Very low elasticity -- HELP!

[lithostoic]

I did the little 'pull a hair strand' test. My hair snapped in half almost immediately. I was aghast! Can anyone help me with the names of some products to heal this?

[meteor]

Generally speaking, moisturizing products: humectants, occlusives, emollients.

More specificially, I'd recommend oils, silicone serums, SMTs, oil + honey masks, oil rinses, adding oils to conditioners, LOC and overall - deep conditioning more. Don't forget to oil damp/wet hair to seal moisture if the hair is already super-dry.

And if these things don't work, there's a chance that the hair is brittle due to too much build-up - in this case, try clarifying followed by deep moisturizing treatment, e.g. SMT/oils.

Check out managing elasticity and porosity article: http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.ca/2014/03/managing-elasticity-and-porosity-in-hair.html

[Nini]

Have you done it on several strands, or just the one?

If it's just the one it's a wee bit soon to get worried as it could already have been a weak/damaged strand.

[Arctic]

Did you use a wet hair strand? If not, that explains a lot. The stretch test should be done with wet hair.

[diddiedaisy]

I have low elasticity too. Coconut oil might be worth a try and what brought some elasticity back into mine was dove dry oil conditioner I also use philip kingsley elasticizer onceor twice a week left overnight. You do need to make sure that you keep it well moisturised. Good luck :)

[lapushka]

Did you see any white dots along the strand, because if so - that's breakage and you can't repair that with anything. Do you still have prior heat damage or some such?

[lithostoic]

Yes it was wet, yes I tried more than one strand. No I didn't see any white dots. And I don't think I have any heat damage because last time I put heat on my hair was like 4 years ago and I'm not even APL.

Thanks meteor and diddiedaisy I'll try to get my hands on those things.

[school of fish]

My hair was in that state a couple years ago after I had gone a very long time using a protein-heavy sulphate-free shampoo and no conditioner - like we're talking years. Dryness and brittleness crept in so slowly that I didn't recognize what was happening until I had major damage, breakage, hair snapping every time I combed/brushed - which meant I was losing hair to breakage all the time. Moisture in the form of daily conditioner and weekly SMTs have been the answer for me, while still shampooing twice a week to remove build-up (my hair is VERY build-uppy). I'm also now using sulphate shampoo and thick conditioner with light silicones. Traditional oiling only gives me buildup, but rinse-out oil on shampoo days has given my length a little extra occlusive boost which has been protective through the dry winter months.

Not saying my solution is necessarily your exact solution, but I wanted to give you my routine in a nutshell to give you some hope that the dryness can be mitigated, if you can pinpoint what your hair is lacking :) If you want me to lay out my weekly routine more specifically, just ask :D

For me, recognizing that it was MOISTURE that hair lacked was key to turning around my dryness/damage spiral. Of course I'm still growing out that damaged length, but it's no longer snapping anymore, and I'm gaining ground on both length and hem thickness.

I'd definitely focus on moisture, as others above have suggested. It may take some time to figure out what kind of moisture your hair responds to best, but I found that even before I found my perfect routine, everything I tried along the way helped a little :) Good luck!!!

[lithostoic]

Maybe I can use conditioner on my ends on the water only days. I usually deep condition, condition, and shampoo without rinsing the conditioner(s) out first. Then a couple days later I do a water rinse, then a day or two later do a cowash, then start again.

[school of fish]

Hmmm... when was the last time you clarified? Or shampooed your length without a conditioner barrier?

[lapushka]

Hmmm... when was the last time you clarified? Or shampooed your length without a conditioner barrier?

Good question! :)

[lithostoic]

Hmmm... when was the last time you clarified? Or shampooed your length without a conditioner barrier?

As for clarifying idk if volumizing shampoo counts but that's what I have to use atm because I'm broke and it's all I have. And I don't remember the last time I shampood the lengths. My hair seems to get extremely dry when I do that so I just don't. Is that a problem? I was taught shampoo is for the scalp only. It runs over the lengths though and last week it was without conditoner on.

[school of fish]

As for clarifying idk if volumizing shampoo counts but that's what I have to use atm because I'm broke and it's all I have. And I don't remember the last time I shampood the lengths. My hair seems to get extremely dry when I do that so I just don't. Is that a problem? I was taught shampoo is for the scalp only. It runs over the lengths though and last week it was without conditoner on.

I know that 'don't shampoo the lengths' is good advice for many but it's actually not for me :) In fact, even letting shampoo just run down my length doesn't cut it for me - I need to rather from root to tip, twice a week. I also need to condition from root to tip, every day - and yes that does fly in the face of the 'only condition from the ears down' advice...

I'm not generally one to jump into diagnostic mode on a lot of threads, but I'm speaking up here because I recognize in what you're describing a lot of what I've experienced in my own hair, and in sorting through my own hair's rehab from dryness/damage I've discovered that my hair rarely follows the 'standard' advice to the letter. Perhaps your hair is similar to mine - a little 'defiant' of the 'rules' ;)

In my case, my hair needs both a clean slate frequently AND moisture all the time - which is why I condition every day and also basically clarify twice a week... it needs both things consistently to stay happy. And it's been happy for an entire year on this routine :)

As far as clarifying goes, really you can use any clear shampoo that has sulphates in it. I personally found Neutrogena's clarifying shampoo a great one, but honestly Johnson's baby shampoo did just fine for me as well ;) That one gets a bad rap for being stripping, but stripping is exactly what clarifying is - stripping away the buildup so you can start fresh. The nice thing about the baby shampoo is that it often comes in teeny little trial sizes, so it's not a huge investment of cash or product if it doesn't work for you :)

So maybe try clarifying and then a nice SMT afterwards - see if that helps to hit a reset :D

[lithostoic]

school of fish Yep, the one I use is clear and sulfatey. I also condition from root to tip. Never made sense to me why we strip moisture from the hair that will eventually become our ends, only to later cut off several inches of hair because the damage is irreperable. Thanks, I'll take everything into consideration.

[school of fish]

school of fish Yep, the one I use is clear and sulfatey. I also condition from root to tip. Never made sense to me why we strip moisture from the hair that will eventually become our ends, only to later cut off several inches of hair because the damage is irreperable. Thanks, I'll take everything into consideration.

Best of luck to you! I'm sure you'll figure it out - it may take a while and a few different approaches, but you'll get there, I have no doubt :D