molljo
August 5th, 2016, 06:41 PM
In the first year of growing out my hair, I tried out a bunch of different products with different ingredients to get a feel of what worked for me and what didn't. Protein, especially in conditioners and shampoos, was a nightmare. Hard and brittle hair, had to SMT a few times to make it feel normal again. I found I could tolerate small amounts of it in leave ins. "Ok," I thought, "this is all good to know. Stay away from most protein" and I did, and it worked for a couple years perfectly.
Over the past few months, my hair'd been feeling worse and worse: hard, dry, crunchy, snapping easily. I kept getting more and more mid-strand splits, some as high as a couple inches away from the roots. It never felt smooth or soft. Tangles came right back as soon as I put my comb down. There was zero slip. I clarified, chelated, deep conditioned, S&Ded, and microtrimmed on a regular basis. I WCC and LOC. I added honey to my conditioners. I pre-poo oiled. Nothing worked.
So, I thought that maybe my hair didn't like the proteins in my leave-ins (Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie and Nightblooming Panacea) so I quit using them for a few weeks. My hair, somehow, got worse.
So, like a good LHC member, I researched. My hair didn't have any of the qualities of needing protein: it wasn't gummy or overly stretchy when wet (in fact, it snapped very easily), and it wasn't stringy or limp (it was was poofy and bushy). The entire internet was telling me I should avoid protein and add moisture, even though I wasn't using any protein, and I had an incredibly moisturizing routine.
So, I figured why not try it anyway because I was running out of options.
I got some gelatin and mixed half a packet with a bit of hot water and added the rest of my usual modified SMT (GVP Conditioning Balm, olive oil, and pancake syrup). Washed my hair normally and methodically slathered all of my hair in the SMT goop in 1 inch sections. LO AND BEHOLD I was finally getting that slimy/seaweed feeling that told me it was actually absorbing into my hair! I hadn't felt that in so long I forgot what it was like. I let it marinate under a shower cap and towel for 30 minutes, and when I rinsed it out the change was huge. Before, when I would rinse out a deep treatment, even as I could feel the product wash away, the hair underneath basically felt exactly the same as if I'd only gotten it wet (rough, hard, zero slip). This time, it was smooth! It had slip! It felt like hair and not a bundle of wires and straw!
So, it's a few hours afterward, and my hair's completely dry (it would usually take twice as long), and it feels so, so much better. It's not perfect; there are still some rough spots left, but the change is so dramatic I'm confident that if I keep this in my regular rotation I'll see increasingly better results.
I wanted to post this in the hopes that my discovery could help someone in the same position I was. Sometimes the most common symptoms are not the only symptoms. Sometimes the thing you're avoiding could be the key to solving your problem.
Over the past few months, my hair'd been feeling worse and worse: hard, dry, crunchy, snapping easily. I kept getting more and more mid-strand splits, some as high as a couple inches away from the roots. It never felt smooth or soft. Tangles came right back as soon as I put my comb down. There was zero slip. I clarified, chelated, deep conditioned, S&Ded, and microtrimmed on a regular basis. I WCC and LOC. I added honey to my conditioners. I pre-poo oiled. Nothing worked.
So, I thought that maybe my hair didn't like the proteins in my leave-ins (Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie and Nightblooming Panacea) so I quit using them for a few weeks. My hair, somehow, got worse.
So, like a good LHC member, I researched. My hair didn't have any of the qualities of needing protein: it wasn't gummy or overly stretchy when wet (in fact, it snapped very easily), and it wasn't stringy or limp (it was was poofy and bushy). The entire internet was telling me I should avoid protein and add moisture, even though I wasn't using any protein, and I had an incredibly moisturizing routine.
So, I figured why not try it anyway because I was running out of options.
I got some gelatin and mixed half a packet with a bit of hot water and added the rest of my usual modified SMT (GVP Conditioning Balm, olive oil, and pancake syrup). Washed my hair normally and methodically slathered all of my hair in the SMT goop in 1 inch sections. LO AND BEHOLD I was finally getting that slimy/seaweed feeling that told me it was actually absorbing into my hair! I hadn't felt that in so long I forgot what it was like. I let it marinate under a shower cap and towel for 30 minutes, and when I rinsed it out the change was huge. Before, when I would rinse out a deep treatment, even as I could feel the product wash away, the hair underneath basically felt exactly the same as if I'd only gotten it wet (rough, hard, zero slip). This time, it was smooth! It had slip! It felt like hair and not a bundle of wires and straw!
So, it's a few hours afterward, and my hair's completely dry (it would usually take twice as long), and it feels so, so much better. It's not perfect; there are still some rough spots left, but the change is so dramatic I'm confident that if I keep this in my regular rotation I'll see increasingly better results.
I wanted to post this in the hopes that my discovery could help someone in the same position I was. Sometimes the most common symptoms are not the only symptoms. Sometimes the thing you're avoiding could be the key to solving your problem.