Protective Styling Gone Wrong

I am not new to this issue but the process to keep it from happening was fairly new. I am one of those unfortunate women who have horrible allergic reactions to braiding hair. It doesn't matter the brand, the outcome is the same. The day of installment is always exciting because I know how beautiful I will be (yes I am very convinced, NOT conceited but convinced) once my stylist, Niki, is done but the thought of the aftermath and ability to wear the styling for more than three days is always the biggest fear for she and I. So as a result of her skepticism, she installed crochet Senegalese Twist with individuals around my edges. It was so pretty, would you like to see?

I was more than excited about this protective style, it had been a very long time since I had one due to having a reaction twice previously. I was really feeling myself, as the picture reflects, and I was just praying that I could get past the first 12 hours without that itchy feeling I knew so well. I thought I had made it and was almost half a day in before that familiar feeling started and I began to panic. I didn't want this to happen again. I immediately called my daughter. She looked up reactions to braiding hair, as she had done previously, and sent me an article from Carols Daughter.

I did not realize how common this issue was and wish I had remembered that discussion from the prior styling about using apple cider vinegar (ACV). I had JUST paid $100 for this beautiful protective style so washing it out after less than a 24 hour installation was out of the question. The article said there's an alkaline base coat used on the synthetic hair which sometimes leads to the allergic reactions. I also learned the synthetic hair needs to be pre-treated using diluted ACV because this will remove the alkaline base which should prevent a reaction.

Ok, so now as I said above, I am $100 deeply invested into this beautiful protective styling and I was not going to take it out right away. WHY DID I NOT LOOK INTO THIS PRIOR TO INSTALLATION? I vaguely remember the ACV discussion from a previous reaction but right after that happened, I had gone back to my barber and had him cut it down to my low boy cut that I love.

I was happy in life so it slipped my mind to pre-treat but I was quickly reminded by the 12th or so hour after installation that it needed to be done. This is when the subtle itching begin, around my edges first then making its way to the back of my neck and slowly moving into the scalp area. By the 24th hour I was ready to take it out but my money though! Yes, that was a huge factor! My stylist (Niki of #NaturalWonder1) was already very apprehensive with the installation since this was not our first rodeo with this mess so when I called her she was so disappointed.

I went back to the article because it gave the story of a young lady who saved her style and money by simply spraying her Senegalese Twists with diluted ACV, letting it sit for 15 minutes, and rinsing the mixture as well as the harmful chemicals hopefully, from her hair. The article said she had great success with that process and didn’t have any allergic reactions afterwards. She was actually able to keep the twists for another five weeks!

You can imagine how excited I was to read that so I decided to do the same thing. I had all the hope in the world that it would be the same result for me and I could rock this style for at least the next 4-5 weeks. I didn't have a lot of ACV on hand so I used all I had, diluted in 8 ounces of water, sprayed the hair & my scalp and let it sit as it said. I rinsed it out with cool water and blow dried the hair. This worked for two days (now three days in on the style) before the subtle itching returned. I repeated those steps again but this time I took the bun down. I was most disappointed because I am not a fan of long, hanging hair but my friend Alisha, whose hair is also done by Niki of #NaturalWonder1, ended up making it cute for me.

Let me tell y'all, this dangling hair worked every nerve in my body. I am so not into hanging hair, for one it's itchy on my neck and two, it attracts the young men. When I say young I mean, 20's and early 30's. Is that a bad thing? HECK NO but I left Cougarville when I turned 40, I am almost 50. This is the work of the devil! BUT ANYWAYS MOVING ON ... (I am so ADHD) ... I had my stylist come back and do another style but not totally pinned up because I did not want to go through that ACV treatment again and take it down. She came through as she always does.

The sad part is, this lasted all of 24 hours before I had to take it down due to itching. I then, of course, did another ACV treatment. Are you starting to see the pattern here? I think THIS is what did the most damage. I kept using the ACV solution and washing THEN actually adding leave in conditioner on the synthetic hair. Did I doom myself? Possibly, but moving on. This hair came out after about two weeks. I couldn't keep on washing this hair, the individuals had begun to slide out in the front. I learned how to put them back in though, believe that! So on to the next style.

I let my teenie weenie afro (twa) show for about a week, giving my scalp time to breathe, treating my scalp with medicated hair dressings. I had to keep my hair moist so wearing my satin cap nightly was a must. This did not seem to do the trick for my scalp and affected areas because they would still dry out, get flaky, white and itchy ... MOST UNATTRACTIVE! So, knowing this was still an issue, I called Niki and told her I needed her to braid my hair down and I would use my "pony puff" and THAT'S WHAT WE DID!

Lord, this here style was like a milkshake as it brought all the CUBS to the yard! I felt like I was headed back to Cougarville because they were not backing off of this middle aged ThundaKat!

This lasted exactly five days because the itching and irritation severly worsened. There was no way to hide what was taking place in my head. No matter how many times I greased my scalp using the medicated natural hair ointments nothing work. On Tuesday, 3/22/17, I had to leave work early because I noticed nodules rising in my neck and the area was very warm to the touch. I saw the pockets under my eyes getting bigger. I have a small bag under my eyes already but I noticed them getting worse Monday. I felt sick to my stomach and could not totally function. One of my regular customers even asked if I were ok because he sensed I wasn't my usual perky self. He was right and this is what I was dealing with. I won't post the other pictures of my neck as I am embarrassed looking at them. I had scratched all but maybe two braids out in the back. I could tell I hadn't seen my friends because that would not have happened!

I came home and immediately took the braids out, washed in the medicated shampoo and oiled my scalp after applying the medicated ointment around my neck, ear area, edges and forehead. This was around 3 pm, after which time I laid down. By 9 pm, I felt worse. I noticed a strange feeling in my throat around 10 pm, it felt as if it were closing. I did not have any shortness of breath but there was definitely something going on as the nodules and inflammation on the back of my neck were increasing in size. My thought process was to call my doctor in the a.m. and get an emergency appointment but the closing in my throat would not wait. I immediately got up, got dressed and went to the ER.

Memorial's ER was PACKED TO CAPACITY! People were sitting everywhere! I prepared myself for a long night but that was not the case. I was taken back within 10 minutes of my arrival, that's how bad I was. I was given an injection of Benadryl, a painful steroid shot and Pepcid for what was going on inside. I was there all of an hour, in and out. They were concerned with that throat closing. My skin burned, especially my face area, but I survived with a cold compress. When I tell you all, I sent a picture to my adult children from the ER and they both said "THAT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE YOU MA"!! And they were right! My face transformed, morphed as a result of the reaction. It is crazy to me how bad it was because it was nowhere near this bad the two previous times. I truly believe my use of the ACV more than once and letting the hair stay in longer than I should have caused this. You want to see what I looked like?

From what you saw above to this ...

As you can see on the right, it is clearing up and GOD KNOWS I AM GLAD! I am not back to 100% but there is progress.

So, going forward, all synthetic braiding hair used on this head, must be pre-treated with a mixture of hot water and 1 ½ cups of ACV for approximately 15-20 minutes followed by a cool water rinse and air dry. I don't even know if I want to go through this again. This has been the worse case and I do truly believe it's because I used the ACV concoction more than once whichh allowed me to leave the twists in longer causing more damage. So is it my fault? Of course, I should have taken it down after the first treatment stopped working but ALL I could think about was that $100 I had spent going down the drain. It definitely wasn't worth the $150 dollars (ER copay and prescriptions), that's for sure! Hopefully someone will see this and take prior precautions, just in case, and not fall victim like I did to my money hungry/spending moment that caused an ER visit and an ugly outbreak!