The worst product or hair tools you've ever used

[Vanillame]

Mine has to be the maxiglide flat iron, the hot metal pins, shredded through my hair. More than just the ends, this device damaged my hair more than any other tools or chemicals had. It took year's for my hair to recover.

[Jo Ann]

Protein 21 shampoo and conditioner. One of the WORST shampoos EVER--worse than Prell, if you can believe that--at least for my hair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBVTt8J2ObE

[renia22]

The Tangle Teaser was horrible on my hair; took a while to see the cumulative damage, but it was all over my head. Not Your Mother’s products make my hair gummy, coated/ full of build up. Pureology products are terrible on my hair as well, way too heavy, even the ones for fine hair, and at those highway robbery prices..eeek :/

[Natalia_A00]

A Tresemmé shampoo that left my hair dry, like straw
I also had a hair straightener iron that was absolute garbage

[spirals]

Hot rollers, the old fashioned kind. I had the rattiest, most split hair of my life in high school. Not even once.

[nycelle]

There's a few for me.

1. Phyto Phytojoba Intense Hydrating Brilliance Mask - It was one of my first experiments into silicone free and it was a horror show. Left my hair a tangly rats nest.

2. An Aveda conditioner- My second experiment into silicone free and another disaster. Left my hair in horrible shape, dry, knots.. just terrible.

3. Every.single.GARNIER product I've ever tried. They've never left my hair in good shape, ever. Not as terrible as the above, but their conditioners do nothing to moisturize my hair and generally left it frizzy.
Plus, I think they use too much fragrance. The scents have always overwhelmed me.

[Bazinga]

Any hair product that is advertised as 'rich in protein' or something like that. Makes my hair look and feel so coarse and dry.

[AutobotsAttack]

1. Wet brushes
2. Tangle teezers
3. BBBs
4. Some weird protein treatment that was cheap and was too concentrated

[Chromis]

Pretty much all non-soap "normal" shampoo and conditioners are rotten for me.

Tangle Teezer did not work for me either.

[Ylva]

Those Tresemmé products that are just water, silicones and chemicals and nothing else.


3. Every.single.GARNIER product I've ever tried. They've never left my hair in good shape, ever. Not as terrible as the above, but their conditioners do nothing to moisturize my hair and generally left it frizzy.
Plus, I think they use too much fragrance. The scents have always overwhelmed me.

I've also had bad experiences with Garnier products, especially those hair masks that everyone seems to love. After the second day, my hair felt so sticky and like it was accumulating a whole lot of crap or something.

[lapushka]

Errr, my crimper when I was 15/16. :o And my "hot air" roller/straightener tool when I was on this forum trying to grow from chin to shoulder; the white dots that thing gave me!

Apart from that, there's not that many damaging things I have used bar chemical and natural processes like dye, henna, bleach, curly perms.

Yeah... there's little I haven't tried, although I haven't had unnatural colors in my hair, ever.

[illicitlizard]

My current cheap as chips hair dryer. It has two settings: hot and burning hot, really hard to dry hair with it without smelling burning. Gotta invest in a better one or just get used to air drying again :/

[Simsy]

Basically everything by Nature’s Own and Pantene. The first dried my hair out to straw in primary school, and the second tangled so badly I lost a good six inches of length and dealt with bad split ends for the last couple of years in high school. I haven’t been brave enough to try anything from either brand.

As for hair tools, I haven’t had any really bad ones. I don’t really use heat tools simply because I don’t like how long it takes; and almost everything else was either used fairly successfully before just falling out of favour, or used once and never again because I didn’t like it.

[Kiisu]

Tek brush did not work for me..i hate this brush so much

[spidermom]

Curling irons destroyed my hair, but I used them wrong. I'd roll from the ends and hold it for 10+ seconds. I did get great curls, though; dried out, split all to hel curls.

[toastmouse]

One of the Naked brand shampoo and conditioners.. I can't remember exactly what they did to my hair that was so bad, I just remember hating them.. plus they smelt HORRIBLE.

[zashin66]

Okay I'm going to get roasted for this but the tangle teaser is the worst brush for my hair. It can't get into the hair and only smooths over the top. I can't ever get that good down to the scalp brushing my hair seems to need.

[Simsy]

Okay I'm going to get roasted for this but the tangle teaser is the worst brush for my hair. It can't get into the hair and only smooths over the top. I can't ever get that good down to the scalp brushing my hair seems to need.

That’s fair, I have one but I’m not in love with it. I found a comb works much better and doesn’t frizz my hair as bad.

[lapushka]

My current cheap as chips hair dryer. It has two settings: hot and burning hot, really hard to dry hair with it without smelling burning. Gotta invest in a better one or just get used to air drying again :/

Doesn't have to be the most expensive one. And from your hairtype looks like you don't need a diffuser head either. As long as it has multiple speed settings and separate multiple heat settings (3!) then you're good to go.

[lapushka]

Okay I'm going to get roasted for this but the tangle teaser is the worst brush for my hair. It can't get into the hair and only smooths over the top. I can't ever get that good down to the scalp brushing my hair seems to need.

Why roasted? I use a TT and I'm fine with it. I just go through multiple times, same with the wet brush. I think it's a typical iii problem. There is a TT for super thick hair, maybe that will do it?

But you have to use what works for you! :flower:

[Chromis]

Okay I'm going to get roasted for this but the tangle teaser is the worst brush for my hair. It can't get into the hair and only smooths over the top. I can't ever get that good down to the scalp brushing my hair seems to need.

I beat you to it earlier in the thread, haven't been roasted yet. I don't even have thick hair and had the same experience!

[renia22]

There's a few for me.

1. Phyto Phytojoba Intense Hydrating Brilliance Mask - It was one of my first experiments into silicone free and it was a horror show. Left my hair a tangly rats nest.

2. An Aveda conditioner- My second experiment into silicone free and another disaster. Left my hair in horrible shape, dry, knots.. just terrible.

3. Every.single.GARNIER product I've ever tried. They've never left my hair in good shape, ever. Not as terrible as the above, but their conditioners do nothing to moisturize my hair and generally left it frizzy.
Plus, I think they use too much fragrance. The scents have always overwhelmed me.


Same here with the Aveda conditioners, I think Scalp Benefits is the only one I tried that was half way decent. Sometimes I buy their color/ toning shampoos, which I do like, and do so online when they have good sample offers, and have tried almost all of the conditioners, and they’ve all been terrible on my hair :(

Not a fan of Garnier, either, except for the Chamomile one.

[Frankenstein]

The Instyler hair straightener. Not so much for what it did to my hair but because the exposed super hot barrel burned my forehead and neck into scabs.

[Joules]

Curling irons destroyed my hair, but I used them wrong. I'd roll from the ends and hold it for 10+ seconds. I did get great curls, though; dried out, split all to hel curls.

You reminded me of that one time I decided to curl my hair for a new year's party. I used the oldest curling iron in existence (meaning it was just straight up iron, no ceramic or turmaline things that are supposed to be protecting the hair), I put it on the highest setting and got started. How I curled my hair: I took a piece of hair, sprayed it with hairspray very thoroughly till it was soaking wet, and held it around the curling iron for 10+ seconds (I even sprayed a few pieces while they were on the iron).

Looking back, I'm surprised my hair didn't burn off during this process, like in that viral video (https://youtu.be/LdVuSvZOqXM). It was the most horrible damage my hair had ever suffered. I wasn't heat styling my hair regularly before that, but this was the time I thought maybe even special occasions weren't worth it.

[OhSuzi]

a biro as a hair stick as it snapped an leaked blue black in in to my hair which i had to wash out with nail polish remover & white spirit! neither are particularly hair friendly! My hair did recover eventually & luckily Im brunette rather than a light hair colour!

[mwallingford]

I hope I'm not roasting anyone (I'm honest to goodness just curious), but what about the Tangle Teezer didn't work for your hair?

[Chromis]

The Tangle Teezer:

1. Didn't do a very good job at detangling
2. Caused a lot of damage for me

They are a cult classic item here and many people like them, but there are not a small number of us that have found they do not work well. This will be true of any method or tool though! I still recommend them to people with kids who complain they are "tender-headed" because I know I hated having my hair yanked on for brushing as a child and also hated that my family thought the solution was just to cut it all off. The TT is nice middle ground.

[Obsidian]

Natures gate herbal daily cleanse conditioner. It left a horrible waxy coating not only on my hair but also on my skin. Made my hair dry and tangly, absolutely terrible. Makes a pretty good shaving cream and it smells amazing.

[mwallingford]

The Tangle Teezer:

1. Didn't do a very good job at detangling
2. Caused a lot of damage for me

They are a cult classic item here and many people like them, but there are not a small number of us that have found they do not work well. This will be true of any method or tool though! I still recommend them to people with kids who complain they are "tender-headed" because I know I hated having my hair yanked on for brushing as a child and also hated that my family thought the solution was just to cut it all off. The TT is nice middle ground.

Thanks for responding! :flowers: I had heard of it not working for some people but I always wondered why. (I suppose I'm a little bias since it's one of my holy grail type items) It definitely makes sense, and very much a YMMV sort of deal

[TheCurlyMermaid]

See, I was going to say head and shoulders, because that damaged my hair. Mind you, I didn't have dandruff, but I was scared of getting it (I was 11). BUT this summer, I decided to let an older friend of mine who was a hairdresser for decades highlight my hair. She wanted to use one of the caps...where you pull the hair through the holes... So I washed my hair and detangled it perfectly but it STILL got matted soooo horribly under the cap we had to call it quits! I went home and my boyfriend was having to calm me down as I had my hair drowning in conditioner in the shower, because I was losing a TON of hair in the detangling process and wasn't seeing results fast enough in my opinion which lead me to panicking and thinking I was going to need to cut my hair to a pixie cut. He assured me I wasn't and to take my time, and of course I got the tangles out but- you guys- I lost so much hair. I cringe just to see them. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jLiYDUZKtdM/maxresdefault.jpg These. I hate them. Never again. I was trying to save some money but I'd rather just dole out the $100 to my hairdresser so he can do it with the foil and he's used to curly/kinky hair. Woy did I learn my lesson!

[BrightEyes]

See, I was going to say head and shoulders, because that damaged my hair. Mind you, I didn't have dandruff, but I was scared of getting it (I was 11). BUT this summer, I decided to let an older friend of mine who was a hairdresser for decades highlight my hair. She wanted to use one of the caps...where you pull the hair through the holes... So I washed my hair and detangled it perfectly but it STILL got matted soooo horribly under the cap we had to call it quits! I went home and my boyfriend was having to calm me down as I had my hair drowning in conditioner in the shower, because I was losing a TON of hair in the detangling process and wasn't seeing results fast enough in my opinion which lead me to panicking and thinking I was going to need to cut my hair to a pixie cut. He assured me I wasn't and to take my time, and of course I got the tangles out but- you guys- I lost so much hair. I cringe just to see them. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jLiYDUZKtdM/maxresdefault.jpg These. I hate them. Never again. I was trying to save some money but I'd rather just dole out the $100 to my hairdresser so he can do it with the foil and he's used to curly/kinky hair. Woy did I learn my lesson!

Those caps are horrible, especially on long hair! It's so much better to foil highlights. I've had a few men ask me to use them in my salon and I always try to talk them out of it. I hate hate them.

The worst for me is a round brush. While they do style the hair nice, they cause so much breakage. I have a lot of breakage from them I'm trying to grow out :(

[nycelle]

Those caps are so old school, I'm shocked they still make them.
They used to come in drugstore highlighting kits, the ones that turned everyone's hair yellow.

I feel for ya though... can remember when my friend did my hair with that cap and the same thing happened.. tangles that were nearly impossible to get out.

[vampyyri]

Hello Hydration Conditioner: Left my hair in one big tangle... but to be fair, most coney conditioners do. This one was especially bad because I had to clarify twice to get the hecking stuff out to reverse it.
CHI Silk Infusion Serum: it would make my hair nice for an hour or so, but then tangle city.

So... yeah basically anything with cones are a no-go :lol: my hair doesn't like them anymore. It used to when it was damaged to death, but on virgin hair, nah.

[zashin66]

Why roasted? I use a TT and I'm fine with it. I just go through multiple times, same with the wet brush. I think it's a typical iii problem. There is a TT for super thick hair, maybe that will do it?

But you have to use what works for you! :flower:

my daughter loves it. so she inherited the one i bought to try. although it could just be that it was pink and she thinks anything bought pink was bought for her. i was trying out many of the items people here seem to swear by.:couch: