What is going on with the ends of my hair?

Day 9 of my journey (totally natural, no wax)

As my hair was drying after my 2nd ever B/S & ACV wash today I noticed the tips of my hair looked kind of white.

I thought it was some kind of residue and maybe I hadnt rinsed well enough, but on closer inspection it doesnt seem to be that at all.

It looks like the hair is breaking and the breaks are white...does that make sense? It's like damaged hair with no pigment, very dry and almost looks dirty. Am I doing something wrong? Too much ACV maybe? Or is this normal?

I had elastics in for 4 days so could it be the damage from that?

Many thanks x

updated by @rachel-nattydee: 02/14/15 10:10:35AM

It kind of sounds like it might be the same dulling/damaging issue I had with my last set of dreads. It kept getting worse and worse to the point that my whole head looked...dull? Not really a word for it. I ended up taking them out, (4 months of dreading down the drain) I then conditioned like crazy for about a month and am now starting over. I ordered a dread bar that should be here pretty shortly and I am only doing BS/ACV every few days (only one so far) until my bar comes. I was trying to find the link to the site on my own cuz I didn't want to lose the message, but there is a pretty big post about it on here. I will come back and post the link later. I am no expert when it comes to dreads, but like I said, it wasn't exactly residue but it wasn't really my hair either and from the way you described it, it sounds very similar.

Oh, and I don't think it's necessarily something you're doing wrong. It could be your water or the type of hair you have. I have slightly curly and very dry hair and I have hard water, so I don't know which one was the problem.

I had the same thing with some of my locks but I just ignored it honestly and everything is fine & dandy

u say akll natural but u wouldnt have elastics in if its all natural i adsssume u backcombed? thats the damage cayuxszed by baci=kcombing ..split ends damaged cuticles ..

all natural means u just let it dread.. no damage at all

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

hmm says u didnt backcomb sscratch that but still sounds like split ends

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

I did tnr and still had a lot of breakage, but I was looking at the "looks dirty" part. That's kind of how I would have explained my hair with the BS. I have curly, dry hair...so I was just thinking maybe it is the hair type???? You definitely know more about this stuff than I do SE, just mulling over it and what my dreads looked like with tnr, BS, etc.

soaring eagle said:

hmm says u didnt backcomb sscratch that but still sounds like split ends

Thank you for your reply. No I didnt backcomb or rip or anything, I didnt know about the elastics before I found advice on here, so I thought they would help. Is this what split ends looks like then? I have not had a haircut in about 2 years so my ends are not in the best condition... anything I should do or just ignore em? Ta x

soaring eagle said:

hmm says u didnt backcomb sscratch that but still sounds like split ends

Again, I am thinking about your description of the "dirty" look and the fact that we have similar hair. I don't know about the whole split end thing. I know elastics are damaging to hair, but I am worried that the issue is more than just split ends and hair type or hard water might be playing a part. I tried BS wash, I tried Dr. B's and then I tried a purifying shampoo. All of which further dried out my hair (the purifying shampoo was the only thing that didn't make my hair look "dirty" but still resulted in breaking ends and pieces...in fact more so, probably because shampoos strip your hair of natural oils and I already have really dry hair.) I don't know yet how the new bar will work out or if you have dry hair, but I will let you know after a while of using it. If it is just split ends, I have noticed the trend is just leaving them alone. Other than that, I would go with whatever SE recommends. He's like the go to guy when it comes to dreading naturally. <3

Rachel Dee said:

Thank you for your reply. No I didnt backcomb or rip or anything, I didnt know about the elastics before I found advice on here, so I thought they would help. Is this what split ends looks like then? I have not had a haircut in about 2 years so my ends are not in the best condition... anything I should do or just ignore em? Ta x

soaring eagle said:

hmm says u didnt backcomb sscratch that but still sounds like split ends

Cheers, please let me know how you get on. Funny that I never noticed the split ends before, but then I was using tons of conditioner and products before I went natural, so maybe they masked the damage? Or maybe I never looked at my hair this closely before!

Cathy Givans said:

Again, I am thinking about your description of the "dirty" look and the fact that we have similar hair. I don't know about the whole split end thing. I know elastics are damaging to hair, but I am worried that the issue is more than just split ends and hair type or hard water might be playing a part. I tried BS wash, I tried Dr. B's and then I tried a purifying shampoo. All of which further dried out my hair (the purifying shampoo was the only thing that didn't make my hair look "dirty" but still resulted in breaking ends and pieces...in fact more so, probably because shampoos strip your hair of natural oils and I already have really dry hair.) I don't know yet how the new bar will work out or if you have dry hair, but I will let you know after a while of using it. If it is just split ends, I have noticed the trend is just leaving them alone. Other than that, I would go with whatever SE recommends. He's like the go to guy when it comes to dreading naturally. <3

Rachel Dee said:

Thank you for your reply. No I didnt backcomb or rip or anything, I didnt know about the elastics before I found advice on here, so I thought they would help. Is this what split ends looks like then? I have not had a haircut in about 2 years so my ends are not in the best condition... anything I should do or just ignore em? Ta x

soaring eagle said:

hmm says u didnt backcomb sscratch that but still sounds like split ends