Curly Girls - Page 9

[mosesface]

i'm so glad that worked ericaleigh!

[Spastica]

Spastica's latest no-poo curly concoction additive

Do you have fine curly hair that does great with no poo? Are you the type of curly-girl who has oily dandruff or oily scalp issues - enough to make you say "wow, my scalp smells RANCID!" but, oddly, has dry hair ends?

This concoction is for you.

Make a bottle of of the following essential oils:

Lavender - 1 capful
Tea Tree - 1 capful
Grapefruit* - 20 drops or so
Bergamot* - 20 drops or so

* You can substitute other citrus fruit essential oils

Mix the essential oils in a small container. Shake the bottle to combine oils. I use a plastic travel sized shampoo container that I bought at Walmart/Target - it squirts out a sizeable drop at a time, so I'm happy with it. A glass vial works too.

In your hand, mix your lightweight conditioner (I use Suave Tropical coconut conditioner), 1 tablespoon baking soda, and 2-3 drops of your essential oil mixture. Take a finger and mix this in your palm.

No-poo as usual to drenched hair and do finger scalp scrub. You may notice tiny bubbles on your fingers too! Take some water with your hands and sprinkle water in if there's not enough water on your hair to let the no-poo mixture fully run through your hair and scalp without rinsing away. Let this sit on your hair and scalp while you do other stuff.

After some minutes, rinse thoroughly with water. Finger comb your hair and scalp while rinsing to get rid of all the baking soda mixture.

Apply apple cider vinegar mixture. I use 1/2 apple cider vinegar and 1/2 water in a spray bottle. Spray all over head and squirt more at the ends of your hair.

Take your same lightweight conditioner, squirt a drop or two of your essential oil mixture again and mix. Finger comb this through your hair, ears down, and massage the remainder of the conditioner mixture on the ends of your hair.

Let this all sit on your hair again and do other stuff.

Rinse thoroughly.

Wrap wet hair in towel to wick moisture, take towel off after a few minutes and comb hair with wide toothed comb. Style as usual.

You won't have a smelly oily-smell scalp and the ends of your hair won't be so dry and staticky.

You may experience a little bit of flyaway flakes because the citrus oils acts like a degreaser to your scalp and hair. The mixture gets rid of the oil and whatever gunk and dandruff was sealed under the oily layer of goo is now freed. It'll take a few days for this stuff to get removed. Keep finger scrubbing your scalp in the shower and help your scalp out by semi-firmly brushing your scalp before you shower.

Hope this works for you as it did for me today! My ends don't feel dry.

[CrunchyKat]

Crazy curly hair here!

[rowansmomma]

Okay, this is a huge thread.........I'm a curly girl and I'm really interested in the techniques mentioned here BUT, I have eczema in my scalp and it results in dandruff. If I don't wash my scalp it gets really itchy, but I can't use shampoos that are super drying either. SO, whats a girl like me to do??

AND, what does "no poo" mean?

[rowansmomma]

Wait...........no poo is the opposite of SHAMpoo. Nevermind that question.

[Spastica]

You're actually cleaning your hair with a shampoo alternative, which is called no-poo. No poo actually lessens or eliminates some cases of scalp eczema and sebhorrheic dermatitis.

Good luck!

[rowansmomma]

Here's my hair.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...momma/hair.jpg

[rowansmomma]

Originally Posted by Spastica

http://lookup.avatars.yahoo.com/wima...edium&type=png

You're actually cleaning your hair with a shampoo alternative, which is called no-poo. No poo actually lessens or eliminates some cases of scalp eczema and sebhorrheic dermatitis.

Good luck!

Okay! Thanks!

I'm nervous to try this though......I don't know why, what do I have to lose?

BTW, how do you guys feel about biolage products? I just read the ingredients in the conditioner and there is nothing with -cone in it.......

[rowansmomma]

Oh, one more thing..........why BROWN sugar? All brown sugar is is regular sugar and molasses. Is there something about the molasses that is good? Or is it just for the smell? Can I use regular sugar or can I use kosher salt (if the point of the granule stuff is for scrubbing)?

[mosesface]

hey rowansmomma!!

regular (white) sugar dissolves much more quickly than brown and therefore is really difficult to distribute throughout. if you don't have any brown sugar, you can use regular, just make sure you mix it into a paste with your conditioner. also, sugar has glycolic acid in it, which curly hair loves. salt does not.

some gals like to make a salt water spray for their hair out of the shower as a kind of styling product. it gives the same effect as a day at the beach. but since you're dealing with dry, itchy scalp, i'd avoid the salt.

as for biolage, i don't know about the ingredients, but i don't think it would be optimal just due to the price. i like to stay with a conditioner that i can afford to use up within a few weeks. also, most of biolage conditioners are pretty thin which might make them more difficult to make into paste.

hope that helps!!

[rowansmomma]

Originally Posted by mosesface

hey rowansmomma!!

regular (white) sugar dissolves much more quickly than brown and therefore is really difficult to distribute throughout. if you don't have any brown sugar, you can use regular, just make sure you mix it into a paste with your conditioner. also, sugar has glycolic acid in it, which curly hair loves. salt does not.

some gals like to make a salt water spray for their hair out of the shower as a kind of styling product. it gives the same effect as a day at the beach. but since you're dealing with dry, itchy scalp, i'd avoid the salt.

as for biolage, i don't know about the ingredients, but i don't think it would be optimal just due to the price. i like to stay with a conditioner that i can afford to use up within a few weeks. also, most of biolage conditioners are pretty thin which might make them more difficult to make into paste.

hope that helps!!

Ooh, good point about the price.........They are pretty expensive and I suppose I'll be going through truck loads. I have a TON of hair, its to the middle of my back and its painfully thick too.

Thanks for clearing up the sugar stuff, it makes perfect sense.

Thank you for your help!!

[mosesface]

you are very welcome!

and just remember, you can always experiment with whatever you have right now. all you have to lose is ONE hairday (or hour, if you just can't stand it ).

[rowansmomma]

Originally Posted by mosesface

you are very welcome!

and just remember, you can always experiment with whatever you have right now. all you have to lose is ONE hairday (or hour, if you just can't stand it ).

Thats a good point!!! Why should I be nervous?? I'm silly.

I'm sure my scalp will thank me. As it is though, I only wash every third day.....but see, nothing in between. Probably a good brown sugar scrub will really help my scalp. I NEVER have oil problems.......I've gone a WEEK with no washing and still no oil. Yeah, I'd say its pretty dry. I should have considered this long ago though, I have eczema on my skin and I never use soap on it. I keep it under control by NOT using soap. Seems it would be the same rule for my scalp, huh?

[mosesface]

i hear ya.
my hair (my whole body -- in the winter sometimes i think i need glue to keep my skin on) is extremely dry. if it weren't for frizz, i could go weeks without washing my hair and never, ever have anything close to oily.

from looking at your pic (very lovely, btw), my hair is longer and much curlier than yours and i have HUGELY benefitted from the whole nopoo experiment. my hair is softer, shinier, and alot more lively, for lack of a better term. it's incredible how just helping my hair has made me feel better all over. and i guess that makes sense, since as i'm sure you are well aware, having this much/this type of hair can be such a big part of who we are. in the summer i often refer to it as a fur coat on my head. so why shouldn't it be the most luxurious, well cared for fur coat??

[Spastica]

Great pic of your hair! Very pretty. Let's see if the no poo process helps you not suffer so much on top and always be like this:

The cheapo conditioners are nothing more than detanglers, so they don't weigh your hair down. It just acts like a nice thick base for your baking soda to dissolve in and act like an alkali. It also keeps it somewhat neutral for curly hair so it doesn't get too dry and you can work with it more like you would a shampoo than just the baking soda and water thing people do. You can keep your regular conditioner for the ends of your hair for extra conditioning if you'd like.

Get rid of the products and buildup first with baking soda and your regular shampoo for a few weeks, then start the no poo process.

Just turns out better that way and gives you a chance to get used to baking soda and scalp scrubbing.

People who suffer from psoriasis and eczema actually let a mixture of baking soda and water sit on their scalp for a long time to get rid of plaques. You can look up baking soda and psoriasis or eczema on the internet and find all sorts of people's comments and how they love baking soda.

After any baking soda on your hair and rinsing out the first few weeks, use a vinegar rinse for your hair and a good conditioner so that your hair doesn't feel like straw. The first few times you use baking soda, regardless of application, you will feel like you have straw hair. Don't worry, your hair isn't damaged, it's just lacking acids and feels rough. It also gets rid of all the mineral deposits from hard water, any silicones, and other nasty stuff.

It's best to get a haircut before starting no poo so you're starting with a clean slate. No damaged, straggly, split ends to start with. Plus, you'll notice how the no poo process works on your regular hair better than you would on split hair, and your hair looks nice and full too.

It's definitely not attractive to have rat-tails - the scrawny, damaged, all hair different lengths from lack of a trim for eons, all crawling down your back. Not chic, not pretty, doesn't look healthy.

You know who you are.

[Spastica]

BTW, Mosesface -- you've learned a lot, grasshoppa!

[mosesface]

what can i say? i had a good teacher.

[rowansmomma]

You guys are funny.

I'm going to get a trim tomorrow (its been um..........almost a YEAR!!!). I'm excited about the baking soda thing and the eczema. I'd LOVE to not be all the time.....I swear people probably think I have bugs. Its worse when I'm stressed (my eczema flairs up BAD then....I once had it under my armpits so bad it swelled an inch and a half off my skin. That was sexy.).

My next question is this.......You know how when you sleep your hair becomes a big ol mess...... Well, I have layers in my hair so I can't do that braid thing (I MIGHT be able to french braid it now, but I'm not sure). Would putting a wrap or something on my head protect my hair more? Ideas?

[rowansmomma]

And thank you for the compliments btw!!! It has grown a bit since that pic.....so its quite a bit more scraggly now. :

[CrunchyKat]

I do not know how to style my hair curly. I always throw it up in a bun or braid it, or straighten it, and by the end of the night it's usually in horrible tangles. The last time I really styled my hair curly was in highschool. I don't understand how I ever got it to look that good. But it's the only picture I have of my hair culy and down. My hair is much longer now. About 3-4 inches above my crack,

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7479/jenkatqb9.jpg

I constantly have split ends. If I trim it, I have split ends again within a week. I deep condition it, I've used hot oils, I've not washed it for a week, I really don't know where to start? I can straighten my hair like no one you've ever met, I've been doing it for 10 years!! But now that I have a kid, it's too much work, so I never straighten it anymore.