7.1.3 – Bleached, Processed, & Damaged Hair

WHAT THIS LESSON CONTAINS:

• Bleached Hair
Bleached hair will come in a variety of levels of damage. I’ve worked with bleached hair that was strong for years to come, I’ve also worked with bleached hair that literally fell apart between my fingers. The sad thing is this was done from a so called “professional salon”. These dreadlocks were completely unsalvageable. I crocheted as best as I could, but the client ended up cutting everything off because the hair was so obnoxiously damaged. For obviously reasons, I always prefer to work with hair that has never been bleached.

• Chemically Processed
Similar to bleached hair, you never really know what you’re getting with chemically processed hair. There will be varying degrees of damage depending on the chemicals used and how hard the hair was processed.

• Split Ends and Generally Damaged Hair
Split ends aren’t a problem at all for crocheting and can actually allow the ends to lock up much easier. The problem with split ends is that they theoretically become dry and damaged at a faster rate than healthy hair. It’s best to avoid working with split ends, but it’s not the end of the world if you do, I’m simply stating a best case scenario here.

• Age and length of hair
Generally speaking longer and therefore older the hair is usually results in dryer ends and more damaged hair. There’s nothing you can do about this, I’m simply giving you a precaution for it.

• It’s always best to work with healthy hair
In a perfect world, you’ll always have young healthy unprocessed hair to work with. This is always the best case scenario. If you can create a situation where the client can trim any damage before their installation and/or blunt tips, that would be ideal. If not, you just work with what you’ve got and give the client the disclaimer by explaining the points outlined in this lesson.