Keep It Straight

It's been a while a while. I'm a little more active on instagram but not by much. I've been wrestling with whether I need more moisture or protein. It's been so dry lately that i'm not sure if my hair has a core moisture problem or if I need to step up my LOC frequency.  So I thought I'd revisit some pointers on how to decide if you need moisture or protein.

It's been very difficult to find products that don't contain protein. I'm slowly building up a list of products that either 100% do not contain any protein or have a protein very low on the ingredient list.  Standard convention with ingredient lists is the lower it is on the list, the lower concentration/percentage of it in the product. (So if something says "With Argan Oil" and argon oil is number 13 or15 on the list? Put that thing back on the shelf). I've identified ingredients that are PROTEIN or may cause Protein Overload symptoms. 1. Hydrolized Wheat or Silk or Keratin 2. Keratin 3. Coconut milk (coconut oil does not contain a significant amount of protein but you may want to use it sparingly while you assess the effect on your hair. Coconut milk however contains quite a bit) 4. Wheat, Soy or Silk Amino Acids 5. Algae (though I'm not certain about this, I've used products that contain algae and my hair has not reacted well. so I'm...

I got this product because it was recommended as a good moisturizing only deep conditioner. I needed that after I found out that I'd put too much protein in my hair.

Is fraught with giant boulders of dryness. I just can't....

You know how I was raving about cantu my last post? Well...*smacks lips* lemmi tell you... I was using it every week thinking it was cool because it only had wheat protein and it was like number 14 on the ingredients list. Then I retouched (aka relaxed) my hair and my strands were hella dry! Like surprisingly dry. Like individual pieces of straw dry...and I was confused and a little scared.

Welp turns out my lovely bantu twist outs don't hold up very well in 30°C humid weather. Good to know for the summer eh?   I started using creme of nature conditioner. I love it for the slip and the deep moisturising effect. I made the mistake though of using it twice and my hair is like straw. The deep conditioning treatment I did though was *kisses fingers* so soft and easy to use.   I also did a weave (more of that in another post) and left hair out. I was very against that after the last weave but ego overrode fear of breakage. Afterall...it'll grow back right? Right?!   So lessons learned are...   1. Always check that the conditioner is light not heavy protein 2. Bantu twist outs don't last in humidity 3. 12 inches of hair is a lot! I can't believe people get longer. Kudis to them cos I dont know if I could.