new thread
Howdy all;
So I’m still trying to figure out what’s the right way for me to take care of my hair, productwise. My hair tends to clump up and be all gross, and it’s starting to do it on the days when it normally looks pretty (when I shampoo). Thus, I want to take a survey of my fellow longhairs and see what works for you guys! If y‘all would be so kind as to help, please include a photo of your hair (down, and showing the back of the head), and also answer the following questions:
1) What brand of shampoo do you use (be detailed in describing the product)?
2) And what brand of conditioner (be detailed here as well)?
3) Describe how often you wash your hair, and what exactly you do.
4) Do you experience a day or days where your hair is greasy and clumps together before you wash it again? If so, how frequently?
5) Please describe how you take care of your hair (what kind of comb/brush, how often do you brush it, how often it is up or down, and anything else that may be relevant).
Thank you in advance! (:
Venya
Hey Venya, I'll be glad to answer your questions as I understand your frustration. I'm still learning myself (first time grower), but I used to have major difficulties with my hair to the point of almost cutting it a few times, and now I've figured something that works well enough for me that I'm not worried about it anymore. Of course your mileage may vary by hair type, water quality etc. (I have hard water and no softener so there's also calcium buildup to consider for me). Anyway, here goes.
Suave Daily Clarifying "For Normal to Oily Hair"
Original Mane 'n' Tail Conditioner.
You can get the shampoo and conditioner from most stores like Wal-Mart, they're pretty cheap. The conditioner costs more but the bottle is huge so it works out. I have tried the Mane 'n' Tail shampoo but it doesn't work as well for me so I mostly just use the Suave shampoo now. The Suave one strips/dries out my hair a little bit (not quite to the point of squeakiness though) but the Mane 'n' Tail conditioner is so good that it fixes it right up again. With the Mane 'n' Tail shampoo it would feel kind of sticky like there was residue that didn't wash out properly. Your mileage may vary. If my hair still doesn't feel "sufficiently lubricated" (tangling fairly easy, not easy enough to get a brush through etc.) a few hours after it's done drying then I just rub a small amount of plain old olive oil between my palms and work it into my hair, focusing on the hair below the ears.
No definite schedule but I probably wash it on average once every 3 days or so. I just wait until it's feeling a little too oily for my liking and then decide it's time for a wash. If I've exercised (not often enough, harhar) and I get a lot of sweat in it then it's straight to the wash. I get it wet and comb through it with a wide-tooth comb under the showerhead to make sure the water is getting into all the hair (my hair is pretty thick). Then I rub in some shampoo, rinse it out (it usually doesn't lather much the first time for me), then shampoo AGAIN and really work it into the scalp and hair for a minute or so, it lathers a LOT the second time. Then I just rinse it out and wash up my body with soap, then when I'm done with that I put in the conditioner (again mostly focusing on the length below the ears but I also rub a little in above them, only the small amount that is still left on my hands after I get the main length however) and let it sit while I rinse my body off, then I rinse the conditioner out about the time that I'm done.
Yeah sometimes, but typically only from natural scalp oil when I'm overdue for a wash. Before I figured out that I need to rinse-and-repeat and wasn't getting a good lather I'd often feel like my hair wasn't cleaned properly, it would feel like it had clumpy residue in it or something.
Forgot to mention... For drying I just towel dry as much as I can manage for a minute or two after I shower and let it air dry after that. No blow drying.
Hello Venya. I'm not going to add my picture yet, since my hair is only about 8.5 inches long. Anyway I wanted to reply your message, just because I used to have crappy grease hair before my current routine.
1. Since last December I've been washing my hair with Sebastian's Drench shampoo. It is advertised as a moisturizer shampoo, but it leaves my hair just right, not puffy, not greasy. The first, I don't know, three weeks it felt so so, like a regular drugstore product, but then it began to work wonders: my hair looks always good, I mean, it's clean and manageable. The 8oz bottle costs 16 bucks, and it lasts three months.
2. I used the Drench conditioner for, like, 8 weeks. It's good I guess, but nah, I don't really need it.
3. Dirty, grease hair is embarrassing (for me at least). Really. I've been growing my hair since August 2010 and no one, never, has criticized me; it looks very healthy and clean. So I wash it every other day. I guess I'm a little bit obsessed on this matter: if it gets greasy, I take a shower immediately.
What do I do? Just make sure to clean the long of your hair, no big deal. First I wash the front and sides, then I take another drop of shampoo to clean the back. I don't want some parts to be left greasy, common sense, but that happened to me once. Then I shave myself and after two or three minutes I rinse it, probably it's nonsense, but the hell, that works for me.
4. If I don't wash it every other day I'm done, it will be greasy. And I would wash it as soon as possible.
5. When my hair is damp I use a wide tooth comb. Then, I mean, 1.5 or two hours later, when dry, I kinda style it with my fingers, so it gains some volume and doesn't look lame.
That's it. Just don't go cheap when you buy shampoo. Sulfate or sulfate free, whatever. A bottle of good product it's really worth it. Go Sebastian, Redken, or Pureology.
English is my third language, ok!
1. Shampoos vary, and are intermittent. Usually use Burts Bees.
2. Conditioner is Aveeno Nourish + Revitalize. It's the best store-bought I have found. A little more expensive than others, but worth it since conditioning is key to healthy hair. I also use Aveeno leave-in.
3. I only wash my hair once a week with shampoo, and use water every/every other day. My hair type is thick and coarse, so it gets too dry very easily. Hard water also contributes.
4. Rarely, if ever, do I experience greasy/clumping hair, due to hair type. If it does, it's usually only 2-3 inches off scalp.
5. I finger-comb my hair daily or more to remove any tangles, and it behaves better with finger-combing. I do use a wide-tooth pick style comb after hair is washed. Hair type is very wavy. I wear it down about 50% of time and up 50%. My hair is about 19-22 inches, or mid-back when pulled straight.
i use pert plus with conditioner. i cannot use conditioner separately, my hair gets too greasy.
i can only get by without shapooing one or two days a week in a row.
i let my hair air dry and use a regular brush.
my current length is just above the nipples, going for waist length. my hair is fine in texture.
A small amount of very dilute TJs brand shampoo. If I could maintain a 4 day wash cycle, I could drop the shampoo and just do water only.
Only used as a body wash
I'm just too lazy to do it more than once a week or so.
Wet with coolish water. Add a small amount of dilute shampoo on the canopy, rub gently briefly, rinse out, use a strong cool water spray to massage the scalp (with the grain of the hair), do other shower things, rinse, rinse with dilute vinegar (for scalp happiness), rinse with cool water, turban with a microfiber towel for 15 minutes or so, allow to air dry, finger detangle and comb smoothing.
If I go past a week, yeah, the roots get piecey. Since it is up most of the time, it isn't so visible. Eventually my scalp starts getting angry and then it is time to wash Right Now!
Finger detangle followed by smoothing with a fine toothed wooden comb. No brushing. Usually up in a bun.
FWIW: Coarse thick slightly wavy asian type hair.
Your hair is splendid
Patrick
Currently using Tresemme sulphate-free, although I normally rotate between Fructis/Pantene/Herbal Essences. I'm pleased with the results using Tresemme though, so I'll probably continue to use it.
As above
Normally just once a week unless I've been playing sports. In the shower, wash, rinse, condition, was the rest of me, rinse. Wrap in a towel for 10 mins, brush add a few drops of jojoba oil and braid while damp.
Not often. If I leave it for more than eight days, it does start to feel lank and my scalp itches.
I brush it morning and evening. The rest of the time, my hair's usually in a braid, although I sometimes wear it in a bun. I seldom wear it loose these days as it keeps getting caught in things and is prone to tangling, especially if it hasn't been oiled. It currently reaches a few inches below my tailbone, so that means it's probably around 40 inches max from crown to end.
Hi Venya,
1) Original Mane 'n Tail Shampoo
2) Original Mane 'n Tail Conditioner
3) Wash it everyday - shampoo, then conditioner. If I try to do two days without shampooing, then I run into the same troubles that you have :( (greasy). With washing, I put the shampoo on top of my head, put my hair on top of that, get a quick spray of water and then work my fingers up and down my scalp twice. Hair falls down?... no problem, the shampoo runs it's way down the strands anyways. Then scrub at the roots, ending each area with and upwards rise with the hair. Rinse without doing much hand-wise.
Conditioner - put on top of my head, work it around a little, pull the hair from the back of my head to the front, get a quick spray and then loosely pull-down the hair in front so that it all looks like a icicle. Wait a few minutes. Rinse with some finger-combing.
Not sure if this is the right way to wash hair - but this is how my wife with the Chinese iron head-of-hair had shown me how to do it :p ...
4) Nope.
5) In the morning on the weekdays, ponytail. I use The Body Shop wood wide-tooth detangling comb. Comb it towards the back and put in a ponytail. After school, take out of ponytail and put into a ponytail again, same routine. After showering at night, leave down and comb it downwards with a part on one side. Seems like I've been loosing a lot of hair ever since I started doing ponytails @o@ ~
Hope this helps ^_^ - please take care and good luck with your journey ^^ !.....
Sincerely,
yoshiki
As a total newbie, I don't know what the etiquette around here is on "bumping up old threads", but I just felt like replying to this one - hope that's okay!
-- Head&Shoulders, which I really need to prevent crusty build-up on my scalp.
Still haven't found the perfect one, so I keep experimenting: recent ones include
-- Schwartzkopf Gliss Kur Liquid Silk Gloss (yes it's pink and girly-looking, but it was on sale and I like the results)
-- Nivea Intense Repair: meh. Was on sale too, but it seems to leave my hair somewhat frizzy so I won't be buying it again.
-- John Frieda Sheer Blonde Color Renew: smells awesome and has great silky results, but at €8 it costs over three times as much as the ones above...
-- Funny how many extremes there seem to be! Some wash it every day, others are water-only fanatics... I'm in the moderate part of the spectrum at about 2-3 washes a week. It would be even less if I didn't work up a sweat in the gym every week.
-- Le procedure: Hop in the shower, wet hair, shampoo (focus on scalp only) for just 30 seconds or so, rinse, apply conditioner (focus away from scalp, to lengths and roots) and leave in for 10 minutes while washing body and singing a song. I rinse abundantly, because conditioner is not designed to stay in your hair. Like shampoo, it too can be harsh. So rinse it all out and use a dollop of leave-in conditioner after towel-drying.
-- Something I never do, contrary to some others, is use conditioner only. On the few occasions I've tried it, my hair turns out a weird greasy mess. So I always shampoo it first.
Nope. Although I have naturally oily skin, my hair only gets greasy around day 4 after washing - I rarely let it reach that point. It looks best on days 2 and 3.
I have straight hair, and only down to my shoulders, so combined with my silky conditioner, it's completely tangle-free and I hardly ever brush it (maybe once a month, cause I feel like it and not because it's required) and never comb it.
... why do I always end up typing so much? Guess it's cause I'm new and I still feel like I have tons to say, haha.
My favourite conditioner at the moment (price vs. results)
