Product junkie looking for a good rehab program!

[ChloeDharma]

Silly i know but i had to!

Anyway, my point.....i seem to violently swing between being super simple with my routine, but then thinking of 101 different things i want to use on my hair to make it fabulous. I've been here for i think over 3 years now and was obsessing for ages before i joined here too reading up on various things. I'm still not in a settled little routine. The thread asking what routines we have made me think of this because i wanted to reply but realised it would just sound ridiculous if i said all the things i try to do with my hair....and that's not taking into account my lazyness alternated with hyperfocus obsession on hair stuff.

I mean, one minute i'm all natural, next i'm back on the cones......then sometimes i even use some shampoo which with my hair isn't really the best idea.

The only consistant thing is the oiling but even then i'm wanting to buy every oil and oil blend (think indian oils like Vatika, Bhringraj etc) that i hear anything good about......add herbs, honey, aloe etc into the mix and it's enough to frazzle my brain simply deciding how i'll wash my hair that day!

Is anyone else like this? Any tips for simplifying things without feeling like you are missing out on that wonder product that's going to answer all your hair prayers?

I know i'm probably just rambly ranting and this might sound mad but i had to vent a bit......any advice, observations and especially fellow fruitcakes i'd love to hear from.

[Smokie]

Oh gods. I'm the same way. I figure once I head off to be a fulltime student in the fall and am living on student loans and won't be able to afford to experiment as much, I'll manage to be pretty much settled on a routine. I'm actually pretty close now. I'm just still trying to figure out which 'poo bar and which conditioner(s) do best for my hair. Also trying to figure out a way to keep my scalp happy. Oh, I seem to have figured out the post wash/rinse/heavy mist "product" method to keep my hair shiny and frizz-free though! So I won't be spending $25US on a 16oz jar of curl custard anytime soon.

It's a process, what can I say?

[tiny_teesha]

I'm a student, i look for all cheap options! haha
I try as many things as i can to see what works ive been here almost a year. I am totally obsessed. At the start i was washing my hair more often to do hair masks. When LHC was down i got lazy and didn't do masks as often, but that started a bit before the crash.
Now i try herbs, its fun coz it is one topic but i use different herbs in different ratios in different ways. Try herbs maybe?

I think though the basic consensus on oils is penetrating ones are better, like coconut, olive and avo. To me they make sence in the "best" oils (apart from sebum!!)

I think its probably best to keep it simple. Little kids who don't touch their hair will all these masks have great hair! So long as you aren't tiring your hair out it is ok!

[Masara]

Fellow fruitcake here
I've got products that work fine with my hair, I've worked out more or less what works and what doesn't, but if I read more than three people in a thread raving about a product, I have to go and check it out on-line and then I want to buy it. I mean, my hair's 1c but after reading comments about Boot's curl creme, I found myself there on my last trip to the UK checking out how much it costs.
I'm not going to list the different oils I have on my bathroom shelves! (at least oils keep well and the bottles don't generally take up too much space. )

Not too much in the way of advice here I'm afraid. So far I haven't destroyed my hair (although amla wasn't a good experiment) Most of the things I buy get used up at some point (or passed on to my kids) and I haven't yet gone bankrupt, so I'm not bothing too much about it (yet)

[ChloeDharma]

I'm a student, i look for all cheap options! haha
I try as many things as i can to see what works ive been here almost a year. I am totally obsessed. At the start i was washing my hair more often to do hair masks. When LHC was down i got lazy and didn't do masks as often, but that started a bit before the crash.
Now i try herbs, its fun coz it is one topic but i use different herbs in different ratios in different ways. Try herbs maybe?

I think though the basic consensus on oils is penetrating ones are better, like coconut, olive and avo. To me they make sence in the "best" oils (apart from sebum!!)

I think its probably best to keep it simple. Little kids who don't touch their hair will all these masks have great hair! So long as you aren't tiring your hair out it is ok!

Lol yup, i'm infected with the herb bug.....that opened up a whole new load of things to obsess over once i realised i could buy indian herbs from shops kind of accessable to me! There are also the other herbs and spices like european herbs, cayenne etc.....and like you i play around trying to decide what ratios, what combinations...then what to add to them (i like yogurt with them for a conditioner).

Oils....i do try mainly to stick to coconut mostly, but then even as i am now i have virgin coconut oil, dabur vatika coconut oil which smells amazing plus has herbs added, then my hesh bhringraj oil is bhringraj plus a long list of other herbs infused in coconut oil and also smells amazing but on top of that is lovely on the scalp and helps me sleep....so thats one type of oil....then i love sesame too which gives amazing results, i've managed to calm down all the other ones mostly but did love avocado oil for heavy oilings but agaijn once i start thinking that i start remembering the results i got from each of the oils and get all....."ooooooh!" over it....one thing, at least i hated mustard oil mostly because about half an hour after massaging it into my scalp i could taste it and no amount of tea was zapping that vileness!

[tiny_teesha]

I'm a student, i look for all cheap options! haha
I try as many things as i can to see what works ive been here almost a year. I am totally obsessed. At the start i was washing my hair more often to do hair masks. When LHC was down i got lazy and didn't do masks as often, but that started a bit before the crash.
Now i try herbs, its fun coz it is one topic but i use different herbs in different ratios in different ways. Try herbs maybe?

I think though the basic consensus on oils is penetrating ones are better, like coconut, olive and avo. To me they make sence in the "best" oils (apart from sebum!!)

I think its probably best to keep it simple. Little kids who don't touch their hair will all these masks have great hair! So long as you aren't tiring your hair out it is ok!

[ChloeDharma]

Fellow fruitcake here
I've got products that work fine with my hair, I've worked out more or less what works and what doesn't, but if I read more than three people in a thread raving about a product, I have to go and check it out on-line and then I want to buy it. I mean, my hair's 1c but after reading comments about Boot's curl creme, I found myself there on my last trip to the UK checking out how much it costs.
I'm not going to list the different oils I have on my bathroom shelves! (at least oils keep well and the bottles don't generally take up too much space. )

Not too much in the way of advice here I'm afraid. So far I haven't destroyed my hair (although amla wasn't a good experiment) Most of the things I buy get used up at some point (or passed on to my kids) and I haven't yet gone bankrupt, so I'm not bothing too much about it (yet)

Hiya
Your hairtype is almost the same as mine except i'm more a 1b nowdays though i was a 2a when i joined and my thickness has gone down from mid-upper range ii to normal i since getting ill, but anyway out of interest.....was it Amla oil you used? If so given our similarity in hairtypes it might be that it wasn't the amla to blame but the oil as it's nearly always sold extracted in a mineral oil base and my hair hates mineral oil.

[jel]

I'm a fellow fruitcake in terms of loving natural products, however, I'm much lazier than you. For example, I have loads of oils and butters*, plus some of the combinations (Fox's Shea cond creme, hair&body butter, etc), but I only have 3-4 out of the cupboard at any time. Currently, it's Fox's shea creme on my computer desk, a scalp oil (jojoba + EOs) and a pot of coconut oil in the bedroom, and almond oil in the bathroom. Oh, and olive in the kitchen, but it's used more for cooking!

But back to laziness, or, as I like to call it, efficiency . I try to find the fastest/least complicated way to do things, that still works. Again, I pared down my henna to just the powders (henna & cassia) and water - for me it works as well as, if not better than, adding amla, ACV, cinnamon, paprika, yogurt and whatnot.

Another philosophy that I've embraced (well, am trying to) is simplifying. If I've got plenty of... whatever, do I really need more? No, not until I use up some of what I already have. The questions I ask are Do I want it? Do I need it? Have I got the space/time for it? Only if all the answers are yes, I buy/obtain whatever it is.


*Oils and butters inventory: coconut, shea, cocoa, almond, avocado, jojoba, grapeseed, olive, monoi, castor; scalp oil, face serum, massage oil, hair& body butter, Fox's creme.

[Masara]

was it Amla oil you used? If so given our similarity in hairtypes it might be that it wasn't the amla to blame but the oil as it's nearly always sold extracted in a mineral oil base and my hair hates mineral oil.

No, it was amla powder. I had read that it was good for conditioning so I mixed some up as I would do a henna gloss but it made my hair so dry and straw like. It took me weeks for my hair to get any shine back.
Thanks for the word of warning about mineral oil. I'll be careful about that.
I put 1c as my hair type, but I'm still not too sure. I thought I was 1b when I joined and then my hair got much wavier so I started thinking 2a, now it's gone straighter. I'm probably back to 1b but I use 1c as a medium. I'm beginning to wonder if I don't have a summer type and a straighter, winter type.

[Xandergrammy]

I've accumulated so much stuff that I made a vow to not buy any hair products until 2009. I literally have enough to last me until then (maybe even to 2010!)