Squeaky/dry hair?

[baobhan sith]

Does anyone else have this, because I've been looking for ages and nobody has described theirs this way. It's mostly my ends, but they just feel... not hair like.

When they're wet especially, if you rub the ends between two fingers, it kind of squeaks? I don't know if this is damage, dryness, or what.

Is it even a problem? It's combined with a kind of straw like texture. But imagine soft, smooth straw, but the hardness if you hit it end on, or if it's not going in the same direction as you're stroking.

Yes, this is possibly the weirdest hair description to be posted on here...

Oh, and it doesn't seem to respond to SMT, oil, conditioner on dry hair, conditioner on wet hair, and I've never been consistent enough with catnip. Aussi's conditioner for long hair seems to help, but I always feel as though it's just covering up like cones do, because as soon as i wash it off, it's back to strangeandsqeaky.

Any ideas? At all?

[Dreams_in_Pink]

i have that hair, and currently experimenting with different products and stuff to cure it. haven't found anything miraculous yet (non-SLS shampoo did improve though) i'll try CO in my next wash and see what it does.

oh, and i think it's all because of damage.

[coscass]

Yes! I had this a while ago. What it was, for me, was some sort of buildup. Either from my conditioner, leave in, or shampoo.

Did you go through all your showering products and check the labels? I don't mean to sound rude, I'm sure you've done that already but I figured I'd ask anyway.

It really sounds like something has coated the ends of your hair and isn't allowing anything else in. That's weird! Mine wasn't that bad, and it just suddenly vanished, so I'm not sure what to tell you :(

[baobhan sith]

I thought that, but I've checked products thoroughly for cones... I don't know if there's anything else which could cause build up? But regardless - using SLS shampoo several times makes no difference, if anything it makes it worse (this is with conditioning and moisturising afterwards).
Maybe it is just damage...

[melikai]

My hair is like this when there is too much protein in my products.

[baobhan sith]

What chemical names for protein are there in products? Are there any they hide under? None of my products claim to have protein in them, have "protein" or "amino acid" in the ingredients so i just assumed they were clear.

[coscass]

My hair is like this when there is too much protein in my products.
Protein! That's it! Now I remember! my mom picked out this new conditioner, protein balsam and something or other, and it did exactly what you described.

[baobhan sith]

So, supposing it is protein from source unknown - what's the fastest way to get rid of it? I've recently been given an all natural shampoo and conditioner, so using them would probably help, but although protein can be counteracted by moisture, the only place i could have got the protein from is my conditioners, so should i put conditioner on my hair or not?
You see my quandry.

ETA: Just had a thought - is there any chance it could be some kind of limescale buildup? My water's not particularly hard, but it's not the softest and I'm mainly CO, could this mean that the conditioner doesn't clean it off properly? Or is that going off on a limb. Does anyone have any experience with hard water and buildup?

[ravenreed]

My hair always squeaks, even with CO or shampoo bars.

ETA:
Oh, and it squeaks up at the scalp, so I doubt it is from damage.

[coscass]

I also have hard water, and I really can't remember if it happened after I got rid of the protein conditioner or not. You could try a clarifying rinse just to be sure, and if that doesn't fix things you might post what conditioners and shampoos you're using here, just to see if you overlooked anything.

[melikai]

I also have hard water, and I really can't remember if it happened after I got rid of the protein conditioner or not. You could try a clarifying rinse just to be sure, and if that doesn't fix things you might post what conditioners and shampoos you're using here, just to see if you overlooked anything.

I agree.

Try clarifying to see if that helps (using a simple sulfate shampoo with no silicones in it is the easiest), and condition from the ears down, then reevaluate.
If your hair is still being weird, then give us the product names (or give them anyway if you're curious!), and we can check out the ingredients.

[baobhan sith]

I agree.

Try clarifying to see if that helps (using a simple sulfate shampoo with no silicones in it is the easiest), and condition from the ears down, then reevaluate.
If your hair is still being weird, then give us the product names (or give them anyway if you're curious!), and we can check out the ingredients.

Already done that. Several times in case I'd done it wrong.
The products I use are:
Wilkinsons teatree conditioner
superdrug henna deep conditioner
Aussi long hair conditioner

And that's pretty much it...