Which Hair Type is Most Susceptible to SSK?

[Sianna]

Hello all, I am new to this forum, and new to natural hair. While I ADORE my newly revealed texture; as of late I have become concerned about the occasional "pop" I hear when I detangle my hair.

Having done the BC just over three months ago without transitioning, my hair is still really, really short so right now, the problem is not that big of a deal. However, if I can expect it to get worse in as my hair grows, I'd like to at least be prepared.

As far as I can tell, my hair is predominately 4a with the occasional strand or eight of 4b thrown in for variety, and some kind of weird wavy texture in the top and near the front.

Anyway, I wondered if this hair type was particularly susceptible to single strand knots?! Please share your experience with these annoying little devils and tell me your hair type. I am just worried that as my hair grows out this may become more and more of an issue for me and I want to get advice from women who have dealt with it.

Also what, if anything can be done to prevent, or get rid of them?

Here's what my hair looks like.

 

[BostonMaria]

First of all.... WELCOME!!!! And congratulations on your BC!

That's a good question. Although I tend to see 4a and 4b natural haired ladies complain about the SSK, I think it MIGHT also have to do with how often you do wash and go's. My hair is 3C/3B and I get them as well. I notice that its usually if I go to bed without detangling my hair and not wearing a silk cap. I very rarely do this because I'm so paranoid about my hair LOL but if I do a wash and go and neglect to cover my ends when I go to bed (umm we're talking 2 days straight of this nonsense) I will get those pesky SSK. If I stretch my hair (ponytails or rollersets) I can avoid the SSK.

HTH

 

[BillsBackerz67]

My hair is extrmemly prone to them and I have 3c hair type. As a result I wear my hair straight the majority of the time now and only do wng on occasion. Welcome

 

[Zawaj]

For me my 3c and 4a sections were SSK magnets.

 

[MizzBrit]

i have them everywhere and im a 4b..something as simple as wearing a puff maximizes then

 

[Sianna]

Thanks for the warm welcome ladies!! I really appreciate it!

So, I guess I have more SSK to look forward to.

Suppose I'll have to come up with a way to get around them, or minimize them. Oh, and speaking of which, BillsBackerz67, how do you use regular heat on your hair without damage? What are your strands like?

I think strand thickness makes a world of difference in what one can or cannot do to their hair, so that's why I ask. Mostly, my strands are medium, to thin. But, I also have a lot of super fine hairs, and also some that are fairly thick.

I'm just all mixed up, I guess!

 

[BostonMaria]

Thanks for the warm welcome ladies!! I really appreciate it!

So, I guess I have more SSK to look forward to.

Not necessarily. I do search and destroys at least 2x a month and cut them before they wreak havoc on my hair. I didn't start getting them until my hair was BSL. I braid up my curly hair before going to bed or I put it in a high ponytail. There are ways to prevent these things from happening. You should do a search and see what other people do to get rid of them.

 

[BillsBackerz67]

I use heat every two weeks. I go to a slaon. She doesnt fry my hair by using excessive amounts of it, and in between my visits I do not touch the flat iron or try to make it straighter. My strands are medium thickness. A few are cable wire thick.

 

[Ivonnovi]

What is SSK.

Thats a new one for me.

 

[kblc06]

I think that fine, porous, dense, long, or very tightly coiled hair are prone to SSKs. A combination of all these factors can spell hair disaster. My hair is type 3(a/b/c) w/ some 4a throughout, and I am very prone to them. One thing that has significantly cut their frequency is keeping my ends moisturized and sealed and limiting wash n gos. My hair always seems to get more SSKs when I wash n go, even if it's just once in a blue moon. My hair is also very porous and fine-medium, so my strands tangle very easily around each other. My hair is also very tangle and split prone at the areas of texture demarcation (i.e. the crown where my hair transitions from 3a/b in the front & sides to 3bc/4a in the back). Limiting use of gels that can dry your hair also helps

 

[tthreat08]

What is SSK.

Thats a new one for me.

It's a single strand knot

 

[amalacoils83]

I think the coilier the hair the easier it is for ssks, just for the fact that they hair is wrapping around itself and eventually will knot. Reducing ssks calls for detangling, sealing and protecting your ends, the oldest and most weathered part of your hair.

I get them occasionally, it just apart of being natural.

 

[Sianna]

Not necessarily. I do search and destroys at least 2x a month and cut them before they wreak havoc on my hair. I didn't start getting them until my hair was BSL. I braid up my curly hair before going to bed or I put it in a high ponytail. There are ways to prevent these things from happening. You should do a search and see what other people do to get rid of them.

Thanks again, I'll have to check into that. I guess I still have time yet. My hair is so short right now that the occasional broken hair or two isn't really that big a of a deal. I just wondered if it would get worse over time.

I use heat every two weeks. I go to a slaon. She doesnt fry my hair by using excessive amounts of it, and in between my visits I do not touch the flat iron or try to make it straighter. My strands are medium thickness. A few are cable wire thick.

Thanks for this very specific and detailed answer. I shall have to keep this in mind of SSKs become a HUGE problem for me in the future!

...cable wire thick!

I think that fine, porous, dense, long, or very tightly coiled hair are prone to SSKs. A combination of all these factors can spell hair disaster. My hair is type 3(a/b/c) w/ some 4a throughout, and I am very prone to them. One thing that has significantly cut their frequency is keeping my ends moisturized and sealed and limiting wash n gos. My hair always seems to get more SSKs when I wash n go, even if it's just once in a blue moon. My hair is also very porous and fine-medium, so my strands tangle very easily around each other. My hair is also very tangle and split prone at the areas of texture demarcation (i.e. the crown where my hair transitions from 3a/b in the front & sides to 3bc/4a in the back). Limiting use of gels that can dry your hair also helps

Thank you! This info helps a lot too, however I am just curious to know how you can tell whether or not your hair is porous? This is something I never considered before.

 

[HeavenlySkies]

I have a mix of 3c-4b and I have them EVERYWHERE! So the other day I just started pulling random pieces of hair and cutting from the top of where the hair started to feel rough.

 

[lamaria211]

i never do wash and gos i keep my hair braided under a wig 90% of the time and i still get them, also i dont comb that often maybe once a week if that much

 

[Sianna]

I have a mix of 3c-4b and I have them EVERYWHERE! So the other day I just started pulling random pieces of hair and cutting from the top of where the hair started to feel rough.

You cut them all out!! Did you end up loosing a lot of hair that way?

 

[Vashti]

Subscribing to this thread!

 

[BlackMasterPiece]

The more tightly coiled the hair, the more prone it will be to SSK's

OP you appear to me a mixture of 3c and 4a to me.

I would say as your hair grows longer you may have to let go of the notion of doing loose haired wash n go's. You can still do wash n go's on long tightly coiled hair it just has to be pre-braided or twisted for the process like pixie braids or mini twists.

Now that my hair is long I always braid my hair in 10 prior to washing my hair and keep it in throughout washing/conditioning/DCing and that really makes a big difference in avoiding tangles altogether. I aslo don't do loose fully shrunken afro's I always do fro's that dried stretched somehow. I usually do it via flat-twist outs like this or this the bottom line as your hair gets longer is to always always always keep your hair in a stretched state (ie. braids/braid-outs, twists/twist-outs, presses) stay on top of your ends with S&D's and dustings and that will help you avoid SSK's. I get very few with this method and alot of naturals swear by the same

 

[ckisland]

I'm a 3c/predominately 4a/4b mix and have been natural 2.5 years and now I'm finding tons of ssk's. 90% of them are in the 4a majority of my head. I was actually thinking about strictly doing wng's this summer (since that's what got my hair to it's current length), but after looking at my ends, the ssk, and how my hair dries out, I'm gonna have to say hellaz naw! Wash n'gos have been my go to style and now I see that I'm going to have to let them go!!! It's so hard . I'm going to try rollersets again to see if they help.

 

[HeavenlySkies]

You cut them all out!! Did you end up loosing a lot of hair that way?

I probably cut like an inch or less all around no biggie my hair feels better now that I did I still have more to do but I'm just going to slap some conditioner on this stuff and do it again tomorrow. Since I never wear my hair straight I don't notice a lot of length loss but like I said the knots aren't that high up so it's less than an inch all around.​

 

[morehairplease]

I think that fine, porous, dense, long, or very tightly coiled hair are prone to SSKs. A combination of all these factors can spell hair disaster. My hair is also very porous and fine-medium, so my strands tangle very easily around each other. My hair is also very tangle and split prone

I think the coilier the hair the easier it is for ssks, just for the fact that they hair is wrapping around itself and eventually will knot. Reducing ssks calls for detangling, sealing and protecting your ends, the oldest and most weathered part of your hair.

The more tightly coiled the hair, the more prone it will be to SSK's

co-signing with you ladies. I have big chopped/been natural 3 times and the ssk were horrible. At the moment, I am in the process of transitioning and will be getting braids at the end of this month. This time around, I plan on making sure to trim/dust my ends more frequently as well as limit my wash n go's. In fact, I will probably wear my hair straight more than curly to see if I notice a difference with the ssk in my hair this time around.

 

[AfroKink]

obligatory opposite: I'm 4b and I hardly get SSKs

Now I do get a lot of multi-strand knots, tangles, and splits

 

[Creatividual]

I have coily 4a hair. To avoid SSK, I have to keep my hair in stretched styles, well detangled (sometimes I comb my hair in the middle of the week when necessary) and well moisturized esp the ends. I also can't really do Wash n Go's. My hair likes to coil on itself.

 

[Sianna]

I just now realized that there were posts on this thread that I didn't see before! :Blush2:

Thank you all for your responses! I was just sort of coming to the conclusion that shrunken wash-n-go styles were probably not going to do me any favors in the way of avoiding SSKs. It makes perfect sense that the most coily hair types would be the most prone to them, and my hair is REALLY coily, unless I comb it out!

BMP, your advice was especially helpful. I really appreciate it! Also, I was pretty sure my hair was a solid 4a rather than a mixure of 3c and 4a. Hmm... What's the difference?

I guess for now I'll have to start limiting my wash-n-goes and start combing my hair out more often. Can't really do braids and twists yet, because the ends unravel. My hair is still pretty short. Gotta go through that awkward stage ya know.

Thanks again ladies!

More suggestions are welcomed and appreciated!