Runzel
September 15th, 2009, 01:49 PM
Some of you might remember I posted a while back about possibly having to shave off my hair, after I had to use a commercial product on it and then had severe reactions to the chemicals that would not wash out.
I'm happy to report that I still have it and it is no longer making me ill!
After trying everything we could think of, the thing that actually helped in the end was the activated carbon powder. It was a welcome break from the unpleasant symptoms, but it wouldn't wash out completely, so for the next several weeks after that everything that touched my hair got charcoal smudges and running my fingers through my hair gave them a stylish black sheen. :rolleyes: I wasn't about to make the same mistake twice and use a commercial product to get it out, so I just waited patiently for it all to "wear" out, which took a few weeks.
Then I had another problem: all the baking soda washes, clay soaks, charcoal, and everything else I had put on my hair up to several times a day in a desperate attempt to wash out the chemicals had basically ruined it. No matter how many oil treatments I did, nothing was getting it back to the way it was before this whole fiasco. At this point I decided to take a break and do some benign neglect...I just didn't want to think about hair for a while, which is the main reason I've been off here for so long.
A few weeks ago I grudgingly concluded that I had to resolve my hair situation. It was so far gone that I was spending several hours a day detangling which was not feasible for me. Realizing that none of my "safe" ingredients were working with my hair, I went on the hunt for a hair conditioner I could tolerate, mainly just looking for an oil/water emulsion, because I was pretty sure that's what my hair needed. I was pleasantly surprised to discover one company with a basic formula that they were willing to customize just for me, and it actually ended up being cheaper than their listed price! When it came I tested it cautiously, and I discovered that my reaction is minimal--it takes a straight hour of inhaling the fumes before I even begin to get the slightest headache...for me, that's really good.
So I tried it, and my hair is even better than before! It now makes lovely ringlet curls whereas before it was frizzy, and is now much easier to detangle! After a single treatment where I saturated my hair in a mixture of the conditioner and coconut oil for several hours, I've found that I only need to touch up every one or two weeks on problem areas, which is totally manageable.:cheese:
So thank you all for your support and suggestions! I'm back and ready to talk hair again. :D
I'm happy to report that I still have it and it is no longer making me ill!
After trying everything we could think of, the thing that actually helped in the end was the activated carbon powder. It was a welcome break from the unpleasant symptoms, but it wouldn't wash out completely, so for the next several weeks after that everything that touched my hair got charcoal smudges and running my fingers through my hair gave them a stylish black sheen. :rolleyes: I wasn't about to make the same mistake twice and use a commercial product to get it out, so I just waited patiently for it all to "wear" out, which took a few weeks.
Then I had another problem: all the baking soda washes, clay soaks, charcoal, and everything else I had put on my hair up to several times a day in a desperate attempt to wash out the chemicals had basically ruined it. No matter how many oil treatments I did, nothing was getting it back to the way it was before this whole fiasco. At this point I decided to take a break and do some benign neglect...I just didn't want to think about hair for a while, which is the main reason I've been off here for so long.
A few weeks ago I grudgingly concluded that I had to resolve my hair situation. It was so far gone that I was spending several hours a day detangling which was not feasible for me. Realizing that none of my "safe" ingredients were working with my hair, I went on the hunt for a hair conditioner I could tolerate, mainly just looking for an oil/water emulsion, because I was pretty sure that's what my hair needed. I was pleasantly surprised to discover one company with a basic formula that they were willing to customize just for me, and it actually ended up being cheaper than their listed price! When it came I tested it cautiously, and I discovered that my reaction is minimal--it takes a straight hour of inhaling the fumes before I even begin to get the slightest headache...for me, that's really good.
So I tried it, and my hair is even better than before! It now makes lovely ringlet curls whereas before it was frizzy, and is now much easier to detangle! After a single treatment where I saturated my hair in a mixture of the conditioner and coconut oil for several hours, I've found that I only need to touch up every one or two weeks on problem areas, which is totally manageable.:cheese:
So thank you all for your support and suggestions! I'm back and ready to talk hair again. :D