New Routine and "Fairy Knots"

Well, being that it's winter and extremely cold around here, I had to make a complete and utter overhaul of my hair routine. My previous motto was "no to oils" but that soon became a faint chant when it started to get crazy cold out and also - and perhaps most importantly- when I started to see those notorious little freaky "fairy knots" at the ends of my hair.

When I first began to realize that my hair did not like oils it was this past summer. I was wearing wash and gos with a vengeance and lovin' every minute of it. What I noticed, however, was that if I did a wash and go, and I used a product with oil in it, I got this crazy looking frizz all over my head. Not the typical frizz that comes from tightly curly/kinky hair, but an odd looking frizz that almost made my hair look like it was damaged or like I stuck my finger in an electric socket, but was slowly recovering:0p.

Anyway, what I discovered after clarifying my hair multiple times was that my hair became much more defined as I took more and more oil off of my hair. Yeah - I know, go figure, right:0?

So, with little to no oil in my hair, I ended up needing a lot less product (i.e. gel) to define my curls, which I found to be an awesome revelation!

What was to come next, however, was somewhat shocking. You see, up until this point I had this nutty idea that as long as I was not applying heat, as long as I was using a quality conditioner, and as long as I had enough moisture in my routine(i.e. water) my hair would be absolutely fine. Unfortunately, I soon began to realize, that this was most certainly not the case - not at all.

My first clue was when, as a I said earlier, I started to see those pesky little knots. And it wasn't just one or two knots, but multiple fairy knots at the ends of my hair. I mean, to me this was absolutely crazy, I was doing everything I could - deep conditioning regularly, treating my hair like silk - everything I could think of to do - I was doing. I mean, what in the world is up with that??

Here's a picture of the filthy little vermin:

Knots and Splits for your viewing enjoyment:0)

By the way, look at how thick my strands are :0/. When I say I have coarse hair, I mean - I really have coarse hair, ha! It's like wire...Seriously.

Anyway, I really started to beat myself up about these little buggers and assumed that it had to be something I was doing wrong. What I found though, is that "fairy knots" are pretty common for curly hair, in fact, they can even be found on straight hair (according to those folks who have straight hair and say they have experienced them too). So, it wasn't necessarily something that I had done wrong to get them. "Cool!", I thought. But with that said, what was I going to do get rid of them and then keep them from coming back?

Ok, so my next mission was to find an answer to this question.

Well, with regards to getting rid of these things, there are some people who say that they have actually taken a needle and tried to remove the knots. It's apparently something that can be done... hmmm.... The "gurus" however, say that the problem with removing the knots with a needle or anything else you can get into that small hole, is that the area of the strand of hair on which the knot was positioned is now damaged. So even if you are able to remove the knot, you're still dealing with a weakened strand of hair. So, once again, it seems that scissors have to come to the rescue - find the knot and snip it. Anything else seems to put your hair are risk of additional splits and other damage. And as you may already know, splits and damage on one strand of hair can definitely mean more splits and damage to the other hairs in close proximity. Good grief, they're like a virus, for crying out loud!

Thankfully, I did not have tons of knots, I had enough of them to make me feel uncomfortable, but no more than could be handled. So I took my time, got out my hair cutting scissors, and got to work.

Ok, step one complete, now to step two.

Once the knots were removed, my next goal was to prevent them from coming back. So, what was I going to do? Well - this is where oil has magically found it's way back into my routine. The only thing I could think of that I had used previously that had given my hair that smooth and conditioned feeling was Qhemet Biologics Amla and Olive Heavy Cream. I thought to myself - if I apply the Qhemet to my damp hair - first off, it will seal in moisture. Secondly, it will reduce friction between my strands and between my comb/brush and my hair, which is what I believed caused the knots in the first place.

So yes, I am back to using oil in my routine. Yes, my hair does look "crazy" frizzy when I apply the oil to my hair, but I'm ok with that. Because I, at this point, desire healthy hair, knotty-free hair, and if it takes oils to do this, then so be it.

My very last step was to start protective styling it. Thankfully, my hair is long enough at this point to do this. Sooo, for the last couple months I have been religiously wearing twists in my hair. Nope, not twist outs, just twists. I wash my hair, apply my leave-in, and then my qhemets, twist. Leave the twists in for a week, take them down, wash my hair and then start all over again. Boring? Yes. Yes, it has been very boring, but if it helps me to avoid those knots, then I'm all for boredom factor right now. "Go boredom - rah, rah, rah!!!" * insert rolling of eyes here*.

Overall, the knots have become substantially less. *Sigh* I wish I could tell you that I had no more "fairy knots" at all, but that just wouldn't be truthful.

If you have suggestions on how to avoid "fairy knots", please share:0).

Ciao!!!