recommend a routine please =]

[forgotten1]

alright, i'm having a real difficult hair dilemma. my hair is layered and the longest layer is at the tip of my shoulder. i decided yesterday to come back to this site after leaving for a few years and start to grow my hair naturally. well whenever i don't straighten and blow dry my hair it looks like an ugly mess. i know this is only the "bad" phase of growing. i just need some tips. my hair is of normal texture but gets greasy pretty quick. it's pretty healthy but i also am wondering if anyone could recommend a cleaning and conditioning routine for me. i've been gone so long i'm almost clueless. i used olive oil in it today and it's intensly greasy and i barely used a quarter size on my ends. my hair isn't long enough to bun up yet either. please any suggestions on this would be appreciated.

[Katze]

Hi forgotten, welcome back!

first of all, that sounds like MUCH too much oil. Some people can indeed "heavily oil" their hair (or scalp!) and get away with it - for me that would leave me unhappy too. ;)

I think HeidiW was the one to recommend just enough oil to make your palms shine when you rub them together. Then, you smooth this oil over the hair *from the ears down*.

Apart from fineness, we have a similar hairtype, so what works for me *might* work for you.

The other thing that helps with oiling is to oil *from the ears down* on WET, freshly washed (and usually NOT conditioned) hair. You need to find the right amount of oil for you; for me, the kind of oil is less of an issue, though I do find olive makes my hair greasier faster.

Although many people here have a "routine", there are many of us who do not. In my case, my hair has been changing so much since getting longer and healthier - it is greasier and wavier and has more body - so my washing changes. I used to WO wash every other wash, for example, but at the moment, WO doesn't get my hair clean. I'm also pregnant, so your mileage may vary! :D

You mention blowdrying and straightening. What would happen if you let your hair dry naturally, for example after a deep treatment like an SMT, then just *combed* it into tidiness? That plus a little bit of hair gel (sometimes mixed with leave-in conditioner - I use Goth Rosary) really, really helps my hair behave and makes its messiness look like it's "on purpose." The longer and healthier it gets, and the more the layers grow out, the better it looks. Going away from heat damage has helped my hair a lot, though in winter I do occasionally blow dry on low heat when my hair is almost dry.

Hope this helps from a fellow sort-of wavy with layers who's just a bit longer than you!

Katze

[ChloeDharma]

You could try CO washing, that helped my hair alot. Katze is right about the heat styling, it really does your hair no favours if you are trying to grow it out. Can you ponytail it yet? Mine lived in a ponytail until it was long enough to bun, the other 2 styled i did were a kind of french twist and a peacock twist....quite similar really anyway.
Olive is quite a heavy oil, it's not really one i use but it has alot of fans. If you wanted to use it as a leave in without looking greasy then you definately applied too much. As Katze said, just a drop to give the palms of your hands a light sheen is usually enough, you can always add more if it's not. The oils i've found great for light oilings are Jojoba and Coconut, focusing on the ends, canopy and that bit underneath that gets tangly from friction against clothes.
I would suggest regular heavy oilings though, like the amount you described and then some more :p then leave it in overnight and wash out the next day...the longer it has to absorb the better. You might want to invest in some kind of sleeping cap for this though to protect pillows and prevent it all being rubbed off.
The gel idea is a good one, i used to use aloe vera gel after washing to help control my hair when it was wavier, often mixed with a drop or two of oil.....this also helped prevent the oily look as well as giving some hold. There's also a flax seed gel recipe over on the recipe board that might be usefull.

[Arctic]

Welcome back!

I love CWC washing technique, aka Condition, Wash, Condition. First you wet your hair in the shower, add generous amounth of cheap (non-coney) conditioner to the length. Then without rinsing it, wash your scalp with shampoo. Let the length hang in the back, don't pile your hair on top of your head (this applies to all washing techniques). Now rinse all the shampoo and conditioner away and put on some good conditioner (it can be cheap too ofcourse, cheap doesn't mean it's not good. But many seem to use a better one for this 2nd conditioner). Let this conditioner sit on your hair while you do other showering things. I use shower cap, some clip their hair up, some let it hang in their back. Then the very last thing you do after you are ready to finish your shower, rinse the conditioner. I usually leave some of it in, so it acts like a leave-in conditioner too.

Then gently squeesh the excess water from your length, wrap your hair in towel turban for a while. I oil my hair when it's damp. It sounds to me too, that you possibly used too much oil. It's suprisingly little that is needed to protect the ends.

Once in a while I do heavy oiling, usually the evening before I know I'm going to wash my hair. Then I use more oil, so my hair looks dirty and oily :)

Hmm... remember to comb gently, preferably with seamless wide toothed comb. Start from ends and work upwards.

If your layers rub against your shoulders all the time, you could try to keep them up alot, to avoid the weathering this rubbing easily causes.

Well, here's some ideas :)

[jojo]

Katze said; I'm also pregnant

Hijack here! CONGRATULATIONS KATZE THATS WONDERFUL NEWS

[spidermom]

Start with 1 drop of oil. Distribute this between fingers and then pinch-apply it to ends between fingers. Then you can rub your hands together and stroke them over the surface. That's what I would do with hair as short as yours. You can do this when it is freshly washed and still damp. You could do it before you are planning to wash it, too.

For washing, I can recommend CWC with your current favorite shampoo and conditioner.
1) apply conditioner to ends
2) shampoo scalp, then rinse well
3) apply conditioner to ends again, rinse

I also like to dilute my shampoo in water (using an empty shampoo bottle to mix this up; 1/2-1 cup of water, 1 small squirt of shampoo). It cleans just as well as full-strength shampoo without stripping your hair. You'll save a lot of money on shampoo!