Quote Originally Posted by First Timer View Post
I live in a REALLY hard water area, and I used to use lemon juice to get the minerals out of my hair, and make it shinier, but unfortunately, as I got older and my hair dried out, and I started needing conditioner, the lemon juice was stripping all the conditioner off of my hair, leaving it bone dry, so I had to stop using it.

I wish I could use oil, or even leave-in conditioner, and get smooth silky hair, but what I actually get is a greasy mess. Even using a hot or treatment in the shower, that's going to be rinsed out, doesn't work for me. The thing that works best is, bizarrely, plain old super-cheap drugstore 3 Minute Miracle!

It might be a generational thing, but I don't know a single woman other than myself whose haircare routine doesn't include something designed to alter the natural texture of her hair; every single one of them is either straightening, curling or perming. And of course, we're all coloring as well. And they're all using a bunch of products in their hair, too, something else that I've never done. It's like I haven't passed the secret rites of womanhood, because I just let my hair hang whatever way it wants to; other women are always trying to persuade me to "DO something" with my hair.
It might be generational, or it might be cultural, or both. I think I find the idea of needing to do something with my hair exhausting. I always wanted it longer and to be less frizzy, but most of my life I just let it do its thing. The most I did with it on any sort of regular basis was fun hairstyles that only involved a brush or comb and barrettes or scrunchies or clips. I never did anything with chemicals to change texture, and I maybe had heat used on it once a year? I had a classmate growing up who blow dried her midback length hair perfectly straight every morning. I knew others who flat ironed their hair every day or so. I had no interest in that kind of commitment. It may also be a personality thing. I also knew a bunch of people my age who didn't do anything in particular to change the texture.