The Long Hair Community

Gilly · March 7th, 2007, 11:45 AM

I have had enough of trying to baby my ends after the awful dye episode, they are so dry and i cannot get moistue into them at all, last night i had a good look at it with a magnifyier and it looks awful at the ends, white dots, splits and VERY dry. I have tried SMT's but they don't seem to work for me at all.
So i am off to get a trim, i am going to state before i even sit down that i am growing it and don't want any more than 1 inch off and no use of razors or thinning scissors ( they always come at me with them even though my hair is very fine ), the anoying thing is, i am going to have to have the layers cut, i know they are longer now but i have not had a trim since 4th August 2006. I'm stressed!
Can anyone recommend something to keep moisture in apart from SMT's ( don't work for me ) Coconut oil ( most oils make me look greasy no matter how little i use ) i'm hoping that once i get the ends off i will be able to treat it better, i plan on either BS washing with a weak mix as i would be using it everyday or trying CO again although i did find it made my roots greasy.

Isilme · March 7th, 2007, 12:06 PM

what works pretty good for me is to take a little spray bottle, put some cone free conditioner in it and fill with water. What's tricky with this is that you have to play around a bit with the proportions

out.of.focus · March 7th, 2007, 02:56 PM

I just wash my hair every couple of days and use a moisturizing 'dish (sometimes a aleave-in) and my hair is very healthy (hardly any splits, lots of shine, bounce etc.) Keep it simple and not too much of a good thing...even conditioner

spidermom · March 7th, 2007, 03:26 PM

That's too bad. If your hair were merely dry, you could correct that, but you can't reverse damage.

When you go for a trim, have the stylist do a deep conditioning treatment on you. I had that yesterday, a product called Serious Condition (but I don't know who makes it). Wow! My hair feels awesome. I've heard good things about the Regis Olive Oil deep conditioning treatment as well. I've used Joico K-pak Moisture Treatment too and liked it a lot. It smells like orange sherbet.

Since oils and SMT don't work on you, it seems that possibly a laboratory-formulated product might suit your needs better. You might try a different oil, though. It's a matter of finding a good fit for your hair's molecular structure. It could be unrefined jojoba or sweet almond oil rather than coconut, for example. My hair likes emu oil, but only 1-2 drops, which it soaks right up. If I use more - greasy hair.

cruztacean · March 7th, 2007, 09:04 PM

Damp bunning works very well for me. Tucking the ends in while they're wet helps me to retain some moisture in them. Also, I have made it a very strict policy for the past two years--since finding LHC--that shampoo NEVER, EVER touches the ends of my hair.

To keep CO from greasing your scalp, you might amend it to a CWC or a C-Cow-C instead. I bought a ginormous cheap plastic beverage container from the local dollar store and filled it with several bottles of conditioner, so that I have only the one container to deal with, since I use much more conditioner than I do shampoo. At bath time, I slather on the conditioner, squeezing it thoroughly into the ends, and working my way up to the scalp. With the conditioner still on, I then shampoo the scalp only, rinse immediately, and apply the conditioner again.

I don't even have any flyaways or split ends now, and pre-LHC, this was one of my biggest problems.

Liluri · March 7th, 2007, 11:56 PM

What's working for me atm is mixing a 1 part borage oil (or less) with 2 parts Alchemy leave in and my hair seems to soak up the oil and not look greasy.

I've also bought a bottle of rosewater to spray in my hair, the humidity is just killing my hair this summer.

Gilly · March 8th, 2007, 09:35 AM

I have implemented the two week rule!
I got do downhearted with my hair yesterday, it was just so dry and it seemed to make everything look much worse.

I thought i have got nothing to lose so i took myself off to the chemist and bought a huge bottle of FOTE aloe gel, i normally don't use it at all as it makes my hair crunchy if i use it alone, hence i never used it in an SMT. I thought i will try the original recipe for an SMT, used raw honey, 5 stars condish and the FOTE aloe, microwaved it for 20 seconds slapped it on dry hair and left it for half an hour.
What a difference!!!

I left it to dry and i had waves and curls and it felt so soft, i could not believe it.

I take back all i said about SMT not working for me, it's obviously to do with the aloe and microwaving so i am going to keep on using this as a form of CO to help get moisture back in my hair, if i can improve that i will be happy to not trim i can just get hubby to have a look for splits and have him snip them off.

spidermom · March 8th, 2007, 09:42 AM

Oh wow! Happy news!

cruztacean · March 8th, 2007, 05:43 PM

Gosh, Gilly! Congratulations! I bet you feel great!

Aloe vera gel is absolutely magic on hair, in my experience. I'm out of it now but planning to get some ASAP. I want to do another SMT soon. This time I'm adding coffee to the formula, for coloring. PS. Haven't tried it yet, but some people say aloe vera gel works well as a hair mousse. I want to try that too. I have trouble with some updos because my hair is heavy, but I don't want to plaster it.