Revisiting the Product Graveyard

I started my hair journey almost two years ago, and in that time I have come across a lot of products that haven't worked all that well for me. Some were flat-out duds; others work well for certain times of the year, or during certain hair conditions. Most of these were relegated to The Product Graveyard, only to be brought out once in a blue moon.

Lately, my hair has been (to my standards) kind of blah lately. Look at the last pictures I posted of my hair. Now look at that great picture to the right. Quite a difference, right? That's what my hair looked like when I first started CG. That's what I want to get back to. Heck, I'll even take the curls I had in my 100th entry if it's on a consistent basis!

My first thought this morning was that I needed some protein, and maybe a harder-hold gel. Once upon a time I tried the L.A. Looks Gel and hated it. It was chock full of protein and I'm pretty sure that's why I cast it into The Graveyard. So I went looking for it.

I didn't find it (I think I gave it to my brother, so I'll be digging through his old stash next), but I did find some of the products I used when I first started expanding the collection.

Elucence Moisture Balancing Conditioner & Biotera Curl Creme

(I also found the bag containing my ayurvedic herbs!!
And an almost-full bottle of CK!!)

I did the usual Spritz & Condition with GVP Conditioning Balm. After getting in the shower, I did a vinegar rinse, scrunched in some Elucence, and clipped it up for a few minutes. Rinsed upside-down in cold water. Scrunched out some water, scrunched in KCKT and one pump of Biotera. Scrunched out some more water and scrunched in KCCC. Double-plopped and used Aussie's Instant Freeze gel.

It looked REALLY good coming out of the shower and after I finished diffusing. Curls everywhere and with volume. Then it finished drying and I scrunched the crunch out. Now, not so much.

Not sure what's up. I'm thinking I need to cut the Spritz & Condition and switch to a lighter conditioner. Temps are high 90s to 100s with dews in the high 60s. I ordered the Honey & Almond conditioner and Ecostyler gel from Sally (20% off code from retailmenot), so that should be here soon!

Anyway, here are some pics after scrunching the crunch:



I have not abandoned KCSS or Re:Coil. I just haven't been able to post pictures (missing camera cord and all). I guess I'll continue to post poor-quality webcam pics like the ones above.

KCSS hurts my head to think about. It seems to make everything soft. When used in a shower routine, it simply dissolves any hold my gel gives me. It's not like it gets rid of frizz or anything either. I'm experimenting with smaller amounts since KCCC works better for me in very small amounts. It doesn't work for SOTC or just taming frizz. So I'm not sure what to do with it yet.

I've used Re:coil twice. The first time, I didn't use enough gel or something because hold was minimal and I had ridiculous amounts of frizz that could not be tamed. The second time was better, but I still had surface frizz and not a lot of hold. I know Jessicurl's products do the same to me, so it may just be that I can't use magnesium sulfate at all. Another possible candidate for the graveyard (or curly cousins who read this, we'll see).

SOTC with... gel?

Here's today's hair:

I'm having some problems with my diffuser. For whatever reason, it doesn't seem like it's drying my hair anywhere near as fast as it usually does. My normal routine is to use it on the low setting. After five minutes, it didn't feel much different to me. So I've been using the high setting and it's helped a little. I really hope it fixes itself soon!

Anyway, after what seemed like an hour of diffusing, I realized I had forgotten to add gel halfway through. Smasters on nc.com had a great post last week about scrunching in KCCC when hair is 50% dry. I tried it last week with KCCC and it wasn't pretty. So I had decided to add gel this time.

I realized my mistake when I was done scrunching and my hair was soft. Oops. I diffused a little after that, but I had pretty much scrunched out all the crunch that was left. I was lamenting the fact that my hair hasn't grown and gotten all ringlet-y like it used to be until I looked in the mirror a few hours after diffusing. I didn't think it would look that great, but it ended up looking really nice! I had a lot of shine and my ringlets are coming back. And I have some volume! My webcam really doesn't do it justice (and it made my eyes look brown, when they are most definitely light blue!).

So this is something I may try again. Usually when I get done diffusing, it never dries in time for me to go to bed. But it was dry almost immediately after I was done diffusing. That could definitely work for me!