hair acting strangely

[Kyaatje]

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to figure out what is happening with my hair but I need some help.

For more than a year I've been washing my hair with the shampoo bars from SCH and my hair looked nice and full and shiny. The only thing happening was a slight increase in tangles. I didn't need to use an acidic rinse but did it now and again just for the crazy shine it gave me.
Now a little over a month ago I decided to bleach some stripes in my hair and coloured them with Manic Panic and all of a sudden my hair went dull and yukky when I washed with my shampoo bar.
So I decided to do a 'light' clarifying wash with a regular SLS shampoo without any cones. Result : super soft hair with a great shine and almost no tangles.
So next time I tried using my shampoo bar again and again dull hair that was just yuk.

So now I using a regular shampoo again instead of my bars, but I don't understand what is happening. :confused::rolleyes:

I do use conditioner with both my bars and my SLS shampoo and I slightly oil using either coconut or camellia oil.

Has anybody an idea why my hair might react like this ?

Thanks

[Gothchiq]

The cuticle to your hair is more opened up/frayed now that you have chemically processed it. As far as I know, shampoo bars are alkaline, as is the chemicals you used to color your hair. This, too, can open the cuticle more, making your hair rough and unruly. Therefore if I were you I think I would look for a shampoo/conditioner with a slightly acidic pH so as to close the cuticle and make the hair softer and shinier.

xoxo
gothchiq

[Kyaatje]

Thanks gothchiq for your input, what struck me as strange especially is that not only the chemical processed hair reacted strangely, but also my unprocessed hair ?

[spidermom]

I agree with Gothchiq. You're supposed to use an acid rinse with shampoo bars because they are a bit on the alkaline side of neutral pH, and hair/scalp prefer slightly acid pH.

Remember that when you do a chemical treatment, it can affect all your hair because there are fumes. I would guess that you've had an overload of alkaline products, and the switch to liquid shampoo with an acid pH will benefit both your hair and scalp.

[amberpotamus]

Thanks gothchiq for your input, what struck me as strange especially is that not only the chemical processed hair reacted strangely, but also my unprocessed hair ?

Just because the bleach didn't sit on the undyed hair long enough to change the color doesn't necessarily mean that it didn't cause the cuticle to lift a bit when you rinsed it from the strands it was on. I hate the way dyed hair feels when I apply any shampoo that isn't mildly acidic--because my hair is so thick, it can be hard to work it through all my hair at all when it's like that; it just basically turns into one solid dread until I add conditioner. So glad I went back to henna and there's only a teeny bit of dyed hair left.

[Kyaatje]

I just had a 'duh' moment LOL
I really didn't think of the bleach rinsing through my hair and causing some change !

But I'm sure you are all right :-)

At the moment I'm using a solid lush shampoo so it has SLS but how do I check the acidity ?
I do use a slightly acidic conditioner and I started to use more vinegar rinses (I really like them !)
would that be enough ?

I want to keep my hair like this for a while ... I wanted pink streaks and although I didn't bleach enough to get pink I like how it looks at the moment. I don't think I will bleach more though

[jacqueline101]

It could be the soap bar has a chemical that reacts with the dye.

[Kyaatje]

I thought that at first, but I'm not that great in comparing ingredients and figuring out which would react with each other :o