How do you know for sure if it's protein sensitivity ?

[RachelRose]

Ok so I was cone free for awhile and was thinking that was the cause of my hair care issues . It was dry ,matted easily , and I thought I'd have to cut it because it was so dry and unmanageable .So I got dove dry care oil shampoo and conditioner and oil and my hair felt like butter (in a great way lol) not mushy but just so soft and moisturized . Then I got a henna hask treatment and got dry hair so I didn't do anymore of those and deep conditioned with neutrogena triple moisture . Now I didn't know the dove dry care line was cone free so I'm taking that into account as maybe cone free not being the real issue . I was using natures gate which I hear is proteiny so maye that was it ? Also the neutrogena has protein in it and my hair felt better but still less than awesome after using that . Since I'm a product junkie lol I used loreal restore 5 and it has protein in it . My hair doesn't feel horrible but it tangles and hair will stick together and it just feels rougher . Where as with the dove it felt soft against my face and wonderful :) so obviously I will go back to dove and do some cwc with treseme moisture condish as well . So is it cones ? Is it protein? I would like to know so I don't waste money on products that are mean to my hair .

[RachelRose]

Some more questions . .. How do I fix it ? Do I clarify first ? Should I wait 4 days til next wash day or out conditioner on it now and then rinse and airdry ?

[Sinthia]

My hair gets so weird when I use protein on it. Very stiff, dry, and feels like tough glue like substances while wet. I do so well on natural sulfate free shampoos and cone free protein free conditioners. Maybe try that

[Hotrox]

Can you do some kind of elimination experiment? Clarify and just use 1 set of shampoo and conditioners, say a cone free/protein free one and see how your hair is for a week or 2. Then clarify and try a new set, say cone free with protein for a few weeks and continue like this, changing one thing at a time and taking notes as you go.

It's easy to get carried away trying everything at the beginning but it seems that most people do best on a simple routine after finding what works for them.

[Panth]

As with all of these things, you only know if you a) do the specific treatment and that helps, and b) it doesn't happen again if you eliminate the offending ingredient/product/part of your routine. In the case of protein, the specific treatment is balancing the protein it with moisture. Clarifying is not necessarily helpful as it is stripping and drying, which can make things worse. Something like an SMT deep treatment or a commercial conditioner or leave-in that is advertised as "moisturising" should do it. You'll also want to stop putting extra protein on (not necessarily permanently, just for a while until you get the protein:moisture balance back). That means quitting any product containing wheat/soy/silk/keratin/hydrolysed protein/amino acids/etc. in the ingredients.

With protein, you can also check for elasticity vs. brittleness, which is an indicator of the moisture : protein balance. Take a recently shed hair and stretch it between your fingers. Overmoistured hair will stretch lots, but will not bounce back to its old length. Balanced hair will stretch a bit and bounce back, but snap if you stretch it too far. Hair with a protein overdose will not stretch but will just snap as it is too brittle.

Final point: lots of people have one bad experience with what they think is a protein overdose and swear off protein forever. This is not necessary and not always a good idea. For it really to be true that "your hair doesn't like protein", you have to have consistently bad experiences with more than one product (so you know it's protein, not a particular formulation/product that's the issue) and not just when going overboard and using absolute masses of protein-containing products. As with everything, a balance is key. Protein can be very beneficial, particularly for damaged hair, fine hair and/or very long hair. So, don't swear it off completely without a bit more experimentation.

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For 'cone-free, many people just don't get along with that. Also, some of the particular 'cone-free products don't work very well either at or or for particular people. E.g. my hair goes into a dry, sticky, tangled mess if I use the Body Shop 'cone-free conditioners. If you think going 'cone-free has caused your problems, it's probably best to just go back to your old routine from before you decided to go 'cone-free. If you're using sulphate- or cocoamidopropyl betaine-containing shampoos you might not need to clarify, but you could anyway just to be sure. A lot of the 'cone-free stuff (as it's marketed to people who like "natural" stuff) is full of plant extracts and these can build up on your hair too.

[Rosetta]

Final point: lots of people have one bad experience with what they think is a protein overdose and swear off protein forever. This is not necessary and not always a good idea. For it really to be true that "your hair doesn't like protein", you have to have consistently bad experiences with more than one product (so you know it's protein, not a particular formulation/product that's the issue) and not just when going overboard and using absolute masses of protein-containing products. As with everything, a balance is key. Protein can be very beneficial, particularly for damaged hair, fine hair and/or very long hair. So, don't swear it off completely without a bit more experimentation.

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For 'cone-free, many people just don't get along with that. Also, some of the particular 'cone-free products don't work very well either at or or for particular people. E.g. my hair goes into a dry, sticky, tangled mess if I use the Body Shop 'cone-free conditioners. If you think going 'cone-free has caused your problems, it's probably best to just go back to your old routine from before you decided to go 'cone-free. If you're using sulphate- or cocoamidopropyl betaine-containing shampoos you might not need to clarify, but you could anyway just to be sure. A lot of the 'cone-free stuff (as it's marketed to people who like "natural" stuff) is full of plant extracts and these can build up on your hair too.
Many thanks for saying these!
(IMO they should be included in FAQ/made into a sticky, if they aren't yet ;))

[RachelRose]

Thankyou all for your replies !!! I'm going to do a Moisture treatment and just stick with the dove dry oil line for a few weeks and then try loreal conditioner once more with protein later on and see if there's a reaction again . For now tho I'm lookin for a moisture mask without protein period maybe loreal mega moisture ? Protein used to be very beneficial for my hair and I loved those hask placenta packs but I'm wondering since by hair is no longer chemically dyed and hardly ever straightened if maybe my hair just doesn't need very much added at all . I also henna and I'm starting to think that's my "protein treatment" and I don't need anything else added .

[RachelRose]

I really love lhc . Earlier last year I cut off some length after using coconut oil and protein products (I just used because they were Natural ) and my hair was unrecognizable. Without this place I would have chopped it all of because I had no idea what was going on . So thanks everyone again ;)

[battles]

I always have bad luck with wheat protein, it makes me super crunchy and tangled. My hair absolutely loves gelatin treatments and anything with silk protein, though! It may be the specific type you're using. Definitely make sure you're paying attention to what types of protein make your hair feel crunchy so you can avoid that one in the future, but don't swear all of them off.