Is using many different products on your hair always a bad thing?

[SheeJee]

This is very embarrassing to admit, but since joining LHC very recently, I think I've fallen into the newbie trap of wanting to try absolutely everything at once LOL... well my hair has been falling out (or maybe I'm just noticing it more now since I'm now paying more attention to my hair?)

I went out and bought an enormous bunch of conditioners (you don't want to know how many!), shampoos and leave ins/oils. I have now been rotating using all of these since I want to try everything and I am impatient and can't stick with one product for too long. As for leave ins, I am mixing a bunch of oils together + shea butter + silicone-free leave in creams and smooshing it on my APL 2b/2c hair and leaving it to dry (which is now looking great, I must admit)

I was wondering if this will be bad in the long term for my hair though, to use all of these different products, often in rotation on my hair. Do you think I should just stick with the SAME products for months or does it really not hurt to try lots of things at once?

Thank you :)

[Mairéad]

The problem usually is that if you try every thing at once it's hard to find out what is really helping your hair or causing it problems. But, if you single out a number of things that work and then want to use them in a rotation, perfectly fine. But generally when you're experimenting it gets a bit hairy to figure out what your hair is responding to.

[Madora]

You definitely want to take it slow starting out and not overload your hair will all sorts of products. They can interact poorly (or badly) with each other and your hair will not be happy.

There's no reason that after you've discovered what works for you (and weed out what doesn't) that you can rotate shampoos.

You might want to keep a chart of what combinations you used so you can keep the record straight.

[Yame]

This may not be bad for your hair's long term health but it's completely pointless in terms of finding out what actually works for you.

[MrsGuther]

My hair hates it when I put multiple products in my hair... but that's just me. I'm sure for some other people their hair doesn't mind it so much.

[MrsGuther]

This may not be bad for your hair's long term health but it's completely pointless in terms of finding out what actually works for you.

I agree. O.P- you are not going to be able to figure out what works for your hair if you use multiple products at once. Use one at a time and figure out how each affects your hair.

[Lianna]

I think we need to try new things to know what works for us. After that I don't really see a point having a lot of different things if you already knows what works. Unless you actually need to put all those things in your homemade leave-in...

I don't know what your hair needs but generally people do well with a shampoo, conditioner, leave-in, some sort of styling agent, and a couple of oils and/or a butter. Some might use the same oil/butter for deep treatments, do a SMT, or a protein treatment sometime. You can even adventure in growth aids (from everyday to weekly).

That's a "full of products" hair if it was on my head. At the moment I'm just using shampoo, conditioner, shea butter as leave-in and castor oil as growth aid a couple of times a week. It's enough, though I still adventure in new things sometimes. :)

[Cassie 123]

Don't worry about it - I did the exact same thing. It's an expensive but otherwise harmless way to have fun. You'll get it all sorted out in a couple of months; it's not rocket science. Just remember to have a clarifying shampoo on hand and to use it before starting any "Halp my crazy hair!!" threads. ;)