Hair Product Rant

[Tizzles]

If this belongs somewhere else mods please feel free to move it. But I am SOOO FRUSTRATED with the hair industry right now I could spit. Today I went to Sally's just to look around, I was bored, had time to kill, it was just next door, I figured..why not.

So I go in, get a few things, start looking for a good deep moisturizing treatment that I can do that is relatively cheap. I tell the girl working the counter who asked to help me that my hair ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT have products with protein in it. My hair literally freaks out and my ends feel like crunchy dried straw when I get protein from hair products in my hair. She points me to Infusium-23 leave in conditioner. I read through the ingredients and nothing popped out to me as protein. Granted, I didn't do my homework before I purchased, it was kind of a spur of the moment type thing. And yes, I'm new to this whole "anti-protein" way of thinking for my hair, I just figured out within the last month and a half or so that extra protein and protein build up is why my hair was freaking out(thanks to some awesome LHC'ers).

Anyway, she's all "Infusium-23 doesn't have any protein and it's supposed to make your hair really thick and help it grow and prevent breakage". A red flag should have went up at "protects against breakage" but it didn't. Live and learn I guess. My biggest gripe is that a bunch of "hair product" companies are going absolutely berserk over "Keratin Therapy" for the hair and putting it in everything. The unsuspecting consumer is going "ga ga" for this crap and not knowing that it's going to absolutely ruin their hair if they don't need protein. All most people hear is like what I heard and I am not completely ignorant about hair care (finally since I've been coming here). So they're going to be "oh yea keratin that's what I need, it's natural in my hair so it can't hurt it right?" Wrong.

Companies should have to mark their bottles saying "This product contains Keratin" or some sort of protein even if it's just a little bit. I know some do, especially when they're wanting to market it for that purpose but I have had a seriously hellacious time finding a leave in or a regular/deep conditioning treatment without some sort of protein. Thankfully, this 1L bottle wasn't very expensive and I can just give it to my mother, she'll love it since she gets a lot of highlights.

I have no idea how I am ever going to correct the protein buildup in my hair. But at this rate, it feels like such an up-hill battle. I don't use any products (purposely) with protein in them, yet it seems I just can't find the balance between moisture and protein. /end rant Thanks for reading!

[kdaniels8811]

Have you tried catnip tea for conditioning? I have gone away from store bought shampoos and conditioners and my hair loves the results. Toadstool shampoo or indian herbs for washing, oils and catnip for conditioning. Good luck.

[Tisiloves]

I do think they should lable beauty products more carefully.

Have you tried the super cheap brands? They tend to have fewest ingredients.

[jacqueline101]

It seems like everything has kartin in it. I don't know much about it myself.

[Pumpkin]

My hair hates protein! I tried Infusium23 back in the late 80's. Oh I remember it well, my hair was like straw.

[heidi w.]

If this belongs somewhere else mods please feel free to move it. But I am SOOO FRUSTRATED with the hair industry right now I could spit. Today I went to Sally's just to look around, I was bored, had time to kill, it was just next door, I figured..why not.

So I go in, get a few things, start looking for a good deep moisturizing treatment that I can do that is relatively cheap. I tell the girl working the counter who asked to help me that my hair ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT have products with protein in it. My hair literally freaks out and my ends feel like crunchy dried straw when I get protein from hair products in my hair. She points me to Infusium-23 leave in conditioner. I read through the ingredients and nothing popped out to me as protein. Granted, I didn't do my homework before I purchased, it was kind of a spur of the moment type thing. And yes, I'm new to this whole "anti-protein" way of thinking for my hair, I just figured out within the last month and a half or so that extra protein and protein build up is why my hair was freaking out(thanks to some awesome LHC'ers).

Anyway, she's all "Infusium-23 doesn't have any protein and it's supposed to make your hair really thick and help it grow and prevent breakage". A red flag should have went up at "protects against breakage" but it didn't. Live and learn I guess. My biggest gripe is that a bunch of "hair product" companies are going absolutely berserk over "Keratin Therapy" for the hair and putting it in everything. The unsuspecting consumer is going "ga ga" for this crap and not knowing that it's going to absolutely ruin their hair if they don't need protein. All most people hear is like what I heard and I am not completely ignorant about hair care (finally since I've been coming here). So they're going to be "oh yea keratin that's what I need, it's natural in my hair so it can't hurt it right?" Wrong.

Companies should have to mark their bottles saying "This product contains Keratin" or some sort of protein even if it's just a little bit. I know some do, especially when they're wanting to market it for that purpose but I have had a seriously hellacious time finding a leave in or a regular/deep conditioning treatment without some sort of protein. Thankfully, this 1L bottle wasn't very expensive and I can just give it to my mother, she'll love it since she gets a lot of highlights.

I have no idea how I am ever going to correct the protein buildup in my hair. But at this rate, it feels like such an up-hill battle. I don't use any products (purposely) with protein in them, yet it seems I just can't find the balance between moisture and protein. /end rant Thanks for reading!

I am going to pass on what my hair guru taught me. That all products have a tidbit of protein in them, between a manufacturer's brand of products such as the shampoo and conditioner. I now use a private purveyors shampoo product, and use a storebought brand of conditioner, and this is working well for me and has for over a year now.

I would suggest you go to a licensed cosmetologist and simply ask them to conduct a strand test for protein. And if you're fine, and you likely are, then there's not overly much to worry about regarding all this protein stuff. Just don' purposefully apply a protein treatment, and you should generally be ok. And you aren't doing that. I wonder that it's something else that is causing this apparent buildup you confess to experiencing. I wonder if you have a porosity issue, for example. Protein treatments and products do not do well on hair that has a porosity issue. You can also have a strand test done for porosity, as well. Just to doublecheck that.

heidi w.

[akilina]

No, they should educate their workers better.
I think Sallys is a big joke. They usually don't even know what they are talking about (I have run into a lady at ours 5 years ago that was totally awesome and knew so much though) And I am not saying all of them, but generally out of all the times I have been there I can report negatively. Maybe it is just my town.
I almost want to laugh when they ask me if I need help because I am a licensed cosmetologist. But for that reason I avoid Sallys because there are much better supply stores that the public can't go into.

[Tizzles]

I normally don't go into Sally's either. Cosmoprof was on the other side of town though and I didn't feel like driving. I hadn't planned on going in there at all, but I was bored. I agree, their staff should be trained better. The public expects people that work at stores to know the product they're selling. Even after she swore it had no protein, I went ahead and double checked the ingredients, and nothing stood out. It was only after I got home, put it on my hair and noticed how dry my ends felt that I hopped on the computer and started doing my research.

The first thing I googled was "LHC Infusium-23" and then after reading some from other members I went to wikipedia and started putting in the ingredients that I thought *could* be protein related and sure enough, I was right.

@Heidi - You are always a wealth of information, I love reading your posts and I always appreciate your responses. My hair is fine, and my big concern about protein is just that I think I already have enough in my hair. When I clarify and just use a moisturizing conditioner and put nothing else in my hair it feels really good. I let it air dry and it's not really frizzy, except what humidity does to it and it's soft. Maybe I am just trying to do too much. My mother tells me I'm being paranoid with my hair all the time, she says it looks much better to her than when it was shorter and highlighted. I have never checked the porosity level of my hair, though I always just assumed that it was very porous in the front since there is damage that I am growing out. I will check into this for sure.

Thanks for all the replies! I definitely think that companies should label their products better. However I guess they depend on the unknown to make money. Live and learn!

[tiarefleur]

I totally know what you mean. I have coarse and damaged hair, and before I found LHC I had been brainwashed into thinking that my hair needed protein since it was in all the damage repairing and restorative shampoos/conditioners. It's especially frustrating that it's in the smoothing ones (marketed for coarse hair) as well...:rolleyes: