New to the Forum / need help/advice

[LaBelleLL]

Hello,
I am new to this Forum and really excited to get started on a new healthy hair regimen. As a child, when my natural hair was under my mother's care, it did fairly well. It was always full, thick and had length. When I went to college, I started straightening my natural hair (via hot combs) and it gradually broke off and got a little thinner. Eventually, I stopped getting hot combs and just kept my hair natural. However, at this time, I started using gels and this didn't allow for healthy hair as well. My hair bounced back, but would break off, etc. After college, I went into the Peace Corps (was in West Africa). Hair-care wasn't too difficult as my hair is natural and I simply wore twists all the time. My hair grew considerably in the first few months, but due to my diet and medicine, my hair became thinner. I returned home after 2 years and in a few months, my hair instantly became fuller and thicker. Most recently, I began doing twice a month hot oils but wasn't really paying attention to my hair overall. The ends started breaking off and when I went in for a recent trim, the stylist had to cut off a considerable amount. One of the first things the consultant said to me was that I needed a protein treatment. I didn't really know what that meant, but she did it anyways and recommended that I come in every month for them. I went home, started researching and is now seriously committing myself to taking better care of my hair. I read different postings on this Forum and came up with a partial regimen. See where I ask for recommendations. Here it is:

Hair type: 3c (natural)
Current length: shoulder length (naturally curly, grows up & out)
Desired length: past bra strap (in straightened hair form)
Regimen:
Wash hair every two weeks
Shampoo: ? any ideas for a moisterizing shampoo?
Conditioner: ? any ideas for a moisterizing conditioner?
After washing, will do a hot oil treatment every two weeks
After washing, will do a protein treatment every month
which/what kind of protein treatments do you recommend? I know of one where you put egg, etc.
Will keep hair in a protective style - twists or buns
Will apply the "Moe Gro" mix nightly
Will apply PROFECTIV Healthy Ends Daily End Strengthener & Deep Repair to the ends nightly and will seal in the moisture with L'huile Maskreti (i'm Haitian) every other night
Will apply a moisterizer to the hair every other day - which moisterizer for the hair do you recommend?

This is my regiment plan for now. Ideas? Comments? Regarding products, I know that everything doesn't work for everyone but hearing your ideas will at least give me a starting point.

Thank you and i'm anxiously looking forward to reading your replies!
Lindsey
p.s - I plan to post pictures at some point.

 

[Je Ne Sais Quoi]

Hi and welcome

For shampoo there really isn't one I can recommend as I don't use one on a regular basis. Right now I'm using Wen and Hair one cleansers in place of shampoo for the most part and they are cleansing and moisturizing.

For conditioner I love love love Aussie Moist

You may want to up the amount you get your hair wet from every two weeks to maybe once a week. Maybe try washing with conditioner on that off week so that you don't have to use shampoo so frequently. You also may want to water down the shampoo you chose so it won't be as harsh/drying.

Have you considered adding cowashing into your regimen?

For leave ins I love Herbal Essence Breaks over and also Jane Carter Nourish and shine

Hope this helps some

 

[Evolving78]

leave the eggs for protein alone. i think you should at least shampoo once a week (due to your produce usage) i use Eluence. good protein treatment is
http://www.paulmitchell.com/Products/PaulMitchell/Strength/PublishingImages/StSSTreatmentProduct.jpg
http://www.paulmitchell.com/Product...blishingImages/Mar09StrengthProducts_SSLT.jpg
conditioner i use eluence for a moisturizing detangling conditioner and i use Lekair Cholestral conditioner (mango) for deep conditioning. i use ISO BouncyCreme
http://www.isohair.com/images.php/58.jpg
i love this stuff. it smells good, non-greasy, and it moisturizes very well. my daughter has 3c type hair and i use it on her as well as myself (4a)

you can use coconut oil and avocado oil mixed for a hot oil treatment.

 

[Je Ne Sais Quoi]

Oops, forgot to mention that for my deep conditioning treatments I use Pantene Relaxed and Natural hair mask

 

[cicilypayne]

:blowkiss:Welcome aboard this is downright the best hair care forum around and you will find all you need. I'm not natural so I can only generally comment and offer you some suggestion. One important thing to do is to keep your thread active by bumping and actively attending to your question in order to keep it visiable so the more experience ladies who may not log on today will have a chance to view this and offer you better advice also make sure you PM people that you have a question for..to make sure they respond to you.

Wash hair every two weeks
Shampoo: Organic Root Stimulating Aloe Shampoo, and Creme of Nature detangling every 7 no more than 9 days.
After washing, will do a protein treatment every other time or use a light protein like Keratin 2 min reconstuctor by Aphogee or
Moisturizing Conditioner: Keracare Humecto
After washing, will do a hot oil treatment every month or Overnight Pre shampoo (pre poo) Use oil
which/what kind of protein treatments do you recommend? I know of one where you put egg, etc. ORS Hair Mayo, APhogee
Will keep hair in a protective style - twists or buns
Will apply the "Moe Gro" mix nightly
Will apply PROFECTIV Healthy Ends Daily End Strengthener & Deep Repair to the ends nightly and will seal in the moisture with L'huile Maskreti (i'm Haitian) every other night
Will apply a moisterizer to the hair every other day - which moisterizer for the hair do you recommend ORS Olive Oil Creme Moisturizer


I hope this helps Don't worry A lot of smart women here they can give you much more saged advice.

 

[tiffers]

Welcome to LHCF!!! :welcome3:

I can't think of any shampoos right now besides NTM. A lot of folks add baking soda to conditioners to cleanse their hair

Some good deep conditioners are Sally's GVP Conditioning Balm, Aubrey Organics White Camellia and DermOrganics Treatment Masque with Argan Oil. Good leave ins are Silicon Mix, Salerm 21 b5 and Alba Botanica leave-in

I would suggest moisturizing every day and not every other day. Is there a reason you only want to moisturize every other day? Oyin, Qhemet and Jane Carter make really good daily mloisturizers. You can get JC and Oyin from www.curlmart.com they have very fast shipping.

A wonderful protein conditioner is Aubrey Organics GPB, the absolute best I've ever tried. Coming in second place is Tigi Dumb Blonde Reconstructor.

 

[tiffers]

cicilypayne, ORS Creamy Aloe is a chelating shampoo, so you definitely don't wanna use it more than once a month

 

[SEMO]

First of all, welcome to the forum.

For a moisturizing shampoo I recommend Organic Root Stimulator Creamy Aloe Shampoo or Garnier Fructis Curl & Shine shampoo.
For a moisturizing conditioner I recommend Dove Intense Moisture conditioner.
For a daily moisturizer I recommend Africa's Best hair mayo.
For a protein treatment I recommend Organic Root Stimulator Hair Mayo.

Also, I recommend that after you put on your daily moisturizer you seal the moisture in with a nice hair oil. Good hair oils are coconut oil, jojoba oil and castor oil (though castor oil is really thick). If you don't want to search for and buy a pure oil, Optimum Oil Therapy Hair and Scalp Quencher has a lot of good oils in it and works very, very well in my opinion.

Finally, all the things I listed are suggestions. These are the things that I use and have found work well for me. You may find something different that works better for you. And as far as I can see, the regimen you set up looks pretty good.

 

[fyb87]

Ok....I think I have 3c hair and I can tell you what I do being that I am natural as well.

I do NOT shampoo my hair more than once a month if that.

I do conditioner washes (co-wash). Which means taking a cheap conditioner and using it to clean your scalp. Massage while you are cleaning (I use Neutrogena Triple Moisture Daily Conditioner).

Once you rinse that out take another conditioner one without silicones and use that to condition and detangle your hair (I use Curl Sublime Moisturizing Conditioner). I know some people use a detangler then another conditioner. That's too many products for me!!

After I detangle I clip hair and bathe the rest of me!

Rinse all of the conditioner out with cold water (or as cold as you can stand).

Then put a little more conditioner in it and comb through.

Get out the shower and use which ever styling product you want (I use Curls Souffle).

This has worked for me and my hair. I typically do wash-n-go's but now I'm trying to learn how to protect my hair. So I've been doing twist and messy buns. With the twist I use organic extra virgin coconut oil when doing it twist mostly concentrating on the ends.

You can check out my fotki for pics. HTH

 

[*Muffin*]

Since some of the products you are using contain -cones, I would use a shampoo with sulfates to combat build-up. Aussie Moist's and Garnier Fructis' shampoos worked pretty well for me. How often you shampoo is up to you, but most people wait at least a week between shampoos, sometimes longer. And the 2 leave-ins I liked that are easily found in most drug-stores and supermarkets were garnier fructis cream leave-in for curly hair and Pantene Pro-v's creme leave-in (don't remember the exact names)

 

[LaBelleLL]

Ladies,
Thank you so much for all of the info! I've written everything down and will narrow down my products. Once again, thank you so much!!

FYB87- would co-washing every week be ok? Is that overkill? In choosing conditioners without silicones, would I read the label? Or is there another way to know?

Thanks!