I need advice on my hair.

[Gamber_747]

Hello everyone. I am a guy and need help with my hair.

I have dry, very fine and wavy hair with dandruff problems as well. A small hairstyle looks terrible on me so I keep a medium one but have to get a cut when they become long. I want to be able to keep long hair and just improve the general look of my hair. The good parts about my hair is that they are abundant and pure black and I want to maintain the natural colour for as long as possible.

Ideally what I want is silky, thick and straight hair. Ofcourse that's prolly not gonna happen but that's really the aim I keep working on. The problem is that since my needs are so much I dont understand what shampoo and conditioner to buy? They seem to only cater for a particular thing and I cant use like 3 different shampoos and what should be done?

Like there are moisturizing shampoos for dry hair, there are shampoos for thickening and shampoos for staightening. Using an anti dandruff shampoo is a must for me which really reduces the choices I have in shampoos. Currently I am using a loreal thickening anti dandruff shampoo for men and a loreal moisturizing conditioner for dry hair. I am pretty happy with how much my hair have improved and I dont always need to apply gel to keep them styled. But there's alot that can improve still.

Before that I was using a moisturizing shampoo as well as conditioner and that made my hair totally smooth and silk. But as I found it looks terrible on fine hair.

So what would you advice me to do? Remember I live in the sub continent so I wont be able to buy many of the products that you people use. I'll list the main brands available here so it can help you to give adivce,

Loreal, nivia, head and shoulders, pantene, sunsilk, garnier, dove, herbal essences and a few others I dont remember right now.

[friskybiznus]

Hi, welcome to LHC! I'm not a guy, but there are a lot of them on here, so hopefully you will hear from them. I see you have wavey hair (2c/3a), so making it go straight might be difficult. Perhaps as it gets longer, it may straighten out some.

ACV (apple cider vinegar) rinses are supposed to be good to treat a flakey scalp. You put about a tablespoon of vinegar into a cup of water and pour it over your scalp after shampooing and conditioning. Let it sit a few minutes, then rinse out.

As far as shampoos and conditioners, you just have to experiment to see what works best for you.

[Heidi_234]

You have hair maybe similar to mine, and mine tends to be really really dry. I had amazing luck with coconut oil, it's a daily must for my hair. You probably will be able to find it, maybe in a health food store, in the health food section in the supermarket, or maybe even among the regular oils. For starters try apply a very small amount from the ear down, then you'll get the feel how much your hair needs and how often.

Also, I tend to have white stuff near my roots when my scalp is not too happy, and it's not dandruff in my case. Could it be that you mistaking dry sebum for dandruff? For me shampoos tend to be really harsh on my scalp, tend to dry out my hair horribly. You should search the boards and see how other people deal with dandruff (I remember ACV rinse suggested), maybe you don't have to shampoo.

As for conditioner - if you are able to eliminate the shampoo, switching to a conditioner that does not contain silicones is in order. They coat the hair and build up, making it feel bad after a while. Garnier has a 'cone-free conditioner, and there's a list with many others you might want to check out. Apart from that, I found out that after washing, leaving more conditioner in helps alot.

Also, your hair is curlier than you think, brushing/combing it when it's dry is a big no-no. You want it to clump and curl, it reduces frizz and volume, which makes alot of difference (it makes it bearable despite not being straight!). Hope that helps.

[wizboo]

I'm quite new here too. Welcome!

Over the last few months I've learned a lot about my hair, here it goes:

We don't have the same hairtype, but i sometimes have dandruff problems and decided natural haircare is the way to go. Even if your hair likes SLS i would recommend a "lush shampoo bar" as they are more natural but still cleanse well.

As for conditioner i am going to try cone- free (theres loads of articles about it on lhc) and use "lush solid conditioner" (i am a firm believer is lush products). So you might wanna try that too.

I dont i know of ways to reduce curl as drastically as you want to, but the added length may straighten it our a bit, but i don't think any shampoo could. Or you could just learn to love your curls!

Also about thickness, i have this problem because my hair is layered, but i think looking after it well will make it the best quality it can be.

Hopefully you'll find what you're looking for here at lhc, good luck.

[Themyst]

Hmmm. I think I remember hearing some forum members thinking that cassia straightened their waves a bit. You may not be too familiar with that though - it's a ground plant (cassia obovata) and you mix it with water and smear the mud in your hair and keep it on for a couple of hours. It acts as a temporary conditioner without adding color to darker hair.

Is it possible for you to post a picture of your hair? Everyone will probably just tell you how nice your waves look anyway!

[MAO]

Henna! Henna is good for pulling wave out of hair and helped with my dandruff. My scalp also seems to like Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castile Soap. But you would only probably find that at a health food store and maybe CVS or I think Walgreen's has started carrying it too. Ohyeah, and quit using hair products with ingredients ending in -cone as they keep moisture from penetrating your hair. Use oils such as coconut or almond oil, both of which are kinda light.