Could my weekend treatments be damaging - too much moisture?

[juliaxena]

I am having trouble with my hair (split ends, lots of them). Hair dye days from the past is major culprit, but I just have to ask this. On weekends I wash my hair, slather lots of conditioner on, leave it on for about 4 hours, more or less, use heating cap and I keep my head really warm by warming it with blowdryer every 10 minutes and wrapping a towel over it (yeah, I have lots of time). When I am finished, the hair feels soft and moisturised and just how I like it. My question is can this being doing damage to my hair? Someone mentioned in honey damage thread moisture can damage hair so now I am just confused about the possibility that what I thought was good for my hair may be bad...

On the other hand, I have stretched washes to weekend only most of the time (my hair does not get dirty before then so it is not gross at all). This means my hair doesn't get conditioner for 7 days. It gets pretty dry at the ends by day 6, so I started using Panacea on day 5 (before that it just gets my ends greasy). Perhaps that is not enough and I am not doing enough of a good thing for it? Maybe I should wash it during week too?

Thanks for your input everybody!

[einna]

I am thinking that you might need to balance out all that moisture with some protein treatments, espessially if your hair is damaged from dye. Maybe 1-2 a month? Do it just before the moisture treatment.
Also, do a strand test. Pull on a strand, if it keeps stretching like gum, your hair is overmoisturized. There is more info on that in the articles section.
Good luck. :)

[MoonlightShadow]

Well... Too much moisture can put hair "out of balance", which can easily be fixed with a protein treatment. I think the protein treatment would definitely help with the dye-damage issue since it can help rebuild the hair.
I don't think what ur doing is damaging, but it could give the hair too much elasticity. And hair also Needs structure, which is where protein helps :)

[longhairedleah]

I think it would also help if you tried to keep your ends from getting too dry during the week between washes. Maybe try a small amount of olive oil, or diluted conditioner, just to give some extra strength to your ends til the next wash. (if the panacea is too oily, try something different)

You could also try mineral oil as ktani has suggested, but that didn't work for me personally...

I also wash 5-7 days apart with drying ends in that time, and doing this seems to be helping reduce my splits immensely. Or at least, I don't know what else I've changed, but I have much fewer splits than usual....

[rock007junkie]

Like somebody said earlier you need to alternate between protein and moisture treatments. personally I wash twice a week. One day I use a rinse out and the next time I wash I deep condition. About once or twice a month I'll do a protein treatment.

[juliaxena]

My hair has been known to react badly to protein but I figure it can't hurt twice a month. I used protein just earlier and now have my conditioner treatment on. I wonder if I will see any difference this week.

[Calaelen]

Another thing to note, what kind of conditioner are you using? Many of them have proteins in them, and you may be getting too much protein. That can also cause dryness, and split ends.

Maybe your hair needs a twice a week washing, and regular conditioning rather than the weekly 4 hour treatment.

[lapushka]

I am having trouble with my hair (split ends, lots of them). Hair dye days from the past is major culprit, but I just have to ask this. On weekends I wash my hair, slather lots of conditioner on, leave it on for about 4 hours, more or less, use heating cap and I keep my head really warm by warming it with blowdryer every 10 minutes and wrapping a towel over it (yeah, I have lots of time). When I am finished, the hair feels soft and moisturised and just how I like it. My question is can this being doing damage to my hair? Someone mentioned in honey damage thread moisture can damage hair so now I am just confused about the possibility that what I thought was good for my hair may be bad...

I personally think this is too much of a good thing. Leaving your conditioner on for such a long time -to me- is overkill. I'd get a thicker conditioner or even a deep treatment mask if this conditioner isn't moisturizing enough on its own (by leaving it in for -at the most- 5 minutes).


On the other hand, I have stretched washes to weekend only most of the time (my hair does not get dirty before then so it is not gross at all). This means my hair doesn't get conditioner for 7 days. It gets pretty dry at the ends by day 6, so I started using Panacea on day 5 (before that it just gets my ends greasy). Perhaps that is not enough and I am not doing enough of a good thing for it? Maybe I should wash it during week too?

Maybe spraying your lengths with some water in between and re-moisturizing (leave-in, or some oil) would be nice.

[Phalaenopsis]

I think that person meant that something moisturizing like honey can be damaging, because it pulls the moisture out of the air into your hair, but it also can be the other way around. I can't come up with the name anymore for such elements, like glycerine and honey. I think they call it a humectant?

[juliaxena]

Another thing to note, what kind of conditioner are you using? Many of them have proteins in them, and you may be getting too much protein. That can also cause dryness, and split ends.

Maybe your hair needs a twice a week washing, and regular conditioning rather than the weekly 4 hour treatment.

I am under he impression it is a fairly well balanced conditioner, protein and moisture wise. It has both. I am more worried about the lenght of my treatments than the ingredients itself because my hair did not have a protein hate reaction and it did feel soft and moisturised after. Somehow no other conditioner works for me and I tried at least 30 (yeah...eyeroll). All leave my ends feeling dry and chrunchy (not moisturied enough), except for this one. I don't NEED to have it on so long, I just like to relax and feel pampered while having it on lol.

[bunzfan]

I am under he impression it is a fairly well balanced conditioner, protein and moisture wise. It has both. I am more worried about the lenght of my treatments than the ingredients itself because my hair did not have a protein hate reaction and it did feel soft and moisturised after. Somehow no other conditioner works for me and I tried at least 30 (yeah...eyeroll). All leave my ends feeling dry and chrunchy (not moisturied enough), except for this one. I don't NEED to have it on so long, I just like to relax and feel pampered while having it on lol.

If i left a treatment on my hair that long i wouldn't be able to do a thing with it afterwards as it would be to soft, most of them same leave on for about 30 mins .

[luxepiggy]

Since your ends are getting dry between washes, I'm inclined to think the issue is due to the length of time between conditioning treatments, not the length of time you leave the conditioner on. I know I've often left treatments on overnight, even, with no problems. I don't think applying Panacea on day 5 is the proper way to address your dry ends, though.

Instead I would suggest that on, say, day 4, you do a quick conditioning on the ends only - just dampen, condition and rinse. I wash my hair every 5 days or so, but I recondition the ends between washes, usually on day 2 or 3.