I feel dumb

[Alaska98]

As I mentioned elsewhere, I'm new to the hair thing and message boards. I keep seeing thing in posts that I want to know more about, so I search terms, and don't really find what I'm looking for, so I'm going to ask thing that I'm pretty sure have been answered elsewhere, but I can't find them. I'm sorry.

What is Citric acid for?
How do you know if there's too much protein in your shampoo? How do you know if there's protein in your shampoo? Why is their protein in it anyway?
Is there a beginners guide somewhere? Until I got chemical conscious I always just bought what was cheap and smelled good as far as shampoo and conditioner, and never used any kind of product.
There's so much information on this forum I don't really know where to begin! Since hair is highly individual, is everything basically trial and error? I'm sure I'm doing things wrong, but no clue what. For instance, I generally wash every other day, only my scalp, not the length. I don't condition (from looking around, apparently this is bad?) but put olive oil on the ends daily. But my ends are always dry, frizzy (I live in a very humid climate), and split/break easily. I feel so lost!

[Wildcat Diva]

Aw, I'm sorry you're having trouble finding the info you need. I appreciate that you at least tried to find out first. How frustrating that you can't seem to get your questions answered.

Citric acid is an acidic rinse. PH is important in hair, and some things like soaps can affect PH of the hair in a certain way, and an acid rinse can help bring it back the other way. Vinegar can also do this. Also, citric acid chelates, and can be used to address build up from minerals in water.

Plenty of folks don't use conditioner, so it's not "bad." Quite a lot of us do use conditioner though, and lots of it, and some of us even wash our hair with it instead of shampoo.

Living in a humid climate (me too!), it can be a challenge how to keep your hair properly moisturized. Reading up on how to use ingredients called humectants (like aloe, honey, glycerin) can give you a clue on what to try to get your ends moisturized. Oil can seal in moisture. If your ends are breaking and splitting, perhaps look to protective updos to keep it safely put up some of the time. Read up on Catnip soaks to see if you can start to prevent splits.

I'll post to your visitor message board, and I'll help you if I can.

ETA: I can't seem to figure out how to send you a visitor message, LOL.

[AmyBeth]

Of course you're not dumb. There are as many favorite care routines and products as there are people on this forum. Try checking the articles section archive, it's a treasure trove of information. Take your time reading and experimenting and maybe you will find some things that you like better than what you are using now, and maybe you will decide you like the products you are using right now! Welcome aboard.

[sumidha]

I found http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.com/ to be really helpful. Science based but easy to understand, and there's recipes! :)

[Alaska98]

Thank you guy! I hadn't come across the catnip thing yet, so I'll see what I can find on that and the humectants. I didn't know I had a visitor board (maybe I don't, haha). I will try to get into the archive section. I may be having a hard time finding things because I'm mobile and not on a pc.

[Alaska98]

And thanks for the link. I like science-y!

[Rosa Harris]

Btw oiling the ends while still quite damp will seal in the moisture

[truepeacenik]

Look for people with similar hair. It's the reason we use the hair typing system (the 2b Mii looking stuff)
That is straightness or waviness (curly, coily,zig zags), Fine, Medium or Coarse individual hairs and thickness of the ponytail.

More than length, these will clue you into what might work for you.

[Lirona]

The "Newbies look here!" section on this page (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/announcement.php?f=9&a=11) is also really great! Welcome!

Edited to add: Ha, just realized 3 out of 4 those links are broken. Here are the archived/current versions:

Ursula's Newbie Advice (https://web.archive.org/web/20080804023812/http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=39)
LHC Terms and Abbreviations (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=54874)
Hair Typing Guide (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=116252)

Second edit: found this for you too: Basic hair care tips for newbies and others (http://archive.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=5090)

[Alaska98]

Thank you for the additional links! I don't know why I couldn't find them. Until I can edit my profile, I'm just going to put my hair type best as I can figure in this thread - 2a/f/i - lest I forget.

[florenonite]

How do you know if there's too much protein in your shampoo? How do you know if there's protein in your shampoo? Why is their protein in it anyway?

Hair is pretty much made of protein, and some people's hair does well with added protein in shampoo. Certain ingredients are definitely proteins (like "Hydrolized silk protein"), but I don't know all of them.

A good sign you've got too much protein in your shampoo is if you know it contains protein and your hair is dry and breaking.

[Laurenji]

There is A TON of info on here and it's easy to get overwhelmed. 5 years of this forum later, I still definitely don't know everything. I would definitely recommend the above beginner links that people have provided, as well as looking for people who have a hair type similar to yours.

Also, you probably can't look at visitor messages because you don't yet have enough posts to access visitor profiles. Here is the list of the number of posts required for all the user permissions. (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=68519) Welcome to the forum!