Lesson Learned: Porous Hair Needs TLC

So throughout the many weeks of my lazy summer routine, I haven't been washing my hair as often as I used to - usually around 3 times a week. Which means my hair isn't getting the extra moisture that it NEEDS because it is porous.

Even in all these high dew points, my hair gets dry by the end of day one. It's also a little frizzy and tangled - especially on the nape of my neck. These are the types of knots that take a good five minutes to work through with conditioner in the shower.

I've been burned by this before, so you would think I would know what I'm doing by now, but I just had the epiphany today. My hair still feels soft, or at least normal, so it doesn't register to me that it's dry until day two.

And so begins the weekly deep treatments. The last time this happened to me (in winter/early spring), it was hard because all the popular conditioners marketed as DTs contain oils, which we have learned that my hair does NOT like at all. I guess this really is the first time I have to DT without using those conditioners. Maybe I should get some butters?

I'm going to start out with some GVP conditioning balm, maybe sealed with coconut oil? That will be tomorrow's project.

Lesson Learned: Boxing?

Today's lesson:

Don't do 20 minutes of advanced boxing on Wii fit just prior to washing your hair.

I can barely lift my arm. It's a co-wash day AND it takes about 15 to 20 minutes to diffuse. I'm a goner.

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!

Lesson Learned: FSG + Leave-ins

Honey Flax Seed Gel + leave-in (in this case KBB nectar) = BAD.

80 degrees with a dew point of 58 (it was so humid today!) might seem like a good time to pile on the humectants. At least, that's what I thought. But man, it did not work well at all!

As soon as I undid my first plop, I knew I was in trouble. My curl-ease had literally soaked up all the water in my hair. Even when I had frizzy when wet issues, I didn't experience drying to that extent. I had to squirt it down with water just to scrunch in Aussie gel! What the heck? It wasn't too bad after I diffused. There was a little hold here and there, but I could tell it wouldn't be a good hair day. Or an ok hair day. I took it down from a pineapple this morning and it was very frizzy. I didn't feel like dealing with it, so I just left it down. I did spray some Deva Set It Free in though (which seriously smells like skittles!). Don't think it helped.

I'm on my old computer (which feels really small, even though it's a 15 inch notebook...), so I have no pics. But it was frizzy and barely wavy today. It also feels dry, but greasy in some places. Not sure if that has to do with the weather or not (it was threatening to rain all day).

I was talking to the dean of the Honors College and she said "your hair looks different." Not in a good way, either. I knew it wasn't normal, but I didn't think it was that bad! I was caught off guard, so I said "um, yeah..." Oh well. Good thing that was my last class. I'm super exhausted, so I'm going to take a nap before showering. Not sure what I'll end up using.