Lesson Learned: Protein Overload

So in my last post I wrote about the state of my hair after using LVPNG. Yesterday was much, much worse! It's still hard to believe that my hair reacted that violently to the small amount of protein in that conditioner. I mean, I know I'm protein sensitive, but I've never had that severe of a reaction.

I had to get up early to go to tutoring for one of my education classes, so I didn't have time to shower. My hair still looked pretty good from the night before, but it was definitely very poofy. I have thick hair to begin with, but the width of my ponytail doubled in size! I think I got one good picture before things went downhill, and it's on my other computer (which is still at home; I really need to send it away to be fixed).

Lately it's been very bright outside, so I've taken to wearing my sunglasses a lot. I don't take them off when I go inside, just perch them on top of my head. For some reason, this loosens things up a bit. Add that to the fact that my hair was becoming increasingly dry and tangly, and things start to not look so great. Last night I decided to scrunch in some FOTE for moisture. BAD IDEA!! My "curls" immediately got crunchy and even more tangled. We're talking rat's nest, which I haven't had since seventh grade (funny story, but I'll tell it later).

To make a long story short, I came back to school/work today with shorter hair that looked horrible. I had it half-up in my flexi-8, but I'm pretty sure there was some damage/breakage as I had to rip tangles apart just to get it up. I spent about ten minutes in the shower tonight detangling. KCKT alone doesn't cut it anymore, so I added GVP CB and brushed through with my Denman. I'm really hoping tomorrow works out better.

I really think this was just a combination of using protein with the icequeen clumping method. Doing everything upside results in curls in weird places - they don't lie down as they normally do and catch on each other. Would things have been better if I had only used one of these? I have no idea. Not sure I'll be finding out any time soon, either.

So bottom line: whether this was because I had used it after so many harsh shampoos, or just because my hair really doesn't like it, I'm not using protein for a long time! Lesson learned!

Another Update

I feel like I should be writing something other than updates on how my hair is doing (and actually, I should be working on school stuff right now, but that's not happening either!). But this is my first major "my hair is dry and looks like crap!" crisis, so hopefully it will help someone. And if it doesn't, at least I'll have documented it for my own sake.

Anyway, Saturday night I repeated the same DT as Friday night, but I think I used too much honey because my hair felt like leather (gross!) upon waking up. Results: my clumps and spirals are back, for the most part, and my hair is more moisturized!

It was actually a little frizzier than it had been on Friday night after the much shorter DT. I don't think I rinsed out all of the vinegar, and that didn't play well with FOTE. You can tell this is happening when scrunching in, because your hair feels weird and almost dry. Hard to explain, but if you've done this, you know what I'm talking about.

I pineappled last night and today was a good hair day! The canopy was a little messy, so I put half of my hair up in a flexi-8. Everything underneath that was very clumpy and spirally/ringlet-y. I honestly don't think there's much of a difference between these two terms, so I'll use them interchangeably. One of my clumps spiralled all the way to the root! There are more pics in my fotki, but here's what it looked like. I almost wish I had taken a pic on Friday for my before. And yes, the camera on my laptop sucks, as does the lighting in my room. Oh well.

Today's weather was the worst. Freezing cold. Sprinkling, which later turned to showers. Windy. Foggy. Gross. I had to drive up here in it, then walk around campus in it, then drive across town to go food shopping and stock up, because tomorrow it will likely be ice. We have an "ice storm" warning right now. Temp is 37 (feels like 29) with a dewpoint of 35.

I can't wait for my products to get here! I'm especially excited about Lustrasilk. Unfortunately I had them sent to my home address, which I'm not supposed to go back to until next weekend. I may make the trip down and back just for my stuff though! I also was a bad PJ and bought a DevaFuser kit on the swapboards - it was a good deal, I swear! Just checked my tracking number, and UPS delivered my Sally's order today at 2:30pm. Nice. That was about five hours after I left to drive back up here! And apparently I have another package that arrived - Donna Marie? They were having lot of shipping delays, so I'd be really surprised if that is my DM. The DevaFuser was just mailed today, so... pretty much torture for my PJ but I think I'll live!

Stuck in a Rut

So it's about this time that I have started wishing I had updated this blog earlier in my CG career (it's a tough job!), like when I created it in the early fall. I had such great success and I feel like now that I've started updating, I have nothing insightful or interesting to share.

Basically, I'm in a rut. The winter dryness has hit me hard. The dewpoint has been in the teens for much of the past two months (with random exceptions, like three days this week, where it's been in the late twenties). The weather here is notorious for being RIDICULOUS. And that's made it much harder for me.

Most of my pictures here and in my fotki are from summer. I feel I've been dishonest, because I've been CG for almost eight months now, and my hair doesn't resemble (in my opinion) what it was in the summer/early fall.

I haven't mastered the art of sleeping with freshly washed hair, which was necessary in the fall semester.

I haven't been able to figure out how to classify my hair. I don't know how porous it is. I have a mixture of all three types (fine, medium, coarse), so it's hard to pin what exactly my hair needs and likes. I don't know if a leave-in weighs me down. I should know that, right?

What worked in the summer doesn't work now, and I did such a horrible job of documenting what I was doing that it wouldn't matter if it did. I can't remember.

My hair is dry, like with my protein sensitivity. I don't know if this is related to FOTE or what. I don't have much time to figure it out, what with 18 hours of class a week and a part-time job taking up my time.

I need a haircut. But I'm afraid to go get one, because I'd like to have it done by the curly stylist that's close to home. But how would he be able to cut it if I barely have any curls? My hair looks like crap and I don't know how cutting it in this state would make it better. I'm really confused.

Monday night I used GTTTT shampoo, followed by Suave Ocean Breeze as my rinse-out, KBB SS as my leave-in, FOTE scrunched in, and Aussie SG as my final gel. I double plopped, diffused, and clipped. I had some spirals back and some volume on top. Things looked good. I loosely pineappled and wrapped with a silk scarf. In the morning, my hair was very dry, frizzy, and loose. It was embarassing. I actually put it half-up with a flexi-8.

Wednesday I wore it in a bun, and then added generous amounts of KBB nectar for an over-night DT. Yesterday morning, I co-washed with GTTTT conditioner, used Suave OB as a rinse-out, followed by the KBB SS, FOTE, and ASG. Same routine as before. I had to scrunch the crunch out about twenty min after I finished diffusing, so I'm sure that had a hand in the results. Still, I had a complete flat top, and all the hold from my gel was gone by mid-afternoon. I scrunched in more FOTE at various points, but I think that made it drier.

I'm home now. I do have some products here, but some of my more recent purchases are at school. I'm thinking I'll DT with whatever I have here and do more research.

I do have some products on the way:

• Donna Marie Honey & Aloe jelly
• Lustrasilk Olive Oil Cholesterol
• GVP Biolage Conditioning Balm
• Denman Brush
• Square Silk Scarf

I'm thinking the DM could replace FOTE in my routine. Hopefully the weather will get better (though tomorrow it's plunging again. Make up your mind!). It's almost 80 out right now, with a dewpoint of 41.

I might go get the GVP Conditioning Balm today to DT with. It's pretty cheap. And if I like it, I'll already have two.

Not sure about the Denman. I've only raked with the Jessicurl products, which didn't work for me anyway. I tried combing CK through during the summer without any success. That could have been user error or the fact that I over-diffused. I don't think I'm evenly distributing my products, and probably using too much trying to accomplish that. So I really hope this works.

I'm kind of excited about the scarf. The one I'm using now (when I actually use it) isn't square, so it's harder to use, I think. I'm hoping this will help.

Getting this off my chest makes me feel a little better. But it would be better to have my hair figured out soon.

Changing Up My Routine

So I think in my first post I went over the problems I've been having since fall/winter set in.

Basically:

• Figured out I was protein-sensitive
• Figured out FOTE wasn't helping
• Started using a leave-in, which I'm now thinking wasn't a good idea (it would be nice if I could figure out my texture/porosity...)
  
• Stopped co-washing altogether when shampoo bars arrived
• Ended up with frizzy/undefined curls with the addition of KCCC during the lowest of dewpoints this season
• The protein in LVPNG (practically the last ingredient of the bottle) got to me, so it's now in my stash for rare protein treatments
  
• Used a low-poo and went back to co-washing
• Clarified a week or two after with a sulfate shampoo and went back to the routine of Suave co-wash/rinse-out, FOTE, and Aussie Sculpting Gel
• Stopped experimenting with the Sedusa (need to find a good, consistent routine first)
  
• Added Pink Boots for about a week and a half with inconsistent results

Right now my hair hates me. It's frizzy, undefined, and stringy. And it's been flaking for a good month now, no matter how many brown sugar scrubs or ACV rinses I do. The itching has been worse recently, with nothing helping.

So I'm done trying to go back to the simple routine that worked in the summer. Obviously the weather has changed, so I'm not sure why I thought it would work now. I don't know anymore.

KBB stopped working for me around the time of the KCCC incident - or rather, I realized it had stopped working for me. My hair was getting tangled (it still is, which is a royal pain) and actually hard while wet. It was also frizzy, even when using Super Silky. I'm thinking it might be the panthenol, but I have no idea.

So starting tonight, my new routine will have a shampoo included for the first time since early June. I'm adding Giovanni Tea Tree Triple Treat as a weekly low-poo. I'll continue with co-washing the rest of the week. I'm thinking about adding the GVP Biolage Conditioning Balm and Lustrasilk after reading Katrina's blog. We'll see.

Well, I'm off to go wash. School starts tomorrow (suck!), so it's back to night-washing for me.

I got in a fight with my Sedusa...

... and I have the scar to prove it! How ridiculous is that? Here's what happened:

I co-washed and rinsed with Suave Ocean Breeze (which smells awesome! This week was the first time I've used this "flavor"). Then I rinsed with cold water before scrunching in a little FOTE and my newly received Pink Boots. I plopped for about five minutes in a flour sack towel, scrunched in some Aussie Sculpting Gel, then plopped for another five min in my Curl-Ease. When I took it down to diffuse, it was looking really good! I had great clumps and some volume. I haven't had good hair when wet in forever. So this was definitely a good feeling.

I first diffused with my finger diffuser to get the roots dry. This took maybe two minutes. Then I switched to the Sedusa and things went downhill. Here's what I've realized about the Sedusa:

1. I can't plop it all in and dry. All of my hair will fit in it, for the most part, but it dries weird. And I don't know how long to dry it.

2. The Sedusa works better with high heat at a high speed. My hair loved it the other day. My dryer, not so much. I wasn't about to test it and see if it would still shoot sparks out, so I diffused with high heat at low speed. It would have worked out ok, except...

3. The Sedusa pulls out curl when it's not dry enough. I plopped a section in the bowl and turned it on for a bit. Then I decided to switch sections. I turned it off and attempted to remove the bowl. Sometimes curls get stuck in the curly do-dads. Usually my hair is dry enough and will come out easily if I shake the diffuser gently. The problem is that my hair wasn't as dry as the Sedusa wanted it to be. So it wouldn't come out when I shook it, and I had to pull it out. And my curls stuck and transformed from a few beautiful ringlets into frizzy and weird-looking waves. Not cool!!!

4. Overall, the worst thing about the Sedusa is that I can see there's potential. I just have to figure out how to reach it. And that's frustrating.

So then I decided that the Sedusa probably works better after hair has been diffused for a bit. There's less chance of catching hair and I get better curl formation. I attempted to pull the attachment off. Now, the attachment does fit on my dryer. The problem is that it gets super hot and expands. So not only is it super hot, it's hard to get off! I couldn't do it with my hands, so I decided to try with my legs. I put the dryer in between my legs (luckily sweat pants protected me from the searing heat that was the Sedusa)and clamped down, for lack of a better word, on the Sedusa, pulling the dryer out in front of me. The only problem with that is that I was bent over. So when the diffuser finally came off, I hit myself in the chin with the end of the diffuser! It even knocked off the thing on the end of the dryer! There's a patch about an inch long that looks like it's bleeding under the skin.

Sigh. And I knew it was going to be an awesome hair day! I did finish diffusing with my finger diffuser, but I don't think that saved it much. It's clipped and air drying right now. So we'll see how it turns out. I think finger diffusing followed by the Sedusa will work out best for me. I wish it was easier to figure all this stuff out!

So there's my post. The weather is freakin' crazy here, so I'm a little confused as to what to use. I wanted to go simple, and for the most part I have. I think the Suave/FOTE/Boots/Aussie Gel will be the most/only products I'll use. Except we had a lovely warm front for the past few days (80 degrees with a dewpoint of 60!)... and today was in the 40s with a dewpoint of 16! Definitely not making it any easier.

I'll probably update tomorrow with the results of some more investigations. I'm trying to figure out my overall texture and porosity, and then what to do with that.

Oh and shoutout to Amy! Thanks for the lovely compliment!