nothing seems to work right now...

[Fethenwen]

Well, I noticed my hair got tangly and full of build up, so I shampooed twice, with diluted shampoo. Followed by conditioner. Well it got dry and static. Put some oil in.
Next CO wash. Aaand it got a build up thing going on again. Shampoo again.
Dry and static. Doing something about the dryness and ended up with tangly and messy and oily looking hair again. I even tried a baking soda wash, but that made my hair catastrophically dry. So I did some oiling and an SMT which made my hair tangly and messy again.
Now it's absolutely horrible :(
Note that I did not wash my hair more than every second or third day.


This has been going on for few weeks now, I guess it's the winter air doing it's thing.

I really am a little out of ideas, if nothing else maybe I will do a last shampoo and start WO:ing again.

I wonder if anyone knows what's going on, or have had similar things happen to them?

It is starting to be a bit frustrating, because things I do to my hair right now either dries it out too much or makes it feeling gunky. The top of my hair is quite alright, but the other half of my hair, especially my ends seems to not want to cooperate at all lately.

[kittensoupnrice]

When my hair starts feeling like this, I know it's time for a nice deep treatment. Have you tried this? Many members here swear by SMTs.

[bumblebums]

Yeah, sounds to me like you don't need clarifying, but you could use some moisture or a hot oil treatment or something similarly nourishing.

[Fethenwen]

Hmm, well I did a SMT today, and it made it only worse! It usually makes my hair feel amazing.
Maybe I did not rinse it out well or something, it feels very dry and gunky at the same time.

[melikai]

Are you using the same products you used before this happened?
I get this same thing when I try too many new things or new techniques. But clarifying, followed by a good conditioning, always helps me, so I'm not sure.

Another idea to try is to shampoo and do an acetic acid and/or citric acid rinse, then lightly condition.

I'm sorry this is happening - it gets very frustrating to me when it does!

[clichepithet]

The only thing I can think of is protein overload... :shrug: I've been trying to search the boards and articles for something someone said about it, but I'm coming up with natch. It's out there, I just can't find it. Mayhaps someone more deft than I can find it or knows where it is/what I'm talking about. Anyway! I know that wasn't very helpful, sorry. But maybe look over your things and cut back/out any protein-laden products (if you use them) and see what that does?

[clichepithet]

Got it!

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=17

[Gothic Lolita]

I second the protein overload. And I remember that many heads dislike oil to fight protein overload and simply need the heaviest condish there is, without anything added (maybe aside from honey).

Do you have protein in your conditioner? Or do you use yoghurt in a SMT? MAybe you could try warming a bit of honey, diluting it with water and conditioner (or just leave the honey out), put all that on damp hair and let it soak.... I did a honey treatment yesterday and my hair is now really nice.

[Othala]

I think you should ease up on products. Just give your hair a break. Wash it just with shampoo the next time, do not condition or oil and then comb it once a day and wear it up. That should prevent your hair tangling up and will of course mean that you don't have anything sticky in your hair that builds up.

[Dreams_in_Pink]

I have the same problem.
What i'm gonna do is to do CWC tomorrow, no cone. I'll replace oil with dilluted conditioner if my hair feels dry. If that does not work, then i'll bring out my big gun (SLS poo) and lather twice (or three times, whatever it takes), then forget about my hair.

Hope we find some balance in our hairs :(

[Fethenwen]

Your advice really helps, I seem to have more clarity on what's going on. I wish it was protein overload, that would be easy to fix. But I haven't use any products with protein.
Maybe I have just need to give my hair a break, or maybe invest in a better conditioner. I haven't changed any products either, so that is a bit weird, that the stuff I have been using suddenly does not do much good right now.

[GlennaGirl]

When my hair goes wonky like this, I just CO it every few days as I usually do when it isn't wonky, and bun it EVERY day and pretend it isn't even there. In a week or two, the oils or what-have-you seem to balance out. :)

[little_cherry]

When my hair was like this, I clarified with baking soda followed by a ACV rinse, straight SMT, then oiled my hair afterwards.

[spidermom]

When my hair goes funky on me, I usually oil and braid it, then leave it alone as long as I can stand it. If it isn't better after the next wash, a couple of days later I clarify with a full-strength SLS or ALS shampoo, then condition, and apply a tiny amount of CHI Silk Infusion coney serum. If that doesn't do it, I look at the ends under strong lamp light and get a trim if I see a lot of splits and other damage.

[Beaglebuddy]

I am not a whole lot of help but just thought I would mention it could just be the winter weather. My hair seems to always go wonky at this time of year especially when the temperatures are in the low minuses and the air is so dry. I can't say what really helps, I just tend to do oil treatments and wait it through. Once the warmer weather gets here my hair usually acts better.

[christine1989]

That sounds like it could be from too much co-washing or oiling. I would reccomend not putting conditioner or oil on your scalp or roots for a while and see if that helps.

[aisling]

Getting build up that fast sounds strange, I wonder if the water may do something? Our Finnish member Arctic had some problems with that and used ascorbic acid to solve it.

What conditioner(s) do you use? I've noticed that with this long cold period I really have to use heavy ones because the air is just so dry.

[Madame J]

You might want to run your hands over your hair and see if you notice more roughness towards the ends. I was having a lot of trouble with tangly ends lately, and I had tried everything, and finally just did a 1/4-1/2" trim and my hair feels completely better.

[Fethenwen]

Thanks everyone for your input!
I did a thorough water only rinse yesterday, and today it feels more normal and soft again. Especially after a good long brush with my BBB. My hair seems to need a rest from treatments.

That sounds like it could be from too much co-washing or oiling. I would reccomend not putting conditioner or oil on your scalp or roots for a while and see if that helps.
Might gave been just that. With the cold and dry air, it is easy to overdo things when my hair felt drier than normal.

Getting build up that fast sounds strange, I wonder if the water may do something? Our Finnish member Arctic had some problems with that and used ascorbic acid to solve it.

What conditioner(s) do you use? I've noticed that with this long cold period I really have to use heavy ones because the air is just so dry.

Hmm, actually my hair seems to like hard water better than too soft. But maybe it is turning problematic if my hair is starting to get a bit drier now.
I have quite a light conditioner, maybe I should start looking for a heavier one. An ascorbic acid rinse is something I have wanted to try out for a while now, especially when WO:ing.



You might want to run your hands over your hair and see if you notice more roughness towards the ends. I was having a lot of trouble with tangly ends lately, and I had tried everything, and finally just did a 1/4-1/2" trim and my hair feels completely better.
Luckily my ends are feeling just fine today, besides it was just about a month ago I had a little trim. But yeah, I will keep that in mind :)

[xoxophelia]

What I would do is take a step back from everything that you are doing to your hair and spend a week doing nothing to it. Rinse it in some water when you like but stretch the no touch no wash period as long as you can. Even 5 days should be enough.

Whenever I can do this, once I wash my hair in the end it looks extra nice. :)

[Dreams_in_Pink]

I'm reporting that i got rid of oil buildup with this method:
first i applied cone-free conditioner to my dry hair, approx. an hour before wash.
Then i wet my hair and applied a thick layer of sulphate-free poo, and massaged it in till i felt it started lathering.
I left it on without rinse while i was washing my body. Then i rinsed my hair and scalp for 2 minutes by letting water run down my hair.
Oh, on an important note, i haven't applied any kind of conditioner or oil so far. And my hair feels soft and moistured and above all, clean! Sometimes it's better to cut down on moisturizing stuff, i guess.