if you're here for something entertaining, you might as well move on. the title says it all.
i've always had issues with my hair. it's naturally curly, which isn't as sweet as some might think. it tangles easy, breaks easy, gets dry quickly (because the oils in the scalp that the hair needs can't get to the ends as easily as they can for straight hair), and often looks more frizzy or messy than curly. get it long enough and it looks like someone plopped a triangle on my head -- flat on top and fuzzed out at the bottom. i tend to sleep on my hair wet to try to encourage it to curl, and most days this works. some days it looks like the triangle exploded, and combing it out usually only makes it worse.
so, like most women, i have this love-hate relationship with my hair.
my husband, on the other hand, has a hate-ignore relationship with his hair. it's also curly/wavy, which he hates, and has many of the same issues as mine -- dryness, fuzziness. in his case, however, it's thinning as well and he doesn't have the triangle issue to deal with. he also just tends to brush it, put it in a tail, and go. like most men, he doesn't particularly pay that much attention to it.
but he definitely wants to control that wave, while i want to encourage mine. we tend to use the same shampoo, but different conditioners, and he doesn't sleep on his wet. we've both also been rather frustrated with the whole shampoo thing. the best shampoos are generally sold in salons and cost way too much. we've been fairly happy with what we do use (pantene pro v), but it still doesn't quite completely take care of our hair. we've tried some of the other salon recommended stuff that can be found in your average grocery store, but have hated every single one of them (tresemmé really sucked). so we'd pretty much resigned ourselves to having our issues.
until last night.
while we blew saxy's paycheck on a couple of books (literally, TWO), cat food, toothpaste and toothbrushes, and the like, we also needed to get the kids some shampoo. i'd heard of some new products by pantene that i wanted to check out as well. we not only found the newly released products, but several others they have out that we didn't know about. for me we picked up the hydrating mask treatment and light spray conditioner. for him we found moisture renewal shampoo (which also strengthens hair) and styling milk that will loosen his curl. and for the both of us we picked up breakage defense conditioner. late last night, i went ahead and tried the new stuff.
and . . . oh. my. god.
my ends have been the worst -- dry, broken, frazzled. my hair is just above my waist when dry (a little longer when wet since curly hair has that bounce factor), and i've been considering doing a serious 3" or so cut. it's not growing, i can't afford to trim it every other month the way i should. the part closer to my scalp is fairly healthy, but everything else . . . just yech. even after washing and conditioning with the hydrating curls shampoo and conditioner, the ends have felt dry and rough even when wet.
last night i started with the moisture renewal shampoo, and did the second wash with my usual. i put in the hydrating mask treatment while i soaped up the rest of me. when i rinsed, my hair felt silky smooth right down to the tips. the sensation was totally different than anything i've used before, even from a salon. while i shaved, i let the breakage defense conditioner do its job. while i rinsed, my hair was not only silky smooth but sleek, detangled, soft. but, of course, this is while my hair is wet. it's almost always different when you dry, even with the good stuff, so i toweled it out, and it was still nice. the ends were a little rough, but i don't expect this stuff to perform miracles and certainly mot after one use -- and i'll probably still need to get a cut eventually, just not 3" or more. last but not least, the light spray leave-in conditioner and sleep time.
this was the big test for me, actually. it was raining, so i expected to be miss frizz this morning. but all that conditioner, even if i used only a little of each, could also make the hair heavy and take the curl away. i figured i'd just adjust as necessary once i saw how my hair responded today.
no frizz. plenty of curl. very few tangles. and the curls stayed even after brushing. plenty of body -- it's not flat at all. full, thick, curly without the frizz. the ends still feel a little rough, but not as bad as they were before i tried this stuff. the rest of the hair is soft and supple. jewel has pointed out that the ends are still dry, but, as i said, i'm not expecting overnight miracles. just better, healthier hair. and i think i found the products, at last, that will help me get it without having to pay $20-$50 or more per item.
i have always preferred pantene, yet i'm always trying something new offered by the salon in a desperate attempt to improve my hair and not have to cut 3" or more every time i get a cut.
i've finally found my hair care products. i won't be tempted by salon stuff again.
now i've just got to figure out which products to use as an alternate when i start to get that shampoo burnout from using the same thing too long.
