A Confession

I have a confession to make.

I've slowly become addicted to a low-poo.

I know, I'm ashamed.

It started out pretty innocently. I had some issue with an ingredient in January - maybe oils? I needed to remove it. My brother was visiting and his newly-acquired low-poo was the only one in the house. It felt nice on my scalp, and it removed everything. My hair wasn't that dry afterward. In fact, my curls perked up some.

Fast forward to February. The weather went CRAZY and was wreaking havoc on my hair. I needed to remove some build-up, and what do you know? The same shampoo was on sale that week. Huh. So I picked up a bottle of Organix Pomegranate Green Tea. At this point I decided to try that root-lift trick Lorraine Massey talked about in the 2nd edition of the CG Handbook. I added some Ecostyler gel to the shampoo and carefully massaged it into my scalp. Not only did it remove build-up, but it really gave my roots some lift!

The next wash, I added the Ecostyler to my V05 conditioner. No bueno.

I went back to my usual routine with V05 conditioner. I started getting build-up on my scalp again. Not serious build-up, but it just didn't seem clean.

So I tried the Organix/Ecostyler combination again. Et voila! Clean scalp and root lift! I was sold.

And I feel like I've sold out.

Don't get me wrong. I know that lots of curlies have been using low-poo regularly for years. And that Massey even re-defined the CG label to include sulfate-free cleansers. So technically, I'm still CG.

But being shampoo-free was something special for me. It was almost like a bragging right. I'm the curl "expert" in my family and when asked, I could say "I don't use shampoo!" "I now only use a sulfate-free cleanser!" doesn't have the same ring.

When I started CG almost three years ago, going shampoo-free was something to be proud of. I remember being in awe of a member on NC who had gone a whole year without shampoo. Even before this little addiction, I still had to clarify every now and then, so I never achieved this. But it was something to aspire to.

I'm at the point where I low-poo about once a week. And my scalp doesn't feel very clean on the days I co-wash. It's not oily or anything; it just feels like I didn't get all the conditioner off, even though I scrub pretty well. Meh.

I really do love the root lift I'm getting from the added Ecostyler though. I'm not sure why it doesn't work with the conditioner on co-wash days. Just the low-poo. It's gotten even better since my hair-cut. I haven't tried another gel.

Anyway, I thought it was time to come clean (ha). I'm not sure if this will be a permanent fixture in my routine, or if I'll switch it up when summer rolls around. I had a really good summer last year with co-washing, so it may be a weather thing. I guess we'll see.

Haircut Picture

I don't know why, but my camera doesn't like to do bathroom mirror shots. The lighting is always weird and they come out blurry. So I don't have a shot of the back. But I'm pretty happy with it!

Haircut Update

Just thought I'd give a quick update since it's been a while.

I got my hair cut yesterday - 3 real inches gone (wet cut). It's really short!! Well, short for me. It's about shoulder-length when dry. I think that's the shortest I could ever go. My hair was above shoulder-length until I was a teenager since my mom didn't know what to do with it. Going that short now would give me bad flashbacks.

Anyway, my stylist doesn't use any products or even dry my hair (my choice), so I don't know what it really looks like until I re-do it myself at home. It looked SO good yesterday after I finished diffusing and scrunched the crunch. I wish I had taken a picture. I had legitimate ringlets (more 3b than 3a) everywhere, it was crazy. It's always been a typical 3a pattern, curling more as it gets longer. So this was really surprising. It was like a completely new head of hair.

It was nice because my stylist said a lot of great things about the condition of my hair and mentioned the fact that I don't get split ends anymore. I also didn't feel pressured to use the salon's products like I have in the past. Before we could even talk about what I wanted to do, she asked if I had brought conditioner.

I had somewhere to be tonight, so I washed again today. It still looks good, but I don't have as much shrinkage and fewer ringlets. I'm not sure if that's because we're supposed to have lots of thunderstorms tomorrow or what. The difference in dewpoints from yesterday to today is an increase of 20 degrees!

I'm still loving it though. It really feels like I lost five pounds, because it was SO long. Still getting used to using less product and having a faster drying time. I got a lot of compliments tonight, which is always nice. I'll try and post a picture tomorrow!

Diffuser Week: Conair Pro Universal Tourmaline Finger Diffuser

AKA the BEST diffuser attachment I have EVER used! :)

Price: $9.49 ($8.49 with Beauty Club Card) at Sally's

Bowl Size: 5 1/2 inches

Bowl Depth: 1 1/2 inches

Finger Length: 1 1/3 inches

Hole Size: Small

Easily Adaptable to Other Dryers: Yes

Pros:

• Bowl is large and deep, so more of my hair can fit in at a time
• Consequently, faster drying time
• Shrinkage: I actually have some! (2-4 inches, actually)
• Encourages normal curls and ringlets
• Small holes cut down on frizz

Cons:

• If I had to pick one, I guess it would be that the adapter part of the attachment is similar to the one for the Devafuser, though I haven't had any problems with breakage. I didn't even notice it attached the same way until someone asked.

Overall Experience:

I love this diffuser. I had never tried a traditional bowl diffuser until now, and I'm sorry I waited so long! I'm not sure if it's the bowl size/depth or the fingers, but my ringlets (or corkicelli curls) come out to play every time I use it. I love that it fits more hair in at a time; instead of diffusing each side/upside-down in 4 sections, I do it in 2. I love that I finally have REAL shrinkage, none of this 1 inch stuff I had previously. I love that it works on any dryer. And best of all, I love that it's cheap!

Would I buy again? YES!

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This marks the end of my diffuser series. Thanks for reading!

Diffuser Week: Remington Tstudio Tourmaline and Ceramic Diffuser Attachment

AKA the WORST diffuser attachment I have EVER used. Let's take a look:

From this picture, the diffuser looks pretty similar to the Vidal Sassoon Ion Select, though perhaps with shorter fingers. It's a nice size with relatively small holes. I'll zoom in for you.

Here's what arrived in the mail:

In what universe are these two diffusers the same?! Not only is it just practically one large hole (because there's not much separating all of those) but it's also way smaller in person:

What IS that?!

The stats:

Price: $39.99 with dryer and free shipping from Amazon

Bowl Size: A whopping 4 1/2 inches across

Bowl Depth: Slight

Finger Length: It varies. This has graduated fingers. So the tallest one is 1.3 inches and the shortest is 2/3 inch. The biggest is also on the edge of the bowl with the shortest in the middle. The "dip" of the bowl makes it worse.

Hole Size: Ridiculously huge

Easily Adaptable to Other Dryers: No

Pros:

• I guess you could say the design of the holes is cute

Cons:

• The fingers don't do anything for me; too small, made of hard plastic, spaced out weirdly
• The bowl is too small to function
• The hole size is ridiculous. Nevermind the fact that the only dryer it attaches to has temperature issues (even low heat with a low speed is scalding!), the frizz you get from just turning it on is ridiculous
  
  

Overall Experience:

From day one, it was horrible. The dryer's issues combined with the fact that it is SO small made drying time well over an hour. The frizz was intolerable. There was no curl enhancement.

The instructions that came with this stated that you need to hole the dryer at least 9 inches from your scalp while drying your hair. If I did that, there would be nothing touching my hair. And honestly, what would the point be? It's not like the air is in any way being diffused due to the huge size of the holes. I chose to use this in the traditional way (with my finger almost glued to the cool shot button) and my scalp dearly suffered for it.

Would I buy this again? Hell no. I'm making the dryer work since I needed one, but I bought this specifically for the diffuser and was clearly disappointed.

Diffuser Week: The DevaFuser

Price: I'm now seeing this for about $24 online. I picked it up in a swap for $30 with shipping a few years ago.

Hand Size: 5 1/2 inches tall; 6 inches wide

Hand Depth: I'd say about an inch

Finger Length: There are none

Hole Size: Medium

Easily Adaptable to Other Dryers: Yes

Pros:

• Comes with an adapter so it will fit most dryers
• Dries roots easily
• Holes around the attachment allow you to "dry from the inside"
  
  

Cons:

• Does nothing for curl enhancement
• Adapter broke pretty easily
• Hard to use
  
  

(My broken adapter will no longer hold the band that fits around the dryer)

Overall Experience:

My overall experience was a negative one. But I need a bowl and actual fingers for curl enhancement, so you probably knew that. I found this really hard to use, and consequently do not use it often.

Would I buy this again? No.

Diffuser Week: Vidal Sassoon Ion Select

Round Four: The Vidal Sassoon Ion Select Dryer for Fine Hair Diffuser Attachment

Price: I'm seeing anywhere from $14-$21 online, I think I paid $20

Bowl Size: 5 inches

Bowl Depth: Slight

Finger Length: 1 1/2 inches

Hole Size: Very small

Easily Adaptable to Other Dryers: No

Pros:

• Longer fingers make my curls happy
• Bowl size allows for a decent amount of hair to be dried at a time
• Small holes allow less dryer frizz (can you tell this has been an issue for me?)
  
  

Cons:

• Fingers are made of hard plastic and are completely inflexible
• Does not fit on other dryers

Overall Experience:

I love this attachment. I'd still be using it if the temporary attachment I used hadn't broken. This attachment belonged to my mom's hair dryer and she had no need for it. I liked the finger length and hole size, so I used a Devafuser adapter to attach it to my purple Revlon dryer. It was love. But it only lasted a year. One by one, the hooks on the inside of the Devafuser adapter broke. I'll have more on this tomorrow, but they're made out of plastic and can't be repaired. Eventually enough of them were gone that the adapter would slide of the dryer as I was drying my hair. I loved this attachment so much I started using my mom's dryer (I don't recommend it). That lasted about a month (the dryer died).

This gave me my best hair days up until recently. I do wish I still had the option of using it. I think I'm holding on in case it can fit onto a future dryer (I do learn from my mistakes!).

Would I buy this again?: Yes