Yes, I have hardwater. that may be the culprit.
I shampoo with Suave deep moisture shampoo and deep condition with Aussie 3 minute moist.
I don't use gel.
I drink at least 2 liters of water daily
I am washing now every 2 weeks
I have used castor oil, aloe oil, olive oil, hot 6 oils, taliiah wajiid healing oyl
I usually just trim whenever I see ssks or split ends but my last real trim was about 2 months ago
My leave in is Camille Rose revitalizing hair smoother
When I wash I usually let my hair air dry I haven't used a blow dryer in a year
I am 2 years and 2 months natural.
Before I forget I wanted to add:
Try getting a shower filter. I got one from Home Depot for like $20 or something. Not that that's the full solution, but if I had known how simple and cheap it is to just bypass the hard water variable, I would have done so long ago.
I spent years with super dry hair that would not respond to much of anything, btw, so I totally get where you're coming from.
What seems to have worked for me:
1. Get a clean slate. I.e. chelate. This removes any and everything that could be blocking hydration/moisture.
2. Do a protein treatment to fill in the holes in the hair so that water/moisture could be held within the hair when it was introduced into my hair. (I was not lowpo, so a protein treatment posed no threat to me since I'd never had one before).
3. Hydrate the hair with aloe Vera juice (I'm not lowpo, so there was no issue there with me). AVJ holds a LARGE amount of water per molecular weight.
4. Seal in the AVJ with heavy butter/oil.
5. Deep condition very regularly (every wash until things got right).
There's a lady who documented the effect that constant deep conditioning had on her hair over time. It was like a whole new head of hair! I was convinced.
Your mileage may vary. None of the above may do anything for you. I just wanted to share what helped me just in case it might help you.