by
Black Girl With Long Hair
By Audrey Sivasothy, author of The Science of Black Hair: A Comprehensive Guide to Textured Hair Care
Crown area hair breakage can be very distressing, especially when the rest of your hair is flourishing. It can also be frustrating when your hair’s hemline is shaped like a W rather than a healthy U or V because of crown area and middle area breakage issues. Don’t be discouraged! If your crown area breakage is not the result of a medical issue, there is hope for restoring your crown area to its normal fullness and length. The key is to isolate the crown area and pamper it to life. This article will give you 7 quick tips for encouraging hair growth in your crown area again.
It is helpful to determine the exact cause of your breakage, especially if it is caused by handling and physical trauma. Often times, mechanical damage is something you are fully aware of— how have you handled your crown air hair in the past? Is your sew-in done too tightly? Have you been rough combing your crown area? Wrapping? Have you been neglecting to fully moisturize the area? Applying too much heat? Did you overlap a relaxer? Have you been rollersetting too tightly? Has repetitive coloring affected your crown? Once you determine a physical cause for your crown area breakage, simply discontinuing the practice will turn your crown around in several weeks.
Next, you will need to determine if the breakage can be fixed with either protein or moisture deep conditioning. You’ll need to read my article: The Fine Art of Protein and Moisture Balancing for help with determining your required product solution for your crown area breakage. More than likely, restoring the moisture balance will be your focus. Once you know whether your product focus should be protein or moisture, you’ll need to deep condition weekly with heat to restore your crown area. When you condition your hair, make sure that you section the hair in increments so that each and every section of hair, especially the crown, is treated. You’d be surprised the number of people who simply coat the edges, barely scrunch through the middle, and slather the ends with conditioner product. You have to get in there good and make sure the crown area gets some love!
You also want to be sure to moisturize (either protein or moisture-based) the crown area daily. Part through and really isolate the crown. Really focus your daily moisturizing efforts in the middle. Very few people treat the middle sections of hair to moisturizer on a regular basis.
A quick massage is beneficial to your scalp and will help you restore sluggish blood flow to the crown area. A nightly massage lasting about 10 minutes is all you need. You may choose to add stimulating essential oils to your scalp massage for maximum impact. These lightweight oils are great for getting nutrients to the scalp and they have a calming, relaxing effect as well. Good essential oils to try in your massage are peppermint, lavender, rosemary, and thyme oils. Sweet almond oil and jojoba oil are popular carrier oils to combine with your essential oils since too high a concentration of these oils can actually irritate the scalp.
Actually, you’ll want to avoid any styles that place tension on the crown area hair period. Free form styles like braidouts, twistouts, and rollersets* are good for growing back out a crown. Ponytails tend to increase crown area breakage, especially if new growth is present in the crown area or if “phony ponies” are used. Keeping ponytails and buns damp underneath can also weaken the hair and lead to breakage in the middle of the head.
Weaves should be kept to a minimum when you are trying to grow out crown area breakage since the braiding that tends to be done under many weaved styles can also stress the crown area.
*When rollersetting, do take care to carefully place the metal clips in the crown area. Metal clips can get very hot under the dryer and can damage the hair. Avoid clipping rollers together!
Heat can make breakage problems a lot worse. Everyone knows to stay away from blow dryers and flat irons, but you should also be careful with hooded dryer heat since the crown area can receive a lot of heat attention under the dryer. The crown area is often the very first section to dry. Make sure that your dryer model circulates heat well and that you are able to adjust your heat settings as needed. Check your crown area regularly. If your crown area dries first, spray it again with water to allow your other areas to catch up. Also give your hair adequate time to dry once it is set so that you can air dry your hair to completion. Once your hair is about 80% dry under the dryer, allow the rest to dry naturally.
Avoid cotton bandannas or sleeping on cotton pillows that can zap precious moisture from your hair.
If your hair is layered, you really want to make sure that the ends that are originating from your crown are kept neat. Uneven, splitting or otherwise frazzled hair easily tangles itself and can lead to a cycle of crazy breakage. Hairs should be able to move freely past other hairs without “catching.” This “catching” can lead to breakage in and around the crown area of the head.
I’ve had my share of crown area breakage issues! What I ended up doing was isolating my crown area and trimming it down to a blunt length. It was much shorter than the rest of my hair, but the trim allowed me to focus on the area—to treat it separately and to comb it separately until it improved.
Good luck!
Ladies, do you ever have crown area breakage? How do you deal with it?
Audrey Sivasothy is a Houston-based freelance writer, health scientist and author of The Science of Black Hair: A Comprehensive Guide to Textured Hair Care (available on Amazon.com & Barnes&Noble.com).
For more insight from The Science of Black Hair— relaxed, natural or in between, visit us on the web atwww.blackhairscience.com and on facebook & twitter.
45 Responses
I recently took down my dreads (3 week process), and I was expecting some hair loss. However I still had length to my hair. Before the dreadloc take down, I have ALWAYS has issues with my crown, itching, sometimes hurting, tender to the touch and A LOT of breakage. I will continue to remain natural, but I want my hair at its greatest and healthiest level.
Had this problem a while back and found, in addition to making the crown a5th section when deep conditioning/adding my leave in it helped to stop wearing my puff. I noticed at the end of the day the center of my head would be really itchy–finally realized I was cutting off circulation to that spot.
Having trouble opening your link above for figuring out a balance I have breakage in the middle of my head I have started deep conditioning with cholesterol and haven’t seen much difference yet it has bin about three weeks how long should I keep this up before I should switch or see results
*advice! Sorry typo! =)
I’m having serious issues with crown breakage and soreness of my scalp! Any advise!? I’ve used Doo Gro strengthening oils, coconut oils (organic), Keratin conditioners…you name it, and NOTHING seems to work! Hellllp Please!
Hair Finity, plus lots of moisture and water
i am having the same problem. Have you found anything that works for you?
Removing sebum from the scalp. Braggs apple cider vinegar + organic shampoo. Check hormone and thyroid levels,take vitamin B complex. Use a hair spritzer aloe gel+water+hempseed oil.drink gallon of water per day. Itching scalp with or without peeling or inflammation: 1).peel onion skins and garlic skins.2)Put skins in a mason glass jar with mineral water. Let the oils extract 24 to 48 hours. Wash with organic shampoo then rinse with onion and garlic extract. Do not apply any commercial conditioners. Oil the scalp with hemp oil then spritz hair with the aloe recipe above.
How often do you recommend for this? Thx:)
I HAVE THIN HAIR WHICH IS BREAKING ONLY ON THE CROWN PART OF MY HEAD WHAT CAN I USE TO STOP THE BREAKING
I was wearing that weave in the front like a bang a glue in over time my hair started to thin out so now no more weave for me I detox my scalp of all that glue and any thing else that was in my scalp my hair was on a stand still for a while had to figure it out im protein sensitive also its growing now .I stopped washing it for a while now .
My crown is 4c that’s why it’s the driest and shortest -.-
thanks! my teen has TONS of breakage in her crown. this will help us address the problem. I had no idea what to do!
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what if its from chemical damage from using a product that actually did more damage than good follicure used it some years ago the thicken my hair it damaged my hair in the spots where I applied the product it changed the texture I think from the bulb .
I think this is my fav article by far! I have had this problem for years too. It grows… but it comes in very fine. I have a twa,so in some areas you can see the thin spots.(it don’t bother me too much but it would be nice to be covered)
My hubby wanted me to try hair growth products like re-grow and those other chemiclas with medoxil in it… but i really don’t want to use that stuff. Plus my scalp is sensitive.
But this article made me think back to my relaxer and stylists days when I would lather that stuff right on the top of my head like lotion then when I wanted a sprial set she would have those rollers in so damn tight like she was trying to roll the scalp in too.. and then my ass would be under that dryer squinting cause then my whole scalp was exposed from those rollers it just torched my skin to DEATH! In addiditon to me being a coloring fanatic since I was 16!!! LMAO! so i’m like all the above is true for me when it comes to damage.
But now…. i’m excited and i’m going to put some of these to work and re-love my scalp.. THAnks! 🙂
I LOVE deep conditioner but I may be one of those that don’t rub into the “meat” of the area. I also heard that i’m going to
Watch out for blood pressure medications too. Beta blockers can take you crown and temple hair out.
Hairscapades, thanks for the pics. Your crown looks great now! I was starting to feel like I was just stuck with a bad patch of hair. Your pics are proof that that’s not the case.
Thank you Pinkpanda! As I mentioned above, having photos of the area really helped me recognize that things were improving!!
Here is the link to that post for anyone interested!
https://hairscapades.com/2012/01/25/breakage-vs-new-hair-update/
Shelli
I did a post on this topic a while ago as well.
https://hairscapades.com/2011/11/09/crown-of-glory-or-thorns/
My crown (especially the left side) is definitely more coarse, wiry and curly than the rest of my hair. So, I try to finger detangle gently (I very rarely use a comb at all), really pile on the moisture (Vatika oil when pre-pooing, conditioner to detangle, deep conditioner, leave-in, water-based moisturizing styler and JBCO to seal). I also protective style 5-6 days a week and have seen my crown grow a lot as you can see from the pics below (I had a combo of new hair and breakage; the 1st pic is July 2011, the 2nd is Jan. 2012).
It’s still nowhere near as long as the rest of my hair. But, I’m going to try to grow it out even by keeping the longest length in the back trimmed at the same length … we’ll see if the crown catches up. I went for a trim of my whole head last month and asked for a 1/4 – 1/2 inch of the crown, but I don’t think she did a good job. And, my next trim, I’m going to take the advice in #7 as it makes a lot of sense!
[img]https://bglh-marketplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/SDC12588.JPG[/img]
[img]https://bglh-marketplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/growth_Jan2012.JPG[/img]
that’s phenominal growth for 6 months! i also like this pic comparison. i think i’ll take some to see how my hair grows/looks after 6 months. with locs things should thrive just fine but still it’s imperative to baby the area in the ways you described. thanks!!!
Thank you!! You know, I actually use these pics in a post on my blog about keeping a photo journal. Because my first reaction looking at the area in January was to think that I had NEW breakage!! Then, I remembered that I had taken a shot of the same area the prior summer. So, when I compared, I realized that I actually had experienced a lot of growth and not new damage! If I hadn’t done that, I might have had my hair cut! So, just goes to show how helpful photos tracking progress/setbacks can be!!
Thank you!
Shelli
two different hands
i have locs again now so it’s a none issue for me. when my hair was loose natural though this area was more wirey and didn’t grow and thrive like the rest. it was a totally different texture. it wasn’t from weaves, wigs or braiding because i didn’t do any of those. i was told that i just had to baby that area, maybe even use different richer products on that part of my hair. using a comb (even a wide tooth) could rips the hairs (i would hear popping) so i mostly finger combed that area. it was really challenging because i was always focused on it. now that i’m loc’d again that hairs are strong, don’t need special care, thrive and are growing long. i think it comes down to manipulation, if you have an area like that anywhere in your hair you have to barely touch it and of course avoid the obvious stressors. oils on the scalp do help improve the elasticity of hair. good luck. it’s a frustrating problem!
Hi Audrey,
2 quick questions. 1. in point 4 you said “Keeping ponytails and buns damp underneath can also weaken the hair…” How is that so? shouldn’t you try to keep ends as moist as possible to prevent breakage?
2. Seeing as how the protein/moisture balance is SO delicate and too much protein can result in severe breakage, is DAILY use of a protein-based MOISTURISER advisable?
I had to cut my hair right back to a TWA because my crown area had broken from 4 Inc to 1 ½. I am just nursing my hair back to health and find the weekly deep conditioning treatments with moisture help. My crown is a slow grower, but I am hoping, by paying extra attention to this area by massaging there should be some difference.
Thanks for the tips BGLH!
My problem is breakage in the back back of my head. I have biotin but I’m afraid to take it because I’m battling my acne right now and they say biotin can cause you to break out.
Hi Brittany! You are absolutely correct, I’m a living example that Biotin can break you out (and for a 40 year old…that ain’t cute!). I used it the entire month of April and noticed about a pimple or two every week. I stopped using it in May…NOT ONE pimple. Try this recipe I started using last month as I noticed my crown not being as moist/healthy as the rest of my hair. The homemade recipe which deep conditions TERRIFICALLY is by Naptural85 (my FAVORITE YouTube vlogger), all I did was add 1/2 of an Avocado and add Greek plain yogurt (sometimes my hair screams for a little extra protein!)
Hope this helps! https://youtu.be/aSa_F2jyiyM
Make sure you are drinking enough water. If you don’t drink enough water when taking biotin, you can break out
i recently reclaimed my crown by regular deep conditioning with moisture and protein.
i don’t get why people say deep conditioning is pointless. it has helped turn my hair around in the last year.
this section is no longer rough like it use to be and it is growing.
but, i don’t understand how a ponytail is bad for the crown area since it seems like it would have the least amount of tension/pulling in this style. seems like your edges would suffer the most in a ponytail.
I’m also experiencing this for years, in fact. I’m finally tired of covering up with my wigs. I went to see a dermatologist who instructed me to take 5000mg of Biotin and gave me a prescription of Holnate (a protein cream)
She didn’t make me any false promises and told me since I’ve waited YEARS to seek medical attention, it may take awhile but I’m glad I’m on the right track.
She also told me to use hair products that include Aargan Oil (listed early in the ingredients – at least 3rd in the list) Creme of Nature has a product line that satisfies that.
Hey all! I have noticed that my hair around my crown breaks easily, is thinner and does not curl like the rest of my hair. I’ve read that dandruff (which I have a bad case of) can cause scalp damage and lead to breakage, So I’ve started gently cleansing and oiling my scalp more often, and I’ve quit trying to “smooth my edges” and so far I have seen a big improvement! 🙂
I have has this issue for a number of years and don’t know what to do although I oil this area with emu or castor oil twice a day. I think it started because of stress. There is a very slight improvement since I started oiling this area but I am still frustrated by this area. It is much much shorter than the rest of my hair.
Me, I started taking Biotin 5000 mcg since Dec. and at the time my crown area was thinning out like a circle of some sort, but as of today 5/16/12 by hair in the crown section has filled in so much it’s unbelieveable how full my hair has gotton. I think all I lack was Vitamin B and plenty of water help a lot.
I agree with you Carla. I’ve basically been moisturizing my crown everyday. You know how most people say their “kitchen” is in the nape of their head…mine is in the crown…lol
This article literally came at the perfect time. I’ve been experiencing breakage at the crown for a while now…even before I started transitioning. I just walked out of the salon and my hair stylist told me that there’s nothing that I can do. The crown area is just the weakest and most coarse area of my head, smh. I think I need to work more on the protein/moisture balancing.
Thank you for this article.
Tinea capitis can destroy the crown area of the scalp and cause hair in that area to be coarser than the rest.
I’m going through this process as we speak! In April 2011 I got a sew-in that was waaaay too tight in the crown area. When I took the sew0in out, all I felt was my bald scalp. Its now been over a year and I have 5″ in my crown area. Didn’t know about massage…gonna try it!
Hi Elizabeth, what did you do to improve the crown area? I’m currently experiencing this as I’m transitioning as well (7 months). My styist says that there is nothing I can do…it’s just the weakest and most coarse area of my head.
i’m sorry but your stylist is not correct.
you should follow the steps outlined in the article – esp. deep conditioning, gentle detangling, no heat, and avoiding (too tight) weaves.
+1 to merry, also treat your crown more delicately than the rest of your hair.
Step 1:
Find a new stylist (this may hurt, because you 2 may have a beautiful relationship or she has done the hair of your cousins, aunties and mama and ‘nem). But the same stylist that worked as your relaxed hair stylist may not be the best for your natural hair. I know from experience that breaking up is hard to do. And if this is not the case your stylist may very well be aware of self haircare is far less costly than a sew-in and may just be preying on the unfortunate. Either way, it may be time to move on.