Kinky curly curling custard dry hair- possibly horsetail?

Do6459

I'm really sorry if this has been discussed before but I've looked everywhere and haven't found anyone having the same problem. I went natural about 8 years ago and discovered KKCC about 4 years ago. I loved it! It was the only thing that defined my 3c hair and kept it from tangling and matting when curly and gave me more than one day hair. I've used it on and off (when I couldn't afford it) but the last period of using it (8ish months) ive noticed ny hair changing. I think it possibly could have been happening over the whole 4 years but haven't notoced it till now. It's gotten drier and less manageable and the KKCC seemed to be working less- not really giving me even 2nd day hair.

For ages I didn't really think anything of it as the longer ive been wearing my hair natural the less I care about frizz and actually prefer my hair less defined and more wild and puffy. I thought maybe it was just healthier even... But when I tried straightening it the other day for the first time this year it felt much drier and reverted and puffed really quickly! Much worse than when I used to straighten and heat damage my hair daily!! So I don't think its healthy I think it's dry.

For ages I thought it was protein overload, then lack of deep conditioning the over-handling, then lack of protein, then lack of silicones (weirdly Ive found my hair hates oil as A leave in- goes frizzy and dry- but loves silicones so recently added them back in- but that's a whole other story!) .

Anyway I decided to stop using the KKCC for a while just using a thick conditioner as a leave in and it seems a bit better. Still much less defined than a few years ago but slightly softer. I did a bit of research on the ingredients and read that horsetail is an antiseptic and can be drying to hair!

I don't know why but I feel that this could be the problem?? What do you think. I remember I tried using aloe Vera juice on my hair once and it did kinda dry it out so possibly its this but I use condioners eith aloe Vera in them and it seems to be fine.

Has anyone else found horsetail products to be drying?

Sorry very long winded- first question so I'll learn to get more to the point!

russianprncss

I don't know about the horsetail, but I know what you mean about the drying factor of it.

My curls don't last with the KCCC I think BECAUSE it tends to dry them out so they fall flat. But, here I am, with just 2C hair. I think if you're going to keep using it (or any gel), and this is what I've been learning, is you need a really good leave-in underneath with possibly an additional moisturizer.

That's interesting about the horsetail. Didn't think about that. Also, addressing your concern about aloe vera.... It's also possible your hair doesn't like it. You might try something else. I've had great luck with coconut oil (maybe start pre-pooing with that)? I notice when I pre-poo with coconut oil it helps a ton on the moisture front.

And did you know your hair changes like every 7 years or something like that? Maybe your hair's just going through its own changes!

sixelamy

Do6459 wrote: »

But when I tried straightening it the other day for the first time this year it felt much drier and reverted and puffed really quickly! Much worse than when I used to straighten and heat damage my hair daily!! So I don't think its healthy I think it's dry.

For ages I thought it was protein overload, then lack of deep conditioning the over-handling, then lack of protein, then lack of silicones (weirdly Ive found my hair hates oil as A leave in- goes frizzy and dry- but loves silicones so recently added them back in- but that's a whole other story!) .

These two paragraphs raise some red flags for me. I wouldn't totally blame the KCCC, especially if it was working very well for you in the past. If you haven't straighten your hair in a while, and for the first time in almost a year you do it and your hair goes whacky, you may have done some heat damage to it. It can happen in one use, depending on the heat setting, if you do/don't use a proper heat protectant, how long you leave the iron on your hair, etc etc. When you're doing it daily, you're used to the feel of your hair. When you haven't done it for a while, you're more susceptible to notice it.

Also, you say you've used oil in the past - have you clarified at all since? Using a lot of oil gave me dry and frizzy hair, and I had to do a good clarifying shampoo and deep conditioning for it to go back to feeling normal. Silicones - I assume you are using the proper surfactant to cleanse the silicone away? I'm not sure what products you use.

What type of water do you have? If you have hard water, your hair might require some chelating. Hard water ruined my hair for the 4 years that I had it. Now that I'm away from it and chelated, it's about 2x as curly and feels really naked and light.

So all in all, there are a lot of factors that could cause this, which I would look into before blaming product. Especially since you made some recent changes.

Do6459

Thank you both so much for your replies!! I think i may have found the solution!!!

russianprncss- I actually have a lot of trouble with coconut oil- it kills my curls and makes my hair super dry. I'll try again usingit as a prepoo in time. I do also think that my hair has just changed a bit over the years you're right.

sixelamy- i don't think it was heat damage as before going natural I used to KILL my hair with heat overload and actually it was pretty resilient- i was MUCH more careful this time. Also I haven't been using silicones for the past few years and only decided to put them back in recently to experiment since my hair wasn't liking coconut or olive oil to seal- i've really been enjoying the silicones so far. I don't clarify very often but when i do my curls do ping out a bit more! Also I suspect my water may be a bit hard so i think i'm going to invest in a shower head with filter thanks for the advice!!

So, as I said. since writing this i think i may have found the culprit!! PROTEIN!!! I went through all my conditioners that i use as leave in's and noticed they all contained either protein or aloe vera or coconut oil- or a combination of all!! that combined with the fact that my hair hated coconut oil made me think it might be protein overload! I decided to stop using all these and found a conditioner with no protein and just used that for the past week!

It's been a transformation!! my hair feels so much softer I can't stop touching it! And the curls on the top layer which had pretty much disappeared have popped back! Now it's not perfect or completely back to how it was but it's soo much better. I was noticing i was losing SO much hair in the shower but since stopping with the protein it's way less knotty and i'm no linger using clumps everytime it's wet!

I think that might be why my hair didn't straighten too well- it was just to stiff and overloaded with protein!

and today i was visiting my grandma and she had a jar of caster oil (albeit mixed with mineral oil and a whole host of other oils) but out of curiosity i decided to try it on my still damp hair- i did lose a bit of definition in the places where my hair was less than damp (so i think i'll try pure caster oil or mayber argon?? on soaking wet hair next time) but there was no staw-like results and it still feels very soft!! So fingers crossed there is an oil out there for me.

The conditioner i used wasn't very natural friendly being full of cones ha- it was just the pantene pro v damage rescue masque but it was the only one i could find in the local pharmacy without protein, aloe or coconut so it was worth it for the experiment- i didn't want to order something just for it to end up being no good.

Also worth noting- i also tried the new dove advanced series range- the pure care dry oil conditioner (again full of cones- wanted to experiment if my hair liked them) and my hair seemed ok with it- even though it has coconut oil in it 5th in the list i think-so might try adding a bit of that once i've re-moisturised my hair.

so basically i'm going to continue without protein, aloe and conditioner and then slowely reintroduce perhaps aloe ( KKCC) to see if my hair can tolerate a bit once i've upped the moisture levels! i'm going to try the dove advanced series oxygen moisture (even though i defintiely don't have fine, flat hair!!) again amodimethicone and dimethicone but so far so good.

It's so strange i've read about protein overload for years but you don't believe it until you see the results on your own hair! so much makes sense now- sheamoisture curl enhancing smoothie gave me nice shaped curls but was matte and knotty and a nightmare to wash- coconut oil, aloe vera AND protein!

I have quite course hair which i believe tends to have more protein. One thing i can't determine though is if my hair is porous or non- porous?? How do you tell this and why does it matter? Perhaps the fact that my hair seems to soak up and frizz with coconut oil means it's porous?

Anyway thank you again for your replies!