One Year Progress- Not Sure Where To Go From Here- Suggestions?

[katiebeans]

Hello LHCers. I haven't been around in a while for various reasons, but it's been about a year now since I started taking my hair care a little bit more seriously with help from the forum so I thought I'd share some photos. Also, my hair has been driving me crazy as of lately and I am in need of advice.

So here is a photo I took about a year ago. I'm almost ashamed to say my hair looked like this at one point but I know you guys won't judge me :) I know I was about to tone the hair after bleaching it and chop off the fried ends, but I can't remember why I left the regrowth there at my roots. I also can't find the after photo! But here we go:

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t201/k69x/Untitled491_zpsbbdd92e3.jpg?t=1398712328

Now this next photo was taken this morning. Last night I trimmed the ends a teensy bit. The last time I bleached my roots was in august. It's since been dyed purple over and over again, and last month I bleached all the purple (no roots) and dyed it blue. I've also done a bunch of trims since the first photo.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t201/k69x/Photoon4-28-14at242PM_zps3a795b53.jpg

My problem here is I don't know where to take my hair care routine. This is my current regime:

-Wash every 3-7 days (so once or twice a week.)
+I stopped using shampoo two years ago. I've since tried BS and ACV, WO with ACV rinses, and CO washing. The first I learned is damaging, the second never left my scalp clean enough, and the third left my hair too greasy and limp.
-Detangle wet hair using fingers.
-Comb tangles out nightly and sleep in a braid.

That's pretty much it. I refer to this as a problem because my hair hasn't looked great lately and I am sick of it. The only non-shampoo option that I have tried that gives me great hair is an egg wash. I did that yesterday and used a cone-free conditioner on the length (hence today's good hair day.) But I don't want to rely on egg washes because of the protein and how many eggs I would go through.

I don't plan on bleaching ever again, I graduate college next spring and figure I will have enough regrowth to chop most of the old hair off when I need to find a real job. I also plan on giving my hair a break from the colored dyes (even though they're not harmful) unless I hear from one of the jillion internship positions I applied for this summer. If that happens (and I do hope it does) I will have to do something more subtle with my hair. Thoughts on that?

I am open to any comments, suggestions, ideas, tips, constructive criticism, anything :)

[jeanniet]

Egg proteins are too large to penetrate hair, so if that's a concern don't worry about it. But in your case I'd consider either a aulfate-free shampoo (like SheaMoisture Moisture Retention shampoo) or a cleansing conditioner that contains coco betaine. The "cleansing conditioner" market is beginning to take off, so there are several choices. I know L'Oreal makes one, but I've never used it. Curl Junkie Daily Fix is wonderful, but pricey and can't get it on the ground (but what I would prefer).

[hafattack]

I'm still myself trying to find a good routine, but I wanted to comment on how awesome your color is.. I love it!

[katiebeans]

Egg proteins are too large to penetrate hair, so if that's a concern don't worry about it. But in your case I'd consider either a aulfate-free shampoo (like SheaMoisture Moisture Retention shampoo) or a cleansing conditioner that contains coco betaine. The "cleansing conditioner" market is beginning to take off, so there are several choices. I know L'Oreal makes one, but I've never used it. Curl Junkie Daily Fix is wonderful, but pricey and can't get it on the ground (but what I would prefer).

Sulfate-free shampoos are a good option, but I am pretty stubborn and don't want to give in to the shampoo industry and give them my money :p but I was thinking about cleansing conditioners. Not so sure yet though. If I do find one within my price range I might give it a go though. Thanks for the suggestion!


I'm still myself trying to find a good routine, but I wanted to comment on how awesome your color is.. I love it!

Thanks, you're too kind :o It's very faded at this point but I am lucky it didn't fade a lot greener. Good luck in finding that right routine, I know how frustrating it can be!

[Lyv]

I know you don't use shampoo but have you thought about using shampoo bars? I use the Apple Valley bars and rinse with ACV and my hair feels a lot better than it did when I tried CO wash and CWC. I haven't had much luck with cleansing conditioners myself they seem to coat my hair and make it look really limp but I think one or two have had some success with the herbal essences cleansing conditioner and it's fairly cheap.

[katiebeans]

I know you don't use shampoo but have you thought about using shampoo bars? I use the Apple Valley bars and rinse with ACV and my hair feels a lot better than it did when I tried CO wash and CWC. I haven't had much luck with cleansing conditioners myself they seem to coat my hair and make it look really limp but I think one or two have had some success with the herbal essences cleansing conditioner and it's fairly cheap.

Hmm.. shampoo bars could be another option. My whole thing is BS/ACV worked so well with my hair that I still have hopes there is another non-shampoo option out there that could work. But as you can see I am starting to cave lol. If I can give shampoo bars a go and be able to get away with only using them once a week I think I will be happy with that. I hadn't even thought of shampoo bars, thanks for the suggestion!

[torrilin]

I think a good first question is what is your goal here? Do you want to start transitioning over to less colorful but still plenty long styles that will look professional for work? Do you want to wear your hair down more? Do you want to go "natural"?

You're going to have to wash you and your hair with something. Period. Very few people can get away with doing absolutely nothing to their hair and body ever. And someone will sell you that something, whether it's eggs, shampoo, shampoo bars, a "cleansing" conditioner, baking soda and so forth. So... figure out what works for you, and just go with it. It's not like 2 eggs a week is a huge increase in your budget, so if you like using eggs, do it. Even organic, cage free locally raised eggs from a CSA farm don't cost all *that* much. And using a "conventional" shampoo isn't going to ruin your life either. Since my skin is pretty dry and I'm sensitive to a lot of fragrances, I often wind up using fragrance free baby shampoo and body wash on my hair after carefully scrutinizing the label to make sure the detergents are ones that work well for me.

[katiebeans]

I think a good first question is what is your goal here? Do you want to start transitioning over to less colorful but still plenty long styles that will look professional for work? Do you want to wear your hair down more? Do you want to go "natural"?

You're going to have to wash you and your hair with something. Period. Very few people can get away with doing absolutely nothing to their hair and body ever. And someone will sell you that something, whether it's eggs, shampoo, shampoo bars, a "cleansing" conditioner, baking soda and so forth. So... figure out what works for you, and just go with it. It's not like 2 eggs a week is a huge increase in your budget, so if you like using eggs, do it. Even organic, cage free locally raised eggs from a CSA farm don't cost all *that* much. And using a "conventional" shampoo isn't going to ruin your life either. Since my skin is pretty dry and I'm sensitive to a lot of fragrances, I often wind up using fragrance free baby shampoo and body wash on my hair after carefully scrutinizing the label to make sure the detergents are ones that work well for me.

My goal, that's a good question. I guess my original post is rather vague. I suppose my goal is to find a routine that allows me to wash 1-2 times a week and allows me to wear my hair down more often. I plan on growing my natural hair color out. Until then I am going to leave the colors alone, save for a more subtle option should I find work.

I'd like to be as natural as possible. WO worked wonderfully for some time but I don't know what happened. I think if I found a natural conditioning mask I could use once a month or so WO might work again. I was intrigued by this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7nJIIwvwxg

Another reason I am avoiding "conventional" shampoo is because I like the way the natural oils coat my hair and I am afraid shampoo will alter that. Plus, when I was using shampoo I never found one that did wonders for my hair. While I don't sound too happy with my hair right now I am happier with it than I was two years ago when I was using shampoo.

I might give shampoo bars a go. Chagrin Valley's coconut milk bar looks nice enough.

[cat11]

Cleansing conditioners are awesome and would probably work great for your bleached hair.

I would really reccomend Salon Grafix cleasing conditioner its an imitation of Wen and it works seriously well and you don't have to fine tune how you use it as much as you would for a lot of other non-shampoo washing options.

You could also find a sulfate free shampoo and mix it with conditioner, preferably a cone free one.

Your hair will get so much healthier over time if you stop dying it. I dyed my hair for ages but not dying it has allowed it to get better and grow faster. I also have a lot of new growth that came in after I stopped. I can see it, it manifests itself as a little line of frizz right over the "dye line." At least I'm pretty sure thats what it is. Haha.