Hair after Vacation to another country

[Anisaa]

I just came back from vacation I went to Mexico City and boy did it have an effect on my hair!! I am blaming the water, the pollution, the dirt. I dont have my hair dyed or permed or anything like that my hair is natural. I care for it to the best of my knowledge and I do not use any products like hairspray gel or mousse. My hair became very dry and brittle while I was away. It also became very frizzy and unmanageable which is weird because I have naturally straight hair with a wave sometimes. Frizz is something I never experienced before. It was soo bad I had to braid it for the last 5 days of my vacation and I refused to wash it. So I came back home and the first thing I did was wash and condition my hair. I DO NOT want to cut my hair, but the split ends are just HORRIBLE and my hair is DRY. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions on how to care for hair while on vacation? Also does anyone know of any good remedies to try to revoke some of the damage caused by going on vacation. Any product recommendations? THANK YOU all so much. P.S. My hair is much softer and I do not have frizz. I have been oiling my hair with olive oil and I feel that it is helping. :poot:

[DrkAngel]

Sorry your vacation proved so bad for your hair. I hope at least you enjoyed it! For all the frizz you can thank the horrid humidity of Mexico. Depending on where you live and the water you have back home that might have been a real shock for your hair. Not washing and conditioning for the last few days was provably not a very good idea as braids can get real messy too.

On to recovery tips... If it feels dry oiling as you're doing is great, but don't over do it (too many heavy oilings in one week might over-saturate it and you'll end up with limp, coated hair). If as you said, you have knots and split ends, you might want to start by removing those... a thorough S&D (do we still call it like that? :confused: ) works wonders for me. I don't know if you clarified (specially if you weren't too happy with the water) to see if it feels a lot better just by doing that.

Other than that, do LOTS of conditioning and maybe a protein treatment every once in a while if your hair likes that kind of stuff.

[pepperminttea]

There isn't much an SMT (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=128) and an S&D session can't fix. :)

[christine1989]

I had the same experiance when I went to Rome for the summer one year. I thought it was the heat but when I go to Hawaii my hair seems to like it. Maybe pollution in the air or high mineral content in the water has something to do with it. A few deep conditioning fixed it right up though.

[triumphator!]

I'd try clarifying, then an SMT and an S&D. WOO LINGO!