New to CG, and I'm a mess!

lizpiper · 06-13-2011, 02:08 PM

Hi everyone! I'm new to these ideas and I'm hoping a bunch of somebodies can set me straight! I'm roughly a 3b/c. I jumped in and sidelined my sulfates and silicones. I plop my hair after all kinds of conditioning, leave-ins, curl formers, gels, and it looks fine. When it dries it looks just awful! A few formed curls and the rest of it is east-west fuzz, getting worse as the day goes on. It takes me 30 minutes and untold frustration to finger-comb out the tangles. I never feel like I'm getting out all the sheddies and I think they must be contributing to the knots. The hair feels porous: rough in texture, thin and thick on the same shaft, but it doesn't sink in water. Pull out one hair and see the angry shape, it even does a 180 and twists back on itself.

There are tons of products, everyone seems to be using at least 6, but I don't want to blow the budget on more and more hair care products! I've tried the home-made deep conditioner, hair looked great- until it dried.

I'm picking up too many mixed messages. Silicones are bad because they don't let moisture in - but it seems to make sense that you wash with a sulfate and get the cones out, the hair absorbs the water, then you put the cones back on - good thing, right? Apparently not. Does the hair actually absorb anything but water? If not, what are all these other products doing? One person says the hair absorbs the water and that's good, another says it makes the hair swell, the cuticle stand out, and that's bad. I read you shouldn't touch your curls until your hair is dry, or it can frizz. Also that it frizzes if it touches your collar or even another hair. It sounds like it's inevitable!

Thanks for letting me rant, I hope someone can untangle some information for me, right now the inside of my head looks like the outside! I'm probably going to drop off the wagon because flat-ironing my hair kept it almost worry-free for a week, and now I'm stressing over it every minute of every day.

curlsr2fun · 06-13-2011, 03:19 PM

I have 3c curls and the best product that works for me as far as curl definition and combating frizz is kccc knot today and curling custard. My hair doesn't frizz at all (that's unheard of for me) and I let it air dry or I dry under a hooded dryer for like 15 minutes then scrunch out the crunchiness with a teeny bit of shine serum. Soft fluffy frizz free curls. I do get a lot of shrinkage though.

If I wouldn't have found these two products I probably wouldn't have bothered staying curly.

Mixed chicks with a little gel on top works really well for my children and my sisters. It's a little to greasy and for me and I like more hold.

nakka89 · 06-13-2011, 04:08 PM

Mixed chicks works for me as well.btw mixed chicks shampoo has sulfates and conditioner has cones...i was going through the same confusion with all the no cones no sulfates blah blah blah...i just started trying to figure stuff out for myself...i figure it doesn't really matter as long as you use the products in the right order...for me I use the sulfate (mixed chicks) shampoo to wash out the product build up, then condition with a moisturizing conditioner (ex. Herbal essences: totally twisted), rinse with cold water then, while hair is soaking wet, add in all my moisturizers (shea butter, shea moisture curl enhancing smoothie), then put the cone (mixed chicks) leave in conditioner on top and seal with oil...that way my hair gets all the moisture it needs and the cones seal it in!! Thats how I made sense of it lol...i hope it works for you too!!
Also when my curls need an extra boost (more definition) I put some gel on top of all of that other stuff I use, then plop over night...by morning it's ready to go!!
I hope you figure out what your hair needs!! I know it's a struggle and it's confusing but u just have to be patient, try different things, and figure out what your hair likes and stick with it!! Good luck!!! Dont give up!!

Sent from my HTC EVO