I recently reached out on Facebook and Twitter to ask you what works best for deep conditioning really dry hair. My own hair was parched from the elements, using a salt spray, too many curling irons, too much blow drying or from some other hair sin I'm not thinking of. As my hair approaches goal length I'm worried it will hit its "expiration date", as my stylist so politely calls it.
The expiration date of your hair is when it hits a certain length and no longer looks nice. It may look fried, brittle, wonky or my favorite, witchy. I read somewhere that a good way to tell if your hair is in poor condition was to hold out a small but thick section and see if it maintains the same thickness from the mid-shaft to the tip. However, with hair that is not cut bluntly, I'm not sure that is a fair way to judge (or so I'll keep telling myself).
The expiration date of your hair is when it hits a certain length and no longer looks nice. It may look fried, brittle, wonky or my favorite, witchy. I read somewhere that a good way to tell if your hair is in poor condition was to hold out a small but thick section and see if it maintains the same thickness from the mid-shaft to the tip. However, with hair that is not cut bluntly, I'm not sure that is a fair way to judge (or so I'll keep telling myself).
In my quest to prolong my "expiration date", here are the deep conditioning treatments that seem to be beloved amongst stylists, beauty bloggers and You.
Neutrogena Triple Moisture Deep Recovery Hair Mask in the jar got more votes than almost anything else. Kari from Fab Over Forty, suggests wearing it in your hair for a few hours and then rinsing and styling. Others suggested sleeping with the mask in your hair, covered by a shower cap would deliver amazing hair.
Solid Coconut Oil also got loads of votes. It's cheap, easy to apply and a little goes a long way. The favorite way to use it seems to be to apply to dry hair, let sit for a bit, perhaps even overnight (with a cap, this is really oily!) and to shampoo twice or even three times to remove what isn't absorbed by the hair. Coconut oil is one of the few oils that can actually penetrate the hair shaft, so I'm not surprised this ranked so well.
One die hard Wen fan (with the hair you see in the ads!) swears by using WEN Remoist in FIG for two nights in a row on wet hair. She then suggests following up two nights later with an Oil treatment overnight. I've tried Re-Moist and it is an amazing product. However, it's not the least expensive product on the market so you may have to save your pennies to afford it.
A Parisian beauty I know swears by Leonor Greyl and I can't blame her. I've raved about the Huile de Palme for years. Her favorite? Leonor Greyl's Shampooing Creme Moelle De Bambou and Masque Fleurs De Jasmin. The shampoo is SLS-free and the conditioning mask is luxe. What's not to love?
Knowing all of this, I went shopping for the best product I could find that might help heal my hair, as much as something non-living can actually heal. After coming up empty at my drugstore haunts, I landed at Sally's Beauty Supply. I didn't want a product with silicone as the second or third ingredient, I didn't want to spend more than $20 and I wanted ingredients that I know are beneficial to the hair. Plus it had to be beyond super hydrating.
I landed in the ethnic product section of Sally's, which makes sense as ethnic hair is often more coarse or dry than my own Irish/English hair. I settled on the As I Am Naturally brand, which was totally new to me. As I Am caters to African American women who wear their curly hair naturally (meaning not permed or relaxed). I picked up the Hydration Elation Intensive Conditioner (and the Coconut CoWash, which is fabulous for less than $10), a conditioner that contains coconut oil, shea butter, tangerine oil and sugar cane extract. I left it on my wet hair for about an hour and rinsed. Was my hair perfect. No. Was it immensely better? Absolutely. I've been following it up with the Coconut CoWash and am really, really pleased with the results.
Since I originally asked everyone for their opinions, I've been cleansing my hair after every third day of wear. So far, my hair is thanking me. While I've been trying to extend the time between stylings, going too long was drying my hair out. Especially on the ends. Instead, I've been cleansing after three full days of wear and adding TEN, yes I said TEN pumps of Davines Oi to my hair. My hair seems so much happier, after only a week or two!
What is your favorite deep treatment? Give me some inspiration and tell me in the comments!
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Two other great "Sally" finds are Beyond the Zone Last Call Hair Masque-love this & I think you can get a sample packet!-and One 'n Only Aragan Oil. I Have repurchased both of these & they do wonders for dry hair. In the winter, the Aragan Oil totally saves my hair on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteExxxxcellent post. My "expiration date" seems to be about bra length, but I have always envied ladies with oodles of long hair. That may not be practical, as my hair is thinnish, but that doesn't keep me from wanting it anyway and trying to grow it out.
ReplyDeleteI was excited to go check out the Neutrogena one as it's inexpensive, but alas, dimethicone! I'd been using a Moroccanoil masque that I loved - and loved the smell of, warm and nutty and made me think of a summer day on a tropical island - but again, dimethicone. I'll stick with my coconut oil.
ReplyDeleteYou and me both. I really want to extend my expiration date as far as possible. My stylist didn't think I'd get this far, so I'm pretty thrilled. (and paranoid that the wrong product will screw up my hair!)
ReplyDeleteI use coconut oil and will never even bother with any kind of traditional conditioning treatment again. The longer I use it the longer I can go between treatments and it completely eliminated my need to conditioner. Loooooooove it.
ReplyDeleteReally stupid question: what's wrong with silicone and dimethicone and other "cones?" I've been out of touch for a while due to illness. Thanks!
ReplyDelete