What is going on?

[gizelle]

Hello everyone

My hair had been acting oddly. It was super shiny, but seemed hard and not very smooth. Almost like bear fur as opposed to the mink that I like. I had recently begun CWC with a cone free condish first then an sls shampoo followed by a coney condish. All in all, I have conditioner on my hair for about 20 mins. I had used this routine before with good results, but it just wasn't working now.

So, I decided to clarify and let my hair dry in a mess and see what happened. I oiled, then used my sls shampoo and let my hair air dry down. And guess what.... it is nice and soft again. And my curl looked nicer than it had in ages.

I don't think it is cone buildup since I use an sls shampoo every time I shower, but something was going on.

[jojo]

Probably you had build up and the clarifying and oiling have done your hair the world of good. At least now you know how your hair feels when it needs clarifying. Mine feels dull and blah when it needs it.

[gizelle]

I always use shampoo with sls in it though, so don't I clarify each time I wash?

[little_cherry]

From my experiences, sometimes clarifying once doesn't remove all build up. Sometimes I need to clarify twice in order to remove build up completely. The last thing you put on your head is a coney conditioner... the first thing you put on your hair when you have your next wash is a non coney conditioner; lots of non coney conditioners contain waxes, so perhaps the wax was building up over the cones. Shampooing with an SLS shampoo only got a little bit of the build up-- this explains the 'rough' feeling along your hair. There was build up on top of build up. When you clarified, you got the gunk off.. Clarifying shampoos are stronger than SLS.

[HintOfMint]

If you did a CWC and only concentrated the shampoo at the scalp, then you probably didn't remove the coney conditioner from your last wash, or the first conditioner of CWC diluted the effects of the shampoo so it couldn't really remove the coney conditioner from the last wash. In essence, either method would lead to build up as you consistently use the coney conditioner.

That's my guess at least.

[jojo]

I always use shampoo with sls in it though, so don't I clarify each time I wash?

Sometimes using a clarifying shampoo, although you use SLS can make the world of a difference. Id never heard of clarifying shampoos before I joined here but the difference they made to my hair was amazing. If you use cones id also advise a fortnightly/monthly clarifying.:) Though id do a clarifying shampoo once a fortnight regardless, sls shampoos can contain wicked and nastys (not really evil, else they wouldnt put them in shampoo!) which can build up on hair and make it feel rough and look dull!

[jojo]

From my experiences, sometimes clarifying once doesn't remove all build up. Sometimes I need to clarify twice in order to remove build up completely. The last thing you put on your head is a coney conditioner... the first thing you put on your hair when you have your next wash is a non coney conditioner; lots of non coney conditioners contain waxes, so perhaps the wax was building up over the cones. Shampooing with an SLS shampoo only got a little bit of the build up-- this explains the 'rough' feeling along your hair. There was build up on top of build up. When you clarified, you got the gunk off.. Clarifying shampoos are stronger than SLS.

I wash mine 3 times with a clarifying shampoo and do this once a fortnight and I follow up with a tigi moisture maniac but I do apply a little coney serum too.

[gizelle]

Thanks everyone. I just couldn't figure out how I was getting build up. Now I know what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future.

[spidermom]

Check for protein. Too much protein can make hair feel hard. PS - anything can build up on your hair, even minerals in the water.

[jojo]

Yeah protein is another possibility, so lots of moisture giving treatments maybe?