Bippy's Hair Experiments

[MadPirateBippy]

Hey everyone, for all that remember me when I was an obsessive- erm, I mean, more regular poster, I am prone to doing really wacky things to my hair. I figured since I now know an amazing amount about making my own products, I should share what I've been doing with my more recent experiments somewhere others can find them.

So, a quick note- my hair is meh on protein treatments (unless it really needs one), loves acid, and loves oils. My hair was a bit past classic when I started to do mii chops (a foot or two at a time), and I finally did a huge chop about a year ago. My hair went from benign neglect to just pure neglect and was Another Damn Thing For Me To Take Care Of. Also, I'd had some health problems and there was a foot wide band of brittle, nasty hair between my roots and my ends that just never got better. I am prone to frizz and breakage. My hair is fine and will split if you look at it funny.

Right now i'm growing out a weird dyed blond patch I did with my kid- although I'm loving the blond streaks in my braid! I'll post pictures soon.

Feel free to request that I perform any sort of random hair treatment experiment on my head, on your behalf.

LAST NIGHTS EXPERIMENT:

WHAT I DID:

Combed a scant quarter cup of coconut oil through DRY hair. BRAIDED into pigtails (my usual night do till I hit somewhere between BSL and waist). The next morning I used a TON of cheap green conditioner- my local grocery store has a VO5 knockoff brand, in case .79 cent conditioner isn't cheap enough for you- it's harsh as a conditioner but great for CO or CWC. It was in my hair for at least half an hour, then I went and rinsed, washed with diluted shampoo, conditioned again. Last thing was a blast of cold water rinse, which I whined and cried through like a big weenie. Nothing like freezing wet hair dripping on your back before you've even had coffee to make the day seem filled with sadness.

WHY:

Apparently coconut oil can actually penetrate the hair shaft and bind with the proteins in the hair, which actually makes hair more flexible and less prone to breakage and damage.
For Science! http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12715094

WHAT I WANTED TO ACHIEVE:

Given my hair tends to be dry and brittle, I wanted it to become more supple, flexible, and softer.

ACTUAL RESULT:

Hair is SUPER SOFT and moderately shiny all the way down. Very easy to style, and fewer flyways than usual. I think I need an acid rinse to bump the shine up to epic levels, but I should probably do this one a week or so to keep my hair soft and to stop it from becoming the brittle, angry length full of white dots and splits that I had previously. Length from ears down also looks a half shade darker and matches my roots perfectly now. Also, I thought it would ruin my silk pillowcase but fear not, gentle reader! My pillowcase wasn't even greasy!

Want to join me in a Hair Experiment? For copy-paste fun, here's the breakdown I use! Also, like I said, feel free to drop requests, I'm willing to try truly zany things on my head, for the glory of SCIENCE and LHC!

(here is a picture of me with something strange in my hair, waiting to rinse it out)

http://i1377.photobucket.com/albums/ah76/dreaminglotus1/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-10/d77f890e-93a3-406c-a8ea-f7b5e588b414_zps7588ed00.jpg~original (http://s1377.photobucket.com/user/dreaminglotus1/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-10/d77f890e-93a3-406c-a8ea-f7b5e588b414_zps7588ed00.jpg.html)

MY EXPERIMENT:
WHAT I DID:
WHY:
WHAT I WANTED TO ACHIEVE:
ACTUAL RESULT:

[MadPirateBippy]

MY EXPERIMENT: Silk Pillowcases

WHAT I DID: I switched out my standard cotton pillowcases, even though they were satiny and high thread count, for a couple of the cheapy silk pillowcases from Dharma Trading Company

WHY: I tend to nuzzle my pillow at night, and I had a lot of whispy breakage on my right side vs. my left- I thought it was just baby hairs, given that I had super expensive satiny cotton pillowcases, but I figured I'd give it a try anyway, since I hate using hairspray and the broken baby hair thing made my updo's look shaggy.

WHAT I WANTED TO ACHIEVE: Less breakage on right side of head

ACTUAL RESULT: Substantially less breakage and increased length- now my angry whispies are from over use of hair elastics, but that's WAY longer than the one and two inch frizz I had. I was not expecting this good of a result, and now refuse to sleep on anything but silk pillowcases, as if I was a pretty pretty princess. Also, oddly, I noticed less of the little white dots you get on your eyelids- millia- from sleeping on the silk pillowcase. My Mom is prone to them as well, it's not a big deal to take care of them but they are annoying.

I declare the silk pillowcase experiment a surprise success. I thought it was just a way to sneak money out of long hairs that could be spent on hair toys, but I was wrong!

[Aurum]

Ooh, I'll join in! :p This isn't anything revolutionary, but...

MY EXPERIMENT: WCC Method
WHAT I DID: Washed with a sulfate shampoo, then double conditioned with a lighter conditioner and then a heavier one. I spent about 2-3 minutes with each on my hair before washing them off.
WHY: My hair is prone to dryness and winter is coming up, so I thought I'd find a solution now before it gets bad.
WHAT I WANTED TO ACHIEVE: Softer, less dry (moister?) hair.
ACTUAL RESULT: Softer, less dry hair! Yay!

I think I'll continue with WCC, my hair seems to like it.

[MadPirateBippy]

MY EXPERIMENT: Is Shea Butter as good for my hair as coconut oil?

WHAT I DID: I applied Vitamin M (Monistat) to my scalp and 100% pure shea butter to my length, from ears down. Put it into pigtail braids for sleeping in. CWC it out of my hair tomorrow.

WHY: I keep hearing how awesome Shea Butter is for hair.

WHAT I WANTED TO ACHIEVE: Soft, Shiny, manageable, with distinct waves instead of frizz.

ACTUAL RESULT: I will update this on having my hair dry tomorrow, but girl, I am thinking this was a big fat terrifying MISTAKE. I suspect that Shea Butter might only be for women with thicker hair- in general girls with asian/ african hair have an extra couple of layers of cuticle scale on the outside, and my hair is very fine. The shea butter was like a wax- I could style my hair into liberty spikes with this stuff. I warmed it up between my palms and it did not seem to help. It was in my hair like goopy yellow wax and while trying to comb it through I had the worst shedding I've had it months- I think some of my hair was pulled out- and some awful, waxy tangles. I'm a bit afeared for my head, but if the final result isn't a complete crispy fried mess, I might mix shea butter with something else- I don't think I'll ever do strait shea butter in my hair again, evah! It's also kind of unpleasant smelling, and I'm more than a little freaked out that i can make my hair stand strait up.

I'll update tomorrow with results, just needed to share that I think I done goofed.

Edit the First: Upon waking up my hair is still horrible and waxy, but not as bad. I took the braids down and the unpleasant smell was VERY strong. My head is now covered with VO5's LHC famous Kiwi Lime Conditioner, and in 4 minutes it will have been on my head half and hour. I will then try to wash this stuff off of my hair and see what the results are, but at this point with as much anxiety as I'm going through, my hair better be PERFECT and possible get up on it's own and do the dishes before I do this again. However, I might mix Shea Butter with some other oils- but I don't think I'll do strait again! My big fear upon getting into the shower is that I'll never be able to get this stuff OUT of my HAIR without stripping it entirely.

Edit the Second:
In the water the Shea butter felt like wax again, it was rinsing out unevenly, and my hair feels goopy. I got coffee on the ceiling of my shower where it will doubtless stain the paint, I'll neglect to mention I did that to the husband guy. I knew the coffee rinse was living dangerously! Hair felt crappy enough after the CW portion I washed again, then used a conditioner with cones (Tre Seme) to try to fix it. It's still wet, at now it smells of coffee instead of burnt fat, but I'm still not thrilled. Final judgement is being held until my hair dries, as humid as it is today, that might be a while.

EDIT THE THIRD:
I have wrongly judged the Shea Butter. While I'm going to mix it with other, more liquid oils next time to make sure that it's easier to apply and remove, my hair is mega super amazeballz shiny- even slightly shinier than with the first coconut oil wash. Perhaps it's a combination of the cones, having used half a freaking bottle of KiwiLime on my head, and the coffee rinse, but my hair is aaaaahhhhhh-MAAAAA-zzzziiiiing. Totally worth the stinky waxy goop in the hair, once a week, to get it to look and feel like this. Even my bleached portion is nicer than my unbleaches length usually is. Amaze. And y'all KNOW I was about an inch away from chucking the Shea Butter.

CONCLUSION: Shea Butter can work with fine hair, but for ease of application and removal, perhaps mixing it 50/50 with jojoba or coconut oil first, oand sticking it in the microwave for a bit, will be for the best.


I also have a bunch of coffee for a coffee rinse, because I know I should only do single variable experiments but I like to live dangerously. SCIENCE!

PS- I got bananas for my family to eat- HAHAHA that was a lie, we all know I got them to try the Banana Hair Treatment.

[gustavonut]

I love this idea, and I keep hearing about people using monistat. I'm just wondering if it's as good as everyone is making it seem. What's your experience with it, Bippy?

[hanne jensen]

Bippy, in the interest of science, and because I have just as delicate hair as you, I'd like to know results of washing hair with green tea instead of poo.

[MadPirateBippy]

I love this idea, and I keep hearing about people using monistat. I'm just wondering if it's as good as everyone is making it seem. What's your experience with it, Bippy?

Last time I did Monistat regularly (about weekly), my hair growth went from half an inch a month to an inch- and during the summer, from about three quarters of an inch a month, to an inch and a half a month. Also, it makes my scalp feel really nice. I like to pretend I don't have fungal anything on my scalp that could inhibit hair growth (if you look at your scalp under a black light and anything glows, that's a yeast/fungus living on your skin that may be reducing your hair growth rate), but for the sake OF SCIENCE I will admit it's a strong possibility. I prefer to think that Monistat just feeds sulphur and other limiting compounds right to the roots, but... I'm pretty sure that's just a pretty lie I tell myself. :(

For me at least, it seems to fairly consistently double my average growth rate. When I stop using it, it slows down- even adjusting for seasonal variations.



Bippy, in the interest of science, and because I have just as delicate hair as you, I'd like to know results of washing hair with green tea instead of poo.

FOR SCIENCE! I have a gallon of green tea I made Yesterday, I will wash my hair in green tea tomorrow if all goes well with the Shea Butter Experiment tonight and I don't have to clarify my hair into oblivion!

[MadPirateBippy]

Hanne, I have failed you.

Today I was cleaning the house- I clean hard, if that makes sense, and my hair was second day hair anyway and got sweaty. I washed with the green tea mix I made up and put in an empty conditioner bottle, but my hair still felt slightly oily/dirty at the roots. Normally I would have let this dry and see how it worked, but tonight was not the night for that kind of risk.

I have a second interview tomorrow for a job I really want, so I could not risk an Experiment Gone Wrong if it didn't turn out. I chickend out, so I shampooed and conditioned as usual.

I will try again later though! I shall not be deterred forever from my quest/duty to put weird stuff in my hair FOR SCIENCE!

Bonus, though, the shea butter hair conditioning held through and my hair is still ridiculously soft.

[captaincrunch]

Thank you for making this thread Bippy! Now I'm thinking of getting some coconut oil.

[hanne jensen]

So, how did the interview go, Bippy? I'm looking forward to your experiment with green tea as it supposedly adds tensile strength to the hair.

[MadPirateBippy]

MY EXPERIMENT: Shampoo hair with green tea and a bit of honey (I was out of honey, used sugar, drank the rest of the tea). Also, honey is known to help lighten hair and I would like mine a bit darker.

WHAT I DID: Put the tea in a clean conditioner bottle. Microwaved for 20 seconds so as to not put ice cold tea on my scalp and make me whine, because I am a ferocious defender OF SCIENCE but a pretty pretty princess when it comes to hating cold things on me first thing in the morning. Since the green tea didn't seem to do much for the greasies in the last, aborted attempt, today I washed second day hair that was not sweaty or gross. I poured the green tea into dry hair, put on a shower cap, poured more green tea in there, and let it sit while I showered. I did not put ACV (apple cider vinegar) in the mix since my hair loves it SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO MUCH that it would have given a false positive on the tea experiment for perfect hair. On the other hand I haven't used ACV in my hair in years, so perhaps that should be my next experiment.

WHY: Hanne asked me to. :) There are a bazillion commercial shampoos with green tea in them, and there's some blog posts about using green tea by itself or with some acv in it to make a no surficant/no sulphate hair wash.

Links for the interested:
http://www.minimalistbeauty.com/diy-green-tea-cleansing-hair-rinse/
http://www.ehow.com/how_12093515_use-green-tea-alternative-shampoo-clean-hair.html
And the green tea thread from the archives:
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/archive/index.php/t-88126.html
WHAT I WANTED TO ACHIEVE:

ACTUAL RESULT: Still waiting for my hair to dry, but first impressions are that this will work best as a conditioner or a rinse than a shampoo if your hair is at all funky or dirty- it didn't feel like there was any surficant action lifting up grease or dirt in my hair. But my initial impressions of the shea butter were totally wrong, so let's see how this dries.

UPDATE THE FIRST: Hair is only half dry but I noticed my scalp feels amazing. Like I just got a really great full scalp massage- and I know I didn't massage my scalp, I just poured the tea on. Niiice. I don't have huge issues with my scalp but oh my goodness, this is lovely, and I will probably try this again just for the scalp as long as my hair isn't a disaster afterwards.

UPDATE THE SECOND: Now that it's dry my hair is shiny, soft, and manageable- it's really quite nice. I think the slightly acidic nature of green tea accounts for the shine, but I will say the bleached streak is a little coarser/rougher feeling than it was before- but my last wash was a pretty intense CWC to get out a heavy overnight coconut oiling, so there was a lot of extra stuff there to make the bleached and damaged bits super soft. Also, shedding is down- I'm usually at abut 20 shed hairs for brushing my hair out in the mornings, I'm at 3 so far today, so it was noticeable. It might be from the coffee rinses I've been doing the last few days as well (caffeine is supposed to slow down shedding) but today was the first day I noticed it, for the lack of shed hairs. The tea certainly helped, if that's the case.

CONCLUSION: As a shampoo alternative, I think green tea is a little weak, unless you're stretching your washes and could use a little boost, or you're heading into a no poo / herbal cleansing/ water only direction anyway. It's a nice B- wash, if that makes sense, and there's too many things that work better for me as a poo for me to reach for this again as a shampoo substitute.

As a rinse, I'll give green tea an A. I am going to use this again, no question. My scalp feels amazing, which was an unexpected side benefit, and the antioxidants and caffeine in the green tea should help reduce shedding. My scalp feels cool, almost menthol tingly, and obviously it really liked something in that green tea, so to keep my scalp happier I'll try this again.

My hair smells really nice, too, which I wasn't expecting from the green tea wash.

RECAP:
I think it's a fantastic rinse at the end of a wash, but if your hair gets dirty or sweaty, it might not be a good wash. If you want a second day hair treatment and are edging towards stretching your washes/going no poo, I think this is amazing. My scalp feels really nice, which I wasn't expecting, so it might also be good for anyone with scalp issues.

[MadPirateBippy]

Green Tea Hair Results:

Here you can see the blond streak
http://i1377.photobucket.com/albums/ah76/dreaminglotus1/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-11/6DB55529-E879-4787-A98E-4F0DE6A31B5A_zpsgxtycidt.jpg~original (http://s1377.photobucket.com/user/dreaminglotus1/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-11/6DB55529-E879-4787-A98E-4F0DE6A31B5A_zpsgxtycidt.jpg.html)

And the picture here is not showing off the shine, which is there, but hopefully it looks soft and well conditioned. And yeah, that's all my hair pulled to one side- fine hair + thin hair = small hair. :rolleyes:

http://i1377.photobucket.com/albums/ah76/dreaminglotus1/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-11/8468261E-E8F3-495D-873A-A0A4894BA0CE_zps455tr3w1.jpg~original (http://s1377.photobucket.com/user/dreaminglotus1/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-11/8468261E-E8F3-495D-873A-A0A4894BA0CE_zps455tr3w1.jpg.html)

[Entangled]

Bippy, how long did it take to notice results from your switch to a silk pillowcase? I suspect that my cotton pillow case might be the reason behind my halo.

[chantecler]

Youppi! another science oriented mind! I had seen the link on coconut oil before starting to take care of my hair, and it took careful reading of all of it to convince me it was any good :p I might post on here next time I do funky stuff with my hair!
also, am I the only one with an excel file for recording my hair growth rate and goals, complete with a graph?

[MadPirateBippy]

Bippy, how long did it take to notice results from your switch to a silk pillowcase? I suspect that my cotton pillow case might be the reason behind my halo.

I think I was doing monistat at the time, but as soon as I switched my halo started growing out from short frizz, three times as bad on my right side, to pony tail length in a couple of months. Sans monistat I tend to be fairly cosistant at half an inch a month, which is why I think that was During Monistat.

The left side stopped haloing almost immediately. I now have three silk pillowcases, when I use a cotton one I notice more damage within a day.


Youppi! another science oriented mind! I had seen the link on coconut oil before starting to take care of my hair, and it took careful reading of all of it to convince me it was any good :p I might post on here next time I do funky stuff with my hair!
also, am I the only one with an excel file for recording my hair growth rate and goals, complete with a graph?

You might be- perhaps we should create a file people can upload into something free, like a Google Docs template? Nerd enabling!

[squirrrel]

I'm pretty sure I came across something like that here recently....

[hanne jensen]

Thanks for using tea, Bippy. I will use it as a B wash. If you use this green tea over time, will you report on the tensile strength of your hair?

[Laurenji]

Hey, good to see you back! I'm loving this experiments thread, and you've convinced me I need to find a silk pillowcase somewhere. . .

[chantecler]

For the tea experiment, has anyone tried it with matcha green tea instead? as in, whole leaves in a very fine green powder... Since some indian plant powders can be used to wash hair, I think I'll give it a try and report back!

[AmberJewel]

Bippy, I was reading your posts for hair-type-reasons when I noticed my brother reading over my shoulder. Apparently he liked your writing style and zeal FOR SCIENCE! as he now keeps asking me if you've written anything else. Just thought you should know, you have a new fan.

[MadPirateBippy]

For the tea experiment, has anyone tried it with matcha green tea instead? as in, whole leaves in a very fine green powder... Since some indian plant powders can be used to wash hair, I think I'll give it a try and report back!

Please do! I should not be the only one wildly experimenting on my hair- people of other hair types are very useful test subjects. Muahaha.


Bippy, I was reading your posts for hair-type-reasons when I noticed my brother reading over my shoulder. Apparently he liked your writing style and zeal FOR SCIENCE! as he now keeps asking me if you've written anything else. Just thought you should know, you have a new fan.

Who does not have zeal FOR SCIENCE! I'm glad I have a fan, and I should really write something book like about hair, since people seem to like how I write and I blather about hair all the time.

UPDATE WITH OILING:
I mixed about one part Shea Butter with nine parts Coconut Oil and oiled my hair, had to skip wash day due to ALLTHETHINGSHAPPENINGATONCE, so it's been in my length for two days now. I bet my hair is going to be so soft kittens are jealous. Mixing the shea butter with the coconut oil got rid of all the obnoxious things about the shea butter- it blended well, spread easily, didn't smell bad. I will try upping it to 2/10ths of the mixture- 1/5 for my fraction loving friends- and see if that works as well.

UPDATE WITH CAFFEINE:
During the skipping of the washing my shed rate is slowly creeping back up. I am doing another experiment with caffeine pills in hot water to dissolve them, putting it on my scalp while I CO the length to get the oils out. We'll see if 400 mg of caffeine fixes the shedding issue. But first, the long form-

MY EXPERIMENT:
Do caffine pills work as well as strong coffee rinses to reduce shedding?

WHAT I DID:
Two 200 mg caffine pills from WalMart (cheap), dissolved in hot water put in an empty shampoo bottle. Poured it on scalp, treated length with CO, let it sit for 20 min + to give the caffine time to absorb through the scalp.

WHY: Reduced shedding, also reports of faster growth and longer terminal lengths with caffine.

WHAT I WANTED TO ACHIEVE: Reduced shedding. Normally, sans treatments, I shed between 20-50 hairs a day, mostly caught while shampooing and combing my hair.

ACTUAL RESULT: Less shedding than normal for me today, which is good. I need to figure out how often I need to do this. Scalp is slightly itchy but it has been for a couple of days, the rapid weather shifts have done it to the rest of my skin, too. We'll see how well this works as a long term solution. So far it was quick an easy to do!

[alishaxmarie]

ACTUAL RESULT: Less shedding than normal for me today, which is good. I need to figure out how often I need to do this. Scalp is slightly itchy but it has been for a couple of days, the rapid weather shifts have done it to the rest of my skin, too. We'll see how well this works as a long term solution. So far it was quick an easy to do!

The studies I've read stated that the affects of caffeine on the hair follicle last for at least 8 days. Others have found information stating that too much caffeine can actually be detrimental to your hair's health but I didn't find any studies on that and the main study done on caffeine rinses states that only so much caffeine can be absorbed by your follicles over a given period of time. The actual amount I found was: "the diffusion rate for caffeine through human skin is 2.2 x 10^6 grams per centimeter squared of skin, per hour." This info can be found on the Caffeine Rinse thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=121903&p=2690696&viewfull=1#post2690696) as well.

[MadPirateBippy]

The studies I've read stated that the affects of caffeine on the hair follicle last for at least 8 days. Others have found information stating that too much caffeine can actually be detrimental to your hair's health but I didn't find any studies on that and the main study done on caffeine rinses states that only so much caffeine can be absorbed by your follicles over a given period of time. The actual amount I found was: "the diffusion rate for caffeine through human skin is 2.2 x 10^6 grams per centimeter squared of skin, per hour." This info can be found on the Caffeine Rinse thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=121903&p=2690696&viewfull=1#post2690696) as well.

Thank you for linking the thread, for some reason I just could not find it for the life of me. I've been doing some sort of caffeinated rinse in my hair every wash day for about two weeks now- coffee, or green tea. Last night was just the first experiment with pure caffeine from pills. I should read that entire thread, take notes, and update the experiment!

[hanne jensen]

After a month of spraying my scalp with green tea I've grown 1 cm. That's below average.

[peacecat3]

MPB: glad to see you posting again! I remember you! LOL! And this thread has made me interested in using Monistat and green tea as a rinse. :writer:

[MadPirateBippy]

How about I put more random goop in my hair- FOR SCIENCE!

Tomorrow is wash day. This gives me more options of weird goop to put in my hair! I was debating doing the mashed banana thing but honesty, I wanted to eat the banana instead.

MY EXPERIMENT: Grapeseed oil- does my hair like it?

WHAT I DID: Same as I usually do for oiling my hair- apply to hair from ears down before I braid for bed.

WHY: I sort of kind of recall vaguely that my hair liked grape seed oil- or was it my skin?- over a decade ago. Since there are no other oils in my hair at the moment, this is the perfect time to isolate the grape seed oil and see what it does to my hair.

WHAT I WANTED TO ACHIEVE: Soft, shiny, glorious locks, tumbling across my pillow like a heroine in a romance novel, just before her bodice gets ripped. If it also comes with a Barry White soundtrack that would be awesome as well. Rrrrrow.

ACTUAL RESULT: I'll tell you tomorrow after wash day! Edit: Not as soft as with shea and coconut oil, but it was a lot easier to get in and out of my hair. It's a B. I'll see about adding it to mixes but I don't think I will bother with pure grape seed oil again. It strikes me as a really nice carrier.

[squirrrel]

I love seeing the results of your experiments Bippy. Of course, most of them are specific to your hair, but still... Seeing how you rate something, and what things you base your decisions regarding whether something is for you or not is good as well. :)

[ChloeDharma]

I'm loving this thread and really enjoy your writing style!

I'm quite interested in the caffeine. I did use a caffeine shampoo but to be honest didn't notice any improvement in growth from it. I'm sulphate free now so it's no longer an option but am curious about the green tea. I'm doing methi packs and having quite a bit of success with those but I'm thinking I might use green tea to mix them instead of water.

I tried shea butter on my hair once but even with using shampoo it took a few washes to get it out, maybe I'll try again mixed with some lighter oil as my length really does need the protection.

[MadPirateBippy]

I'm loving this thread and really enjoy your writing style!

I'm quite interested in the caffeine. I did use a caffeine shampoo but to be honest didn't notice any improvement in growth from it. I'm sulphate free now so it's no longer an option but am curious about the green tea. I'm doing methi packs and having quite a bit of success with those but I'm thinking I might use green tea to mix them instead of water.

I tried shea butter on my hair once but even with using shampoo it took a few washes to get it out, maybe I'll try again mixed with some lighter oil as my length really does need the protection.

Tonight wasn't really an experiment, but rather refining- I slept with half shea butter/half coconut oil in my length, and then I put a ton of VO5 Kiwi Lime in my hair, popped a shower cap on, and watched a two hour movie with my family, then did hair treatments for the kiddo, then a CWC. So far the half and half shea/coconut oil seems to be a real winner for me, except for the smell of the shea butter. My wife called it the stench of burning sadness- I think I need to find some shea butter that is NOT toasted before it's processed. I know it exists! But I have a tub of it to go through first and she'll just have to suffer. I'm going to try to slap some on her head tomorrow. :bounce:

No acid rinse, though I had my ACV there, because I really want to see how the oils worked for me. Right now I am super pleased with them. The coconut oil is a miracle as far as I am concerned, it makes my skin so soft and my hair so manageable and everything is lovely. But then I am more than a little insane about my skin being soft. One experiment I tried for that- the sandpaper for drywall. 180 grit. Made my skin soft but it felt like I had a burn over both my legs for a week- I took off too much skin and it was PAINFUL AS HECK. I used to do baths with asprin and powdered milk (salicylic and lactic acids) and then scrub, then an oil to lock in moisture. Right now my favorite method of exfoliation is to put half a peeled papaya in a vitamix, slather it on EVERYWHERE (if it has skin, it's got papaya), and wait 20 minutes and scrub it off with a sugar/coconut oil scrub. Skin softer than a baby's butt, and I get to tell people I can't come to the phone right now, I'm naked and covered in papaya.


None of my friends are surprised when I say stuff like that anymore... I wonder why :shrug:

[MadPirateBippy]

I love seeing the results of your experiments Bippy. Of course, most of them are specific to your hair, but still... Seeing how you rate something, and what things you base your decisions regarding whether something is for you or not is good as well. :)

Of course, you and I have almost the exact same hair type, so you might get a bit more out of my random experiments than most! Go go hair twin powers!

[squirrrel]

Of course, you and I have almost the exact same hair type, so you might get a bit more out of my random experiments than most! Go go hair twin powers!

There is this! I shall bear in mind if I decide to get creative! :)

[hanne jensen]

Bippy, have you tried used coffee grounds as an exfoliant? The gently rub dead skin cells off without making microscopic scratches which just worsens dry skin. The oils in the coffe grounds are good for the skin. Coffee grounds will not darken the skin.