I tried a new protein conditioner, now my hair is split up!

[Petrichos]

I bought a conditioner at Walgreens, Shea Moisture Moisture Smoothie, because it said it had silk proteins and I wanted to see if I should try out proteins for my hair. Well, I tried it once or twice and wasn't impressed. I hadn't tried it in a while and decided on one more time before I gave it away. Now I know this is definitely what had made my ends dry over the summer. I've got so many split ends, I can't find them all! My ends are super dry compared to the rest of my nice soft hair. My ends do have some left over damage from using Sun In before the summer, but they have never looked this bad.

Any suggestions for how to make it any better? I've been putting grape seed oil on my ends more than usual today to try and make it better. I tried to find them all and cut them out, but it's nearly impossible. I'll give myself a full trim in October, I just did one last week. But other than that, any useful tips to help treat the damage?

[mrs_coffee]

When protein overload makes my ends crunchy I do a deep condition. One concoction that always helps my hair is equal parts conditioner (anything you would use to CO wash - no proteins), honey, and whatever oil your hair likes - mine is partial to olive. I work that through my hair and leave it on for 30 minutes then rinse.

Protein overload takes me a couple of weeks to correct. During that time I avoid protein and condition as much as possible.

[LizTheLyre]

When protein overload makes my ends crunchy I do a deep condition. One concoction that always helps my hair is equal parts conditioner (anything you would use to CO wash - no proteins), honey, and whatever oil your hair likes - mine is partial to olive. I work that through my hair and leave it on for 30 minutes then rinse.

Protein overload takes me a couple of weeks to correct. During that time I avoid protein and condition as much as possible.

doesn't yogurt have protein though?

[ravenreed]

When I have something like that happen, I just trim a half inch to an inch off and hope for the best.

[Roscata]

I went through a protein disaster this is what helped me: clarifying, SMT (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=128), hot coconut oil treatments (http://adelinahair.blogspot.com/2012/07/hot-coconut-oil-treatment.html), cassia gloss (http://adelinahair.blogspot.com/2012/05/bring-my-hair-back-to-life-treatment.html), Suave Ocean Breeze conditioner, Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose conditioner (I head good things about Biolage Hydra Therapie Conditioning Balm too).

You may want to read this article for some extra help: Protein Disaster & Recovery Center (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=17%20).

Good luck! :)

ETA: You do NOT have to cut your hair because of a bad protein experience, but you do have to cut off split ends, those never get better only worse. If you look at this photo you can see the dryness in my ends for three months in a row, but once I did a Cassia treatment and then two hot coconut oil treatments my hair got better: click here for photo (http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a207/ioana2adelina/composit112011-72012.jpg).

[mrs_coffee]

doesn't yogurt have protein though?

Yogurt? Yes, I think it does, but I didn't say yogurt so I'm not sure what you mean.

[ravenreed]

I haven't yet found anything that helps my hair recover from protein overload. My hair hates SMTs (one of the most damaging things I have ever put on my hair), and coconut oil is iffy. If I tried it after a protein overload, it would probably make it worse, not better. I am not willing to wait so long before I can run a comb through my hair. I would rather clarify the heck out of it and trim it a bit so I can move on with life.



I went through a protein disaster this is what helped me: clarifying, SMT (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=128), hot coconut oil treatments (http://adelinahair.blogspot.com/2012/07/hot-coconut-oil-treatment.html), cassia gloss (http://adelinahair.blogspot.com/2012/05/bring-my-hair-back-to-life-treatment.html), Suave Ocean Breeze conditioner, Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose conditioner (I head good things about Biolage Hydra Therapie Conditioning Balm too).

You may want to read this article for some extra help: Protein Disaster & Recovery Center (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=17%20).

Good luck! :)

ETA: You do NOT have to cut your hair because of a bad protein experience, but you do have to cut off split ends, those never get better only worse. If you look at this photo you can see the dryness in my ends for three months in a row, but once I did a Cassia treatment and then two hot coconut oil treatments my hair got better: click here for photo (http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a207/ioana2adelina/composit112011-72012.jpg).

[Roscata]

I haven't yet found anything that helps my hair recover from protein overload. My hair hates SMTs (one of the most damaging things I have ever put on my hair), and coconut oil is iffy. If I tried it after a protein overload, it would probably make it worse, not better. I am not willing to wait so long before I can run a comb through my hair. I would rather clarify the heck out of it and trim it a bit so I can move on with life.

I believe you, coarse hair is very difficult to deal with when it comes to oil, protein and moisture from what I've read. But AliApplecore has medium strands like me, so I believe she will have a different experience.

[Petrichos]

Thanks guys! I'm pretty sure I experienced this the first time I used it, I just didn't make the connection that it was the new conditioner. I didn't have to trim anything off then, but now that I'm here I figured I could learn new ways to make it better faster so that my ends I trim don't continue splitting (can that happen?).

I don't currently own any conditioner, besides this new one I got a while back to use sparingly they all mostly just make my neck/ears itchy. If anyone knows of any non-expensive conditioners made from truly natural products (and no proteins, of course :) ) I would love to check them out. Fragrance free and silicone free (though I can't find one with both ingredients missing) still give me problems.

Thanks for the advice you'v already given, it was super helpful!

[Chestnuthenna]

I can really sympathize with you because the same thing happened to me about a month ago! I bought a really nice (I thought) organic protein conditioner. It did say on the bottle "suitable for fine hair" but I didn't take any notice. I must have used it three times, noticing that I was getting a few tangles I don't usually have problems with, then suddenly my hair went crazy and crunchy and dry and nothing seemed to make any difference. Naturally since I'm a newbie I'd been trying so many things - with success I might add - but I had no idea what exactly had caused the problem. In the end I stopped using the conditioner, did an SMT, coconut oiled overnight, did a henna gloss - still dry and crunchy! Finally more oil and CO washing, another henna gloss - I'm finally nearly back where I started but I've suddenly started noticing split ends too! Disaster. Oh well, some people swear by protein. I'm sticking with henna and oil. On the conditioner question, I don't know what is available in the US but I bought organic conditioner in bulk (5l) so it comes out very cheap - I notice there is a brand called "organic garden" on US ebay which seems reasonably priced and might be worth trying. Good luck!

[furnival]

I've been putting grape seed oil on my ends more than usual
I think grapeseed is quite a drying oil, and may not be the best one in your currant circumstances. There's a link to Ktani's article here, which contains links to a list of oils and their drying values represented by iodene content:
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=190