treatment recs for fine hair please

[bridgetc]

Hi Everyone

I was wondering what treatments you think work best for ppl with fine hair. i have almost bsl length and my hair is quite fine. I went for a small trim today and my hairdresser told me i shouldn't be using coconut oil as it doesn't suit my hair type. I have been oiling with coconut oil as I found my hair was getting very dry. I was also wondering if there is anything i could do to maybe thicken it up a little. I was thinking of trying henna.

Thanks

B

[eadwine]

She cannot tell just by looking at it that you shouldn't use the oil.

I recommend using it for a while, see what your hair does. If it doesn't work, then mist first and try again. If THAT doesn't work either, try another oil. Maybe jojoba works better for you :)

[FaeryTails]

My hair is very fine, and I use cassia (neutral henna) to thicken it up a bit.

[Masara]

My hair is very fine and I love coconut oil. I use it on dry hair and it's true that I have to be more careful not to overload my hair because it is so fine. But I also do overnight oilings and then I load it up. In fact, I find that heavy overnight oilings with coconut oil or vatika (I wash in the morning) or using oils in my deep conditioning treatments, have really helped my hair to feel thicker.
I also do regular henna glosses which really help too.

[OhioLisa]

...my hairdresser told me i shouldn't be using coconut oil as it doesn't suit my hair type.

I have fine hair. I use coconut oil. And it works. :D

[akurah]

Coconut oil suits every hair type--its the only oil that I can think of off the top of my head that has been repeatedly proven to penetrate the hair shaft. It reduces protein loss from various things, including but not limited to: shampooing, dying, bleaching.

Anyone who says coconut oil is unsuitable for someone's hair is a cracksmoker.

[ChloeDharma]

Coconut oil is shown to penetrate the hair shaft.....other oils shown to do this are avocado and olive....but i would suspect there are more than that that do.

Without wanting to insult any members here......i would advise being careful listening to most hairdressers when it comes to actual haircare. They are great for getting a certain colour, style or look.....but very rarely know much about haircare outside of that (i say this as an ex hairdresser from a family of hairdressers).

If your hair has been getting on with coconut oil, keep on using it, like Akurah pointed out it does some great things.
I found henna did seem to make the individual strands a bit thicker and also increased their strength.
Also i've recently(ish) gone onto almost exclusively washing with herbs and have found thats made my hair look thicker volume wise to the point it's been commented on maybe that's something you would look into?

[jojo]

I have fine hair of medium texture but my hair loves coconut oil, just tried the camelllia oil and i just love it!

[HappyKarin]

My hair looooves Avocado oil :)

[kimki]

I have fine hair and my hair loves coconut oil too. :)

[rubyann]

Anyone who says coconut oil is unsuitable for someone's hair is a cracksmoker.Akurah, you "crack" me up!


My hair looooves Avocado oil :)Mine too. I used avocado to OCM and wipe the excess into my hair. Mind you, I can't use oil at all and go out with my hair down, it gets oily icky with even the slightest amount. But oiled and braided or bunned is excellent. Oil is a wonderful moisturizer.

[Nynaeve]

Hi Everyone

I was wondering what treatments you think work best for ppl with fine hair. i have almost bsl length and my hair is quite fine. I went for a small trim today and my hairdresser told me i shouldn't be using coconut oil as it doesn't suit my hair type. I have been oiling with coconut oil as I found my hair was getting very dry. I was also wondering if there is anything i could do to maybe thicken it up a little. I was thinking of trying henna.

Thanks

B

Have you been oiling while your hair is dry?
A lot of people have found that this has a drying effect on their hair, maybe you should make sure your hair is damp when you oil?
I know a few people have said that they think cassia helps with thickening, though I haven't tried it myself. Remember that cassia is supposed to be like henna in that it can be used to chance hair color to some degree, so look around to see if you see any recipes that don't have enough or don't stay in long enough to change your hair color.

[Nynaeve]

Coconut oil suits every hair type--its the only oil that I can think of off the top of my head that has been repeatedly proven to penetrate the hair shaft. It reduces protein loss from various things, including but not limited to: shampooing, dying, bleaching.

Anyone who says coconut oil is unsuitable for someone's hair is a cracksmoker.

HAHAAHAH Thanks for that Akurah :)

[Juanita]

My fine hair loves coconut oil seems to drink it up.
Cheers
Juanita

[lynnala]

Cassia thickens my hair up temporarily. See sig photos. After a few washings my hair is pretty much back to normal, but apparently you can use cassia as often as you like.

[girlcat36]

Hi Everyone

I was wondering what treatments you think work best for ppl with fine hair. i have almost bsl length and my hair is quite fine. I went for a small trim today and my hairdresser told me i shouldn't be using coconut oil as it doesn't suit my hair type. I have been oiling with coconut oil as I found my hair was getting very dry. I was also wondering if there is anything i could do to maybe thicken it up a little. I was thinking of trying henna.

Thanks

B

I wonder what your hairdresser meant by coconut oil not 'suiting' your hair type. What 'types' of hair does it suit?
For the record, my hair hates coconut oil---I wish I knew why!

[bridgetc]

hi everyone

thanks for the replies i had been using coconut oil on dry hair and recently switched to using it on freshly washed hair and been finding that it leaves my hair lovely and soft.

ChloeDharma : what kind of herbs have you been using?

I'm going to go and see if I can find some cassia.

[LifeisAdventure]

Hi from one finey to another, bridgetc!

I don't use oils or cassia (yet, I've been dying to try both out!) but I did discover after some experiments that washing less frequently and keeping my hair up at least 5 out of 7 days a week rather dramatically thickened my fine hair. Finding the right products may also help on your quest to well-moisturized, thicker hair (I recently discovered HE's Long Term Relationship is great for mine). If you do want an alternative to oils that may help with dryness, I recommend a little aloe vera (the clear kind) applied after showering, at least to the tips of your hair. :)

[Elenna]

I have fine hair, and at first, I thought that coconut oil made my hair greasy. As it turns out, it was how I applied the oil. Night time coconut oiling just did not agree with my hair.

Well lately, I've been putting a whole tablespoon :bigeyes: of coconut oil mixed with conditioner on my hair as a prewash. And it has resulted in very nice hair. No greasies. Yay!

[bridgetc]

nice to meet you LifeisAdventure. I also recently started using the HE LTR and found it good at first on my hair. I'll try the aloe and see how my hair reacts to that.

Elenna : I never thought of mixing the coconut oil with some cond , I might have to try that thanks for the tip.

[Jeni]

OK so I'm coming into this convo late- I have fine, thin/reg hair, and I use coconut oil. Before this thread the idea of putting oil on my head made me laugh, my hair is flat enough as it is! However, I have found putting a tiny amount on the tips of my hair after I wash it, makes the ends shiny and soft. The night before I wash my hair I slather my hair in the stuff which makes my hair very smooth and shiny.

As for henna, as I'm sure you read, its permanente, so be sure you want red hair. I'd recommend a strand test for cassia. I ordered a sample and either it was misslabeled or contaminated by henna or the tea I mixed with it made the hair turn red....I would of been incredibly surprised had I done a cassia treatment and ended up looking like I had dyed my hair red. I just ordered a new sample and will try again, I have heard such good things about it!

Good luck.
Jeni

[Katze]

I have to agree with Jeni and others - oil is good in smaller amounts, but for me works best on wet hair. And coconut is the best of all - olive seems too heavy.

With all due respect to the profession, most hair stylists don't seem to know beans about fine hair. In all my years of going to salons (last visit was in June 2006) I only had ONE stylist tell me that I might want to consider not using elastics with metal, because my hair was "babyfine."

Every other stylist - and I went to a lot in several different cities, regions, countries - yanked a comb through my hair, piled my hair into a tangled mass on top of my head, scrubbed the length with shampoo, cut it with a razor, gave me layers to "make my hair look thicker" and encouraged me to stay on the bleaching bandwagon. Now I know that if I want to grow my hair long, I should stay out of salons.

All of this evidence would lead me to believe - just from my own experience - that your stylist does not know what she's talking about with the coconut oil.

As for treatments that work, SMT was great in re-moisturizing my fine, thin, damaged hair. Someone here recommended doing an SMT with every wash for a few months, and this REALLY made a difference.

Misting is also good because you can mix your own (I use aloe, GR conditioner, water) and with fine hair it's easier to moisturize the hair without weighing it down, as oils can do.

I'm also at almost-BSL and this is the longest my hair has ever been. By stopping bleaching and heat, making sure to moisturize my hair, and treating it more gently, I now have thicker, healthier hair.

I guess what I want to say is that you need to learn what your hair really wants - only you can know this! But we are, of course, here to help! :)

peace

Katze

[MerryKat]

I have fine hair which loves coconut oil (and evoo and sunflower and almond), I would suggest continuing with oils and you will soon see if your hair is happy or not.

[Emme76]

Katzie - Your advice are always so great :)
I think we have similar hair. I read about the misting and SMT.
(If you read this) Misting - is that something you do between showers? Every morning/how often?
If you do SMT with every shower...do you still put it on an hour before you wash your hair? It is ok to only CO? How often do you wash your hair?

Thank you :)!!!!!!
/Emme

[ChloeDharma]

hi everyone

thanks for the replies i had been using coconut oil on dry hair and recently switched to using it on freshly washed hair and been finding that it leaves my hair lovely and soft.

ChloeDharma : what kind of herbs have you been using?

I'm going to go and see if I can find some cassia.

I've been using a few.....but mainly i've been using shikakai, powdered Methi (Fenugreek) Seed, Cayenne Pepper, Amla, Brahmi, Bhringraj and Henna.

The henna has been quite diluted and not left a stain on my hair though.

The mix i use the most is i wash heavily oiled (coconut) hair with the Shikakai, then use Methi, Cayenne, Amla and Brahmi as a conditioner leaving it on for as long as possible. I don't need to use much of each herb, Methi swells like mad so 2 teaspoons of that, then 1 stp of Amla and Brahmi then half a tsp of Cayenne makes more than i need.

[aisling]

Katzie - Your advice are always so great :)
I think we have similar hair. I read about the misting and SMT.
(If you read this) Misting - is that something you do between showers? Every morning/how often?
If you do SMT with every shower...do you still put it on an hour before you wash your hair? It is ok to only CO? How often do you wash your hair?

Thank you :)!!!!!!
/Emme

I'm not Katze but I think I can answer your questions anyway.

Misting - spraying your hair lightly with water (distlled sometimes) and eventually mixed with some aloe vera, oil, essential olis etc. There's a lot of recipes. You need a misting bottle for this (blomspruta exempelvis). Many mist their hair every morning before putting it up, to add some moisture to it. I can say that not everybody like this, my hair just gets weird if I mist it between washes.

SMT - many don't have to wash out the SMT with anything, it cleanses gently without having to use shampoo/CO etc afterwards. Others use SMT instead of conditioner after washing. Again, not everybody get that lovely results from SMT, I've realised my hair dislikes honey, a standrad SMt just doesn't do anything for me.

[emeraldjoy]

In my experience, my hair lets me know if something works or not. My hair doesn't like styling products or heat. It gets angry and frizzes up. My hair does like light oiling and SMT. It is shiny and cooperative afterward.

I really like coconut oil. My hair is also fine and I have to be careful not to overdo the oil or it becomes limp.

[Emme76]

:)Thank you!!!!

I tried SMT yesterday and I think I used to much honey, or didn´t get it all out :rolleyes:! I can still feel some today by my scalp, lol. Maybe I used to much? How much honey should I use (in teaspoons- for short hair)? I put a full teaspoon honey, a full teaspoon of aloe and about 3 teaspoons of conditioner. But the honey I used I had to micowave it a tiny bit to make it more runny. :shrug:....should it be a special kind???

/Emme

[aisling]

Emme, your proprotions sound pretty good, I think in the original recipe it's 4 parts conditioner to 1 honey and 1 aloe. Warming it up is also recommended, I doubt there's a problem. I haven't read about there being that big differences between hoeny, of course, a good quality honey is probably nice to use in SMT as well.

You'll really need to rinse it out properly or perhaps then your hair is like mine, not very fond of honey. It doesn't matter how much I rinse, my hair still feels slightly waxy and not slippery and smooth like it usually is, after using honey. It's not my thing at all, my hair is happier with commercial deep treatments (Oliv Naturell from Kicks for example :)).

[Emme76]

Does Olive Naturell have cones in it?
My hair seems to like both cones and no cones :rolleyes:!
I think I can go either way.

If I do use cones - is it enough to use a schampo with sulfate to get them out???

Thank you AGAIN...:cheese:
Emme

[Katze]

Katzie - Your advice are always so great :)
I think we have similar hair. I read about the misting and SMT.
(If you read this) Misting - is that something you do between showers? Every morning/how often?
If you do SMT with every shower...do you still put it on an hour before you wash your hair? It is ok to only CO? How often do you wash your hair?

Thank you :)!!!!!!
/Emme

Emme, to answer your questions, I try to mist my hair several times a day. If I'm working, I usually don't bring the mister with me (but sometimes I do) and mist in between classes in the mirror in my office. I focus on misting the length - ears down - so this might not yet be an option for you, given your length.

Sometimes I oil between washings, but it is really easy for me to overdo oilings and ruin my hair (too greasy or too crunchy) so I save oil for freshly washed hair.

I wash my hair every 3-4 days; my scalp gets itchy fast, and I prefer the volume of cleaner hair to the sleekness of dirty hair, since I prefer wearing my hair down or half-down. Doing a WO wash every other wash helps my hair stay moisturized, yet gets my scalp clean, though I notice that I have to wash sooner after a WO wash.

With SMTs, I wash my hair in the sink or tub first, then put a plastic bag over it and a towel or Buff over that, clip it all down with bobby pins, and let the mixture sit on my hair. After it's been on for an hour or two (waiting longer doesn't make a difference, IMO) I shower and rinse it out, making sure to rinse thoroughly.

hope this makes sense,

Katze

[aisling]

Does Olive Naturell have cones in it?
My hair seems to like both cones and no cones :rolleyes:!
I think I can go either way.

If I do use cones - is it enough to use a schampo with sulfate to get them out???

Thank you AGAIN...:cheese:
Emme

Both the Oliv Naturell deep treatment and the conditioner are cone free and not that expensive, at least the DT might be worth trying. My hair doesn't seem to mind cones that much either, but I don't use them all the time anyway, because I also do well cone free.

Generally a shampoo with some of the harsher sulphates are effective enough to clean out cones and other kind of buildup.

[Emme76]

Thank you Katzie and Aisling!
I will give SMT another go in a week or so. First time wasn´t a hit cause I think I didn´t rise as much as I was suppose to. :o!

I will for sure try misting as my hair gets longer.

Aisling - do you have any suggestions of schampo here in sweden with harsher sulphates that get rid of cone build up???

THANK`S. You are all great!!!!
:D /Emme smiling...

[az_sweetie01]

I think that she probably means well but, as many of the other members can atest too, coconut oil is all around great stuff :) I'm fine haired as well and I've been using Aubrey Organics Chamomille Volumizing conditioner and, honest to gosh, that stuff is AWESOME. It's not a huge change but, it helps and makes me feel less self conscious about my thin, fine hair :)

[LifeisAdventure]

So bridgetc, any updates? any luck?

[dor3girl]

Coconut oil suits every hair type--its the only oil that I can think of off the top of my head that has been repeatedly proven to penetrate the hair shaft. It reduces protein loss from various things, including but not limited to: shampooing, dying, bleaching.

Anyone who says coconut oil is unsuitable for someone's hair is a cracksmoker.

Crack-smoker ROFL! I agree! I think what the hairdresser meant was that coconut oil can really weigh down fine hair if not used SPARINGLY. . .

[Loreyanne_H]

I'm the queen of babyfine hair, and I find that adding phytokeratine to my usual organic shampoo helps a lot! I jus add two teaspoons of phytokeratine powder and have my shampoo.

Alternatively, I put 1 coffespoon phytokeratine and half coffeespoon citric acid in my wash basin full of water, and I just let my hair in it a minute, then I dry it.