:D I've decided to start a hair journal today, and I've very excited about it!  

I always had long hair (to my butt) until I hit adolescence and chopped it to my chin.  That was age 16.  I really enjoyed short hair for a while, but wanted to grow it long again when I hit college.  I couldn't do it, though!  Short hair was too easy and trendy.  There were points where I would want to grow it long and would grow it to a little past my shoulders and then chop it.  So it always stayed chin/neck length.  

Last January ('04), I got a perm (ugh!).  It was a terrible decision, still regret it to this day.  After a month, I went in and got it straightened.  Needless to say, hair was DAMAGED.  

So I cut off as much of the damage as possible and once again decided to grow it.  This was March '04.  Things were going very well until my wedding this past January ('05).  There were 4 main functions (I got married in India; very traditional Indian wedding and all) and I got my hair done for all of them.  I let the hairstylist do his thing and he teased my hair.  Teased, teased, teased.  And damaged it.  

So now, a few months later, I have a lot of breakage on my scalp.  Flyaways that can be easily seen unless i pat them down with leave-in conditioner or oil.  I've changed my hair habits quite a bit since I've gotten back to the states.  No more blow-drying for sure.  I tried to change it to blow-drying on cool, but that was still making my hair much too dry.  

I've been dusting my splits a lot.....I actually had a ton of them, and I'm nowhere near finished with it.  My hair's not doing too bad with length, measured at 19 inches from the hairline.  The breakage it what bothers me sooooooo much.    :(

But I have to live with it.  Thus begins my journey.  

I want long hair.  Goal is to waist, and then I will see if I want more.  Right now my hair is oiled with coconut oil.  I ordered Jojoba oil online earlier last week and should have it in a few days-Monday or Tuesday, hopefully.  I bought some mayo to try that as a conditioner, but I don't know when I'm going to use it because I like to wash in the mornings, and it's not a wash day until tomorrow, which is a work day and I don't have enough time in the morning for a mayo treatment.  

So we shall see!   :D

So I went ahead and decided to wash today instead of tomorrow.  I really wanted to try the mayo.  So I took it out of the fridge (don't know why I put it in the fridge since nowhere on the bottle does it say I should) and opened it up.  So this is the first time I ever bought mayo let alone put it on my hair.  The smell is what got me first.  It was disgusting.  But I toughed it out and put it on my hair.  It was very gross.  I let it sit on my hair for about a 1/2 hour.  I wanted to leave it on longer, but I couldn't handle the spell much longer than that.  Then I did a CWC wash in the shower.  

These are the products I'm currently using:

Shampoo - Nature's Gate Natural Jojoba Oil Shampoo
Ingredients: Barley Water, Sodium Laureth Sulfate (from coconut oil), Cocamidopropyl Betaine (from coconut oil), Cocamide DEA (from coconut oil), Keratin Amino Acids, Panthenol (provitamin B5), Balsam Peru, Allantoin, Comfrey Extract, Coffee and Wild Pansy Extracts (natural sunscreens- Anti UVA and B), Chamomile Extract, Tocopherol (natural vitamin E), Magnesium Citrate, Henna Extract, Citric Acid (derived from fruit extract), Soap Bark Extract, Rosemary and Lemongrass Extract, Nettle Extract, Apple Pectin, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Phenoxyethanol, Organically Derived Fragrance Oils, Caramel, Sodium Chloride.

Conditioner - Nature's Gate Keratin Conditioner with   Panthenol.  
Ingredients: Barley Water, Stearalkonium Chloride (a nitrogen based conditioner), Glyceryl Stearate, Natural Glycerin, Cetyl Alcohol, Cottonseed Oil, Olive Oil, Keratin Amino Acids, Balsam Peru, Tocopherol (natural vitamin e), Panthenol (provitamin B-5), Vegetable Oil, Retinyl Palmitate and Cholecalciferol (vitamin A and D), Coffee and Wild Pansy Extracts (natural sunscreens-anti UVA and B), Citric Acid (organically derived fruit extract), Rosemary and Lemongrass Extract, Organically derived Fragrance Oil, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Phenoxyethanol, Carmine, Caramel, PEG-100 Stearate (naturally derived emulsifier), Disodium EDTA, Sodium Chloride, Nucleic Acids

Leave-In - The above conditioner, diluted with water.

I regularly oil before a wash with coconut oil, but will use jojoba when it comes in a few days.  

Hair is pretty soft.  Nothing different with mayo than without it.  Noticed some more splits, though.  But I did get a chance to sit in the sun today (not outside though - not YET that is) and that's when I noticed more than usual. So some more dusting.  

What gets a little frustrating with washing hair 2-3 times a week is that my hair gets pretty greasy the 2nd day.  So I washed it today and by tomorrow night it'll be greasy.  I'm thinking of ways to prevent that if I can.  I will brainstorm!!

Ever since I started oiling my hair at night and washing it in the mornings my face has been breaking out with pimples.  The pimples are mostly at my hairline and chin.  I tie my hair up when I go to sleep, but it usually comes undone.  My hair's not long enough to brain, and I don't want a really tight ponytail because that will cause breakage.  

Hmmmm.  I think I will try to oil right before a wash.  Even if I have to leave the oil on for only 5 minutes before washing.  I think I will try that Wednesday morning (Monday now).  

As for the greasy hair.... I think what I will try is only conditioning the ends.  What I usually do is oil, then do a CWC scalp included.  SO maybe oil, then a CWC and avoid the scalp when applying conditioner.  Hair was a little greasy this morning and I didn't feel like wearing it down so I just put it up.  I just washed it yesterday afternoon, too.  I'm going to do some  hunting on using baking soda or other nutural products to degrease hair.

Alrighty-

So, today is a wash day.  I got up this morning and oiled with coconut oil (jojoba in the shipping process), then shampooed (diluted with water) and conditioned, lastly rinsed with cold water.  Towel dried, put in leave-in conditioner (usual conditioner, diluted with water) and let air dry.  

My hair was frizzy!  I have breakage, and those strands were stinking out, but the ends were also.  After the top hair dried, I put some leave-in conditioner on my hands and patted the strands down and left for work.  40 minutes later and they're sticking back up.  So my hair is now up.  

I'm considering going back to using cones and clarifying with ACV.  The cones gave me a smoother look.  

Or I can just put my hair up more often, but I enjoy leaving it down.  More experimenting on the way!!!

At least my pimples are going away since I havn't been leaving oil on overnight.  Yay for that.  

Till the next hair adventure.........

Arrrrrrgggggggggg......

I'm pretty frustrated.  I've been using products without cones for about 3 weeks now and I am thinking about going back.  I'm going to test it out tomorrow (or today) with my Herbal Essences conditioner that I luckily didn't throw away.  I'm going to use hair oil, shampoo with Nature's Gate, condition with Nature's Gate, then condition with Herbal Essences.  I'm trying to put a stop to the warped, weird strands that stick out.  Maybe  try wet combing, too.  I miss cones!!!!!

The jojoba oil FINALLY came in the mail.  Altogether I spent about $26 for a 16 oz bottle.  It was time for a wash, so I oiled with Jojoba (not too much, it's expensive!!), then did a WCC, the last condition being my herbal essences that has a cone in it.  I also tried Frizz Ease and, WOW my hair looked great!  I think I'll keep up with cones and just clarify every 2 weeks or so.  

Sadly, I found a bunch more split ends in my hair that I snipped.  I was tempted to go in for a trim, but talked myself out of it.  I knew I would regret it.  

I'm not sure if I'm getting new split ends or not.  

Hi!

I didn't find your hairtype anywhere...but maybe I can help a little anyway. :) My hair isn't damaged badly, but it is very fragile and splits easily.
  Some things I've discovered in fighting against splits.
1) Regular dusting. If it has splitted, it should be snipped away. I myself need to dust a little at least once a week.
2)Moisture, moisture, moisture...moisturizing hair well helps. Jojoba oil is good, but also misting hair helps. Wet bunning might also help to trap moisture into hair.
3)Protection. Use only gentle hairtoys, don't wear hair down too much, but rather in braids- or even better, in buns, where dry ends are tucked inside the bun. Check my scarf bun instructions from casual hairstyles board- it's a very protective style, and you can even oil your hair generously before covering it with a scarf.

By the way, I'm not very convinced that a trim would solve all the problems- at least in my case, the splits aren't concentrated in the end, but seem to be everywhere. So, after a big trim, I would have less length and would still have splits.  :-/

Hope this helps :)

Thanks Galadriel!

That was helpful.  I don't think I'm going to be going in for a trim becaue I spent so much time yesterday dusting and I think I'm actually getting somewhere with it.  I did notice that some strands were broken all throughout the strand and not just the ends so a trim, as you said, wouldn't even get that.

I think I'm a 1a or 1b, I'm not really sure.  My pic isn't working right now, but I'll get it back up soon.  

I think I will start wearing my hair up more.  There sadly isn't too much I can do with it right now except a ponytail or a hair clip because it's only a little past my shoulders and layered.  I will try misting, though.  Maybe with light conditioner mixed with water. Or maybe a few drops of jojoba mixed with water.  Actually, that might not work unless I shake well and quickly spritz.  Or rose water, but I have no idea where to get that from.

My hubby told me yesterday that I have lots of dandruff.  I didn't really notice it until he pointed it out and sure enough.  From other posts I've read that ACV helps so I will do that for tomorrow morning's wash.

So I did a coconut oil application, left on for 2 hours, shampooed (diluted w/ water), applied ACV diluted with water, and conditioned with Herbal Essences.  

Oh so soft!!  The product buildup is gone.  

I'm not so sure what to do with my Jojoba oil.  It's too expensive to do a deep treatment, so I use coconut for that.  I don't yet need to apply oil at the ends as a leave-in because the ends aren't all that dry and even a little oil makes my hair feel oily.  I suppose I'll just hold onto it and use it when my hair is longer.  

Here is my hair type according to Fia's Hairtyping System:

1)     1a (I don't think I'm a 1b due to no volume)

2)     Normal and Coarse (half a head of each I think).  If I             take some strands between my fingers, they are really coarse and others not so much).  

Some seem really warped and I think it might be due to blowdrying (which has ceased for about 1 month now).

3)     Thin hair (the circumference is 1.5 inches)

I never really thought I had thin hair until now.  My sister's hair is much thicker.  I have straight hair, my sister has wavy hair, and my brother has curly hair (super curly hair!!).  

At least the dandruff's gone!!

ohhhhhhhhhhhhh....the weather's getting warmer.  Went for a walk today with hubby after a hairwash and it was terrific.  I haven't worked out in about 2 weeks  :(
I'm sick of my exercise videos, but now that it's walkable weather.....  :D

After a wash and after my hair has dried I look in the mirror and turn slightly so the light catches the side of my hair and it looks pretty damaged.  There are pieces coming out all over the place.  My hair looks good the morning after a wash (when I wash the evening before) though.  I suppose sleeping on it settles it.

Does anyone else have this?  Is it normal?  I don't remember having this a couple of years ago before I used a hairdryer.  

???

I was at Walmart over the weekend and 1st stop with the hair isle.  I ended up buying Infusium 23 Maximum Body conditioner and leave-in conditioner for normal to dry hair.  

My hair looked terrific after I used the products yesterday.  The products have a lot of cones, but I figure my ACV rinses will minimize damage.

I did another S&D for splits yesterday.  Didn't notice too many splits at the ends but A LOT of middle splits that look like dust  and the hair will break at that point when gently tugged.  So lots of those.  And some where all the way up the shaft, so it was pretty sad to cut those off (adding to the flyaways).  Oh well.  Better to cut the damage than get more damage.