sxo

Hello! i've been a frequent lurker of this forum when i discovered there was an entire league of oppressed curly haired women, just like myself. Recently i've made the plunge and decided to completely cut out hair straighteners and embrace my hair, i use sillicone free products and conditioner wash my hair most of the time but it's just too greasy to not be able to shampoo it. I use boots curl creme to style and i sometimes use a diffuser. HOWEVER RECENTLY my hair has just been going so limp and not curling, i'm usually anything from a 2b to 3a but my hairs been going to almost a 2a and just having no volume and being almost thin, the ends feel really dry and thin and i'm not sure what it's a result of! does anybody have any tips? i can show photos of the change in my hair if that would be helpful. thanks for reading everyone

Ml001

My first thought is that you may need some protein.

__________________
remember, with all advice or suggestions for your hair, YMMV!!
My hair:
2b wavy, medium texture, low porosity, med-high density. Protein finicky.
My routine:
Cleansing: DCNP, every 4-5 days (occasionally use CJ cleansers).
RO: CJSC, occasionally use JCDC
LI: KCKT or CJSL
Gel: KCCC, CJCIAB for 2nd day hair (sometimes third)

Heat is my friend: warm water rinses, steam caps, and diffuse dry. I love CLU cloths and my Denman.

sxo

how would i go about that?

anonymous_135172

I second the protein suggestion, I use a Gelatin treatment , this site was very helpful to me
Pedaheh's Hair Blog: Science-y Hair Blog Recipes

__________________
2b/c
cg 01/10/13

Hair Properties: normal / high porosity, medium density, fine/medium texture
Climate : hot humid summer, coastal GA

Co-wash: Suave Naturals everlasting sunshine
Rinse out :Tresemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture, GVP, Garnier Fructis Pure and Clean
LI: SMCHM ,
Gel: Biosilk Rock Hard gel my HG
Mousse : HETT, 3 in 1

Love ACV , pedaheh's gelatin treatment
My hair hates flax seed gel, everything Deva curl and Curl Keeper,

Aqua_Lily

But if she washes with shampoo every now and then, and her ends are dry, I would say she needs a deep conditioning treatment. That's a very moisturizing conditioner with honey. You have to leave it in your hair for a while and preferably use heat to allow the conditioner to deeply penetrate your hair. An example is Curl Junkie Deep Fix moisturizing Banana + hibiscus.

And I would follow it up with a protein treatment.

__________________

Natural blonde going for 53 inches length!
M MP HE HD (med texture, med porosity, high elasticity, high density)

HG products:
Lo-poo: Nature's Gate CR
CW: Elvive Volume Collagen
RO: EO Keratin conditioner
LI: Elvive Volume Collagen, KCKT
Sealer: grapeseed oil
Style: Kiss My Face gel, Studioline MineralFX gel
PT: own recipe
Hair growth stim.: JBCO with EVCO

iherb.com 5-10$ discount code: VHT541 Many natural hair products

Ml001

A PT should always be followed by a DT.

The best way to determine if your hair needs protein is to do a stretch test. http://www.organiccolorsystems.com/t...-stretch-test/ But limp curls are a good sign that they need a boost of strength. Ignore the product recommendations on this link - just use the how-to info regarding the test/results.

For me, a PT consists of a RO conditioner with protein in it. I can easily overload on protein. For others, it is a recipe as in the link above or plain gelatin (which I think is addressed on the same link or another page at her site). There are also commercially prepared PTs such as joico k pak reconstructive.

__________________
remember, with all advice or suggestions for your hair, YMMV!!
My hair:
2b wavy, medium texture, low porosity, med-high density. Protein finicky.
My routine:
Cleansing: DCNP, every 4-5 days (occasionally use CJ cleansers).
RO: CJSC, occasionally use JCDC
LI: KCKT or CJSL
Gel: KCCC, CJCIAB for 2nd day hair (sometimes third)

Heat is my friend: warm water rinses, steam caps, and diffuse dry. I love CLU cloths and my Denman.

lcl0706

OP - what are your hair properties? What products are you using? To me it sounds like it needs protein. Your hair sounds a lot like mine. I cannot co-wash. I have to shampoo. I have fine textures hair that benefits greatly from protein.

Shampoo is not the evil of the world, it's really not. The key is not to use harsh sulfates daily. Maybe you need to be a regular low-pooer, if your roots get greasy. As far as dry ends, focus some more moisture on them.

A DT doesn't need to contain honey, but if your hair is limp & curl pattern is loosening, I highly doubt you need a DT. Try protein first. And a PT doesn't HAVE to be followed up with a DT. I never DT. My hair gets OCd if I look at a DT. Judge what conditioner you should use by how your hair feels as you're rinsing out a PT. I can follow mine up with a light RO like VO5 or suave naturals. If your hair feels really dry and rough, use a stronger conditioner.

__________________
fine, thin, normal porosity. Non-CG, but I treat it with TLC. I can't co-wash more than 1x a week, & I have to use T-Gel in rotation due to scalp issues.

Poo: T-Gel (SLES), Burt's Bees Grapefruit (sodium coco-sulfate)
RO:TN, Nexxus Youth Renewal
LI: KCKT
PT: gelatin PT, ION EC
Stylers: Giovanni mousse, TIGI Curls Rock amplifier (a-cone)
Gels: SCC spray gel, Ouidad Climate Control (d-cone)

sxo

Hey i did the wet stretch thing, my hair stretched and then broke! sounds like i've been treating it pretty badly. I live in the UK so it's really difficult finding good products for curly hair, especially if you're on a budget. I'm a student so i really can't afford to splash out on things. I bought a conditioner with protein and i'm gonna start using sulphate free shampoo, i might try making a gelatine hair mask.

To lcl0706, i currently use this curl creme type gel when my hairs wet and tressemme naturals moisture conditioner or garnier fructis conditioner, to shampoo my hair i use palmolives naturals milk&honey which is pretty basic.

This is all pretty new to me as i have always straightened my hair a lot and have never really known how to look after my hair as my mums hair has always been pretty low maintenance and doesn't have any of the problems i face.

Thank you to everyone who replied!