My hair is in a ruined state. I've tried various things to try and remedy the situation but nothing worked - until I started following the advice on LHC. I just wanted to say; thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, recipes and advice so freely, kindly and openly. What wonderful women you are!
I used to have a thick, plentiful, healthy WL mane of hair up until two years ago. And I was very lucky in that it didn't take any effort to maintain it. I was box bleaching at home and yet somehow it still looked good. No problems whatsoever. And then one day my woes began...
My little nephew picked up headlice at school in Spring 2013. I spend a lot of time with him but had no idea he had them as his family kept it a secret, so I picked them up too. I wrecked my hair with the various horrible chemical treatments (it took 6 individual treatments with different brands to finally get rid of the blighters) and the most hair destroying contraption ever invented: the "nitty-gritty comb". I stopped using the comb when I realised it was literally shaving strips from my hair, down the entire length of the cortex. Unfortunately, it was way too late by the time I saw this happen (I was doing so whilst watching films as it took hours - then one day I held a lock in front of my face and combed whilst looking at it - oh, the horror of that moment!).
So the damage was very definitely done and needless to say, my hair has never been the same since... but to make matters worse, like an idiot I continued box-bleaching - right up until a few months ago. My hair was in increasingly terrible shape, so I kept looking online for advice and tips on how to make it shiny and healthy again (really I should have bitten the bullet and just cropped it off). I stopped using SLS and cones thinking that would help but it didn't make any difference (to be fair; given the damage, how could it help by that stage?!) and the problem continued to worsen.
In Spring, I found lots of blogs whose authors swear by gelatine treatments as the secret behind their fabulous hair - and at that point I thought this tip may be the answer to my own prayers too. So I gave it a go. The first time; not a bad result (considering). So I did it again a week or two later - and I slept in it - and at that point I completely fried my hair, way worse than ever before and beyond all recognition.
That was the straw that broke the camels back - and STRAW definitely is the operative word! My hair has been a fried, dried, frazzled (i.e. way beyond frizzy) velcro mess since that point, with lots of hairs snapped off close to the root. Argh!
So four months ago I stopped dying and I stumbled on this site again. The holy grail of great, tried and tested advice. An finally, FINALLY after two years of hair misery, I am finally getting somewhere!
First I tried cassia. The colour took (yay!) and the first time I did it, it seemed to improve the condition temporarily - but it wasn't to be the cure and in fact the condition continued to worsen.
Even though gelatine had ruined my hair, I had no idea about the protein/moisture difference in conditioner, etc and had yet to stumble on the plentiful advice on the importance of moisture!
I'm now going moisture crazy and have cut protein out completely (the latter is just for now). I did my first SMT last Thursday - I only had an hour spare to leave it on but had GREAT results! Thank you so much @SnowyMoon! And on the advice of a friend, I bought some Philip Kingsley "Elasticizer Extreme" (a pre-wash conditioning treatment) online and that turned up at the weekend. I slathered that on my hair yesterday and left it on under a cap overnight. Today I washed it away with SLS free shampoo and used up the leftovers of my first SMT mix (refridgerated last week) and left that on for a few minutes (always in a rush!). I've also made a rosewater, glycerine and jojoba spritz and am spraying it on copiusly after washing my hair - using it as my leave in.
Just from doing these two treatments once each, my hair looks almost passable as 'hair' (!) again. I'm still pretty frizzy (I know this will take a while to remedy) but today my hair is so much tamer and less bouffy, also I can actually see some shine (yippee!), and when I hold a lock of hair out horizontally by gripping it a four or five inches from the tip, the ends now actually droop like hair should (before the SMT and PK treatment, the lock would stick out and not droop - at all!) and last of all: Today is the first time in so many months that I've been able to pull on the ends of a shed hair and see it stretch, rather then immediately snap. So I'm finally getting somewhere!
I had 3" cut off two months ago, which took it to just above BSL. It's at BSL again now and I'm getting another haircut this Thursday. I anticipate losing another 3 inches then - if I'm lucky! It's a better salon than last time and she may want to take more off - I won't stop her if she does deem it necessary but I now have some hope I can genuinely save it and avoid the dreaded pixie cut!
So regular trims. No more box colour. Lots of natural goodness and TLC and gems of wisdom from LHC'ers - the only way is up from now on!
@flickm - I love love LOVE your hair in your siggy and avatar photos - the amazing health and the brilliance of your colour.
Sounds like you have a good plan! It's clear you've already learned a lot of new ideas while lurking, so it's great to have you join.
My hair totally hates protein, by the way, and when I figured that out and eliminated conditioners with protein from my stash so many of my tangles disappeared. It feels great to hit on a solution, doesn't it?
Just remember, don't try every experiment at once or you'll have a hard time separating out what works and doesn't. But it sounds like moisture is totally the best thing for your hair right now.
I am glad you didn't lose all your hair to the 'bugs.' I am a school teacher and have seen many beautiful heads of hair wrecked by those little buggers! Welcome!
Hello and thank you !
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