What do you put on your hair

[Prettymetty]

Do you store the leaves in the fridge? I only plan to use a little each day. Sorry bout all the questions

 

[niknakmac]

I generally don't talk hair outside of this board except with DD. People ask about hair but they really don't want to know and I have found that if you start talking about products that cost more than $5 their eyes glaze over but they have no problem droping hundreds on someone elses hair they are going to attache to their head. This always baffles me. give me some synthetic hair any day I refuse to put someone elses hair on my head.

 

[frida1980]

Do you store the leaves in the fridge? I only plan to use a little each day. Sorry bout all the questions

Yep. They last forever in the fridge. The gel it's self is good for about a week, three tops if you add Vitamin C.

 

[claud-uk]

I got this from my sister in the summer, we hadn't seen each other in over 10 years and I started emailing her mid 2012 a few months after I started my transition/hhj. In my newbie excitement I was telling her not to forget her protein treatments and to make sure she deep conditioned regularly. On my life, I PROMISE you ladies I never heard from her again after i sent that email, I kid you not! FF two years to summer 2014... we met up to go to the stevie wonder concert... she's cooing over my hair and asks what I "put on it". I tell her nothing, that I just wash and DC weekly and trim on a regular basis (she aint trimmed in two years cos she cant find a black hairdresser in Wales lol). So she asks me again what do you put on your hair. I told her nothing. She says "but you must put something on it?!" I pitied her at that moment.

 

[claud-uk]

I guess that's what's throwing me off. Here, I need to put down every detail of what I do and specify what type of hair I have. (natural, hair type, high porosity, protein sensitive, fine, etc.) Then if I get asked in the real world, no wants to hear details. They want the "one" thing I did to make my hair so long, shiny, and beautiful. One thing? The only thing I didn't do is go back to school and get a degree in organic chemistry. It takes a while to understand your hair and what's best for it.

I'm going to take you approach and just name something simple like putting aloe vera gel in your conditioner or something.

lol, you know they still gonna look at you funny for saying even that tho? AVG to the uninitiated is like... it's like... Lemme go find a gif...

 

[krissyhair]

The pants have little leaves, so they don't yield as much juice. The ones from the Hispanic store are huge, like 2.5 feet long. The only cost me $1.50. Enough for about two weeks. I use it like crazy. Hey have the same leaves at Harris Teetet for $4. Yikes, no thanks.

I think my plant cost $5. They grow really fast, even indoors if you live in a cold climate. Every few weeks when one of the leaves gets overgrown for the small pot it's in, I trim it off, extract some of the juice for a deep treatment and put the rest in the fridge for later.

 

[claud-uk]

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[frida1980]

I think my plant cost $5. They grow really fast, even indoors if you live in a cold climate. Every few weeks when one of the leaves gets overgrown for the small pot it's in, I trim it off, extract some of the juice for a deep treatment and put the rest in the fridge for later.

My last two died pretty fast. It was sad since love growing things. I use a lot of gel though. Each of those big leaves is only enough for a week and a half. I put it in my DC, flax seed gel, and daily moisturizing spray. It's addicting. My hair is shiny, strong, and soft. Truly awesome.

 

[frida1980]

..... .....

Yeah that's the look. You put food products on your hair?!?!

 

[JulietWhiskey]

Yeah that's the look. You put food products on your hair?!?!

Girl, my 4 year old asked me this the other night!

He saw me twisting my hair and sealing with this shortening of EVOO and EV Red Palm Oil and was like, "Wait, I can eat that???"

I was like, "Yeah, it's shortening and you use shortening for baking things like cookies. But I'm using it for my hair."

He was like, "Then why are you putting it in your hair instead of eating it???"

I said, "Because it seals in the products and keeps my hair from drying out."

He gave me The Look and DH said, "Son, I don't understand, either and it's just better not to ask."

!

And I too have gotten the "Good Hair" accusation. Some lady at the mall asked me about my waves when I wore my hair in a puff and I explained that while the gel I used (Ecostyler, of course!) was a great gel, my waves were caused by the fact that I take care of my hair and my hair is very moisturized. She gave The Look, said, "Oh, you got that good hair" and walked away. DH was like, "Gel won't make everyones hair do that," and I said, "It will if you moisturize it."

Man, folk really outchea searching for Magical Bullets, Unicorns, and Hufflepuffs...when all they really need is some water, AVG, a great conditioner and a butter, all used consistently.

But now, when they ask, I just shrug, shake my head of perfect curls and dance away on my twinkle toes!

 

[overtherainbow]

This is why whenever someone asks me about my hair I give a blank stare. Not because I don't want to share my regimen, but just because I do too much. I only talk about my hair practices on this forum and with my mom. She complained that I did too much at first too until I helped get her to grazing BSL. And yet she still claims that I just have "good hair"

 

[PJaye]

My standard reply for all hair questions is "I use a lot of conditioner." Any subsequent requests for further details gets a referral to one of my favorite online vendors. It's a win-win: I'm left alone and a vendor receives new business.

 

[PlainJane]

I don't talk about hair with anyoneee outside of the board. Friends of mine think it's SO odd that I DC with heat. Meanwhile, I thought everyone at least did that

My usual response to hair questions is "I try not to use heat".

 

[SEMO]

I feel like I've been on both sides of this fence.

When I first was trying to go natural, I knew very few naturals in real life (there weren't as many people doing it in 2004-2005) and there were very few products aimed at naturals (compared to what we have now). One girl I knew had pretty natural curls (she may have been natural her whole life) and I remember asking her what she did to her hair. And she just completely brushed me off with something like, "my hair is just naturally curly" with a shoulder shrug.

I remember feeling super disappointed. I was eager for even the smallest tip. She had to be doing something right and I was hoping she could point me in the right direction or share one of the hair "secrets" she might have known. Later I started looking online for tips and that is what led me to LHCF. It was so refreshing to see some naturals on here and try to learn what I could do with my hair.

Because of this, I always try to help when I encounter a natural that seems a little lost. I ran into one girl at the BSS and I could tell that she wasn't going to be the type who wanted details. She was telling me how everybody was telling her to go natural because she had good hair and she wanted something to make it shine (her hair looked dry). So I simply recommended that she try coconut oil (she was in a rush or I would have tried to point out other things in the story she could have used). She thanked me and bought just that.

But this lady at my job seemed like she was open to knowing more (she was telling me how she was transitioning and suffering with dryness). So I recommended some moisturizing products she could easily find on the ground at Sally's (Eden Bodyworks coconut leave-in and the GVP conditioning balm) and the oyin burnt sugar pomade from culrmart (who was having 20% and free shipping when I told her about it).

I don't necessarily get asked all the time for hair tips, but when I do, I do try to take the time to at least give them something. I remember how it felt to be clueless.

 

[GettingKinky]

I usually just tell people that I'm nice to my hair. I may mention that I don't use direct heat

 

[regina07]

Y'know I get the 'good hair' comments all the time. I'm very quick to tell people that my "good hair" is no walk in the park; it's fragile and picky about products. My fallback response to "but your hair grows" is I deep condition weekly. I don't get into my hair doesn't like any petroleum products, doesn't like silicone, doesn't like most products. Or that my hair likes water, jojoba oil and aloe vera.

It's not worth my time to go into details.

 

[bronzephoenix]

Omg, I was just talking to a friend about this. I despise this question on a number of levels...

1st: One size definitely does NOT fit all when it comes to hair. So even if I gave a detailed list of products I use and how I use them, it doesn't guarantee their effectiveness on the next chick. Not to mention, the annoyance of explaining, "Yes, the olive oil you cook with."

2nd: Though I sympathize with new naturals, it took me 5 YEARS to master my hair. Even after countless hours of extensive research (online, not bugging people irl), much of that time was spent in trial & error. I had to find, purchase & try hundreds of products to find what MYYYYYY fine, 3C/4A, protein sensitive hair did & did not like. And I'm supposed to be able to recommend a miracle regimen for you as you approach me on IG or in the grocery store? Umm, No.

3rd: I don't have the time. Nor the energy. This is the most loaded & complex question someone could possibly ask, especially when most people just aren't willing to be gentle, consistent & put in the work. I love to help, but I hate wasting my breath.

The best advice I can give is to focus on moisture & baby those ends. Voilà!

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF