Pictures of single strand knots

[anon123]

Someone in another thread asked if there were pictures of single strand knots. I took a few and decided to put them in their own thread because a separate thread for the pictures would make future searches easier.

This is a single strand knot that has just started to form. It's still loose. It will get tighter, though, as time goes on and the hair is pulled:

This is a picture of a single strand knot that is fairly tight:

This is an end that knotted and then knotted again in the same spot. So it still involves a single strand of hair, but it's tied itself into a knot twice over in the same spot:

I got all these pictures out of one small twist at the front of my hair. Amazingly, I actually have fewer ssks at the moment than I have for the past few years (since finding the hair boards, which increased my ssks).

Hope this helps.

 

[YankeeCandle]

Good thread. I will take some pics of mine as well and try to post them. I hate those evil things. My hair strands seem to love to copulate with themselves.

Sorry, but they do.

ETA: I've had more hair problems since boards, if you can believe it. I think it is because I "bandwagon" on things I have no business bandwagoning on. What's your excuse?

 

[Stiletto_Diva]

I get tons of single strand knots when I where my hair in a puff. Since the puff is my favorite style I'm constantly battling them. I usually end up having to cut 1/2 to 1 inch off to get rid of them. Or the knot will be 3-4 inches up the strand and I just leave it.

Here is my pic:

The knots are so tiny and you wouldn't know they were there unless you ran your fingers down the strands. Sometimes I will have two knots in one strand.

 

[SexySin985]

I get those too.

How do they happen?

I seldom wear WNG's and I hear many peoploe complain about SSK when waering WNG'serplexed

 

[LynnieB]

Aren't they simply precious

Good pics!

 

[Desarae]

I freaking hate those things! I had them as a natural and I still get them now.

 

[LaFemmeNaturelle]

Thanks for the pics!!

So the question is...is it absolutely necessary to cut them out? I'm sure one can't evaluate every strand on the head and therefore will miss more than a few. I would hate to get these and hinder all of my progress. What's the best way to avoid them other than staying away from washngos (which i have no intentions of staying away lol)?

 

[anon123]

Good thread. I will take some pics of mine as well and try to post them. I hate those evil things. My hair strands seem to love to copulate with themselves.

Sorry, but they do.

ETA: I've had more hair problems since boards, if you can believe it. I think it is because I "bandwagon" on things I have no business bandwagoning on. What's your excuse?

If yours are copulating, does that mean mine are masturbating? Stay off those bandwagons! I'm done with those, too.

My excuse? Oh, for having more SSKs since joining hair boards? It is undoubtedly getting rid of heat. I used to blow dry after almost every wash. My hair broke off, but it was knot free. But I was rougher on my hair in combing, too, so I can't blame all the breakage of the blow dryer. I'm working on the happy medium now.

Thanks for the pics!!

So the question is...is it absolutely necessary to cut them out? I'm sure one can't evaluate every strand on the head and therefore will miss more than a few. I would hate to get these and hinder all of my progress. What's the best way to avoid them other than staying away from washngos (which i have no intentions of staying away lol)?

I can't really say. Wash and gos are the absolute worst for these, so I have no advice. But if you are doing WnGs and not having problems, then maybe they wont' be a problem for you. I don't cut them all out. I can't. But when there are too many, so much that the tangling is out of control, I trim.

 

[Nappy_in_the_City]

There is nothing to destroy these buggers.

 

[Janet']

OT: Lynnie B...your hair is I LOVE it!!!!

I know that we naturals get ssk's often, but I have heard of relaxed heads having to battle them too...Who knows?!

 

[Golden75]

I freaking hate those things! I had them as a natural and I still get them now.

I was just going to ask, do relaxed/texlaxed ladies get them too? I don't remember much when I was fully relaxed - I say fully cuz now I am about 9months post - and I have them very frequently especially nape and edges where my hair is shorter and no relax parts exist in these regions. Can't remember much bout the rest of my head since I been in sew-ins since late December.

 

[FlowerHair]

I just bite them off.

 

[Kneechay]

If you had them, would you know for sure or would you kinda have to search? I've never had SSK problem, how and when should I look out for them?

 

[locabouthair]

I had them as a natural and as texlaxed I get them occasionally. They never bothered me I just knew thats what kinky hair did. I dont see any reason their should be cut off. If I chose to do that I'd never retain any length.

 

[Golden75]

If you had them, would you know for sure or would you kinda have to search? I've never had SSK problem, how and when should I look out for them?

I usually feel them if I am playing with a strand or two of hair. I guess my hair is fine so it would be hard to see since the knots can be so small.

 

[LadyRaider]

Now what on earth are you doing with your hair to get those things? Backflips? I've never seen such a thing!

 

[Candy828]

Thanks for the pics!!

So the question is...is it absolutely necessary to cut them out? I'm sure one can't evaluate every strand on the head and therefore will miss more than a few. I would hate to get these and hinder all of my progress. What's the best way to avoid them other than staying away from washngos (which i have no intentions of staying away lol)?

Yes. If you don't you will experience a lot of breakage and your hair will only grow to a certain length. In the past I could never get past waist length because my hair would constantly break off, partly because of these knots. Now I catch them at the curl stage.... they wrap themselves around longer hairs. If I don't cut them out them become knots and the longer hairs break off. These are usually shorter hairs so it doesn't make that big of a difference to clip them out. But this is something you have to search for and do on a regular basis. Now my hair is brushing tailbone but I am working on thickening it up from previous years breakage. So far everything is going good. I have accepted the fact that the forming of single strand knots is a part of my life forever...so I clip them if I find them and I do this two to three times a week. I have attached a picture of what I cut out of my hair. It is the curl that wrapped it self around longer hairs. This is the stage before a knot occurs! I advice to catch them at this stage... then the hair strands will grow longer, faster....

 

[virtuenow]

My excuse? Oh, for having more SSKs since joining hair boards? It is undoubtedly getting rid of heat. I used to blow dry after almost every wash. My hair broke off, but it was knot free. But I was rougher on my hair in combing, too, so I can't blame all the breakage of the blow dryer. I'm working on the happy medium now.



I can't really say. Wash and gos are the absolute worst for these, so I have no advice. But if you are doing WnGs and not having problems, then maybe they wont' be a problem for you. I don't cut them all out. I can't. But when there are too many, so much that the tangling is out of control, I trim.

Yeah, I blow dry after every wash (now using tension method) and I do not have a problem w/single strand knots. Believe me, I would have endless single strand knots if I didn't blow dry. Btw, Mwedzi, my texture is very similar to yours judging from your prev pics. Also, I do not use a comb (finger combing is awesome)-- unless my hair is soaking wet or loaded w/conditioner.

 

[CocoGlow]

UGGHH...those pics look so familiar

 

[hair4romheaven]

Yeah, I blow dry after every wash (now using tension method) and I do not have a problem w/single strand knots. Believe me, I would have endless single strand knots if I didn't blow dry. Btw, Mwedzi, my texture is very similar to yours judging from your prev pics. Also, I do not use a comb (finger combing is awesome)-- unless my hair is soaking wet or loaded w/conditioner.

That is exactly what I do to my hair. Since I am 8mnth post. I wash in braids, DC and dry 80% with leave in and take each braid out and blow dry using tension method mostly cool air and my fingers and I have no problems with ssk.
Virtue now I am happy to hear this still method works being 100% natural.

 

[freecurl]

Thanks for posting these. I absolutely HATE my SSKs. I've even tried to take a safety pin and unravel the looser ones. I now know that I have to start blowdrying and/or rollersetting to get less coiled ends and prevent SSKs.

Someone in another thread asked if there were pictures of single strand knots. I took a few and decided to put them in their own thread because a separate thread for the pictures would make future searches easier.

This is a single strand knot that has just started to form. It's still loose. It will get tighter, though, as time goes on and the hair is pulled:

This is a picture of a single strand knot that is fairly tight:

This is an end that knotted and then knotted again in the same spot. So it still involves a single strand of hair, but it's tied itself into a knot twice over in the same spot:

I got all these pictures out of one small twist at the front of my hair. Amazingly, I actually have fewer ssks at the moment than I have for the past few years (since finding the hair boards, which increased my ssks).

Hope this helps.

 

[sharifeh]

I just bite them off.

what?

 

[FlowerHair]

what?

LOL!!!

If I happen to see one I bite it off if I'm not near a pair of scissors.
I can't stand them.

 

[Platinum]

I get these in my nape area (100% natural nape). They usually occur at the ends of the strands. I just cut them out, right above the knot so I won't lose my length.

 

[SweetSpirit86]

I was just going to ask, do relaxed/texlaxed ladies get them too? I don't remember much when I was fully relaxed - I say fully cuz now I am about 9months post - and I have them very frequently especially nape and edges where my hair is shorter and no relax parts exist in these regions. Can't remember much bout the rest of my head since I been in sew-ins since late December.

I had tons as a "full" natural. I have fewer now that I'm texlaxed, and really only get them when I start playing in my hair doing stuff I ain't got no business doing in the first place. In the past when I was bonelaxed, I didn't have them at all. Didn't even know they existed.

 

[otegwu]

I hate them, They Make me *shudder* I took off 2.5 inches recently, because I found them all over, I know they arent that bad but every time i touched my hair i could feel them urgg !

 

[hillytmj]

I know exactly what those look like. I get a head full of them if I air dry or try to do a fully air dried braidout.

 

[gimbap]

I'm dealing with these now

 

[BillsBackerz67]

My resolution to these was heat, and my hair is thanking me for it. I wish I would have taken a pic of the strand I found last year with 5 knots on it. Thats when I was fed up and started to go back to the heat route. The only way I will wear wngs faithfully from now on is if Im trying to maintain a certain length where I would trim every month anyway.

 

[Stiletto_Diva]

If you had them, would you know for sure or would you kinda have to search? I've never had SSK problem, how and when should I look out for them?

I didn't even realize that I had them until the first time I got my hair flat ironed, which was about 6 months after my BC. My straightened hair kept getting caught on my shirt and I couldn't figure out why. I finally inspected a strand and found a SSK and realized the knot was getting pulled by my shirt.

They've been driving me crazy ever since. Just the fact knowing they are there upsets me. I wouldn't be bothered by them so much if I only wore my hair in its coily state, but when my hair is straightened I can feel them and it makes my hair feel gross.