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!

Weird Day

So I have some things to blog about, but I realized I haven't posted hair cut pictures yet. So I guess this will be extra long.

Here is my hair after the cut. Shampoo and [most likely] silicone-laden conditioner touched my head, and there is NO product in my hair (scary!):

Is it weird how much these look like my pre-CG pics? If you ever needed incentive to stay away from sulfates, this is it.

Here's the first wash after:

I got about four inches off (I think?). It's very different from long hair. It feels weird when applying product and diffusing. Not sure I have a sleeping routine down yet. It would really suck if I have to give that up and wash in the morning. She also cut with my side part, if I didn't mention that in my last post. I was worried but it turned out well.

* And now to our regularly scheduled blog entry *

I woke up this morning (well, it technically was morning), proceeded to make lunch and start the laundry, and then got called in for emergency babysitting (that sounds so exciting and dangerous, but not a good situation). No time to wash my hair. It was up in a bun for the majority of the day until I finally got a chance after dinner.

For whatever reason, I decided to experiment a bit. I used: Suave Green Apple for co-wash, LVPNG for rinse-out, KCKT for leave-in, KCCC, and Aussie Sculpting gel. Adding protein probably wasn't a good idea, but it's been so long since I've had anything, and it's almost the last ingredient. I did the icequeen method for clumping. I did a cold water rinse at the end, and then scrunched in some KCKT.

Then I had a DUH! moment. During the summer, I used to use two t-shirts in my routine. One for plopping and the other for scrunching water out of my hair before adding gel. I'm not sure why I stopped, other than because everyone was recommending adding products to extremely wet hair. Then I moved into a dorm, where it's easier to plop before walking five steps back to my room, then have wet hair. Though I guess that's not much of an excuse. Anyway, I totally forgot that I used to do that back when I had awesome hair.

So I hung my flour sack towel on the shower and blotted a bit before adding KCCC. Which was WEIRD. As soon as I started scrunching, my hair felt very dry. I had clumps and spirals everywhere, but it was dry and frizzy. I'm not sure what exactly caused it. On one hand, I did use protein. But that hardly every feels bad in my hair when it's wet. KCCC makes some sense, since I noticed it as I was scrunching that in. But I've used it before (and always with no success), and never felt this before. So I'm not sure.

Anyway, I decided I really could not plop for very long. I ran out of the shower, scrunched in ASG as usual, and then plopped in my Curl-Ease for five minutes - just long enough to get dressed. When I was applying gel right-side up, my hair decided to part down the middle. I half-attempted to move it back to the side, but didn't want to create more frizz. Then I diffused. Which was weird. Again. Each section looked great immediately after diffusing. Then it would droop a little. And it was obvious it was wet. Which was weird, because my hair was very dry when I scrunched in KCCC. After diffusing, I had some major clumpage going on. And my hair randomly decided to go back to a side part, which was weird. I clipped and air dried for a few hours.

Just took out the clips and scrunched the crunch. The back is kind of weird looking, but I do have curl all the way to the root! And volume! There's one clump that is literally three inches wide, which looks crazy. I scrunched most of my products in upside-down, so I'm guessing that's why. But this is crazy. I've never had anything remotely resembling success with KCCC.


So I'm pretty happy. Especially because this is hair that went through a low-poo and two sulfate shampoos in the span of four days! If this doesn't look great when I wake up, I may experiment tomorrow with some of BB's FSG. It's been a while.

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.