So, uh... What's going on with my hair?

[BroadwayBeauty]

So... I've always thought my hair was straight--solid 1b material. I know it likes to get a bit frizzy in humidity, but nothing more than a terrible halo of frizz. I've been CO washing for an official month now, and I never noticed a change in my hair type, just its overall health.

This past week I've been spending a lot more time outside both in high humidity and sweating (I work for a traveling summer camp). My first night I CO washed and added some leave-in conditioner to my hair like normal and then let it air dry, and it looked great. But as soon as I stepped outside, my hair became a frizzy, disgusting mess. I mean, seriously... I've never seen frizz like this before. My hair seriously looked like I'd abused the living mess out of it, like it was extremely damaged. Then I put in some argan oil frizz serum and than calmed things for a few hours, but then it started to get wavy. Today I showered and put in the frizz serum on my wet hair before doing anything, and that's helped, but my hair still has frizz that looks like damage.

What can I do? I don't want to go around with damaged-looking hair. Also, does this mean my hair is naturally more wavy than I thought, or does humidity just do strange things to hair like that?

[RitaCeleste]

Don't know. Its probably the weather and humidity. Maybe before you were using cones and they protected your hair from the humidity? My hair is wavy, its really humid here, so I have no problem going out and about with frizz. If I did, I'd be in serious trouble. You could try lightly oiling it when its damp and see if that helps protect it from the humidity sorta like cones would.

[silverjen]

You could try just finger combing after a CO wash, combined with either scrunching or plopping. If you're developing waves, that would give them a chance to show themselves. Once you know whether you have waves or humidity-caused frizz, you can decide how to handle your hair.

[BroadwayBeauty]

Well I used an argan oil serum to seal out the moisture, and that seemed to help some, but it still got frizzed, especially on the top of my head where I couldn't put the serum for fear of greasiness. Has anyone tried any particular frizz serums that work particularly well in high humidity?

[pepperminttea]

Did you recently go 'cone-free perchance?

[Gulbahar]

Could you post some pictures?

[Ishje]

I am not sure, but since you travel around could it be that the water has changed as well?
maybe now you use harder or softer water, witch can have an impact, together with the humidity it could make a difference. *just speculating though*

[krissykins]

Sounds to me like you might be a wavy *gasp*

[FluffSpider]

I don't think you're a wavy:p I was in Cluj one day and it rained on and off ALL DAY LONG. In a couple of hours, I had SPIRALS forming in my hair. but that doesn't mean that in my regular climate, I am a curly.I say you start stretching washes-2nd or 3rd day hair is sleeker on me, it doesn't frizz as much( I wash every 5-ish)

[Nymph]

That sounds like how my hair reacted when it started developping waves. When I do CO it looks like straight 1b, but with oil shampoo it's definitely wave-y. Depending on how well my hair likes the CO treatment, the frizz is there or is absent. If you want to keep it straight, cones + hair mask as second CO helps with mine, it could be something to try.

[inertia]

It's probably the different climate. My hair was always smooth and straight when I lived in the Northeast US where it never gets very humid. But in Japan where the humidity is MUCH higher, especially during the summer, it's a constant war against frizz. My frizz isn't caused by damage -- whenever I travel to another country, my hair calms down and becomes straight as soon as I wash and dry it there. But nobody else here has frizz like that unless their hair is completely fried, so I feel like everyone assumes my hair is much more damaged than it really is instead of realizing that it's just partly wavy.

The only truly effective solution I've found is... updos. From mid-June through early September. I don't like it but can't see an alternative.

[darkrose]

My hair used to be a frizz ball, but then after washing it a finger comb it into a sorta tight pony tail. I find that gets rid of frizz.