Monday, August 30, 2010

New Conditioner

Today when I was at Whole Foods, I decided to buy some Aubrey Organics conditioner. I planned on getting the Honeysuckle Rose, but they didn't have any, so I bought the White Camellia. I really hope this works, because my hair has been really dry lately. My being on the beach all day yesterday with no hat on didn't help.

I'll write a review after I use it this week! Keeping my fingers crossed...

Monday, August 23, 2010

Holding Onto the Curl & Other Updates

My curls haven't been holding as well as I wish, which is partly due to my fine texture, but I think it's also from weighing my hair down with product. Yesterday after my wash and deep condition, I applied some diluted Giovanni leave in, a few squirts of my aloe vera juice mix, and less than a dime size of serum for my rollerset. My hair came out really curly and full of body. Now, I usually have lots of curls, but this time, the curls seemed a little "stronger." This was the first time I used the aloe vera mix for a rollerset, and I used Hask Serum instead of my usual diluted Paul Mitchell. Like most times, I did my rollerset in the evening. My hair usually looks great the night of the rollerset, but I'm not going anywhere until the next day! So, I need to figure out a way to have the same great hair the next day. I vaguely remembered my long-haired girlfriends talking a few years ago about how they keep their curls, so last night I put my hair in a very loose bun on top of my head, put my scarf on and went to bed. This morning, I still had curls and body! It's windy and rainy today, so I put my hair back into the loose bun for my commute to work. My hair is still very curly. I don't know how many days this will last, but I'm so glad I found something. I feel like I looked a little crazy with a loose bun on the subway, but I don't care- that's much better than having a frizzy mess in this weather.

I've realized some other things about my hair. My fine hair doesn't like a lot of product on it. I'm in the process of looking for a new moisturizer. I've been using KeraCare for about 2 years and it's just not cutting it anymore. I don't know if it's too heavy or what, but my hair only stays moist for about 1/2 a day when I put it in. I think I need to concentrate on better conditioning and night time moisturizing.

I really want to get my mane thick again. It's not thin, but it's thinner than it was this time last year. I was pregnant last year, but I'd like to get a little of that thickness back! I'm thinking about taking biotin, but I've heard of a lot of side effects that I don't want to deal with. I'm also still trying to get all the black rinse out of my hair. I have been putting rinses in my hair off and on for years, so I think my hair has just absorbed it in to become just about permanent. The ORS Creamy Aloe shampoo has helped a lot. I apply it once for a few seconds, rinse, then apply it again and leave it in for about 5 minutes. All of the suds become blue so I'm thinking it's doing its job by washing out some of the color. I read online that to wash out semi-permanent color quickly, you should use a harsh shampoo. I'm not willing to use a harsh shampoo because I don't want my hair to feel stripped and dry, so I thought the ORS was a healthy compromise. It contains sulfates, but it's also moisturizing, which I think is a good thing while I try to get this black out. My hair really loves this shampoo anyway. I really promise this time that I'm not putting any more black color in my hair!