FROM THICK TO THIN

[diamondlady]

My hair has gone from very thick and full to thin and stringy. I started cutting the ends more often to help with the fullness. I like the straight styles but now opt for the less straight, a little extra curl, to get a fuller look which also makes it look shorter.

My Mother recently asked me "What's going on with your hair"? Then she pulled a piece of it and said "Oh, it's still long but it doesn't look long". I told her I was leaving a little curl in it to make it look thicker. This shocked expression came over her face, "Thicker? You've always had the thickest hair of anyone I knew, What happened?"

One doctor says it's medication, one doctor said it's thyroid disease, it all depends on who you ask.

Has anyone else had to deal with this? I have problems knowing what to do with thin hair. My mother has thick hair, My grandmother always had thick hair, I have one sister with thin hair but she has a very different texture from mine and she can't help me.

Somebody give me some thin hair tips please!!!

 

[Connie]

I second this. My hair is as long as the OPs, but it's thin. It's to the point where when I get a retouch I end up spraying water on it and blowdrying it with a warm dryer to make it pouf out a bit. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but I do it anyway and it hasn't harmed my hair. It grows like a weed, it's just thinner than when I used to straighten it with a hot comb.

 

[Moroni]

I've been doing some research on this, too, and some of the answers I've found are:

1. Type of relaxer (a lot of ladies said the Affirm without the 5-in-1 was the culprit)
2. Relaxer run-off (relaxing the hair frequently.....4 to 6 weeks, without protecting the previously relaxed hair)
3. Overprocessing/relaxing bone straight
4. Relaxing, period.

Since I don't intend to stop relaxing my hair, my solution will have to be to stop relaxing bone-straight and stretch my relaxers to 12 weeks or more when I can handle it without breakage. I'm also taking supplements like MSM, bioavailable silica and biotin (with additional B complex) which will help increase the quality of hair that grows.

I hope you find a solution, though.....I know it's frustrating to lose your thickness. HTH

 

[locabouthair]

I've been doing some research on this, too, and some of the answers I've found are:

1. Type of relaxer (a lot of ladies said the Affirm without the 5-in-1 was the culprit)
2. Relaxer run-off (relaxing the hair frequently.....4 to 6 weeks, without protecting the previously relaxed hair)
3. Overprocessing/relaxing bone straight
4. Relaxing, period.

Since I don't intend to stop relaxing my hair, my solution will have to be to stop relaxing bone-straight and stretch my relaxers to 12 weeks or more when I can handle it without breakage. I'm also taking supplements like MSM, bioavailable silica and biotin (with additional B complex) which will help increase the quality of hair that grows.

I hope you find a solution, though.....I know it's frustrating to lose your thickness. HTH

The bolded is what made my hair get very thin, along with not enough moisture.

OP, What is your regimen like?

 

[*Happily Me*]

my hair has been shedding like crazy.

I read that Isis had a problem with shedding once and she took iron. She was anemic, i think.

So, I brought some iron and began taking them.

I'll see how this works out.

 

[septemberbaby]

Over the years, particuarly the past 6 months, my hair has gotten so thin due to thyroid issues, treatment/medication (and poor diet). I began losing a lot of hair, especially when I would wash it. I'm talking about LARGE clumps of hair coming out and handfuls of hair whenever I touched my hair. Because of this now my hair is the thinnest it's ever been in my life. I read EVERYTHING I could get my hands on about thyroid disease/medication and hair loss and and how to decrease it. I talked to my doctor and he agreed that it's normal to experience hair dryness/loss, etc. with thyroid disease until your levels are regulated.

As far as gaining thickness, stretching relaxers is supposed to help. I stretched my last relaxer 16 weeks for the first time and I was only able to do that because my hair is so thin now. BUT, it was the best thing I've ever done for my hair. I'm hoping to stretch again another 16 weeks.
Also, castor oil is supposed to help thicken hair. I don't know how it does that but I do know that I love it! I add it to my conditioners and I use it to seal my ends. I don't know why I slept on castor oil for so long. My hair seems to really love it and is responding well to it because it's getting soft again.

This is what I recently started doing and it's made a huge difference in the amount of hair I lose (if any) on wash days:

1. change my diet (more fruit/veggies, I drink no less than 1 liter of water daily)
2. started taking supplements (see my siggy)
3. no/low manipulation (no combing, washing/dc'ing once a week)
4. switched to a detangling shampoo (CON green bottle)
5. treat my hair like fine, delicate silk (detangling w/fingers before doing anything)
6. deep conditioning with conditioner & castor oil on dry hair is a must for me! (to combat excess dryness)
7. I stretched my last relaxer 16 wks.

I still have other things to do but these few changes have dramatically reduced the amount of hair I lose on wash days and has reduced dryness/brittleness. I'm that thickness will come again.

"Prescription for Nutritional Healing" is an excellent reference book. I highly recommend it for any and all health related issues.

 

[diamondlady]

I've been doing some research on this, too, and some of the answers I've found are:

1. Type of relaxer (a lot of ladies said the Affirm without the 5-in-1 was the culprit)
2. Relaxer run-off (relaxing the hair frequently.....4 to 6 weeks, without protecting the previously relaxed hair)
3. Overprocessing/relaxing bone straight
4. Relaxing, period.

Since I don't intend to stop relaxing my hair, my solution will have to be to stop relaxing bone-straight and stretch my relaxers to 12 weeks or more when I can handle it without breakage. I'm also taking supplements like MSM, bioavailable silica and biotin (with additional B complex) which will help increase the quality of hair that grows.

I hope you find a solution, though.....I know it's frustrating to lose your thickness. HTH

Thanks for the reply and the tips. I also relax and have done so for years. 'Til 7 years ago, I relaxed the entire length of my hair every six weeks with no adverse affect on the thickness of my hair just the the length.

I now relax 3 or 4 times a years, new growth only and not bone straight because of the thin hair problem I have now. I take a multi-vitamin and B complex, along with juicing & exercise.

One of friends said that the relaxers have changed and she now refuses to relax at all. She did the BC and has been wearing wigs.

 

[diamondlady]

Over the years, particuarly the past 6 months, my hair has gotten so thin due to thyroid issues, treatment/medication (and poor diet). I began losing a lot of hair, especially when I would wash it. I'm talking about LARGE clumps of hair coming out and handfuls of hair whenever I touched my hair. Because of this now my hair is the thinnest it's ever been in my life. I read EVERYTHING I could get my hands on about thyroid disease/medication and hair loss and and how to decrease it. I talked to my doctor and he agreed that it's normal to experience hair dryness/loss, etc. with thyroid disease until your levels are regulated.

As far as gaining thickness, stretching relaxers is supposed to help. I stretched my last relaxer 16 weeks for the first time and I was only able to do that because my hair is so thin now. BUT, it was the best thing I've ever done for my hair. I'm hoping to stretch again another 16 weeks.
Also, castor oil is supposed to help thicken hair. I don't know how it does that but I do know that I love it! I add it to my conditioners and I use it to seal my ends. I don't know why I slept on castor oil for so long. My hair seems to really love it and is responding well to it because it's getting soft again.

This is what I recently started doing and it's made a huge difference in the amount of hair I lose (if any) on wash days:

1. change my diet (more fruit/veggies, I drink no less than 1 liter of water daily)
2. started taking supplements (see my siggy)
3. no/low manipulation (no combing, washing/dc'ing once a week)
4. switched to a detangling shampoo (CON green bottle)
5. treat my hair like fine, delicate silk (detangling w/fingers before doing anything)
6. deep conditioning with conditioner & castor oil on dry hair is a must for me! (to combat excess dryness)
7. I stretched my last relaxer 16 wks.

I still have other things to do but these few changes have dramatically reduced the amount of hair I lose on wash days and has reduced dryness/brittleness. I'm that thickness will come again.

"Prescription for Nutritional Healing" is an excellent reference book. I highly recommend it for any and all health related issues.

OOOOOOh gurl, This is good info. My thyroid has been regulated for years and I had thyroid disease for 9 years with no affects on my hair. It just seems strange that all of the sudden I would start losing hair from that.

Do you believe that relaxing is the culpit?

 

[septemberbaby]

OOOOOOh gurl, This is good info. My thyroid has been regulated for years and I had thyroid disease for 9 years with no affects on my hair. It just seems strange that all of the sudden I would start losing hair from that.

Do you believe that relaxing is the culpit?

It very well could be. I was thinking of going natural because of the issues with my thyroid & my hair. But I wanted to try other things before giving up on relaxing 100%. So far, so good. Less is more, so if I only relax 3-4 times a year, I'll stick with it.

The funny thing is that my thyroid was regulated for about 3 years and then it became overactive again. I decided to have the radioactive iodine treatment last May. After that treatment, my thyroid became underactive and everything went downhill from there. I was skipping periods, gaining weight, sleeping all of the time and losing hair!!! I was a mess. But I'm on my way to getting better now.

 

[diamondlady]

Does anyone think that relaxers have changed? My friend said she believes that major companies have taken over the smaller companies that use to manufacture the relaxers and have changed the formulas and that they don't know what they are doing. Any thoughts???

I think I'll make this a thread to see what others may think.

 

[gn1g]

My hair has been thining for over 5 years and I hate the way it looks.

The cause is life. I can't stretch cause it will really fall out. I went natural and it didn't help either. So I am doing the best I can with what I have.

Have you thought about visiting Dr. Blackburn?

But I found some help. I asure you chlorella will thicken your hair.

 

[ChanelNo5]

^^Yes!Yes! Yes! I do believe something is going on with my relaxer. Last May, you guys my hair was perfect. Even thickess root to tip, lovely legnth. It was just everything I had worked for. Fast forward to now, and for no apparent reason my hair has thinned dramatically. I suspected it was a bad relaxer, and maybe my stylist didn't neutralize properly or something, but had no real proof. How bout last night when I'm sectioning my hair for my wash I discover a broken spot toward the back of my head. About the size of a quarter the hair had broken off down to the new growth. I was piiiiissssed. I know what regular breakage is and this is chemical breakage. I just don't know what I'm gonna do. My stylist uses Elucence but I want to switch to something else, I was thinking about Affirm Fiberguard, does anyone have any reviews on it?

If I don't find a resolution to this situation I may stretch until May (six months). Darn these relaxers, I can't wait for science to come up with a better alternative. One that doesn't break down the structure of the hair.

 

[locabouthair]

^^Yes!Yes! Yes! I do believe something is going on with my relaxer. Last May, you guys my hair was perfect. Even thickess root to tip, lovely legnth. It was just everything I had worked for. Fast forward to now, and for no apparent reason my hair has thinned dramatically. I suspected it was a bad relaxer, and maybe my stylist didn't neutralize properly or something, but had no real proof. How bout last night when I'm sectioning my hair for my wash I discover a broken spot toward the back of my head. About the size of a quarter the hair had broken off down to the new growth. I was piiiiissssed. I know what regular breakage is and this is chemical breakage. I just don't know what I'm gonna do. My stylist uses Elucence but I want to switch to something else, I was thinking about Affirm Fiberguard, does anyone have any reviews on it?

If I don't find a resolution to this situation I may stretch until May (six months). Darn these relaxers, I can't wait for science to come up with a better alternative. One that doesn't break down the structure of the hair.

The SAME thing happened to me LAST NIGHT too!! I was doing my hair and I took a mirror and saw that my nape is broken off pretty badly. I think it's because the relaxer wasn't washed off of neutralized properly.

 

[septemberbaby]

The SAME thing happened to me LAST NIGHT too!! I was doing my hair and I took a mirror and saw that my nape is broken off pretty badly. I think it's because the relaxer wasn't washed off of neutralized properly.

This is what I was thinking after I had my touch-up back in October. So when I went for my January touch-up I made sure to let the stylist know what had happened after my last one. She told me that they use a special color-changing shampoo that is pink as long as there is relaxer in your hair, and white when it's all gone. She made it a point to show me her hands when the poo was white. I think speaking up, made her take the time to make sure the relaxer was all out. My stylist seemed to care a little extra this time around. I hope she stays this way.

 

[diamondlady]

^^Yes!Yes! Yes! I do believe something is going on with my relaxer. Last May, you guys my hair was perfect. Even thickess root to tip, lovely legnth. It was just everything I had worked for. Fast forward to now, and for no apparent reason my hair has thinned dramatically. I suspected it was a bad relaxer, and maybe my stylist didn't neutralize properly or something, but had no real proof. How bout last night when I'm sectioning my hair for my wash I discover a broken spot toward the back of my head. About the size of a quarter the hair had broken off down to the new growth. I was piiiiissssed. I know what regular breakage is and this is chemical breakage. I just don't know what I'm gonna do. My stylist uses Elucence but I want to switch to something else, I was thinking about Affirm Fiberguard, does anyone have any reviews on it?

If I don't find a resolution to this situation I may stretch until May (six months). Darn these relaxers, I can't wait for science to come up with a better alternative. One that doesn't break down the structure of the hair.

I also discovered a spot in the front of hair that was about the size of a quarter that was broken down to the new growth and it was about 2" long. It's still there only it's grown about an inch.

 

[gabulldawg]

Do you stretch your relaxers? I joined LHCF because of this EXACT reason. Since I've started stretching my relaxers my hair is growing in MUCH thicker. I can tell a DRASTIC difference from my overprocessed ends and my CORRECTLY processed roots.