Honey and yogurt mask fail :(

[Bellalla]

My hair is a bit fried from a lot of whole head, 30 volume red dye sessions, so I got inspired to try and rehab it a bit with honey and yogurt.

I use this mask regularly on my face and it moisturizes beautifully.

Well...not so much on my poor poor hair.
OMG, my hair hasn't felt this awful since I bleached it white from dyed black.

My hair is still wet, but it feels like once it dries it's just going to break right off. I also feel like it's shedding like crazy.
This is horrible!

Anyone else ever had such a vile response to honey and yogurt? I know honey produces peroxide and that can cause damage, but I'm used to peroxide damage, this is nasty, knotted, and just feels angry. It's making a squeaking sound as I run my hands through it, and that's after conditioning it 3 times.

Wowza.

[Seeshami]

I think you need to add moisture for the honey. I have never had good results with honey.

[Shorty89]

It could be that you added too much honey or that you need more moisture in the air. I'm not sure. Can you explain what was in the mask and how you made it? That might help us figure out what went wrong and how you can fix it.

[SleepyTangles]

Honey and yogurt are the ingredients that work best on my hair, but I totally understand: eggs and coconut oil are just weird on my hair, but fabulous for other people.

[Bellalla]

It could be that you added too much honey or that you need more moisture in the air. I'm not sure. Can you explain what was in the mask and how you made it? That might help us figure out what went wrong and how you can fix it.

I used 2 tbsp of honey and 8 tbsp of plain 6% fat yogurt, slathered it on wet hair that had been shampood, but not conditioner, and left it on for about 2 hours wrapped in plastic and a hair towel.

I tried to rinse it out with just water, but it felt like it was turning into a giant matte, so I flooded my hair with main and tail conditioner 3 times.

While damp it was so knotted that I had no choice but to brush it, which I hate doing.

However, now that it's dry it actually feels kind of nice. It still feels very dry, but also softer than normal? Hard to describe.

Perhaps next time I'll try a proper SMT with conditioner.

Oh hair experiments, sometimes they do go a little sideways, lol.

[fiabia]

Perhaps you need more protein, rather than moisture? Have you tried the stretch test on a wet hair strand?

[Bellalla]

Perhaps you need more protein, rather than moisture? Have you tried the stretch test on a wet hair strand?

My hair snaps pretty easily and doesn't stretch much, although I have no frame of reference for what is normal.

I have ordered some "neutral protein" though as I'm planning to try henna/cassia soon, so we'll see if protein helps.

[mary_whitney]

Honey is rough on my hair, too! And also a total pain in the ass to rinse out - I always have to shampoo to get it all out. I've only ever used it in my herbal hair care mixes for a better consistency.

[Bellalla]

Incidentally, it definitely lightened my hair, so that's interesting.

However, my hair lightens if I just think about going out in the sun, so that's not surprising.

For example, I used once Natural Instincts semi permanent blonde dye on my light to medium brown hair, just to brighten the highlights, and ended up with bright honey, borderline strawberry blonde.

[ynne]

My hair prefers oils and ACV rinses over anything else I tried for softening it before, never had much success with these mixes either. It might just be that your hair dislikes it, not that you did anything wrong. It might depend on type of hair etc. Oh, and yoghurt might still help you if you eat it instead.

If your hair is more porous now due to the chemical damage, it might also need help locking the moisture in (as in, actual water)? Even after a treatment like this. But that's just a guess!