Why is my hair so gross on day two?

[jivete]

Not greasy gross, but dry and yucky gross. My hair always feels softer and nicer on the first day. But by the second day, the length is more tangly and just looks worse, especially after it's been up for the night.

I don't use cones or product and my routine is pretty simple. I alternate between washing with V05 CO and soapnuts and occasional watered down poo. I then use biolage conditioning balm as a rinse out and then a little as a leave-in conditioner. Protein makes the problem worse and oils only help a little. I've tried clarifying but always follow up with my normal "after" routine. I'm tempted to clarify Friday when I wash again and not put anything in afterward, just to see what my hair does over the weekend.

My length has a lot of old damage, heat and dye. It also did this when I used full shampoo/cone. Back then, day two would be greasy roots and dry, icky length. Now I don't have a problem with greasy roots, but my length is still icky on day two. I'm beginning to wonder if I get wax build-up from the conditioner. My hair is super fine, so maybe that's contributing.

I really like not washing as frequently, but I'm really tempted to go back to a daily "wash" of some sort, probably CO. Day two hair always leaves me frustrated and ready to cut but when I wash it again, I think, oh, it's not so bad.:rolleyes:

Any help/opinions are greatly appreciated.

[Kirin]

I was going to suggest CO on non "shampoo" days. Its likely your length is evaporating moisture off of it, becoming dry quickly. Its possible that the length just needs to be moisturized with conditioner every day. My hair does the same thing except I get very oily up top and the ends get very dry and tangly without a daily moisture injection!

[jivete]

Thanks Kirin. I'm beginning to think the same thing. I actually only use shampoo maybe once every couple of weeks, if that.

[kdaniels8811]

I would try SMT's, only not on the scalp, length only, to give it some much needed moisture. Let us know what you try and how it works, okay?

[jivete]

Will do. I think I'm going to try to clarify and leave it on Friday to begin, no conditioner or anything to see what it's asking for and just in case it's build-up. And then I'll go from there.

[Moonstruck]

My hair is TERRIBLE with any sort of leave-ins. It's fine with a normal rinse out condish, but if I leave ANYTHING in, I think it just attracts dirt and grime and sweat and such, and whatever parts I put it on become gross and lank and such. However, it does feel great on Day 1 because it's so soft.

Maybe that could be the issue? Have you ever tried not doing the leave in?

[jivete]

I did when I was WO. But my ends tend to be sooo dry and floofy. Do you use oils Moonstruck or are you just refering to leave in conditioners?

I do think it may be build-up combined with damaged, fine hair. My 7" of virgin roots don't seem to have this problem. They're softer on day two.

[Yttrai]

When i was a shampooer, mine too was dry and yucky on day two.

Then i switched to CRCR (condition rinse condition rinse. CO or a single cycle of condition rinse doesn't work for me - too greasy.) and now day two is relatively good, even a little bit too greasy.

My problem is, i prefer to go 3 days between, not two. So second day after a 3 day wait then a CRCR is incredibly greasy and i have to CRCR two days in a row.

Perhaps when you don't have important meetings or aren't working out every single day for a while, you could try waiting 3 days once in a while and see if that breaks the cycle? Alternately, you could oil more often. I personally would rather be too greasy than too dry, since you can always add a cleanse here and there.

[Honey39]

I CO-wash every day - very simple and easy, and my hair thrives on it. I dunno, I don't mind it being damp, and now it's one stage, it's so fast. I am strongly of the opinion that you should do whatever makes you/your hair happiest, rather than what you think you *should* be doing, if that makes sense. So if it's gross on day 2, wash it! Unless you really want to stretch out washes, so that might be different.

You have very pretty hair :)

[Quisquis]

Hi, jivete,

I’ll be watching this thread! My hair is curly, but it reacts *exactly* the way you describe. My routine is about the same, minus the soapnuts, and I try to stretch out washes to three or four days.

I’ve decided my hair’s problem is porosity, and that its difficulty holding moisture is a big factor in the “second day syndrome.” My hair hates all the humectants (honey/aloe/glycerin) that seem to help others here, so each day past CO it has less moisture and no defenses. When the humidity drops, as it does here often – well, think Elsa Lanchester/Bride of Frankenstein.

What seems to help a bit is getting the length from my ears down thoroughly damp every day, then using a tiny drop of conditioner on the palms and applying it as one would an oil. This usually is enough to improve matters on the second day. The third day, I seem to need to add a drop or two of oil as well. If my ends are soft but frizzy, that’s a signal to use just oil. Plain spritzes of water during the day can help, too.

Hope this helps – might be worth a try for you.

[batteredcakes]

My hair is the other way around, it looks dry and stuff the first day then the second it looks so nice :] then the third is greasy and then I'd have to wash it lol sometimes it gets greasy looking on the second day.

[Moonstruck]

Jivete - Sometimes I do oil, but only really at the ends/tips of the hair. Any excess on my hands is very VERY lightly smoothed over the length to make any flyaways lie down a bit more, but I don't really touch the length much at all.
I understand about your hair being dry and floofy - one of my good friends has hair that does just that. I don't generally have that problem, but one thing that I know helped her is doing a REALLY moisturizing conditioning, then washing it all out, so that her hair wasn't dry, but also didn't have any remainders of conditioner. The Snowymountain Moisture Treatment (SMT) does a pretty excellent job of moisturizing, imo.

It might also be because Biolage Conditioning Balm is a fairly thick, heavy conditioner, great for rinse out, but maybe too heavy for leaving in?

[jivete]

Thanks everyone for the replies. My plan is still to clarify on Friday (Suave probably), apply nothing (except maybe my tiny ACV rinse. We're talking less than 1/4 teaspoon per 12 oz water) and see how it looks.

Earlier today I would have sworn it was build-up, but I applied a little Camellia oil and it feels pretty good now. I'm still not convinced I'm not getting build-up, but I need to figure out where it's coming from.

Currently I "wash" 3x per week, but those are either CO washes, soapnuts or CWC, with the CWC being the least method used. I'm not opposed to CO'ing every day, but I do think the wetting cycle is damaging for me, plus I really like sleeping in a little later every other day. :cloud9:

I've been experimenting with different leave-ins and I think I need to simplify. I'll let everyone know how the experiment goes over the weekend. I will be bringing my Camellia oil home from work because I expect I'll need it.

So, is it less common to have dry-ish hair on the 2nd day? Do other curlies/wurlies have this problem? I do believe may problem has something to do with porosity. My damaged hair is very porous.

[jivete]

Honey39, thanks for the compliment. It's slowly coming around.

Quisquis, Welcome to LHC. As soon as I've eliminated some things, I think I'm going to try your method. It really does seem like a moisture retention problem. Luckily, I've just about reached my initial goal so by September I should be maintaining here for a little while and trimming off the damaged bits. I'm hopeful the less damaged hair won't be so temperamental.

[jivete]

Okay so I clarified this morning, used a tiny amount of ACV in distilled water for my final rinse and then nothing. At first. Later I did apply some oil. The gunky feeling is definitely gone. I think it's too much glycerin. I'd forgotten that I have to modify the Kimberly De-Frizz spray because the glycerine makes my hair feel icky.

I think I'm going to try and cut back on conditioner . I've applied oil a couple of times today and my hair feels good. The very ends are pretty tangly but they're also pretty damaged. I've just about grown to the point where I'm going to start maintaining to get rid of some damage. Anyway here are some pictures I just took.

Combed and a little straighter:

http://i532.photobucket.com/albums/ee322/jivete/071009-2.jpg

Waves scrunched back in:

http://i532.photobucket.com/albums/ee322/jivete/071009-1.jpg

So tomorrow will be the test. But I'm hoping with a little distilled water and oil it will keep looking nice.

Thanks everyone for your advice.

[Amara]

I get weird day 2 hair sometimes, too. If I put it up in a bun with some coconut oil, though, then I'm guaranteed lovely soft day 3 hair, which makes up for it!

[jivete]

I get weird day 2 hair sometimes, too. If I put it up in a bun with some coconut oil, though, then I'm guaranteed lovely soft day 3 hair, which makes up for it!


I'll have to try this on the weekends when I actually go 3 days between washes. I'm hoping minimizing my use of conditioner and using oils instead will help. Thanks!

[Desideira]

I symphatize wih you. My hair is more on the straight side but does exactly the same. And humidity makes it even worse

My scalep get oily on teh other day but all lenght of hair looks sried out , frizyy and blaaah:(

Its hard to deal with. If I will wash every day I will dry out my hair even more.

I think I stucked:(I dont know what to do. Silicones dont help, proteins makes me shed more, and its so easy to weight down my hair:(

[akurah]

Have you tried switching around conditioners? I find v05 to leave my length waxy and tangly, whereas Suave does not.

[kathrynrose]

My hair ends up doing the same thing at times. During one of those cycles (like I'm in right now), I wear it down on day 1, half-up on day 2, and full-up all the days after that until I wash again.

I am trying to think back to when I was just growing out the damage and the thing that worked best for me then was aloe vera juice NOT gel. Spritzing the length seemed to help. At first, I had to mix it with distilled water and a little bit of raw honey. Nowadays its just straight aloe juice. I vaguely remember that the damaged portion of my hair would react oddly without provocation. My guess is that damaged hair is just weird like that.

Hope you find something in all that gibberish that's useful.

**We have now reached the portion of the post where I give the obligatory apologies for all grammar, spelling, and typographical errors contained therein. Please forgive...stupid fingers + good meds = interesting posts (ocassionally)**

[nowxisxforever]

Not sure... mine's pretty much the opposite...Day 2 is always better for me :\