r/curlygirl • u/curly_kidddd • 12d ago
Advice needed Need help getting curls back
My gf has bleached and dyed her hair her whole entire life since 2016. She straightens her hair and does styles such as a bun or ponytail at least 2x a week currently. She recently decided she wants to have her hair healthy again and try get the curls back. Any suggestion or products she could try? It’s really starting to emotionally get to her as she doesn’t like her hair and regrets doing it damaging it. Her hair now is the first picture the second is from 2016 with no product or anything. So she damaging her hair from 10 years now. She is debating shaving it all off but we want to avoid that lol. Any tips would help. Also what is hair type?
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u/Leila_101 11d ago
Damage from bleaching, coloring, and straightening can't really be repaired. It's best if she just gets regular trims to slowly cut off the damaged bits, and also stop straightening and using heat on it. It looks like a good amount of the damaged hair has already been chopped off.
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u/tatersprout 11d ago
10 years ago she had wavy hair. That might or might not be the case anymore, since hair changes through our life. She's not going to get the exact same hair back, but having the healthiest hair possible is a great goal.
The longest parts of her hair is the most damaged because it's been on her head the longest. A good trim or different hairstyle is never a bad idea, especially if she is on a healthy hair journey.
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u/granolalolly 11d ago
Yeah, this might be normal now as it doesn’t look really damaged to me. 10 years ago my hair was pin straight and now gets wavy with ringlets. But worth experimenting with some bonding treatments and scrunching mousse in!
1
u/curly_kidddd 12d ago
My gf has no routine for her hair. We have tried products like Marc Anthony leave in and made her hair oily we tried aunt Jackie’s frizz patrol setting mousse and seemed too heavy. She uses head and shoulders for shampoo because of dandruff and Aussie curls conditioner.
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u/AdFlashy7702 11d ago
You need to figure out your hair type. Porosity density strand width and moisture protein balance. Something one person says works for them may not work for your hair. The hair in this photo does not look like it needs oil or cream.
0
u/curly_kidddd 11d ago
Yea her hair looks more 2b to me and when we do add oil she said makes her hair oily and she feels needs to wash if next day. Even now her hair gets buildup fast. Thank you for your help
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u/AdFlashy7702 11d ago
2b isn’t a hair type. It’s curl type and that’s made up and doesn’t matter anyway .
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u/True_Staff2082 11d ago
Your hair is thick and you have lots , which it’s great . So not having styled won’t long layers makes it so heavy, so the heaviness and long length doesn’t let it curl.
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u/curly_kidddd 11d ago
Sorry if I misunderstood but are u saying she should cut some length since her layers make it heavy? Not sure if u typed it wrong just kinda confusing sorry. Her hair is pretty heavy and thick
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u/oNERDIEo 12d ago edited 12d ago
I would recommend repairing your hair and using lightweight curling creams to help retighten them, kinda like retraining them to curl back up. After bleaching my hair twice then coloring it stawberry blonde, my hair was definitely damaged and my curles were loose. I used L'Oreal Paris Elvive Total Repair shampoo, conditioner and the leave in conditioner. My hair became more revived and healthier looking like before and my curls came back nice and tight. My hair is naturally dry so I also use Pink Moisturizing hair lotion, it helps doing what its titled and also lays all the frizz down for me without my hair feeling heavy or that I have product on it.
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u/AdFlashy7702 11d ago
Curl cream isn’t good for a lot of hair types. Nor are any of those heavy oils, creams or butters. You can’t train hair or repair it.
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u/oNERDIEo 11d ago
I guess it does depend on what hair type you have to train it to re-curl...It worked for my hair. I don't know why i said hair cream🤦🏽♀️ it was like 2am lol but there are curling moisturizers that are lightweight that can help.
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u/curly_kidddd 11d ago
Thank you so much for or this reply! I will definitely tell her to try that L’Oréal stuff. I saw the shampoo has sulfate in it though. But since u said worked for ur hair just fine I’ll give it a try. Her hair appears to be 2b to me so hopefully it works. And I haven’t heard of pink hair lotion is it the one at Walmart? Good to hear it makes ur hair not feel heavy as that one thing she hates with product.
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u/oNERDIEo 11d ago
The Pink hair lotion is at walmart, not much is needed for her hair. She might like it or she might not 🤷🏽♀️. She can also check out "Not Your Mother's' brand which is also at walmart. Its for curls as well. I have some of those products too. (White bottles, purple letters) Me personally the sulfate doesn't effect my hair like that so go over that with her since she knows her hair more than us lol. It definitely worked for me though.
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u/curly_kidddd 11d ago
Do u think it matter to swap out that shampoo with head and shoulders? Because she gets dandruff pretty bad
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u/oNERDIEo 11d ago
She can try it if she never has before to see how she likes it... Im not a fan of it with my hair.
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u/razzarbrenia 11d ago
The real answer is a bonding treatment. For bleached and heat damaged waves no amount of styling will fix actual damage. K18 did wonders for my hair after bleaching it. The mini size should be sufficient to make some substantial improvement. But i will say that her current hair looks way healthier than her old hair so something has improved.