my hair tends to laugh at it and feel the e!act same after using it. For me, I +ust e!perimented using different combinations of products to find out what my hair tolerance is.

7hen the Balance is thrown off by too much moisture&

Aes9 There is such a thing as ?o er6conditioning@ the hair and Trina found that out the hard way. ,air that is shifted too far on the moisture side will be Csuper6elasticC and stretch more because it lacks a sound protein structure. Many ladies describe the feel of o er6conditionedDo er6 moisturi)ed hair as ?mush6like@ or ?o erly soft@ when wet. It has almost a weak, limp spongy feel to it. $rotein deficient hair will tend to pull and stretch along with the comb and then break. It will always stretch first then break which is the result of ery low supplemental protein in the regimen. 7hen this is the case, you will need some kind of protein to gi e the hair structure which will make it feel rigid 2stronger5 again. If your hair is stretching without returning, e en if its not breaking you should use a light protein to correct this. 7hen your hair stretches, the strand CthinsC and becomes weaker across the cross section. It may not break right then at that ery point in time, but stretched out of and beyond its shape, it is compromised and will e entually break at some other point. Aour hair should be springing back to position. If its stretching and stretching without breaking it may be your hair"s way of telling you, C,ey, I need a little structure 2protein5 here9 I"m getting waaaay too elastic, but not yet enough to break66 so do something now9C This is where a pre enti e maintenance protein application would come in. Aou don"t ha e to wait for breakage to act. Aour hair is telling you now Start light, and work from there. Aou may not need a hea y treatment +ust yet.

;nd, you don"t ha e to get all of your protein from a CtreatmentC per se or conditioner either. Aou can always throw in protein based lea e in conditioners like 2Infusium-I5 or waterbased moisturi)ers like 2#antu"s BreakcureDor *lasta K$ mango butter5 to help you maintain the balance within your regimen. This way you can get a little or a lot without relying on one product.

I"m Balanced6 >ow 7hatB

>ow once your hair is balanced and the breakage has minimi)ed you can try to maintain the balance for as long as you can by interchanging your products. It doesn"t ha e to be on a particular schedule. It is a constant struggle to balance these two. Ladies, I remember when I first started trying to get a growth regimen going6 I planned out all my treatments on the calendar. >ow, I" e found that this method +ust doesn"t work. Sometimes you need more protein, sometimes none at all. Sometimes its more moisture9 Aou ha e to listen to your hair to know what do when. So you could say, I"ll use protein e ery other week...but what do you do when your hair decides hey9 I want to act brittle and dry and break 2a sign of too much protein5 the week you are due for more proteinB Balance is the word9 Aou"ll know how to handle it as you gain e!perience. 66666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666

7,*79 ;nd that"s only the tip of the iceberg of what I" e been cooking up o er here. I know its long, but I sincerely hope this helps9 If e en one person benefits, it will ha e ser ed its purpose.

66666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666

:kay66 ,ere is the product breakdown. This list is by no means e!hausti e, but its a good start. It"ll help you see which side you" e been leaning on product wise and which side you need to incorporate products from to achie e your balance. $lease feel free to help me add products if you don"t see one you use up here6 and help me put them in their proper placements. I" e included strength indicators for most of the protein products6 but those are only based on my hair and what I ha e used. If you" e used a protein product, make sure you indicate the strength so that can be added too9 If see something and you think it(s on the wrong side, let me know9

Types of $rotein $roducts& Specialty Treatments >e!!us *mergencee 2moderate5 >e!!us 'eraphi! 2moderate5 ;phogee - Min 'eratin <econ. 2mildDmoderate5 ;phogee Treatment for =amaged ,air 2hea y5 Le'air #holesterol 2mildDmoderate5 =udley(s =<# Motions #$<2mildDmoderate5 :<S Mayo 2moderate5 *lucence *!tended Moisture <epair 'era#are 4 n % Joico '6$ac 2mild5 *lasta Kp ;nti Breakage serum

$rotein #onditioners

Motions Moisture Silk $rotein conditioner Mane > Tail 2shampoo5 ;ubrey :rganics 8$B Mane > tail 2moderateDhea y5 8arnier Fructis Long > Strong 2mild5 ;t:ne Botanicals <econstructor wD Moisture <eco eryM 2light5 ;ny Instant #onditioner like Sua e and 304 2lightDmild5 8ot-B Soft % Minute *mergency 2lightDmild5 <usk Sensories H0 second <e i e :<S replenishing pak 2lightDmild5

$rotein Moisturi)ers #antu Shea Butter Break #ure #antu Shea Butter 8row Strong *lasta K$ Mango Butter $rofecti Mega 8rowth and ,ealthy *nds

$rotein Lea e Ins& Infusium -I #antu Shea Butter Lea e In Salerm -%2moisture wD protein5 >e!!us ,eadress 2moisture wDprotein5 Mane > Tail 2#onditioner can also be used as lea e in5 $rofecti Break Free Lea e In

MSo light, this can double as a moisturi)ing conditioner.

Types of Moisturi)ing $roducts&

M>oteM Some of the products listed as moisturi)ing do contain small amounts of proteinbut in my opinion, their moisturi)ing abilities o erride any protein o eruse concerns.

Moisture6Based #onditioners #rNme of >ature >ourishing #onditioner ,erbal *ssences <eplenishing #onditioner >e!!us ,umectress 'enra Moisturi)ing #onditioner =o e Intense Moisture >eutragena Triple Moisture =aily #onditioner >eutragena Triple Moisture =eep <eco ery MaskBBB *lucence Moisture Balancing conditioner 'eracare ,umecto Mi)ani Moisturefuse

Moisture6Based Moisturi)ers :<S oli e oil :<S carrot oil S6#url StaSoFro ,ollywood Beauty #arrot and :li e :il Most Braid Sprays Mmoisturi)ing lea e ins can be used as waterbased moisturi)ers6 especially crNme based ones5

Moisturi)ing Lea e Ins&

>eutragena Triple Moisture Silk Touch Lea e in $rofecti ;nti6Tangle Lea e In