My Hair is Always A Hot Mess!

[naskat]

I found out about LHCF about a year ageo, and I mostly read or search the forums. But, I just can't get it together with my hair, because it always a hot mess. I can not style, and I mostly cowash and bun up my hair. I was natural for 21 1/2 years and I permed my hair 3 years ago (i'm 25 now) out of frustration with my hair.

I started to stop relaxing my hair every 6 weeks as the Dominicains told me at the shop, and my hair began to get back its natural thickness.They were seriously overprocessing my hair, and then I stopped going to them less frequently. I began searching online for help and I found this site. Then I began to miss my natural hair, becuase I always said I never was going to relax my hair, and these memories of my texture came back to me.

Well, at 8 months post relaxer my hair started bearking once I stopped wearing braids and using the Crown and Glory method. I either wanted to bc or relax again. So, I choose to texlax, but now I have three different textures on my head. I need help asap, because I can not retain mosture, dc don't help. I thought my hair was porous so I uses Porousity Control and it made my hair a tangled mess. WHen I cowash my hair its so soft, but hten it dries in 15 minutes into a tangled, brittle mess. It doesn't matter if I seal in the moisture or not. I don't know what to do with my hair, an someone adopt me please?

 

[naskat]

More pictures

 

[Simply_Kelz]

I think you have a good starting point. What's your current regimen?

 

[naskat]

Sorry for the big pics I'm still learning how to post pics

This after the stylist cut my in August 2007 from two inches past APL to shoulder lenght. I was so mad!

this is the right side of my texlax, its looks like my natural hair.

 

[brownsugarflyygirl]

I think that its important to figure out what you want to do with your hair....texlax, natural, or continue to be relaxed and then build a regimen. Are you completely decided that texlax is the way that you want to go?

That is VERY important because all products dont work for all types of hair. The products that I used when I was relaxed, my hair laughs at now that Im natural. I say that because you say that DCing isnt helping...however just like anything else...you have to find the right combination of products for your DC in order to produce balanced moisturized hair.

I agree with Kelle Carter that you have a good starting point. Your hair does look nice and thick. I think you are just at that trial and error point and once you decide your direction you can build a regimen around it.

So yea....be encouraged....you will find that happy place for your hair. It just make take experimenting with different processes and products in order to get there. Im interested to know what your full regimen is as well.

 

[naskat]

I am still trying to resize so sorry for the big pics

this is it dry I have a lot of shrinkage.

This is after work my bun taken down.

My hair is so thick I can barely bun it without water.

Sorry for the bigs pics I am new to photobucket

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[naskat]

I mostly cowash every two days, and clarify once a week with V05 condition mixed with baking soda.

I tried Kenra Chelating shampoo, then their deep conditioner for 30 minutes, and used Lacio Lacio with silk amino acids one time.

I mostly co wash with V05, and dc with an ORS pack, but I still haven't found a good leave in yet. Even still my hair doesn't retain moisture, and I seal with coconut oil after I used ORS olive oil which made my hair feel coated.

Right now my hair feels really strong, and a lot of the products I've been using has protein in it, so maybe I have protein overload? I still haven't found a good deep conditioner, and a way to retain moisture in my hair.

 

[naskat]

Oh, I want to go back to my natural hair, but in April I had 4 inches of natural hair in a soft fro with long relaxed ends. Everything I experimented with worked on my natural hair, but the relaxed ends remained dry. My natural hair likes oils and butter, but my relaxed hair doesn't. It became too much because my natural hair is super thick and grows out densely, so I couldn't do anything with it. Even now my hair doesn't look texed, but like my natural hair instead, and I don't know how to care for my hair.

 

[naskat]

Oh here is my hair in motion:

http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c84/naskat/?action=view&current=MOV00296.flv

Can someone adopt a newbie?

Thanks

 

[brownsugarflyygirl]

I mostly cowash every two days, and clarify once a week with V05 condition mixed with baking soda.

I tried Kenra Chelating shampoo, then their deep conditioner for 30 minutes, and used Lacio Lacio with silk amino acids one time.

I mostly co wash with V05, and dc with an ORS pack, but I still haven't found a good leave in yet. Even still my hair doesn't retain moisture, and I seal with coconut oil after I used ORS olive oil which made my hair feel coated.

Right now my hair feels really strong, and a lot of the products I've been using has protein in it, so maybe I have protein overload? I still haven't found a good deep conditioner, and a way to retain moisture in my hair.

I think that your biggest culprit right now is that you need to find a really good moisturizing shampoo. The ones that you listed are either clarifying or chelating and both are VERY harsh. Most LHCFers only clarify about once a month. In addition, baking soda is VERY harsh as well so you kinda have a double negative situation going on there. I would encourage you to do a search on the moisturizing shampoo threads and pick one. Elucence has worked well for me.

I have never used ORS but if its more protein based...then definitely need to find a moisture based DC. If you are partially natural and texlaxed then your hair doesnt need as much protein and actually craves much more moisture.

As far as a leave-in, I think that Lacio Lacio may work for you but you just have to get steps 1 - the moisturizing shampoo and 2 - the moisturizing DC in order and you may see better results. Also,if your hair is feeling coated, I would dilute the leave in. I use Giovanni Direct and I dilute it about 10:1 with water.

Also, I would experiement with other oils for sealing. My hair didnt like coconut or olive oil for sealing but loved castor, jojoba, and sweet almond. So its just a process of trial and error. Get a journal and write down the combinations that make your hair feel nice so you dont forget them.

 

[naskat]

Thank you, you were very helpful. Maybe the products I use are too harsh for my hair. I am going to try bagging my hair. I need to find a good dc, and moisturizer.

 

[Starr1]

I mostly cowash every two days, and clarify once a week with V05 condition mixed with baking soda.

I tried Kenra Chelating shampoo, then their deep conditioner for 30 minutes, and used Lacio Lacio with silk amino acids one time.

I mostly co wash with V05, and dc with an ORS pack, but I still haven't found a good leave in yet. Even still my hair doesn't retain moisture, and I seal with coconut oil after I used ORS olive oil which made my hair feel coated.

Right now my hair feels really strong, and a lot of the products I've been using has protein in it, so maybe I have protein overload? I still haven't found a good deep conditioner, and a way to retain moisture in my hair.

You are definately clarifying way too often. . . back away from the baking soda! And hair rarely needs to be chelated. Both processes are very drying to the hair and scalp and if your using a lot of protein on top of that it's no wonder that your hair can't retain moisture.

Try taking the baking soda out of your weekly regimen and clarify only once a month instead. Also try reducing your protein treatments to once a month and instead swap out your weekly deep conditioner to something more moisturizing.

My hair doesn't care for olive or coconut oils (it likes jojoba and sweet almond), so experiment with other things. . .

Best of luck.

 

[Blessed_Angel]

I think that your biggest culprit right now is that you need to find a really good moisturizing shampoo. The ones that you listed are either clarifying or chelating and both are VERY harsh. Most LHCFers only clarify about once a month. In addition, baking soda is VERY harsh as well so you kinda have a double negative situation going on there. I would encourage you to do a search on the moisturizing shampoo threads and pick one. Elucence has worked well for me.

I have never used ORS but if its more protein based...then definitely need to find a moisture based DC. If you are partially natural and texlaxed then your hair doesnt need as much protein and actually craves much more moisture.

As far as a leave-in, I think that Lacio Lacio may work for you but you just have to get steps 1 - the moisturizing shampoo and 2 - the moisturizing DC in order and you may see better results. Also,if your hair is feeling coated, I would dilute the leave in. I use Giovanni Direct and I dilute it about 10:1 with water.

Also, I would experiement with other oils for sealing. My hair didnt like coconut or olive oil for sealing but loved castor, jojoba, and sweet almond. So its just a process of trial and error. Get a journal and write down the combinations that make your hair feel nice so you dont forget them.

Great advice, B, I second that.

Naskat, you'll have to find a good dc. I recommend Kenra MC or Alter Ego Rebalancing Cream. If you'd like to try Keracare Humecto, you can email them for samples.

And since your hair likes butters and oils, I think it would love Jane Carter's Nourish & Shine. That is an excellent product for combating dryness.

 

[naskat]

Thanks, anyone else can chime in? I put a lot into this thread so that I can get help, but I don't understand how 188 people looked into the thread, and only like four people replied. That's why I don't post often because I feel like maybe what I am asking is redundant but I really need help. I read all the articles and searched the forums on everything and I still can't get it right with my hair.Maybe I should be Omarion.

 

[Ms Lala]

I can't see your pics but it sounds like your hair needs moisture. I like Elasta QP DPR-11 for deep conditioning. I used this twice a week for about a month and it really helped my hair. There are lots of good deep conditioners out there.

This thread w/all of the stickies has great info to start with and help you determine what's going on with your hair. I really like the sistaslick thread on breakage.

http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?t=108195

 

[Irresistible]

I found out about LHCF about a year ageo, and I mostly read or search the forums. But, I just can't get it together with my hair, because it always a hot mess. I can not style, and I mostly cowash and bun up my hair. I was natural for 21 1/2 years and I permed my hair 3 years ago (i'm 25 now) out of frustration with my hair.

I started to stop relaxing my hair every 6 weeks as the Dominicains told me at the shop, and my hair began to get back its natural thickness.They were seriously overprocessing my hair, and then I stopped going to them less frequently. I began searching online for help and I found this site. Then I began to miss my natural hair, becuase I always said I never was going to relax my hair, and these memories of my texture came back to me.

Well, at 8 months post relaxer my hair started bearking once I stopped wearing braids and using the Crown and Glory method. I either wanted to bc or relax again. So, I choose to texlax, but now I have three different textures on my head. I need help asap, because I can not retain mosture, dc don't help. I thought my hair was porous so I uses Porousity Control and it made my hair a tangled mess. WHen I cowash my hair its so soft, but hten it dries in 15 minutes into a tangled, brittle mess. It doesn't matter if I seal in the moisture or not. I don't know what to do with my hair, an someone adopt me please?

ok this has me afraid to use porosity control again. Well your hair probably started breaking and the demarcation point ,where your relaxed hair was, that can happen, if you wanted to transition you might as well just let it do what it was going to do, I dont think it was breaking where your natural hair was, was it? what do you want to do, stay relaxed or go natural? if a large majority of your hair is over processed , that hair is going to be a pain in the arse no matter what you do, but you can try a protein treatment (careful to follow exact directions) and see if that helps the over processed hair. One of my answers to everything is natural oils, no matter how bad it is, its going to help at least somewhat, do you use any?

 

[Irresistible]

You are definately clarifying way too often. . . back away from the baking soda! And hair rarely needs to be chelated. Both processes are very drying to the hair and scalp and if your using a lot of protein on top of that it's no wonder that your hair can't retain moisture.

Try taking the baking soda out of your weekly regimen and clarify only once a month instead. Also try reducing your protein treatments to once a month and instead swap out your weekly deep conditioner to something more moisturizing.

My hair doesn't care for olive or coconut oils (it likes jojoba and sweet almond), so experiment with other things. . .

Best of luck.

ok now with more info, I agree drop the clarifying, baking soda and chelating , ORS is a strong protein condish, step away from that for a while too

 

[naskat]

Thanks, I didn't know ORS was such a strong protein conditioner, I guess I am going to try the Elasta. Thank You all for your responses, I guess I need to back away form the protein. I uses cocnut oil, whih my hair likes a lot. I am still learning.