Hair problems :( Help?

[ShadiaW]

I'm 19, in the Air Force and living in Germany, I've been here for about a year and have been skimming by with my hair.
I was natural before I left for basic and went for a relaxer once I hit tech school.
Before then my mother helped me with my hair and she was on this site a lot so I retained some information.
The thing is since coming here my hair was stripped, dry, just a plain mess, I went to a salon and they seemed to fix it and get it straight but now I am noticing that my hair is thinning, and I only get a relaxer about 3-4 months.
I think it's because of the heat, so I am cutting down on that a lot and I'm going to start wearing braid outs more.

I would love to get in the habit of doing my own hair again and fully taking care of it, but the beautician as well as other black females have said that the water is the reason why it was so dried out like that.

Has anyone else had any problems? How did you take care of your hair?
How and what did you use to moisturize?

I'm just looking for a few tips, before I went natural (I did it to see how it was like) I had awesome thick, relaxed hair.
I just don't want my hair to look like a haystack from hell like it was earlier this year.

 

[lamaria211]

What did they say was the problem with the water? Because they make products for hard water like Ion hard water condish n shampoo or u can try usinf bottled water to wash oe try washing less. Longhairdontcare only washes her hair once a month. Hth

 

[tiffers]

^^^ Yep. Using a Swimmer's shampoo should help with the water sitution.

How long is your hair now and how are you styling it? What products are you currently using? What products are available to you?

We have to know a little more before we can really help you out.

 

[CurlsBazillion]

How and what did you use to moisturize?

I'd take the advice about using the Ion hard water shampoo and conditioner plus incorporating protein.
To answer your question I moisturize by leaving a little bit of my conditioner in.

 

[ShadiaW]

I currently use rusk, my hair is right to my chin if not a little longer, it's been doing pretty well since I allowed it to finally grow out.

I guess they just explained it as the water is too hard or rough to keep using on our hair. I used to use rusk but Im not sure what my beautician used, so now I am trying head and shoulders since my scalp gets pretty bad.

There isn't a very wide variety of stuff here, but I'm sure I can get the product if I have names, it's no problem.
Now i'm going to try head and shoulders, my mother is also on this form and she told me it worked well in my head before

 

[ShadiaW]

I wear it either pulled back in a head band, braids outs, or in a small pony tail if I can get away with it. I'm usually in uniform so I'm limited on what I can do or wear depending on certain situations, so I change it up as needed.

 

[FearlessNik]

Hard water is NOT the only issue. You can work around that. I'm in Afghan and I GUARANTEE that the water here is harder. I'm natural and switched up all the products that I use. For my conditioner I use Herbal Essence Hello Hydration mixed with olive oil (meaning I put the oil in myself), I also use the HE Long Term Relationship Leave in. I spritz my hair everyday with a mixture of water, leave in, and oil. Then I lightly seal with with grapeseed, avocado, or olive oil. That's helped and the hard water is no longer an issue.

 

[grownupnai]

I'm also in Germany. Here in Berlin the water is soooo hard. I had a big problem after moving here from Brooklyn using my old products. I finally found a shampoo that works for me. ORS Aloe shampoo removes calcium build up that hard water deposits on our strands and the ORS replenishing conditioner makes my hair super soft. It took two years of messing around with products to see what works for me. I hope this helps you! You can find most of these products at your local afro shop or online. I go to cocoon in Berlin, Schöneberg. They have the biggest selection of black hair products I've seen here. The have an online shop http://www.cocoon-beautycare.com
it looks really unorganized, but they speak english so you could call and make an order. Much cheaper than shipping stuff from the UK which I've done in the past. That pound is ridiculous and will make your euros cry and your dollars die. I was lucky to find this store conveniently located down the street from my job.

 

[temfash]

Much cheaper than shipping stuff from the UK which I've done in the past. That pound is ridiculous and will make your euros cry and your dollars die. I was lucky to find this store conveniently located down the street from my job.

Your saying is so true.......... LOL