What tip or technique works for you-- now that you've learned how to tweak it?

[winship2]

ETA: I'm really asking about things that didn't work for you until you learned how to make them work, for example, "Caffeine rinses never helped until I started using single-origin high-altitude, shade-grown beans". In other words, how you tweaked something and then suddenly-- magic!


We've all tried popular new techniques that maybe didn't work as well as we had hoped. Sometimes we come back to them and add a little something different, tweak the approach, and now, voila!

For me, the three things below failed at first, but now work really well:

Homemade dry shampoo (cornstarch and orris root, according to the famous recipe on LHC the name of which is escaping me) works great as long as I leave it in for 20-30 minutes before combing out. (Actually it leaves my brown hair a little grey, but it cleans up the excess oil great.)

I can stretch-wash my winter-dry hair so it stays nice and soft, instead of getting dry and tangly, as long as I spray it with a mist of water and mineral oil and bun it up. Then at bedtime (ahem), beautiful soft smooth waves :D

CO only is awesome as long as twice a week or so I do a light shampoo and use a slightly more protein-heavy conditioner.

[meteor]

What an excellent idea for a thread! :thumbsup:

There are lots of things that I've had to tweak, but the first things that come to mind are:

- Buns: they didn't work for me at first, because I didn't have any LHC-style hair tools and my hair was probably way too short, and it was hurting my scalp like hell (needed to get used to hair being pulled in new directions), and it was pulling everywhere and didn't hold... So it took some YT searches and lots experimentation with different updos to learn what works specifically with my hair type and my limited skills -> braided buns. (If somebody is in this situation, remember that practice makes perfect. Keep trying different updos until you find something that holds comfortably; and be prepared to change up your arsenal as your length changes - since some old styles may stop working while some new styles may become possible. ;) )

- Sleeping with buns: it was very uncomfortable at first, until I figured out that I can take out the hair stick, and the braided bun is still sort of in place, but doesn't pull, it just stays coiled above my head.

- Scalp-only washes: As my hair grew longer and wash days (and especially the drying process!) more and more time-consuming, I had to introduce scalp-only washes as a time-saving technique. I think I got my hair wet a couple times before I developed muscle memory for keeping hair completely out of the stream of water. I like to use 2 shower caps on top of braided bun and wash the hairline. This didn't allow me to clean the area right under the bun, so now I finish the scalp-only wash by taking out the hairstick, unwrapping the braided bun, holding the coiled braid wrapped in shower cap/plastic bag high up with one hand as I'm washing the nape area.

- Faster air-drying - I found a way of deep-conditioning length and towel-drying roots at once. Since I can't stand how long it takes to deep condition hair after shampooing, and to air-dry hair after conditioning, I figured I can start the drying process for scalp & roots right after shampooing, while I'm deep conditioning length under a plastic wrap. I squeeze out water after shampooing, apply conditioner/oil from shoulders down, wrap this length in plastic wrap or grocery plastic bag and wrap my scalp with a T-shirt or a towel. 10-30 minutes later, I rinse only the length quickly, and by that time, my scalp/roots are pretty dry, so now I only need to air-dry the rinsed length.

Braiding:
- Dutch-braiding: My hair hates braiding that involves adding sections along, so I do Luana braids (https://rapunzelsresource.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/luana-braids/) instead.

- French-braiding: I do faux-French (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kOyGD_KOoA) instead.

- Crown-braiding: I do a Coronet braid instead, or 2 Heidi braids going around the scalp. For better grip at scalp area, I start with 2 small English accent braids (to add grip for pinning around scalp).

- Complex multi-strand braids: I don't do more than 5 strands for fear of tangling. If more strands are needed, I do accent braids or start with 3 or more braids and braid them together, or bobby-pin their edges side by side to each other, or I sew (hair-tape) the edges of the neighboring braids together, so it becomes a flat multi-strand braid.

There are probably more things that I've had to tweak, but these are the first ones that come to mind... :)

[winship2]

Wow, Meteor, these are clever tweaks on things I haven't even tried yet! Neat tip on the deep-condition while drying.

[mermaid lullaby]

I hope this thread keeps going. It could be very useful!

I'm still new, I haven't tweaked anything yet :)

[Cg]

No special "preening," it's not necessary. Detangle followed by high quality BBB, 100 strokes twice a day. A great quality brush preens infinitely better than fingers. Buy the best quality brush you can afford. You won't regret it.

[momschicklets]

One tip I've learned for my hair is NO hair products whatsoever beyond wash day with shampoo and conditioner. If I try to use gel, mousse, oil....anything...I notice I lose volume, my hair is harder to comb out and it seems to attract dust particles out of the air and become dirty faster. My hair is probably frizzier, but I can live with it because it seems I can stretch washes better, and my hair stays soft and fluffy :D