The much-recommended SMT (Snowymoon's Moisture Treatment)

[Lavendersugar]

Great question, Lavendersugar!
It's hard to tell whether it's as damaging, because the damage was seen on different layers:
- all blow-dried tresses showed cuticle damage (and the higher the heat and the shorter the distance, the more damaging it was)
- only air-dried tresses (took 2 hours in their study) showed Cell-Membrane-Complex damage (bulging)

The researchers did not originally set out to show water damage, they designed the study to show heat damage from blow-drying, the CMC damage finding was unexpected, and they mentioned that further studies would be needed. (Still waiting on that )

And they didn't use brushes or heat protection. The hair was in separate tresses (*not* attached to scalp, which produces sebum to coat hair) and washed daily, so that's not exactly representative of how hair is washed/dried necessarily.

They used five test groups:


- (c), (d), (e) showed surface damage, lifting and cracking (Scanning Electron Microscopy).

- (d), (e) showed cuticle damage, punched out cuticles (Transmission Electron Microscopy).

- No group showed cortex damage (TEM).

- (b) showed CMC damage (lipid TEM).

- (b), (c), (d), (e) showed decreased moisture content (moisture content analysis).

- (b), (c), (d), (e) showed color changes (lightness) after 30 treatments, possibly indicating damage.

- (b), (e) showed color changes (lightness) after 10 treatments, possibly indicating damage.

As you can see, everything (except leaving tresses untreated, of course) provided some soft of issues:
- blow-drying: cuticle, surface damage (the higher the temperature and the shorter the distance, the more pronounced the damage),
- air-drying: damage to the CMC and color change (high heat had that effect, as well)
- all forms of drying reduced moisture content and displayed color change (toward lightness).

And notice, how even using higher heat from closer distance for *shorter* period of time still resulted in more damage (cuticle, surface damage and color changes) vs. lower heat at greater distances but used for *longer*. So heat and distance possibly trumped time of exposure to heat source in this case (unless they designed the study to stop using high heat earlier just because the hair would be dry faster anyway)?

Full study: Hair Shaft Damage from Heat and Drying Time of Hair Dryer - http://pmcc.web-t.cisti.nrc.ca/artic...cid=PMC3229938

ETA: Oops, sorry for the long OT

Thank you so much for your detailed response!!! It is very helpful.

Looks as if they also didn't condition the hair which I'm guessing would make a difference even if just a little bit.
Guess we are risking damage either way and need to make the best personal choice.

Going back to this topic given all the wonderful information provided, it would seem long duration treatments would break down hair protein since wetness is damaging. Given that is what causes the softness I personally will only do 20-30 minutes today.
Finally have time to do the treatment.
I will be using Suave Lilac & Lavender conditioner with Lily of the desert 99% aloe. No honey as my hair dislikes it plus the dry climate. I will be clarifying first with Kenra. I plan to allow my hair to hair dry after t-shirt drying before applying the treatment. Simply because my hair likes to hold water but I will still apply it will damp.

[meteor]

Thank you so much for your detailed response!!! It is very helpful.

Looks as if they also didn't condition the hair which I'm guessing would make a difference even if just a little bit.
Guess we are risking damage either way and need to make the best personal choice.

Going back to this topic given all the wonderful information provided, it would seem long duration treatments would break down hair protein since wetness is damaging. Given that is what causes the softness I personally will only do 20-30 minutes today.
Finally have time to do the treatment.
I will be using Suave Lilac & Lavender conditioner with Lily of the desert 99% aloe. No honey as my hair dislikes it plus the dry climate. I will be clarifying first with Kenra. I plan to allow my hair to hair dry after t-shirt drying before applying the treatment. Simply because my hair likes to hold water but I will still apply it will damp.

Thanks a lot! And I definitely agree on conditioning. I bet it would be interesting to see the test re-performed on actual people with more representative hair routines like, for example, conditioner use.

Oh yes, 20-30 mins is what I tend to do, too.
I really hope it will work out! And if it doesn't, one can usually play with ratios, experiment with additives, using SMT pre-wash, etc...
About honey... if the hair doesn't like it, there are other options: all sorts of syrups or molasses, for example... However, they work very similarly to honey (basically humectant action from sugar), so I don't know...

Oh, and about pH further up-thread, that's a great point. I totally agree with Anje and just wanted to add another link on pH and hair's isoionic point changing and how it's important for conditioning: http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.ca...x-to-make.html
I should add that, personally, I certainly wouldn't want to veer too far up or down from the optimal pH for hair (which can be damaging) just for the purpose of better absorption and adsorption of conditioning ingredients for one simple reason: I only want conditioning ingredients to add slip (without much build-up) and patch up cracks, not to deposit more. I'd much rather keep the hair in close to virgin condition than try to "lift", "get under" the cuticle just to deposit something conditioning (I hear these ideas sometimes on the subject of moisturizing low-porosity hair, but it seems a bit counter-productive to me, since I think keeping cuticle intact is pretty great, better than roughing it up just to patch-repair it later). It's the same principle that I think works with virgin hair that sometimes dislikes oil soaks or heavy conditioning and just likes to be clean or many folks with hair that's in excellent condition mention how their hair doesn't like protein - that's not a problem at all! Sometimes, less is more.

[samanthaa]

^ Those are interesting results, especially the part about the unexpected water damage results from air drying, but it makes me wonder how much hair type (thickness, I'm thinking, in particular) affects the effects of air drying. Obviously they didn't control for this, since they were setting out to study water damage. I know there are members here whose hair takes hours to dry. My hair, which is thin and fine, can dry in as little as an hour.

But anyway, to get back on topic, I SMT'd last night with fantastic results! I'm Sun-In'ing my hair to try and lighten my henna, so I followed up my first session with an SMT with coconut oil: 2 parts deep treatment mask, two parts conditioner, 1 part coconut oil, 1 part aloe vera gel, 1 part honey. I've never added coconut oil to an SMT before, so I don't know if my hair ended up so soft because of the coconut oil or because I let a full pot of water boil away for the hour while I let the SMT sit on my head. I was a bit scared by truepeacenik's disclaimer above that a dry climate can cause honey to draw the moisture out of your hair, and I was making dinner anyway, so why not?

The coconut oil rinsed out of my hair surprisingly easy. I didn't shampoo or anything, just rinsed the SMT out, and though my hair is a bit greasier than usual, it isn't the giant greaseball that I was worried about it becoming! And I'm sure the remaining coconut oil will continue to sink into my hair over the next few days.

[Sarahm]

^ Those are interesting results, especially the part about the unexpected water damage results from air drying, but it makes me wonder how much hair type (thickness, I'm thinking, in particular) affects the effects of air drying. Obviously they didn't control for this, since they were setting out to study water damage. I know there are members here whose hair takes hours to dry. My hair, which is thin and fine, can dry in as little as an hour.

But anyway, to get back on topic, I SMT'd last night with fantastic results! I'm Sun-In'ing my hair to try and lighten my henna, so I followed up my first session with an SMT with coconut oil: 2 parts deep treatment mask, two parts conditioner, 1 part coconut oil, 1 part aloe vera gel, 1 part honey. I've never added coconut oil to an SMT before, so I don't know if my hair ended up so soft because of the coconut oil or because I let a full pot of water boil away for the hour while I let the SMT sit on my head. I was a bit scared by truepeacenik's disclaimer above that a dry climate can cause honey to draw the moisture out of your hair, and I was making dinner anyway, so why not?

The coconut oil rinsed out of my hair surprisingly easy. I didn't shampoo or anything, just rinsed the SMT out, and though my hair is a bit greasier than usual, it isn't the giant greaseball that I was worried about it becoming! And I'm sure the remaining coconut oil will continue to sink into my hair over the next few days.

In my case, conditioner is much more effective than shampoo at getting coconut oil out of my hair. I have no idea why, but other members have reported this too.

The pot of boiling water is actually a great idea! Thank you for the advice, I'll definitely try it

Oh, and how is the Sun-In working for you? From what I've heard, people get mixed results.

[samanthaa]

In my case, conditioner is much more effective than shampoo at getting coconut oil out of my hair. I have no idea why, but other members have reported this too.

The pot of boiling water is actually a great idea! Thank you for the advice, I'll definitely try it

Oh, and how is the Sun-In working for you? From what I've heard, people get mixed results.

I agree about the conditioner! I often get oils out of my hair with a co-wash. I guess I was expecting it to stick around a bit more because I didn't add more conditioner to wash the SMT out. I let the conditioner in the SMT itself "wash" my hair.

It worked well! It definitely steamed up my kitchen windows :P

I've only done one application, two nights ago. It might be in my head at this point, but I think I got some lightening. Again, though, it could all be in my head. I'm following Nightshade's method nearly to the T, and I will post my results after I finish. I think it depends on your starting color. Mine is light brown, blonde as a child, and I'm trying to get back to the henna color that I got after my first application, so I have high hopes that it'll be doable!

[Lavendersugar]

Ok so I did the treatment yesterday. Wow!!! Yes this will be done weekly now.

I didn't do anything as planned. I ended up clarifying with Kenra twice (I always do twice) then I let my hair sit in a t-shirt for about 10 mins. I mixed together Suave rainforest conditioner and Tropical solutions aloe. I liked the ingredients better than Lily of the desert that I intended to use. At this point I had not combed my hair. Removed the t-shirt and applied the mixed after removing as much moisture as possible. At first the mixture was a bit clumpy and wasn't rubbing in well. Then suddenly it started to smooth right on. Combed out my hair and put it into a high pony tail. Braided it and made a bun. Grabbed a hand towel and went on my usual walk. Thought I better have the towel for drips. As it turns out the dry climate prevented drips. Go figure, finally it comes on handy. And yes I went for a walk. I figure I'm the crazy lady people see daily in her bright colors and Birkenstocks so why not wet hair.
When I got back I jumped in the shower. Total time on was just under 30 minutes.
I rarely use leave-ins so I didn't use one yesterday. Detangling was a dream. As it air dried I couldn't help but touch it.

Loved this so much I ordered an Aloe spray for daily use called Real Aloe inc aloe Vera spray. If I don't like it then I'll try George's. As for the Tropical Solutions aloe gel, I think I'll stick with it until I use it up. Can't recall where I bought it from. Definitely sticking to Suave conditioner. Next time I'll probably stay home and cover the hair to see how that works.

This is my hair yesterday after it dried. Just finger combed.

[henné]

Hey everyone! It's been about forever and a half since the last time I used SMT as I'm going hardcore no poo and don't even want to use any store-bought conditioner anymore ... The thing I wonder is - do you think it's possible to replace a conditioner with something more natural in smt? Has anyone ever tried it? thanks!

[GRU]

In my case, conditioner is much more effective than shampoo at getting coconut oil out of my hair. I have no idea why, but other members have reported this too.

I believe that conditioner works so well at getting oil out of hair because of the emulsifiers in it. Emulsifiers are meant to allow oil and water to mix together, whereas detergents are meant to split oil and water apart.

[Anje]

Hey everyone! It's been about forever and a half since the last time I used SMT as I'm going hardcore no poo and don't even want to use any store-bought conditioner anymore ... The thing I wonder is - do you think it's possible to replace a conditioner with something more natural in smt? Has anyone ever tried it? thanks!

My first thought is yogurt. Coconut cream or full fat canned coconut milk might work too, but they might be oily. I like the conditioning effects from the emulsifiers in commercial products, though, and I'm not sure what it would be like without those. If it doesn't work, I'd be tempted to buy something like btms-50 from a soapmaking supply and mix it in, in the recommended proportion.

[samanthaa]

Hey everyone! It's been about forever and a half since the last time I used SMT as I'm going hardcore no poo and don't even want to use any store-bought conditioner anymore ... The thing I wonder is - do you think it's possible to replace a conditioner with something more natural in smt? Has anyone ever tried it? thanks!

I was going to suggest coconut milk as well. Yogurt's also a good suggestion. Maybe a blended avocado or banana? Mayonnaise (or eggs)?