What am I doing wrong? (Newbie, college curly)

handlewithcare

Hello everyone, I've been lurking for while but this is my first post. :hello2: I big chopped in December 2012 and transitioned for 5 months after having a relaxer for 10+ years. I currently have about 6.5 inches of hair, 5in on the sides and back since that's how I got it cut. I'm currently in college and don't have much money to spend on hair products. I've read so much about hair in the past year but am still lost.

I've been doing wash and gos but which have been fine up until about month and a half a go. Now I have so many single strand knots, split ends, and mid strand knots. My hair ends up shrinking while I'm sleeping. I've trimmed my hair and I seal with castor oil but they just keep coming back. I don't know what to do... Is it possible that I just can't wash and go? My hair is long enough to do twists but twist outs look weird on me at this length.

Also before I thought my hair was low porosity and protein sensitive. But its been so dry lately even when I put a bunch of conditioner that maybe I'm high porosity?? And I thought I didn't like protein but somethings I like. Can someone give me advice? I'm so close to just cutting it all off again.

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4a/4b, porosity: (?), thick strands & lots of hair, protein confused
Cleanse: Loreal Evercreme Cleansing Conditioner; Giovanni 50:50 Shampoo; Bentonite Clay; ACV
Rinse Out: Tresemme Naturals
Deep Conditioner: AOHSR; Oil + Conditioner, Yogurt, Mayo
Leave In: KCKT w/ Castor Oil + Shea Moisture Anti-Breakage Masque
Misc: Weleda Hair Oil
Experimenting: KMF Gel, Apoghee 2 Min, Honey, Coconut Oil

adthomas

Once my hair got a certain length washandgos became shrinkandtangles. I suggest you try different ways of stretching your hair as it dries or is at least half way dry. You might even try butter on your ends. My very ends do better sealed with butter blended with a little oil. BTW the ssks won't ever completely go away if you wear your hair curly.

KinkyCoilyCurls

My hair is 4a mostly so I understand how much shrinkage and ssks you can get w/ such a tight curl pattern. I am also in college, and I BC'd here, so I had to do all my experimenting at school (and at home during winter break) and it's really hard and annoying to do your hair/take care of your hair in a dorm.

Well anyway I had to change my whole thing to avoid ssks. When I first BC'd my hair was 6.5 inches mostly with some shorter pieces. And I tried to wear WnGs but it caused problems like ssks and it was just hard to detangle if I wore it out. And it was also annoying because when I'd wake up the front of my hair always stuck straight up and the back was kind of flat even though I sleep on my stomach. So I'd have to spray daily.

So I decided to change the way I wore my hair and the way I wash my hair.

I always wear my hair in stretched styles such as buns and twist outs. At home I like to band, but w/ a roommate, It'd be embarrassing to do the banding method. You can also cornrow to stretch it if you know how to braid (unfortunately I do not know how) or flat twist. So essentially you'll be wearing twists outs or braid outs, or you can comb them out for a blow out look or put it in a bun or a ponytail or something.

On wash day, I separate my hair into four sections and use clips to hold them stretched. Then I wash and condition each section separately and I also detangle which is a breeze compared to when I don't keep my hair stretched.

I'm still learning how to care for my hair, since I haven't been natural that long, but this has worked wonders for me so far.

handlewithcare

Thank you so much for the advice! I was think that maybe I'm not sealing properly. I try to do the LOC method but sometimes it's hard to evenly distributed the oil to all of my hair. Is there a proper way to seal? Also at what length did you find that you could do buns? Will 'puffs' also stretch the hair? Also I heard about oil rinsing, do you think it would help in this situation? Are there any products that will help stretch, maybe henna?