The much-recommended SMT (Snowymoon's Moisture Treatment)

[Soj]

Whoops, forgot to mention that he also said he oils his hair right after rinsing, which I wouldn't typically do (my hair isn't great at absorbing oils) but also tried as part of this experiment. I guess the logic is that you let the humectants work their magic as they are supposed to in a humid environment, even if fairly briefly, then get them back out of your hair and seal in whatever moisture you got from the treatment--? So far I'm pleased with the results.

I can't oil = at least not and walk around in public. My hair either doesn't absorb any oil I've ever tried AT ALL, or it is so uber fine that any amount of oil just leaves it bedraggled. I do use hemp oil (that you can get at the grocery, not CBD type oil but regular culinary hemp seed oil) as a sealer when I'm not going anywhere, or did prior to finding the Not Your Mother's Naturals Tahitian Gardenia detangler (the only product I've EVER been able to leave in my hair without it looking greasy and bedraggled). I actually seem to get a much better effect from the detangler AND it leaves my hair looking great so - now I only occasionally oil my scalp, and that mostly because the amla rinses I've been doing leave my scalp really really dry. The hemp oil is the least greasy-ifying oil I've ever used and it still weighs my hair down. It is definitely NOT a walkin'-around treatment for my hair.

But back to this issue of humectants in the desert. I'm not sure of what the current ambient humidity is at the moment, but I can say that in all the time I've lived here, my interior bathroom with no windows and no fan has NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER "steamed up". Ever. I'm serious. Never ever. And I take long hot showers with the door closed, used to be until I ran out of hot water but as I've gotten more and more decrepit I can't actually stand in the shower that long any more LOL! So my guess is the humidity here is AT LEAST as low as wherever you are, and probably lower. I have to run a humidifier or my eyes get so dry I have to resist the impulse to just give up and claw them out.

L'Oreal made an ANTI humectant that did great things for my hair but I apparently got the last bottle that was ever available. It had already been discontinued when I bought it, and I only bought it because I THOUGHT it said "humectant". Humidity is GREAT for my hair, too bad I live in a desert now. I didn't know now then what I know now about humectants so I guess its just as well I ended up with an anti-humectant, but I never did get why it worked for me when it was the opposite of what I was looking for, until fairly recently.

I typically have to rinse anything I put in my hair out just because it is so fine nearly everything weighs it down and makes it stringy. Some hair masques that are intended to be leave-ins I have tried just rinsing MOSTLY out, but if they have any humectants in them at all it doesn't matter how thoroughly I rinse them out, my hair is either not improved at all or it gets even crunchier. Coconut oil had a moisturizing effect on my hair - my hair looked GREAT when I was using the SheaMoisture Coconut & Hibiscus line - but while my hair loves coconut oil, it has declared war on my scalp. I got awful painful cysts if I use any product containing any significant amount of coconut in it on a regular basis. I can dilute it down with other shampoos/conditioners to cut the coconut content, but then there's not enough concentration of the coconut oil to help my hair much.

So that tactic - steaming up the bathroom while applying humectants and then rinsing them out - doesn't work for me because I can't work up enough steam to matter. It's just too dry here. It's not a big bathroom either. But probably worth a try for anyone living somewhere not quite so dry. I got a face steamer at o to try to use to steam my hair but the steam comes out so hot it cooks my hair. I cannot imagine using one of those on your actual face given what it did to my hair!

I'm guessing the detangler works because of the mango butter content in it. That seems to work ALMOST as well as coconut oil in my hair and it seems to at least have a truce with my scalp. I'm guessing it is acting as a sealant, but seems to be lightweight enough (at least in that detangler) that it doesn't weigh my hair down the way absolutely every other leave-in product I've ever tried does. I'm guessing, because that is the only ingredient in it that doesn't appear in any product I've ever used before.

[shelomit]

I can't oil = at least not and walk around in public. My hair either doesn't absorb any oil I've ever tried AT ALL, or it is so uber fine that any amount of oil just leaves it bedraggled. I do use hemp oil (that you can get at the grocery, not CBD type oil but regular culinary hemp seed oil) as a sealer when I'm not going anywhere, or did prior to finding the Not Your Mother's Naturals Tahitian Gardenia detangler (the only product I've EVER been able to leave in my hair without it looking greasy and bedraggled). I actually seem to get a much better effect from the detangler AND it leaves my hair looking great so - now I only occasionally oil my scalp, and that mostly because the amla rinses I've been doing leave my scalp really really dry. The hemp oil is the least greasy-ifying oil I've ever used and it still weighs my hair down. It is definitely NOT a walkin'-around treatment for my hair.

But back to this issue of humectants in the desert. I'm not sure of what the current ambient humidity is at the moment, but I can say that in all the time I've lived here, my interior bathroom with no windows and no fan has NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER "steamed up". Ever. I'm serious. Never ever. And I take long hot showers with the door closed, used to be until I ran out of hot water but as I've gotten more and more decrepit I can't actually stand in the shower that long any more LOL! So my guess is the humidity here is AT LEAST as low as wherever you are, and probably lower. I have to run a humidifier or my eyes get so dry I have to resist the impulse to just give up and claw them out.

L'Oreal made an ANTI humectant that did great things for my hair but I apparently got the last bottle that was ever available. It had already been discontinued when I bought it, and I only bought it because I THOUGHT it said "humectant". Humidity is GREAT for my hair, too bad I live in a desert now. I didn't know now then what I know now about humectants so I guess its just as well I ended up with an anti-humectant, but I never did get why it worked for me when it was the opposite of what I was looking for, until fairly recently.

I typically have to rinse anything I put in my hair out just because it is so fine nearly everything weighs it down and makes it stringy. Some hair masques that are intended to be leave-ins I have tried just rinsing MOSTLY out, but if they have any humectants in them at all it doesn't matter how thoroughly I rinse them out, my hair is either not improved at all or it gets even crunchier. Coconut oil had a moisturizing effect on my hair - my hair looked GREAT when I was using the SheaMoisture Coconut & Hibiscus line - but while my hair loves coconut oil, it has declared war on my scalp. I got awful painful cysts if I use any product containing any significant amount of coconut in it on a regular basis. I can dilute it down with other shampoos/conditioners to cut the coconut content, but then there's not enough concentration of the coconut oil to help my hair much.

So that tactic - steaming up the bathroom while applying humectants and then rinsing them out - doesn't work for me because I can't work up enough steam to matter. It's just too dry here. It's not a big bathroom either. But probably worth a try for anyone living somewhere not quite so dry. I got a face steamer at o to try to use to steam my hair but the steam comes out so hot it cooks my hair. I cannot imagine using one of those on your actual face given what it did to my hair!

I'm guessing the detangler works because of the mango butter content in it. That seems to work ALMOST as well as coconut oil in my hair and it seems to at least have a truce with my scalp. I'm guessing it is acting as a sealant, but seems to be lightweight enough (at least in that detangler) that it doesn't weigh my hair down the way absolutely every other leave-in product I've ever tried does. I'm guessing, because that is the only ingredient in it that doesn't appear in any product I've ever used before.

Sorry to hear that this method would not work well for you. 11% humidity here today and my hair is still holding up very well. We have a tiny bathroom (my dad literally could not fit into it when he visited!) with a nice tight door, so I'm certain that helps.

I can't claim to have seen a hair product actually marketed as "anti-humectant," but there are plenty that include anti-humectant ingredients: oils, of course, waxes, shea butter, silicones, esters, whatever. So that may explain why the mango butter product detangler works especially well for you.

Could I ask (roughly) where you live now? I'm wondering in particular if you're also at high altitude. Worse in the winter or the summer? I grew up in the desert and later moved to more humid climes and know how rough that transition was for me--grateful to be back in the Southwest now. Even despite being acclimated, I still get bad health effects when the humidity dips past about 7-10%--nosebleeds, skin sloughing off, all of that. 50-60% is considered the "healthy" range. If it's so gol-darned dry that you can't steam up a small bathroom year-round, I'm surprised you aren't suffering from more symptoms beyond the itchy eyes! But there's very few places on earth that stay that dry year-round.

[neko_kawaii]

Interesting about the bathroom steam. our bathroom only steams up if it is cold, but i know it gets humid in there regardless of steamy glass. We don't have a vent (kitchen or bathroom), and started using a portable dehumidifier a few years ago in the kitchen under the air intake for the a/c because too much moisture = block of ice on the compressor. When it isn't essential in the kitchen it lives in the bathroom. In June when the temps are 110 and 4 RH, I turn that thing on and it registers 70 RH in the bathroom after a shower, and that is with the door cracked open during a 5 minute shower. No steam on the mirrors, but definitely humid.

In terms of SMT, I don't worry about the humectants because I'm not using it as a leave in. It is still moist by the time I rinse it out. It hasn't been a problem for me.

[shelomit]

We don't have a vent (kitchen or bathroom), and started using a portable dehumidifier a few years ago in the kitchen under the air intake for the a/c because too much moisture = block of ice on the compressor. When it isn't essential in the kitchen it lives in the bathroom. In June when the temps are 110 and 4 RH, I turn that thing on and it registers 70 RH in the bathroom after a shower, and that is with the door cracked open during a 5 minute shower. No steam on the mirrors, but definitely humid.

Yeah, that makes sense: humidity is increasing even if you don't "see it" in the air.

I had no clue how this experiment was going to go and was a little concerned that I would wind up frying my hair. . . but honestly, I'm really happy with it. This may move into my regular rotation, at least until my hair is happier than it has been these past couple of years.

[Soj]

Sorry to hear that this method would not work well for you. 11% humidity here today and my hair is still holding up very well. We have a tiny bathroom (my dad literally could not fit into it when he visited!) with a nice tight door, so I'm certain that helps.

I can't claim to have seen a hair product actually marketed as "anti-humectant," but there are plenty that include anti-humectant ingredients: oils, of course, waxes, shea butter, silicones, esters, whatever. So that may explain why the mango butter product detangler works especially well for you.

Could I ask (roughly) where you live now? I'm wondering in particular if you're also at high altitude. Worse in the winter or the summer? I grew up in the desert and later moved to more humid climes and know how rough that transition was for me--grateful to be back in the Southwest now. Even despite being acclimated, I still get bad health effects when the humidity dips past about 7-10%--nosebleeds, skin sloughing off, all of that. 50-60% is considered the "healthy" range. If it's so gol-darned dry that you can't steam up a small bathroom year-round, I'm surprised you aren't suffering from more symptoms beyond the itchy eyes! But there's very few places on earth that stay that dry year-round.

Shea butter doesn't seem to help my hair much. Maybe its just too heavy. Well, some, but I still can't leave-in anything with shea butter in it. Waxes and oils weigh my hair down. OMG NO SILICONES *whimperwhimperwhimper* Pantene destroyed my hair and it took me like 20 years to figure out what was going wrong. Then another 5 or so to find something with which to replace it.

I'm in the high sierra desert and I get nosebleeds, my lips peel, and my eyes are not merely itchy. I dream of itchy eyes with a heart-rending never-ending longing. I get serious serious dry eye, so bad that it takes long agonizing minutes just for me to be able to get my eyes open some mornings. I was not kidding when I say sometimes its all I can do not to just claw them out. It affects my eyesight. I have to clean out the humidifier and put a new wick in it, my eyes are drying out as I type. It's supposed to snow tomorrow, I hope not or I'll be trying to clean that out in the snow. Yarp!

I regularly apply hemp oil as a skin conditioner and that actually helps a lot. I don't mind the odor (smells like dry grass to me) but ... I have to always shower it before I go anywhere, LOL! Actually it is pretty thoroughly absorbed by my skin so really not a lot of eau de hemp about me from that, but I was putting it in my hair for a long time as well, it helped keep it from drying out. More. Eau de hemp from that hangs around considerably longer.

Fortunately I am old and decrepit and rarely go anywhere and smelling of hemp oil at home doesn't bother me LOL! I use Dr. Bronner's Naked Organic Lip Balm. Took me a couple of years of trying every single different lip balm I could find before I found that and it is the ONLY one that really helps. Without it, my lips crack and bleed and flake.

I have to run a humidifier pretty much around the clock and boy are those wicks for them expensive. Like $18 a pop. It's better if it snows. And yeah, I'm at either 5700 feet or 6200 feet, I forget which. And it is dry year round here, with brief respite from the 7" total precipitation per year, most of which is snowfall. I get a rush of awful weediness in the early spring when the snow melts. That's the only time of the year anything grows here. Actually dew point is the thing but however that figures into it, it's just bad here. I needz tha greenz. I'm actually looking FORWARD to moving to West Tejas, because green. Where I'm from, that might as well be desert, but its a great improvement over here. Plus a more normal elevation, thankyouverymuch.

This isn't an issue of invisible moisture. It is just plain absent from the air. Yes, it gets more humid when I run the shower in just the bathroom and I can immediately tell that when I open the bathroom door and all the moisture in the bathroom WHOOSHES right past me and is sucked into the never-ending dryness that is the air here.

[shelomit]

I'm in the high sierra desert and I get nosebleeds, my lips peel, and my eyes are not merely itchy. I dream of itchy eyes with a heart-rending never-ending longing. I get serious serious dry eye, so bad that it takes long agonizing minutes just for me to be able to get my eyes open some mornings. I was not kidding when I say sometimes its all I can do not to just claw them out. It affects my eyesight. I have to clean out the humidifier and put a new wick in it, my eyes are drying out as I type. It's supposed to snow tomorrow, I hope not or I'll be trying to clean that out in the snow. Yarp! [. . .]

I have to run a humidifier pretty much around the clock and boy are those wicks for them expensive. Like $18 a pop. It's better if it snows. And yeah, I'm at either 5700 feet or 6200 feet, I forget which. And it is dry year round here, with brief respite from the 7" total precipitation per year, most of which is snowfall. I get a rush of awful weediness in the early spring when the snow melts. That's the only time of the year anything grows here. Actually dew point is the thing but however that figures into it, it's just bad here. I needz tha greenz. I'm actually looking FORWARD to moving to West Tejas, because green. Where I'm from, that might as well be desert, but its a great improvement over here. Plus a more normal elevation, thankyouverymuch.

Yeah, I know how many health problems I had when I moved to the Okefenokee, so I can't imagine being acclimated to a green/humid place and trying to adapt to where I am now. And, while it's super-dry here, we're not at high altitude (only ~4,000 feet). I've lived up in the Sangres south-central CO before and know how much the additional elevation aggravates how much water you need to consume just to, you know, not faint : P

Back up to 19% humidity here today, hair still holding up very nicely.

[FrayedFire]

I'm in the high sierra desert and I get nosebleeds, my lips peel, and my eyes are not merely itchy. I dream of itchy eyes with a heart-rending never-ending longing. I get serious serious dry eye, so bad that it takes long agonizing minutes just for me to be able to get my eyes open some mornings. I was not kidding when I say sometimes its all I can do not to just claw them out. It affects my eyesight. I have to clean out the humidifier and put a new wick in it, my eyes are drying out as I type.

I'm actually looking FORWARD to moving to West Tejas, because green. Where I'm from, that might as well be desert, but its a great improvement over here.

That hurt just to read, I was about to ask why you hadn't moved yet, from such suffering!

[tulirepo]

I tried this the first time today and I'm already in love! I made a henna gloss treatment (un-freezed henna + yogurt + honey, left on for 1,5hrs) and then went for a moisture factor. I altered the recipe juuuuust a bit. 4 parts conditioner, 1 part honey, 1 part aloe vera and 1 part avocado oil. Got a little estimation error and made waaay too much using my '1 part' measuring in tablespoons. Could've got 3 hairmasks from that! But I went all in so I spread it all up to my roots and wrapped plastic wrap around my head and towel to keep it warm. There was slight dripping but the towels absorbed the leaks just fine. Left that sit for over 2hrs, movie time, yay!

After removing the protection I noticed it was actually quite warm and my hair was very smooth and squishy! And my hair was super saturated and while going it through with a comb there was little to no dripping anymore. Rinsing out needed bit working but I was expecting it due oil and honey. Just for the scare of having frizzy hair I left a drop of cone-conditioner on my ends for a few minutes when I washed the rest of my body and then rinsed that out well. My hair just loves silicones... Still waiting for the results when my hair dries but it's looking so good so far!

[Erinliz]

Husband: "do you have any plans today?"
Me: "yep."
Also me, reading my Kindle with my hair covered in SMT:

[Dutchbraids]

I am currently sitting with my hair covered in my second go-round with SMT. The first time the results were amazing! My hair is normally very textured and wavy, and now its silky! It's never been this smooth. I was annoying my friends all day asking them to touch it. I can run my fingers through my hair!!!!! This stuff is a miracle!
Thank you!