leave-in options for fine straight hair

[Saproxylic]

As I'm moving past shoulder length and keeping my hair up, I notice sebum does not manage to travel all the way down to the ends between washes (3-4 days) anymore, and my ends get dry and a bit snaggy. I usually use shampoo (alternating between sulfate free and sulfates containing) and rinse out cone free conditioner only (I condition to the roots because otherwise my wispies won't behave,and the last time I used coney condish, I got limp buildupy hair from one wash), and use no products in between washes. I suspect I need something heavier for the ends. I have tried a little bit of almond oil and dollop of aloe vera in water as a misting spray and it seems to work, but it goes off too quickly for some reason, so I end up wasting a lot, and aloe vera gel is super expensive here, so I would rather keep it for the occasional SMT or skincare.

I do have some almond oil still, so if there is another method how to use it on so fine ends that easily get limp and stringy, I would love to try it, I can also get coconut or other oils, but I suspect I might want to try a commercial leave-in as well.

The thing is, I have no idea what to look for ingredients wise to find a light leave-in that does not leave me a greaseball. No cones would be nice, though if it works, I wouldn't mind too much.

I'm in Eastern Europe so the selection of products is different from UK or US, and I don't feel like ordering online so I guess product names aren't super helpful, but ingredient lists sure are.

Thanks in advance for advice!

[pailin]

Some things you could try with what you already have:

You could try the almond oil several different ways; if one doesn't work, you can try another. For example:
-On dry hair when you need it, a drop or two rubbed on your hands then into your hair.
-Or on damp/wet hair, again just a drop or two.
-Or try it in the misting spray, without the aloe.
-You might also try pre-shampoo oiling to try to reduce the drying from washing (again, start with a small amount).

Also, rather than spend money on a new leave-in, you could try a little of your regular conditioner, either straight up or diluted with a little water. Or you could try a little of that in your mister bottle in place of the aloe.

For commercial leave-in products, perhaps you might want to try the type that come in a spray bottle rather than a heavy cream, since they tend to be lighter. Again you can try most things on either dry or wet hair, and you'll probably find that you hair behaves a little differently accordingly.

I have fine but not straight hair; perhaps some of the fine and straight-haired people will have better ideas, or know which of these is likely to be helpful or not.

[Nique1202]

In addition to the great suggestions above, have you tried using your 'coney conditioner as a second round of conditioner only from your earlobes or shoulders down? Maybe mix it half and half with your no-cone conditioner? (Still only from the neck down though, you don't need more conditioner at your roots and especially not something that can build up!) Or just use a drop of it as a leave in the same way as if it were oil, spread it on your fingers and just fingercomb it through your ends where you need the extra moisture and protection without going near your roots while your hair's still wet or damp.

[lapushka]

Try maybe the rinse-out oil method on the ends of your hair only. The link is in my signature (do read through the entire thread).

[Saproxylic]

Thanks for the extensive options, ladies! Now I have to figure out in which order to try them.

I tried two drops of almond oil on my dry ends just now, but it looked like it was way too much to use as a leave in, so I added a few more drops and decided to call it a pre wash oiling, as I was planning to wash tonight anyway :D

I'm not sure if pre wash oiling is going to solve it though, my hair usually looks well hydrated after wash, it's the end of the second or beginning of third day when ends are starting to act up.

I also looked around the local stores to see if something catches my eye (Murphy's law, it's usually hard to find cone free condish, but this time it seemed like nothing has cones in it, though looking deeper discovered that there are plenty of products I wasn't even aware we could get, like the whole Aussie line, Superdrug products, and even some stuff for curly hair, which is an extremely rare hairtype here, also seems that Garnier has pumped out a lot of new products I haven't seen before) I was looking at hair ''oil'' that had cyclomethicone and dimethiconol as first ingredients, followed by a lot of plant oils. I remember using Macadamia Healing Oil spray with success when I had short bleached hair, maybe this would work in a similar fashion?

[Anje]

I've had some luck with only rinsing my conditioners mostly out. Not that brands are necessarily going to help you, but I've had better luck with doing this with Herbal Essences conditioners (which have some bis-aminopropyldimethicone, but that's one of the amine-functionalized ones that don't build up) than with the silicone-free Suave stuff that I often use. The Suave stuff feels sticky if left in, once the hair is dry; the Herbal Essences makes the hair feel slick and moisturized.

One thing I've started doing lately is spritzing my dry hair with catnip (Nepeta cataria) tea. It seems like this is at least a little moisturizing, and it's very light, so it's unlikely to make hair stringy. It does tend to feel slightly sticky when it's wet, but it dries well and has a reputation for helping to fight tangles and split ends.

[Nadine <3]

I'm weird and definitely not the normal for fine thin hair, but I use a small puddle (about the size of my thumb nail) of olive oil as a leave in. My hair and olive oil just love each other, my hair soaks it up like dry leather. Like I said though, my hair is weird.

[yahirwaO.o]

I have fine straight hair but I never really had a problem with dry ends. Still my own suggestion would be a spray leave in conditioner or a kids detangler. Those usually have conditioning ingredients that are pretty lightweight on hair that has a tendency getting stringy-limp and you can spray more if you need to, most have light cones . A nice oil for finies like us, is jojoba oil. It feels waxy but its very light and washes very easy.

Those are my suggestions, I cant play with too much stuff or else my hair gets stringy and limp. I keep my products on the low even cheap side! ;)

[Seventy7]

My ends have been dry when I started growing. I think I've solved it now. I do double condition (WCC, see link in lapushka's signature ;) ). I do only condition the ends (ear down). I do like the suggestion of a second conditioner ear down for you. I also use ROO, like lapushka suggested, this doesn't over-oil as quickly as a leave-in.

And I found my ends love protein. So I try to use a protein rich conditioner as the first, and a coney one as second. If I pre-poo oil heavily I can over-oil my fine hair, but mostly it just works fine.
Protein sure isn't for all hair, some only gets worse from it, so be on the lookout for that.
You could try a gelatin mask and finish with a deep condition or SMT and see how that works for you.

I still haven't found a leave-in I like, but my current routine doesn't really require one either.

[tigress86]

I have fine straight hair but I never really had a problem with dry ends. Still my own suggestion would be a spray leave in conditioner or a kids detangler. Those usually have conditioning ingredients that are pretty lightweight on hair that has a tendency getting stringy-limp and you can spray more if you need to, most have light cones . A nice oil for finies like us, is jojoba oil. It feels waxy but its very light and washes very easy.

Those are my suggestions, I cant play with too much stuff or else my hair gets stringy and limp. I keep my products on the low even cheap side! ;)

I agree with the suggestion of kids detangler! I have a bottle of Johnson's baby detangling spray for those moments when I need really lightweight moisture.

[Saproxylic]

Thanks for suggestions, keep them coming!

The pre poo oiling did not make any noticeable difference, hair not bad but still a tad snaggy, followed pailin 's suggestion and mixed up some of my regular condish and a bit of oil with water and sprayed on my lenghts an ends and braided it, let's see how it is tonight.

I'll try WCC next I guess Seventy7 but I 'm pretty sure if there is something my hair does not like, it's protein. it makes it felt on itself. At least it did while my hair was bleached. And bleached hair is supposed to like protein better than virgin hair, isn't it?

I feel I might need some cones either in the second C when WCC or in some form of leave in, if I want to grow long, or my ends will get ratty over time

[poli]

I have dry ends and also fine hair that easly gets buildup. What works for me as a leave-in is a drugstore serum for brittle ends. It has both silicones and oils in it, but does not make hair look greasy. I use it only when I have this feeling of two textured hair - silky on top and dry and friyzzy at the ends :)

[Mirabele]

i have very similar problem. i have fine straight hair. my hair too, feels hydrated the first day after wash. on the second day my ends get dry. i use small quantities of natural oils (argan, avocado, or jojoba) but it seems that these oils aren't enough. if i use more, may hair looks greasy. i sometimes don't care about that greasiness and put my hair into a bun so that isn't visible.
i tried a spray that i made from water and aloe, but wasn't sure about whether it helped or not. most likely for some reason not.
i've been cone free for a few months and my hair was happy but except ends that seems to need extra moisture. i tried to look for a leave in product without cones but haven't been succesfull to find one.
back when i didn't care about cones, i used one of Kerastase leave-in oils (green bottle), it seemed to work well, but i am just not sure about whether cones are good for my ends in the long-time run.
i am considering of making leave in spray of diluted cone free conditioner.

[Saproxylic]

So far I'm liking my condish and oil spray, spraying some on the ends and working in with a BBB seems to leave my ens soft and supple so far, let's see how long it stays that way

I splurged and bought a new nourishing mask, that has a quite interesting ingredient list, it has actual youghurt and coconut oil high up ingredients list and some dimethicone towards the end, and it's made in Latvia and smells yummy. I'll try it as second C, I think.

Also, I think part of the issue is I'm not used to braid waves, the textured hair just irks me... it feels so wrong it seems damaged

[pailin]

Glad you might be finding solutions.
I can understand you not liking the braid waves; my hair is wavy naturally, but braidwaves are still a different texture (the same across my whole head, but with straight ends) and I don't like it. If I've had it braided I won't leave it down afterwards.

[Saproxylic]

YEY! WCC does the trick, at least so far! I used my regular conditioner on whole head and then the new lightly coney youghurt hair mask from the ears down and my hair is so smooth, soft and supple even with braid waves in. I haven't even had the need to spray it with diluted conditioner so far! I think my hair likes this one!

[pailin]

Woo hoo! Wonderful!

[lapushka]

Yay! :cheer: