ACV rinse for sticky hair

[Mrstran]

Well, Ive been useing conditioner only for my hair wash routine since my hair sticks together when using any shampoo, still. The issue is that now I'm dealing with a ton of build up. My hair feels disgusting!
There are so many shampoos I've tried now, and none are gentile enough or help with build up. I even tried the organic stuff, the super hydrating shampoos and so on.

I didnt think the organic would help with build up, but at the very least it would be more gentile. I was wrong.

There has been a lot of talk about ACV rinse. Is this at all drying? Would it help with the sticky mess? I'm thinking I may have to shave a patch of hair off.

This whole thing has pushed me to start trimming each month starting BSL to MBL when I get there. Enough with this fried ratty hair. So much regret :(

No hair dye or bleach ever again!

[Anje]

Might be worth messing with different conditioners. Some will probably build up less than others. (On me, Suave Naturals Aloe and Waterlily doesn't seem to build up even over the course of months. Not everyone has that same luck with Suave, though.) If you've got a ton of buildup that the gentle shampoos aren't touching, though, you probably need to use a harsh clarifying one full of sulfates. That should clear off some stickiness.

When I had some bleach damage a few months back (super short hair right now, which allows me to experiment with this stuff without being stuck with it), I definitely got that sticking-to-itself feeling after shampooing. It usually resolved well enough when I followed up with conditioner though. Is it not doing that for you?

You can try an ACV rinse, but I don't think it's likely to do a ton for what you're describing. You'll want to make it fairly dilute, like 10% vinegar / 90% water.

[Arctic]

Have you tried an actual clarifying (and maybe chelating) shampoo and a correct technique (of washing all the way to the ends, allowing the suds sit a while, perhaps repeating?)

On my own hair vinegar is not drying, but it can make my wiry hairs pop up (it's like those hair would be delighted of inegar they can't help themselves but stick up and wave to eachother). You can start with very weak dilution, and if it doesn't do much then make a bit stronger solution the next time. I recall a typical memory jogger is 1 tea spoon in cup of water, or something like that.

Some people seem to find vinegar feels like it clarifies, but the more sciency folks say doesn't. It's one of those things you'll have to try. Good luck!

[Kaya]

Echoing Arctic, unless there is a specific reason you haven't used them, try a straight-up clarifying/chelating shampoo. That will strip out all the build-up and stickiness so you can have a fresh slate to start trying different conditioner. Perhaps try a clarifying conditioner? They can be lighter than most, but still offer a certain degree of conditioning. Suave Daily Clarifying is fairly good. Granted, I use it to CO-wash daily oiling, so using it on normal, un-oiled hair may yield different results.

[renia22]

Vinegar can help with mineral build up, but it's not a clarifier and will not "clarify" product build up, so I don't know if that's going to help you. And you're right, organic and sulfate free does *not* mean a product is necessarily going to be more gentle, or not drying. Some of them are awfully harsh, and some regular sulfate products can be gentle, it really depends on overall formulas.

I agree with what everyone suggested, get yourself a decent clarifying shampoo and wash your hair, definitely before resorting to something like cutting your hair, and try a different conditioner for the co-washing. The cheapies like Suave and VO5 are supposed to be good because they don't contain non water-soluble silicones, oils, butters, or other build up prone ingredients. But I'd definitely start with picking up a bottle of Suave daily clarifying, Neutrogena anti-residue, or one of the Paul Mitchell clarifiers if you can afford something more pricy. The shampoo 2 and 3 from Paul Mitchell are both excellent and are well worth the few extra bucks. Good luck!

[Mrstran]

I just responded and the whole thing deleted on me. :rolleyes:


I'm sorry I didn't do a multi quote. When I try to do it, my entire post gets messed up and the quotes don't even show up.

Each of your responses was very informative, thank you all very much for pointing out clarifying conditioners and shampoo products, as well as brands. I wasn't sure who made them. Also how to use ACV!

Anje My hair is ok after applying conditioner. It just fuses together during shampooing and stays stuck until I apply the conditioner. If I try to run my fingers through it, my fingers get stuck and I rip hair out. If I do manage to yank my fingers through, the hair sticks back together. I would love to just solve the issue so I can just use shampoo.:shrug:


I'm really hoping some of these products help with the build up at least.

[pandabarrier]

I find clarifying shampoos drying but they are necessary. I usually dilute it in lukewarm water in an applicator bottle, and apply it on the scalp, massage it, let the suds run to the lengths, fill the empty bottle with lukewarm water (because there is still some shampoo), pour it on the hair, rinse. If hair feels 'gummy' I repeat the process and wash the lengths too.

[Mrstran]

I find clarifying shampoos drying but they are necessary. I usually dilute it in lukewarm water in an applicator bottle, and apply it on the scalp, massage it, let the suds run to the lengths, fill the empty bottle with lukewarm water (because there is still some shampoo), pour it on the hair, rinse. If hair feels 'gummy' I repeat the process and wash the lengths too.

Thank you for the diluting tip!

[mizukitty]

I find clarifying shampoos drying but they are necessary. I usually dilute it in lukewarm water in an applicator bottle, and apply it on the scalp, massage it, let the suds run to the lengths, fill the empty bottle with lukewarm water (because there is still some shampoo), pour it on the hair, rinse. If hair feels 'gummy' I repeat the process and wash the lengths too.


Thank you for the diluting tip!

Yes, definitely seconding this. I do this with every wash - with shampoo and CO wash. I find it's a lot easier to spread onto the scalp and I use way less product.

[Obsidian]

My hair is ok after applying conditioner. It just fuses together during shampooing and stays stuck until I apply the conditioner. If I try to run my fingers through it, my fingers get stuck and I rip hair out. If I do manage to yank my fingers through, the hair sticks back together. I would love to just solve the issue so I can just use shampoo.

My hair is the same way, I think its normal for some hair. I simply don't run my fingers through my hair or try to comb it until I've applied conditioner. Any chance your hair is colored or otherwise damaged? The sticking together is rough hairshafts not being able to glide against each other, thats why we talk about needing slip. Slip helps the hair slide across itself.
This roughness can be from damage or build up, which is why we recommend clarifying to remove the build up.

[Mrstran]

My hair is the same way, I think its normal for some hair. I simply don't run my fingers through my hair or try to comb it until I've applied conditioner. Any chance your hair is colored or otherwise damaged? The sticking together is rough hairshafts not being able to glide against each other, thats why we talk about needing slip. Slip helps the hair slide across itself.
This roughness can be from damage or build up, which is why we recommend clarifying to remove the build up.

Horribly damaged! I bleached four times last year. Oh the insanity. Still I could use any shampoo I wanted though, until one night I experimented with a homemade shampoo with part Castile soap. I applied it and immediately knew there was a problem. Hair nightmare. I attempted to use a clarifying shampoo afterwards to get the mixture out, but it only made the problem worse.
I stopped using shampoo for the most part. I try it every so often because of the product build up, but still end up with a tangled mess.

So lots of build up and sticky tangles. No fun:(. I was hoping the ACV rinse would fix the hair shaft issue or the shampoos the girls mentioned above. Plus as renia22 had said with the suave daily clairifying shampoo or conditioner for example, (sounds gentile if daily, right? Woot!) This might help. I hope. Possibly.

[Mrstran]

Yes, definitely seconding this. I do this with every wash - with shampoo and CO wash. I find it's a lot easier to spread onto the scalp and I use way less product.

Sorry two posts, again, multi quote thing. *sigh*

Ok so only when absolutely needed then. :D This hair is a mess of dryness! I'm using a good humectant (sp) conditioner for moisture because of the crazy dryness. It works wonders but holy buildup.

[renia22]

Horribly damaged! I bleached four times last year. Oh the insanity. Still I could use any shampoo I wanted though, until one night I experimented with a homemade shampoo with part Castile soap. I applied it and immediately knew there was a problem. Hair nightmare. I attempted to use a clarifying shampoo afterwards to get the mixture out, but it only made the problem worse.
I stopped using shampoo for the most part. I try it every so often because of the product build up, but still end up with a tangled mess.

So lots of build up and sticky tangles. No fun:(. I was hoping the ACV rinse would fix the hair shaft issue or the shampoos the girls mentioned above. Plus as renia22 had said with the suave daily clairifying shampoo or conditioner for example, (sounds gentile if daily, right? Woot!) This might help. I hope. Possibly.

Yeah the bleaching is rough on the hair, and Castile soap is very alkaline and not great for use on hair, so it probably contributed to hair shaft cuticle damage and fiber breakage. Trying to shampoo it out probably doesn't do much after the damage has been done. I've had similar experiences in the past experimenting with baking soda or Castile soap/ baking soda homemade shampoo recipes that were floating around a few years back. Took me months of coconut oil treatments to get my hair back to a respectable condition.

I'd maybe even skip the ACV if I were you since it's slightly acidic, and just stick to ph balanced shampoos and conditioners. The Suave Daily Clarifing shampoo get great reviews. If the build up is that bad, diluting might not touch it, but you can use it full strength if not. Perhaps a nice moisturing or even reconstructing conditioner for the bleach and Castile soap damage might be a good idea after the clarifying. The Suave is the least expensive, but I personally like Paul Mitchell shampoo 3 the best, it's clarifying and chelating.

[Obsidian]

Oh yeah, I remember your incident with castile. I bet it further damaged your already damaged hair.
I don't know how gentle suave daily is but I use it as my regular poo and it's not hurting my recently twice bleached hair.
I do use a good coney moisturizing conditioner though, either hello hydration or Aussie mega moist

[Anje]

Castile soap can be that way. I ended up with undamaged hair that stuck together fiercely for days (till I got some conditioner) after using it once on a backwoods camping trip in middle school. Vinegar rinse then would have been helpful, had I known.... Oh well.

Chances are, you'll have the most luck shampooing and then conditioning when you wash. I consider this normal washing for the general public. (I guess there are short haired people who don't condition, but in my family even the short-hair guys typically condition. It's just what you do, IMO.) You can CO wash in between, then just shampoo when it starts to feel buildup-y, if you prefer.

[Mrstran]

Renia22 I really didn't think of the acidic part, perhaps it might be a risk. I didn't know about PH shampoos, I'm curious now about them too. It's too bad they don't have all these ph, clarifying, porous shampoos in sample size for testing! I have a big shopping list to make up to find some sort of cure. How exhausting.

Obsidian Yes, that was a few months ago and I'm still paying for it. I could smack myself. I'm going to give that suave a try. Fingers crossed my sticky hair survives it. I swear I can almost hear my hair crying every time I put something on it other than conditioner. If not for all the water, you'd probably even see tears.

Anje It's awful scary isn't it. I'm glad you were able to fix it at least. I tried to put in my shampoo after I sopped my head in conditioner (right over the conditioner) and yet still had an issue. Unbelievable. I plan to try the ph poo, then porous co, and then clarify, and see how it goes. I'm reeeealy hoping. Needing some magic. :magic:

[Arctic]

I recommend first clarifying. It's not recommended for nothing, because most hair problems are caused or made worse by buildup. Most modern shampoos (except baby shampoos, well they are too but it's a wrong pH for hair) are pH balanced, at least here in Finland, it just means the pH is close to pH of skin/hair. I bet what ever clarifying shampoo you'll get, it's pH balanced.

You know I think it's pretty normal that hair is slightly unmanageable during/after shampooing but before conditioning. It's ok. Change your shampooing technique a bit, to a method where you don't need to fingercomb/detangle until you have added conditioner. The gentle hair washing most do here allows hair to be smooth and alligned while washing, so there shouldn't be a need to do extensive manipulation while shampooing/before conditioning.

[renia22]

A ph of about 5.5 would be considered ph balanced, more or less. The issue with using something alkaline followed by something acidic (like washing with baking soda or castile soap, followed by an acidic rinse), is the cuticle swells, then it's forced back down with the acidic rinse, which with disrupting the acid mantle on your hair like that, it can cause a lot of hair shaft damage over time (for some hair types the damage happens more quickly). Here's an article that gives you the ph of a few shampoo. Funny I used that Aubrey Organics GBP shampoo before years ago, and it made my hair a knotted, matted mess. Never knew at the time it was almost as alkaline as castile soap. So many products out there now, I just have ph strips that I bought off of amazon to test ph levels myself.

http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2012/02/ph-of-shampoo-ultimate-list.html?m=1

Also a lot of those "sulfate free" clarifying shampoos use things like C14-16 olefin sulfonate as the main cleansing agent, which is supposed to be good for removing a certain type of build up (like polyquats), but my god, is that stuff not harsher than some of the straight up cheap, poorly formulated SLS shampoos that I've used. Concentrations and overall formulas matter, and I can't tell you how much hair I lost over time (back when I was really into sulfate free and trying to force it to work) using things that I thought were supposed to be more gentle, but weren't.

I think your hair is salvageable, though. They have some really good products out there now. The Hello Hydration and Aussie 3 conditioners Obsidian mentioned are well liked. There's one by Pantene called "Damage Detox" that's not easy to find, but it's out there and makes hair feel amazing. Also I normally wouldn't suggested anything this expensive, but if you live near an Ulta and have a good coupon, Pureology makes this moisturizing conditioner in the gray/ purple bottle that's like dense magic (called hydrate). I bought a trial sized of the "light" version of it, and even using a tiny half a pea sized dollop on my ends, it was too smoothing and moisturizing for my hair. I'd bet someone with higher porosity/ more damaged hair would love that stuff, though. I think Kirkland makes a generic version of the regular one. I'd only get if if they have the small one and with a coupon because it's expensive, but there are so many nice products out there now, I think you can find something that helps.

Also the type of water you have will affect your hair too, by any chance do you know if your water is hard or soft?

[Arctic]

This is a pretty good video of how to gently wash your hair (a technique of shampooing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8qZ55hdoUA

Notice how she applies the shampoo, her hair doesn't get disturbed much but it stayes alligned. She also does an ACV rinse.

[Anje]

This is a pretty good video of how to gently wash your hair (a technique of shampooing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8qZ55hdoUA

Notice how she applies the shampoo, her hair doesn't get disturbed much but it stayes alligned. She also does an ACV rinse.

Wow does she use a lot of shampoo! Granted, I use cheap sulfate-y stuff which is pretty potent, but I'd estimate I used enough for the middle of my palm, maybe 10 mL, if I used shampoo undiluted. (I prefer diluting it heavily, like 15-20:1, and then just squirting a bunch on my scalp until I can get a lather. It seemed to get to my roots better when my hair was long.)

[Arctic]

Yes she uses lot, but I mainly posted it about the technique, how she doesn't manipulate her hair while shampooing. :o I spent 10 minutes trying to find a good video and this was the closest to what I had in my mind.

[Mrstran]

Thank you all for the info. Haha! I would have spent all day looking for ph shampoo and clairifying shampoos! I'm an Ulta lover so my hubby and I go there often for goodies.

The hair wash routine video I just loved, it's pretty simple and will try oiling first next time. My hair likes to fight me.