Leaving The Leave-Ins Behind

[Maelyssa]

For a long time now, years really, I've experimented with various leave in treatments. When I first discovered LHC it was after a huge hair color mishap and I was looking to save my hair from numerous colorings & lightenings that occured in a short period of time. Leave in treatments were of vital importance.

Over the years I've continued with them. Nothing ever worked quite as well as I wanted to though. Either my hair was still too frizzy or too crunchy or to coated in build up. I've tried cones & cone free. I've tried expensive stuff & cheap stuff. I've used lots of product, little product & everywhere in between. And alas, still not exactly what I was looking for until one day the lightbulb lit up over my head. And so I figured why not just try nothing one day. Take a risk & don't put anything in my hair after it was rinsed out.

Well, lo & behold my hair felt wonderful. Soft & beautiful. So I've been going free of leave in products the entire summer & this past week figured I'd try a leave in one last time just to make sure. And surely enough, frizzy, icky hair. So now that it's washed out it feels wonderful again.

I guess I'm posting this because I know many of us struggle with 'crunchy' hair. We puts lots of different things in it to try to soften it back up. My advice is before you totally give up & cut it just try nothing. Plain old no leave ins. See how it goes. You never know, it may be the right thing for you!

[Maelyssa]

I wanted to add that I'm all for pre-treatments, soaks, deep conditioning, etc. it's just the leaving product of any sort in that doesn't work so well for my hair.

[MiamiPineapple]

I 100% agree with you, thought I was the only one. This seems to be particularly true now that my hair has some damage from a bad dye job. If I use a leav-in, my hair always feels dirty but without, soft and smooth. Who would have know...

[cheshire90]

without leave in my hair becomes dry and straw like, hI guess it depends on your hair type and how it reacts

[luvlaughlin]

I used to use a couple different leave ins that were sprays that would help me detangle. I have color treated hair and the last time I had my roots done my hair looked fried after the salon blow-out wore off. At that point I switched to a leave in "trauma treatment" and it has worked wonders for me. Within a couple days of using it my hair looked normal again. This leave in can be used for everything, even with bleach when coloring and when you want to do an overnight you can slap it on dry hair too. I don't feel much buildup at all but I am sure there's some. I think my hair needs leave ins since I do have some bleach and color weaved into some of it.

[Desideira]

With my hair is totally differnet.My hair improved since I started to use leave ins. I like gliss kur by shwarkopf (especially oil nutritive) because its good for detangling. I have less breakege. For years i was avoiding leave ins and after i tried i cant imagine going withaut it:)

I guess this is a prove that every hair is different:)

[Chetanlaiho]

I've been struggling to find a good leave-in as well, so much that's it's actually scary to let my hair dry without anything in it xD The ends get dry but the rest seems to feel much, much better. If I oil and braid it it feels great but looks bad >_<

[Mesmerise]

I struggle a bit with leave ins too...but I think the secret for my hair is just using the right conditioner!! Really, the BIGGEST difference in my hair when it dries comes from the conditioner I've used. It's very odd, as I wouldn't have imagined it would make such a difference. With the wrong one it goes all frizzy, and with the right one, it's reasonably silky and not nearly as frizzy!

However, all the leave ins I used to make my hair less frizzy usually just made it greasy or yucky or sit wrong or whatever...

[Jcv-Shelley]

Whenever I air-dry my hair it's usually frizzy. But lately after using leave-ins it's been getting worse... this is really something to think about. Then again, I was using cream leave-ins... maybe if I switched to sprays. But alas, I want to finish the one I have first. Lol I guess I'm just stuck with it till it's all gone. :laugh:

[rena]

How lucky, I hope someday I can do that! Most likely not, but I can still hope.

[rowie]

After finding out about "Water Only" (WO) regime here in LHC, I find this regime works best for me. I had to use organic coconut oil as a leave in for the first two weeks because my scalp was getting dry and flaky. Now I would wait until my ends get really dry before applying coconut oil to it. On the days that I don't put anything on my hair I feel is when my hair is the softest.

[1nuitblanche]

Leave-ins are something I can take or leave... If I use conditioner in the shower, I don't need a leave-in. If I wash my hair in the shower but don use a conditioner, then I need a leave-in. Putting too much conditioner in my hair makes it either gunky, sticky, or crunchy.

[joesgirl2011]

Wow! I wish i could go without a leave-in too. My hair feels like straw because of dye/bleach etc. even if i stopped dyeing it now, it's just too late. I need the leave ins until it grows out. :(

[Curly Hermione]

I just came across this, it's such a coincidence as just this morning i washed my hair and didn't use a leave in for the first time in forever. I love the fact that i can really see the pay off from the lemon treatments i've been doing, i look so much blonder! Although it's quite fluffy and flyaway and the curl definition isn't great, there's a little frizz. I think I might do this again.

[Rosetta]

I've always kind of struggled with leave-ins as well, a bit like the OP - there are very few and far between that don't make my hair look and feel greasy, stringy or otherwise strange... So I mostly don't use any.

[Kitteh]

With my hair is totally differnet.My hair improved since I started to use leave ins. I like gliss kur by shwarkopf (especially oil nutritive) because its good for detangling. I have less breakege. For years i was avoiding leave ins and after i tried i cant imagine going withaut it:)

I guess this is a prove that every hair is different:)

Me, too! I have tried all of their leave-ins, and my hair feels great. If you want to dm me (instead of snatching the thread), I can give you some more brands to try.

To the OP: well, I guess it has a lot to do with hair type. Mine is stick-straight and it was the greasiest when I used conditioners. Every one, including all sorts of "light-feel" etc., made my hair awfully greasy, no matter how long I rinsed. I needed to use baking-soda rinses 2-3 times a month to keep my hair normal.

Then I used leave-ins and had NO breakage when combing, which was unbelievable. The only hairs on the floor when I comb are the ones that fall out naturally. And I use baking soda rinses only after heavy styling products.

Glad you found your solution!

[proo]

No leave-ins for me; I'm WO so religiously tuck my ends up against my scalp so they bathe in my sebum all day. It's workin

[annieangel149]

wow! its funny this thread has come up! I have virgin hair but it is fine and i havent had it trimmed for a while so the ends are feeling dry! About 2 weeks ago i went back to cone products after using no cones for a while and my hair felt much smoother and less tangly. However the ends were still dry. Then i found Redken fresh curls curl definer in the bathroom cabinet! i had forgotten about it. Its a leave in detangler product! I had bought it about 6 months ago after a hairdresser put some of it in my hair after a trim and it had made my hair feel great! by the way i dont have curly hair atall! In fact its dead straight fine hair! I put some on my ends about 4 days ago and my ends were so happy! Today after my wash smoothed it through the whole length of my hair because it tends to be a little frizzy after a wash and my hair is so lovely and smooth and soft! Leave ins use to weigh my hair down so i guess thats why i didn't use it worrying that i would put to much of the product on my hair and the same would happen again, but my hair seems to like this so far :cheese:

[elbow chic]

yeah, leave-ins haven't worked well for me, either. Bout the only thing I like is a teeny bit of olive oil on the very ends.

They're great for my DD's hair, though.

[Little_Bird]

I sometimes debate myself with this too... I haven't figured yet if my hair would rather go without anything fancy. Not that I do a lot of that anyways...

Sure thing, my sister doesn't do a thing to it, just shampoo (in the lenght too!) and conditioner, and her hair is always a silk waterfall..

Amazing what hair type can mean on your routine... Oh well! I'm glad you found a solution for your frizziness! :)

[jojo]

Ive only just started using a de-tangling spray from Avon in place of oil and it works the same way as a leave in. I am seeing much less splits and my hair has started growing too.

[mallorykay13]

I dont really notice a difference one way or the other anymore to be quite honest.. So I just don't use them unless someone gives one to me or I have them in our stockpile. It really doesnt matter to me. However leaving in coconut oil does make a big difference if I put it just on my ends.

[pixiedust]

I noticed the same. Although, my hair never feels better than when I condition, detangle, wash, and then use the leave in by MOP. I think it has cones which I tried avoiding forever, but I'm learning more and more that the weather has a lot more to do with how my hair behaves than anythings.