Choosing good Hair products.

[camosil]

Hi,
I have been a member of LHCF for 4 months. I have developed a regimen and I am seeing results thanks to all you LHCFers.
Recently I was reading an article about a book called Ultra Black Hair 2000 II(I think I got the name right) by a lady named Kathy cannot remember her last name. She had some useful tips which I would like to share and get some clarifiction on. The tips are below:

1. All products should contain no alcohol whatsoever.
2. Conditioner should have protein
3. Leave ins should contain no protein whatsoever.
4. Shampoos should have an acid Ph and should say for dry damaged hair/ colored or chemically treated hair.
5. Moiaturizers must not contain mineral oil or petrolatum


Information that I gathered from sistaslicks guide and from LHCF's forum is that products should not contain ammonium/sodium lauryl sulfate in them and products should be cone free.

Well yeterday I decided to go check out the Ulta store, Beauty Supply Store and Whole Foods Market down my street to see if I can find products which fits into all the above categories. Let me tell you it was very difficult especially finding products that were cone free and alcohol free. They either had both or one . Also I could not find a leave in treatment without both. The best products I could find had cetyl alcohol and the leave ins had soy protein.

Can you ladies shed some light on this for me. Is some of the information I read wrong? or I am just not looking in the right places for products that are more suitable for our hair. I agree with using products without alcohol because I believe it causes the hair to dry out more and that leave ins with protein will get the hair hard. But could not find one without both.

Thanks.

 

[♦K.O♦]

I adhere to only half of those rules. I dont know how my hair would survive if I did otherwise.

 

[camosil]

Which rules do you stick to.

 

[♦K.O♦]

Alcohols- Some alcohols are drying and some are actually moisturizing (such as [SIZE=-1]Cetearyl Alcohol)[/SIZE]. So I dont stay away from moisturizing alcohols.

Leave-Ins- My favorite daily leave-in has protein (profectiv breakfree) and my hair thrives with it.

Moisturizers- The moisturizers that are my first coat are ALWAYS water or glycerine based. But when I seal or style, I use oils or products with petrolatum and mineral oil (Keracare jojoba oil moisturizer, EQP glaze). When I first started a few years ago, I stayed away from these kinds of products, but I've found that my hair likes them.

Shampoos- All of my shampoos DO say moisturizing or for dry, color treated hair. Even if my hair isnt dry or color treated.

ETA, my shampoos contain parabens (CON) and SLES(Keracare and Nexxus)

 

[Seeking8Rights]

I think that it's realistic to find shampoo without the sulfates, and I have some conditioner that doesn't have protein, but it would be hard to find any of the above alcohol free.

If someone does know of any please let me know. Also, I wonder if you email Cathie Howse and ask her to give you a list of products that comply with her list, will she recommend products other than her own....Hmmm:scratchch

 

[camosil]

I wonder the same thing too because she does not recommend products which she doesn't use which is her own except shampoos.

 

[Seeking8Rights]

I wonder the same thing too because she does not recommend products which she doesn't use which is her own except shampoos.

Of course she won't!

Not to say here products aren't good because I have never tried them. I wouldn't recommend competitors either! Actually, I would if they were better than my product, so I guess I don't need to go into that line of work, I'll be one broke sista!

 

[destiny616]

1. All products should contain no alcohol whatsoever. not true

there are good and bad alcohols. you can use products that contain the good fatty alcohols are safe to use
Good Alcohols
Behenyl Alcohol
Ceteareth-5
Cetearyl Alcohol
Ceteth-2
Cetyl Alcohol
Glycerin
Lareth-2/3
Sodium Cetyl Sulfate
Seteareth 21
Stearyl Alcohol

2. Conditioner should have protein all my conditioners contain some form of protein but i don't think is necessary for everyone

3. Leave ins should contain no protein whatsoever. my leave-in contains protein and it's very moisturizing

4. Shampoos should have an acid Ph and should say for dry damaged hair/ colored or chemically treated hair. i use a sulfate free shampoo, i'm not sure of the ph

5. Moiaturizers must not contain mineral oil or petrolatum i follow this rule, my hair doesn't like mineral oil or petroleum but there are others on the board that use these with out any problems

______________________________________________________

rules are nice to set guidelines but sometimes you have to veer away from the "rules" to find what works for your hair, the rules are not set in stone because there are no absolutes in haircare, everyone's hair is different and reacts to products in different ways, you just have to experimet and find what works for your hair

 

[camosil]

Missesq according to cathy ceatryl alcohol is a no no . Y I dont know I guess I would have to buy her book to find out but these are the products I ended up choosing:
Shampoo - Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose Moisturizing Shampoo ( no
alcohols, sulphates or cones)

Conditioner - Giovanni Nutrafix Hair Reconstructor protein rich conditioner
( no cones, no sulphates but has cetyl alcohol and is water
based)
- Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose Moisturizing Conditioner
( no cones, no sulphates, no alcohol and has a coconut
fatty acid cream base)
What I notice about this conditioner is that the instructions
tell you to deep condition before you shampoo and
condition the hair as usual. Never seen that before.

Leave In -Giovanni Vitapro Fusion Leave in Treatment ( no sulphates, no
alcohol, no cones but has soybean protein) I may return this
did not like the feel of my hair after I put it in did not feel soft
as how infusium 23 does but when it dried the roots were soft but hair a bit dull

Moisturizers - Could not find a good one. I think I will go back to BB
Moisturizing Growth Lotion I think that only had
dimethicone in it ( cannot remember right now).
Currently I am using Jane Carter Solution Hair Nourishing
Cream ( no sulphates, no cones, no alcohol, no protein)
but does not give much shine or extended moisture. It
says it is great for blow drying natural hair though.

Hair Polish - NTM Healing Shine Serum with UV shield for extra dry, over
processd or color treated ( no sulphates, no alcohol but has
dimethicone) May return this.

Well that is my list what go you ladies think.

 

[camosil]

I agree with you Destiny.

Even though the Giovanni conditioner has cetyl alcohol it was very moisturizing and did good for my hair.
Thanks for the tip on good alcohols for hair.
This is why I love LHCF

 

[destiny616]

i find the Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose Moisturizing Shampoo very stripping, this shampoo left my hair very hard, dry and tangled, if you end up having the same results you may want to find an alternative shampoo

try doing a search for sulfate free shampoos

 

[camosil]

Hmm I am not sure if i want to try it after what you just said. I tried another one of their shampoos before, not moisturizing, and it did the same thing it was hard and tangled. I guess after the extra tips I got today I will have no problem finding a good moisturizing shampoo. Maybe I will give Giovanni a try since his protein conditioner worked great on my hair.

Thanks.