What happened to my curls?

[lonelysky]

So I cowashed my hair and decided to set to set to trimming and detangling it. As I'm working through (first with a pick, then shower comb, then med comb then fine comb) my curls are disappearing and with that the demarcation between my scab hair/bad ends and my curls.



The top right puff is the section in question.

 

[EllePixie]

You're combing them out....combing hair separates curls...

 

[**SaSSy**]

You used too many hair tools. The smaller the teeth, the more puff or lost of definition happens. You can either rewet your hair and start over with just a wide tooth comb, or trim your hair when it's dry in twist or braids and just cut a little bit of the tips.

 

[Charz]

If you wash your hair, they will come back....

 

[lonelysky]

I don't usually do this, but when I use only a big comb, my hair always ends up a net of tangles and my curls get fused together. I also end up shedding hairballs as my hair naturally falls

I don't know what else to do.

 

[**SaSSy**]

I don't usually do this, but when I use only a big comb, my hair always ends up a net of tangles and my curls get fused together. I also end up shedding hairballs as my hair naturally falls

I don't know what else to do.

Wow that's very opposite of my hair. Actually to detange my hair all I need is a wide teeth comb and that's it for me. You might need a detangling brush such as the tangle teaser, or a denman brush. It sounds like you have tight small curls in the 4s.

 

[lonelysky]

My hair is what I would term between 4a and 3c. I have mediumish sized curls. He problem is hat the wide toothed comb does most of the detangling and I maintain curl def, but then the individual hairs that comprise each curl can fuse, and when they do it causes issues.

 

[Nonie]

@jcsavestheday What do you need the curls for? If you're trying to retain hair w/o knots and tangles then welcome to the world in which most of us 4B's live in: a world where we aren't too concerned with definition but rather we stretch our hair and keep strands separated to avoid knots and tangles and may actually go for months w/o ever seeing our curls. It is this habit of 4Bers that has led most to think our hair doesn't have coils.

Manipulated 4B hair has no curls which is what some folks call 4C or CNapp, and it is the safest way to keep your hair if you don't want to get a headache dealing with it.

As someone said, your coils are not lost. They will return when you wash your hair and perhaps you could shingle one day to wear them in their glory. But for the most part, you will find that you will live most of the 4B life with your hair either braided or twisted or worn stretched if you are to have a stress-free 4B hair journey.

ETA: Wait, OP, you're 3C/4A? Do you have other images of your hair? I beg your pardon but I hadn't seen your post when I started mine and from looking at your pic I assumed you were in the 4's and particularly 4B because that's what turns into a cloud w/ no hint of curls on being combed. Plus that's what I thought your image showed. 4A usually can make a nice afro but the coils can still be seen.

 

[lonelysky]

@jcsavestheday What do you need the curls for? If you're trying to retain hair w/o knots and tangles then welcome to the world in which most of us 4B's live in: a world where we aren't too concerned with definition but rather we stretch our hair and keep strands separated to avoid knots and tangles and may actually go for months w/o ever seeing our curls. It is this habit of 4Bers that has led most to think our hair doesn't have coils.

Manipulated 4B hair has no curls which is what some folks call 4C or CNapp, and it is the safest way to keep your hair if you don't want to get a headache dealing with it.

As someone said, your coils are not lost. They will return when you wash your hair and perhaps you could shingle one day to wear them in their glory. But for the most part, you will find that you will live most of the 4B life with your hair either braided or twisted or worn stretched if you are to have a stress-free 4B hair journey.

ETA: Wait, OP, you're 3C/4A? Do you have other images of your hair? I beg your pardon but I hadn't seen your post when I started mine and from looking at your pic I assumed you were in the 4's and particularly 4B because that's what turns into a cloud w/ no hint of curls on being combed. 4A usually can make a nice afro but the coils can still be seen.

Hopefully this will give you a better idea.

I have some hair that is a slightly different texture at the back of my head. I can't get to it at the moment.

But yes. I understand what you're saying on the 4b. I have some of that mixed in so I know the cloud you speak of.

 

[Leeda.the.Paladin]

OP your hair looks a lot like mine. Wow.

Anyway, yes, as you comb your hair, especially if it's verging on gettin dry, you are going to lose curl definition.

 

[Nonie]

Hopefully this will give you a better idea.

I have some hair that is a slightly different texture at the back of my head. I can't get to it at the moment.

But yes. I understand what you're saying on the 4b. I have some of that mixed in so I know the cloud you speak of.

Hi OP, what you show here is a magnified look of what curls on type 4 hair look like. The magnification itself (judging from the size of your thumb) shows how much smaller they are than type 3C curls.

Here are my 4B curls also magnified:

And here you see closer to the true size of my curls:

When I talk about a cloud, it's how 4B hair looks when you comb it out. Here I am combing out those^^ curls with a fine-tooth seamless comb:

​

If I apply something that isn't wet as I comb through, then this^^ manipulation will lead to the "cloud" I was talking about, which is just this formless mass that doesn't show clear coils--but notice my hair is somewhat stretched not shrunken as before:

​

When my hair has something wet like S Curl, when I comb it out, it just springs back into compressed but separated curls which are only clear when you are close as you can see in this image below. But from afar, they look like a cloud as shown below:

​

Another way to get that cloud effect is to braid or twist the hair. Again, that would take it from looking coily, to being formless like this:

And again, from far, ^^ looks like this:

A CLOUD^^
​

 

[lonelysky]

Thanks for he help, Nonie!

ETA: I realize now that my hair is mostly the same type, but with varying degrees of tightness to the curls. I thought that the variation in tightness was an indicator of type.

 

[lonelysky]

Thanks for he help, Nonie!

ETA: I realize now that my hair is mostly the same type, but with varying degrees of tightness to the curls. I thought that the variation in tightness was an indicator of type.

I mean, the curls are all mostly the same size, just varying degrees of looseness.

 

[Nonie]

Thanks for he help, Nonie!

ETA: I realize now that my hair is mostly the same type, but with varying degrees of tightness to the curls. I thought that the variation in tightness was an indicator of type.

We would have to see the different areas against the same "yardstick" to compare. From the image you posted, I couldn't tell if what I was looking at was size due to distance coz you have the closest curls looking huge and the further ones looking small. Also 4B isn't one particular size...but a small range of curls so tiny that they do not clump from base to tips the way 4A curls do with the ease 4A or 3C curls do. Which is why a WNG on 4B might just have the ends clumping like but the base not doing so and looking like this:

​

 

[Nonie]

I mean, the curls are all mostly the same size, just varying degrees of looseness.

I don't see the looseness you refer to but maybe if you showed more images of your hair it'd be apparent.

When I think looseness, I think more like CelinaStarr's hair where the coils are open into S shapes not forming coils: http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showpost.php?p=12838783&postcount=131

 

[lonelysky]

ITA Nonie.



This isn't the best because my hair is in a bun but you ban see some curls poking out at the bottom.



Hopefully you can tell something from this. The flash made the pattern a little hard to see.

 

[lonelysky]

We would have to see the different areas against the same "yardstick" to compare. From the image you posted, I couldn't tell if what I was looking at was size due to distance coz you have the closest curls looking huge and the further ones looking small. Also 4B isn't one particular size...but a small range of curls so tiny that they do not clump from base to tips the way 4A curls do with the ease 4A or 3C curls do. Which is why a WNG on 4B might just have the ends clumping like but the base not doing so and looking like this:

​

I have a few spots that do that. So those spots must be where the 4b is. I also have base to tip curl.

 

[ms-gg]

You look like a 4a/4b mix (very similar to mine, looks like we are hair cousins)...but at the end of the day...it really doesn't matter imo Your hair is purty.

 

[lonelysky]

You look like a 4a/4b mix (very similar to mine I think)...but at the end of the day...it really doesn't matter imo Your hair is purty.

Thanks. And you're right. It doesn't matter. I just need to find some products that work for me. My hair dynamic has changed so much over the past year.

I trNsitioned. Then BCd then worked to remove scab hair. So right now what was working for me even six months ago is not working now.

 

[ms-gg]

I see you are not a spring chicken (you have been here since 2005 and you have a lot of posts under your belt), so I don't know if you know that part of the reason could be since the air is drier now so that can play a part in why your products aren't working the same as they were in the fall.

Something that you may want to try, is applying the product in sections on damp hair, braiding or twisting your hair up, and then releasing it and see if that works. For some reason when I apply my products to loose hair, it does not feel the same. It might be because it is reaching more hair strands..IDK

For me, curl activators work, any type of gel moisturizer that does not have protein is good. My favorite is Worlds of Curl curl activator gel. I have been using it for almost 5 years and I love it

 

[Nonie]

@jcsavestheday, I think @ms-gg might is right that you're a mix 4A/B.

For a good visual of pure 4A, @vainღ♥♡jane , IMO is a perfect 4A. Notice how clear her coils are all the way to the base in her WNG: http://public.fotki.com/legslikewhoa/im-natural-again-/may-2010-month-4/dscn1167.html#media

Another very good 4A is @tHENATuRALhAiRpRoJEcT. If I'm not mistaken, she used a comb and hence the afro but notice how there's no question as to whether this hair has coils even though we're not right up close and personal; at that same distance my 4A would look like a cloud: http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showpost.php?p=12719727&postcount=37

Foxglove is one person who showcases 4B hair very well:

Manipulated and somewhat stretched out into waves: http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?p=12618357#post12618357

Then 4B in many forms: http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showpost.php?p=11246758&postcount=36

Nappyrina's 4th pic shows what 4B puff combed out looks like compared to @tHENATuRALhAiRpRoJEcT's above: http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showpost.php?p=11244282&postcount=28

Your hair seems to have characteristics of both and may very well have bits of both 4A and 4B as ms-gg said. The coils at the back in the first pic look like 4A and then other parts look like 4B.

 

[ms-gg]

Hey Nonie, I think tHENATuRALhAiRpRoJEcT ia a 3 something. She got banished from the 4a/4b thread she started lol (not really banished but her coils are a little too big to be classified as 4a)

But anyway, I think she is a 4a/4b too because of her visible coils, and some of the undefined hair that surrounds it. My hair does the exact same thing and I call the way my hair looks, "a month old twist out" because that's how it looks like with all the fuzz and the defined coils.

Here is a pic of my shrunken puff from 2007:

http://public.fotki.com/ms-gg/firstyear/april-07/0002167.html

 

[lonelysky]

Thanks ladies. I've never really understood, been good at hair typing. All I know is that in general my hair is generally curly with some of that cloud that Nonie spoke of mixed in.

I agree with the mix typing. That seems I have some hair in the back of my head that is a bit different than he rest of my hair. And the front is different, too.

I've noticed that as my hair has been growing out, the front of my hair is becoming increasingly wavy/curly. I mean, when i first bc'd there was no definition at all. A year later my patter is getting more defined. What's that about?

 

[ms-gg]

My hair does the same thing. Gosh, I hope I make sense so here goes: it depends on the size of your coil/curl. If you have bigger coils/curls/waves in some sections, it will take more length in order to complete one coil revolution. If you look at your hair strands and notice the natural bends of your hair, that is where the curl begins. So it might just take more length to finally start seeing a coil pattern.

Ex: a slinky v. a spring from a pen. You need several inches for a regular size slinky to form a coil pattern but with a spring from a pen, it doesn't take but a few centimeters because the coil is so small...

 

[lonelysky]

My hair does the same thing. Gosh, I hope I make sense so here goes: it depends on the size of your coil/curl. If you have bigger coils/curls/waves in some sections, it will take more length in order to complete one coil revolution. If you look at your hair strands and notice the natural bends of your hair, that is where the curl begins. So it might just take more length to finally start seeing a coil pattern.

Ex: a slinky v. a spring from a pen. You need several inches for a regular size slinky to form a coil pattern but with a spring from a pen, it doesn't take but a few centimeters because the coil is so small...

I get what you're saying, but I'm talking about the same length in the same section becoming more defined. Like the first three inches of my hair is wavyer now than the first three inches were a year ago.

 

[ms-gg]

Did you use heat/color or anything else on your hair during your transition v. now?

My transition hair use to be really undefined and it was because I used a lot of heat and I colored it. It damaged my hair. So once I got rid of it my hair began to act a lot more different. Do you think that could be it?

 

[lonelysky]

Did you use heat/color or anything else on your hair during your transition v. now?

My transition hair use to be really undefined and it was because I used a lot of heat and I colored it. It damaged my hair. So once I got rid of it my hair began to act a lot more different. Do you think that could be it?

Nope. No heat. No color. Its the weirdest thing.

 

[Nonie]

ms-gg, you think tHENATuRALhAiRpRoJEcT is a 3?

Methinks her hair looks a lot like vainღ♥♡jane's. This is vainღ♥♡jane's hair: http://public.fotki.com/legslikewhoa/im-natural-again-/february-2010-month-1/dscn0732.html

And below is the tHENATuRALhAiRpRoJEcT's hair from about a similar distance:

To me their coils are more or less about the same size. tHENATuRALhAiRpRoJEcT needs to post a photo of an undisturbed WNG oke:

 

[ms-gg]

In those pics, their hair does look similiar. IDK, Maybe I have a different definition of what 4a hair is because I thought 4a hair is really tight coils. Although she removed it, she posted a pic of her hair and someone quoted it in the 4a/4b thread:

http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showpost.php?p=11263906&postcount=28

I do admit that now that I go back and look, she said her hair was wet so that isn't accurate for "hair typing purposes" *shrugs*, I agree, we are going to need a shrunken pic from her lol

 

[lonelysky]

Nonie and ms-gg

You both have BEAUTIFUL hair btw. Nonie: I love that puff with the twist bangs. Imma have to try that out. Ms-gg: the picture in your sig looks FABULOUS.