Finding a Balance: Moisture vs Protein

Alright, I'm home and ready to dive into some product testing (more on this later)! But first I wanted to discuss an issue that first popped into my mind about two and a half weeks ago: moisture versus protein.

I'll admit, I never paid much attention to this when I visited CurlTalk frequently, because it wasn't something that really applied to me. I avoided protein and was moisture, moisture, moisture. Easy enough, right?

So when it came time to actually have some understanding of this and apply it to my own hair, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I always thought that finding a balance between moisture and protein was a tedious process that involved using both at once.

But what if that's not true? (I apologize if this is something everyone else is aware of... I'm slow!)

Let's rewind. Two weeks before I left for the East Coast, I used V05 Champagne Kiss as both my co-wash and rinse-out. This is a light conditioner with more protein than moisture. After a week, my hair was noticeably dry (though not coarse/porous dry like the old days). So I decided to give it some moisture. I used the same V05 as my co-wash, but tried CJ Curl Rehab as my rinse-out.

Holy springy curls batman! My hair was curling all over the place, completely frizz-free and moisturized! It was awesome! I should have taken a picture!

The next wash, I figured my hair was already moisturized, so I used just V05 again. My hair "dried out" a little, and I still had great curls - not the poor ones that I had the last time I used this conditioner exclusively.

This is when the idea of "drying out" my hair and then seriously moisturizing it would lead to good hair all the time popped into my mind. I repeated this over the next two washes to amazing results. It seemed my hypothesis was indeed true.

Then I went to the East Coast. It was awesome, but not for my hair. It's fairly humid where I live, but nothing like this. So I did what I do on all of my trips; I kind of gave up. If it looked semi-presentable, good. If not, that's what pony tails are for. And let's face it, it was hot and humid. I'm not expecting miracles!

So I came back last weekend and haven't really been able to get back on the curl wagon. This could be because of the whole "do my hair at night and sleep on it" thing (i.e. not letting it dry enough before sleeping on it, which definitely leads to wonky curls), an overdose of Aloe Fix Lite, or leaving my Curl Rehab at my grandparents' house and trying to replace the moisture with CJ Strengthening conditioner, which contains protein. Or the ridiculously hot temps outside (we've been over 100 degrees every day for a while). Or a combination of all of these.

Anyway, has anyone else found this to be true for your hair? If you continually dry out and then re-moisturize your hair, do you get awesome curls every wash?

(Pssst! I'm working my way through reviewing my CJ stylers, so no real testing of the CJ Strengthening conditioner for a while. I think I'll go back to GVP CB until I get my Curl Rehab back! Early prognosis for CJ AFL is good! CIAB! not so much, but I've only used it once. Hoping it lives up to the hype!)