Sensitive to Aloe Vera...

Greatcurls

Whether it's the juice, extract, or leaf, my hair seems to become dry when this ingredient is towards the top of the list, usually, the first three ingredients. It's not like glycerin in the winter; my hair's reaction to aloe vera is year round, even though less with high humidity.

So, unless the humidity/dew points are over 60%, no-can-do with aloe heavy hair products. Now there are three ingredients I have to be careful of when it concerns my hair: coconut, shea butter, and aloe vera.

sheilacurl

Hmm, I've heard of what people refer to as a "flash-drying effect" when they apply certain products with aloe in them.

Does your hair feel dry instantly or after a day or two?
Do you use a leave-in conditioner?
Do you seal in moisture with an oil?
Do you use a (possibly drying) hard hold gel on top?

I also stay away from Shea butter. On my hair anyways. I'm loving it in skin lotions.

Greatcurls

sheilacurl wrote: »

Hmm, I've heard of what people refer to as a "flash-drying effect" when they apply certain products with aloe in them.

Does your hair feel dry instantly or after a day or two?
Do you use a leave-in conditioner?
Do you seal in moisture with an oil?
Do you use a (possibly drying) hard hold gel on top?

I also stay away from Shea butter. On my hair anyways. I'm loving it in skin lotions.

My hair feels dry a minute or two after the application, if it's the only product. In order to counteract the aloe product, I use a leave-in conditioner that's either aloe free or aloe is towards the end of the ingredients' list. Then my hair is OK, and it feels the way I like for it to feel.

Unless the aloe heavy product can be counteracted with a moisturizing aloe free product, trying to seal in moisture with oil has no effect. Example: cowashed and DC hair, seal with oil, and followed with an aloe product. My hair would be dry and become drier the following days. If I use an aloe free (mostly) moisturizing leave-in after DC, then seal with oil, the drying effects of the aloe product is not a factor.

One time I used a 'strong hold' gel on top of a aloe based leave-in. My hair felt so brittle and dry that I had to pretreat w/conditioner, cowash, clarify, cowash again, then deep condition. Then went back to non-aloe moisturizing leave-in first and the strong hold gel. No problems afterward.

curlypearl

I find aloe vera very drying. I was disappointed to find this out but fortunately found out early in my "curly journey."

rbb

here's a post i copied from an old thread (dec 2008) but it has lots of info. best i can remember coming away with after all this discussion then is that is a unique ingredient. luckily, my hair doesn't have a problem with it. here's the post:

Unhappy #1: Aloe Vera = Humectant?
This has come up a couple of times now, and my inner nerd wants to get to the bottom of it!!!

Afrosheenqueen recently provided this link: http://www.cosmeticscop.com/cosmetic...ictionary.aspx which is from the Paula's Choice website. It lists aloe vera as a "water-binding agent," which, according to the same source, is synonymous with "humectant."

We just had another conversation about this very thing, and Jillipoo says aloe vera is not a humectant... http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlta...19962#poststop I'm not sure what her source is, but I'm hoping she can provide it!

Nowhere does the CurlChemist list aloe vera as a humectant. (See http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlre...tants-and-hair and http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlre...are-humectants)

So, I'm confused. If it IS a humectant, this blows several of my theories, which is fine, but it means I need to reassess some other things I'm doing, LOL!

rbb

rbb wrote: »

here's a post i copied from an old thread (dec 2008) but it has lots of info. best i can remember coming away with after all this discussion then is that is a unique ingredient. luckily, my hair doesn't have a problem with it. here's the post:

Unhappy #1: Aloe Vera = Humectant?
This has come up a couple of times now, and my inner nerd wants to get to the bottom of it!!!

Afrosheenqueen recently provided this link: http://www.cosmeticscop.com/cosmetic...ictionary.aspx which is from the Paula's Choice website. It lists aloe vera as a "water-binding agent," which, according to the same source, is synonymous with "humectant."

We just had another conversation about this very thing, and Jillipoo says aloe vera is not a humectant... http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlta...19962#poststop I'm not sure what her source is, but I'm hoping she can provide it!

Nowhere does the CurlChemist list aloe vera as a humectant. (See http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlre...tants-and-hair and http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlre...are-humectants)

So, I'm confused. If it IS a humectant, this blows several of my theories, which is fine, but it means I need to reassess some other things I'm doing, LOL!

i just tried these threads and could not connect to them. guess they are too old. :-(

BeinDeb

I just tried aloe vera on my hair for the first time today. I had bought a bottle of "Lilly of the Desert" gel at the local heath food store a few months ago and then forgot about it. Last night, I had washed my hair. Unfortunately, that BIG blue norther blew into TX during the wee hours of the morning, which gave us a lovely 40+ degree temperature drop. It should also be noted that we went from a 60 degree dew point to the current 24. After I got up this morning, my hair had reacted to the weather change - it was horrendously dry...almost like pre-CG! I misted with some distilled water, scrunched in an approximate golf ball size blob of the aloe gel, followed that with an equal amount of my trusty Eco Curl Cocktail (has various oils in it), and let it air dry. I then scrunched out the little crunch with a 4 drops of mineral oil that I had rubbed into my hands. I couldn't be happier with the results! The curls are very soft, moisturized, and bouncy without a trace of the former dryness. I don't know if it was the aloe gel, the mineral oil, or the combo of all the things I used. I can't help but wonder though, if it wasn't the aloe???