I need help with my routine.

[layla<33]

Thanks for reading, here goes: :)
Okay first of all ive searched the forums and looked at the SLS ane cone-free list but i still need help. Im looking for a gentle shampoo and cone free conditioner. Details: I have blonde highlights and i must have a conditione that moisterizes lots and provides 'slip' bit also one that doesnt add to my oily scalp problem.. i used to clarify every morning and night without conditioner to combat that and my hair was fine so unless the color treated hair changed that i can go without cones.. also i want to try CO washing so im not using shampoo everyday (tried the CWC wasnt working for me) also my hair doesnt like proteins.. any other tips would be appreciated as well! im becoming very frustrated! im trying to treat my hair better and prevent breakage while i grow ot the color!OH! also my family is on a tight budget and only shop at walmart (cant order online either) im using Sauve Rosemary + Mint and the condish is great but the shampoo is very harsh even diluted. also, my hair doesnt like Pantene or Garnier Fructis.

[RitaCeleste]

Well, the suave shay butter one was kinda nice too. I try to just shampoo the scalp and skip working the conditioner down to the roots, I figure the inch or two near the scalp will have plenty of oil. I use some cones and occasionally need to remove the build up with some shampoo. A lot of people use VO5 for CO-washing. My light Co wash conditioner gets applied to the scalp to remove dirt and oil. Leaving just about any conditioner on the length of you hair for atleast 30 mins under a cheap plastic cap will deep condition your length. If you don't work it down to roots, it may not make your roots too oily. Sometimes I part my hair and bring it over the shoulders and just deep condition or oil it from the neck down a while before I wash it. Sometimes its not as much what you use as how you use it.

[Siiri]

I'm not familiar with american hair care products, but this article has a list of cheaper alternatives for shampoos and conditioners:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=218

[RitaCeleste]

Oh, yeah. I bought some honey and extra virgin olive oil at Walmart and tried the Honey and EVOO thing. I loved that and it was pretty cheap for a special hair treat. A little oil on the length of your hair where it needs extra conditioning can go a long way. Especially if you are avoiding cones. Walmart also sells coconut oil, its next to the lard in the baking area. EVOO and coconut are the cheap oils to try first because lots of people like one or the other or both. They don't work for everyone but if you don't like those on your hair you can eat them!

[layla<33]

thank you! i appreciate all the advice! :) i searched some more and saw some LHCers CO wash with a condish with light conditoners that are either water soluble or are removed by the alchols already found in the conditioner and just shampooing to clarify once a week. im very interested in trying this to see if it works before trying to go cone free.. if anyone does this how does it work for you and what condish do you use? ive heard good things about Sauve Naturals Aloe and Waterlily :) im going to find the ingredients on Sauve.com and research the cones here on LHC. i fond a list about cones here a while back :)

[Siiri]

I CO-wash every other or third day with a light conditioner, and clarify twice a month with a clarifying shampoo. I use a local brand you can't probably find in US, but I have read here that many CO-washers like VO5 Kiwi and Lime Squeeze Clarifying Conditioner, which washes well, doesn't contain silicones and is inexpensive. You can try diluting the conditioner with water to save some conditioner, because you have to use a lot of it when you CO-wash. Many people here do it and I've tried it too, works just as well as using it undiluted in my opinion.

ETA: I haven't tried using a conditioner with silicones for CO-washing, can't help you with that. If you like silicones on your length, you could also CO-wash with a non-cony conditioner and then use some cony conditioner on your length only. Cones made my scalp very waxy.

[layla<33]

well im not a big fan of Vo5 mostly beacause i have yet to find a bigger maybe 'family sized' bottle plus over the years i always ind myself coming back to sauve lol but a looked up the Sauve naturals aloe and waterlily and its cone free! there are two ingredients that sound like their cones but there just preserves yay! :happydance: so ill be trying ot that this weekend and tell you guys how it works out :) also might pick up some coconut oil though i hate the smell :( and maybe even induldge in a new comb ;) maybe can finally get rid of this dry feeling slightly itchy but very oily split personality scalp of mine lol wish me luck! :)

[BlazingHeart]

From the way you describe your scalp, I'm not sure you're 'truely' oily - it sounds like you may be reactive oily. Reactive oily folks over-strip their scalp, which causes the scalp to produce a ton of oil in response to try to 'fix' itself. It takes a couple weeks to a couple of months of treating your scalp more gently to get it to stop, so don't expect instant results when you move away from the harsh clarifying shampoo. Even if you are a bit oily, it sounds like your routine probably made things worse rather than better.

~Blaze

[layla<33]

From the way you describe your scalp, I'm not sure you're 'truely' oily - it sounds like you may be reactive oily. Reactive oily folks over-strip their scalp, which causes the scalp to produce a ton of oil in response to try to 'fix' itself. It takes a couple weeks to a couple of months of treating your scalp more gently to get it to stop, so don't expect instant results when you move away from the harsh clarifying shampoo. Even if you are a bit oily, it sounds like your routine probably made things worse rather than better.

~Blaze

i agree and sadly i didnt know any better before LHC. ive only been here a short time and ive already given up my hairbrush and tried a few things.. i wish i'd found this place before i highlighted and cut my hair 3 months ago!!!

[SpinDance]

Welcome layla<33! Your hair stats are the same as mine, so maybe I can help. No promises, of course, because each of us is different, but here goes! Sorry, but this is long :)

First, you say you are using Sauve Rosemary + Mint shampoo & conditioner. I tried it early on in my LHC days and liked it fairly well. It was in my rotation for a while. My rotation is a rather random selection of several conditioners or shampoos the I pick while showering based on how my hair felt when I got in. Thicker & more conditioning when it felt dryish, not so much when it seemed a bit too oily or greasy.

I started out ignoring cones, as I figured out that I'd been using them for years and it seemed OK. Except it wasn't, for me, because my ends and lengths were usually really dry and sometimes got a bit brittle. Mostly I dodged that bullet by switching around what products I was using, but I eventually realized that cones and protein weren't the friends I'd thought them.

Then I started to experiment with oils. I tried olive oil, since we had it in the house already for cooking. Hair hated it, but I interpreted it as my hair didn't like oils. Skip ahead for a while, read lots more LHC posts about the wonders and joys of oils, so I try again. Had some mixed success. Figured out my hair likes some oils, and that cones and oils don't mix for me, so stopped with the cones. Figured out how to get appropriate amounts of oil into my hair, fixing my portion control problem. Much better.

I found something in the ingredient list of Sauve Rosemary + Mint that I thought was cones, so I stopped that in my rotation. So now I'm cone-free, mostly using Suave Naturals (but not the coconut one, because I think it has some protein in it). A few other cone free stuff like Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition for heavier conditioning. I've got some White Rain cone-free that I've not tried yet, all these you can get at Walmart.

Tried coconut oil shampoo made with Suave Naturals shampoo and some made with another, no longer made shampoo, with mixed results. Sometimes fantastic, sometimes too oily. I'll probably try that again when I get my current stock of conditioners worked down. :)

These days I'm mostly doing CO every couple of days, with a CWC using very diluted shampoo just on my scalp every week or three whenever it seems to need it. My hair likes coconut oil, particularly as a prewash overnight treatment. I've had good success with shea butter and jojoba oil, SMT and Fox's Shea Butter Cream, but mainly I'm using coconut these days. I also use Panacea to great effect, but you said you can't do internet ordering. This week I learned about Frizz Buster Gel (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=6508), which I think is my new magic potion. I can't remember if the clear, 100% aloe vera gel is available at Walmart or not. I can't remember where I found it, but I recall I didn't find it the first place I looked.

In any case, be patient and try not to change more than one thing at a time. Also, unless the results are terrible, consider trying something a couple of different times when you are at different phases of your experimentation cycle. Just because something doesn't work for you today doesn't mean it won't ever work. That said, don't feel that you have to continue a particular test if you just hate the results! Go slow and keep records.

One of the best ways to prevent breakage is to wear your hair up. There are so many great articles and links to videos here! Again, take your time and enjoy the journey.