My hair is fine, 2b/c, High porosity hair. It doesn’t curl for the first couple inches, but idk if that’s because of genetics or something I’m doing wrong. Either way, I have symptoms of not having enough of either protein or moisture. It’s dry and frizzy, and sometimes feels like hay, but also breaks easily and is stringy when it’s wet. All I do is shampoo and condition with shea moistures light blue hydrate and repair. I scrunch it damp and then diffuse on cool for a little but not fully dry. I need ideas for products, and I’m open for deep conditioners or hair masks or something, but I like to get out the door and try not to spend long styling it.
Do you use leave-in conditioner or cream? That can really help with keeping your hair moisturized. I think not having enough moisture is why your hair feels dry/frizzy/hay-like. You can try adding in a deep conditioner, Shea Moisture has a manuka honey deep hydration masque you could try. If that doesn’t help, there might be too much protein in your products (your hair might feel stiff, tangly, sticky, and brittle if this is the case). Too much protein is fixed by clarifying to get rid of the protein buildup and then using different products with less protein or a different protein in them or no protein if your hair doesn’t need it. Fine and high porosity hair generally can benefit from some protein, you don’t need it in every product when you’re first starting.
How is your hair’s elasticity? You can test this by when you stretch it, does it bounce back (normal), doesn’t stretch / snaps (need more moisture), does not bounce back when stretched (need more protein). Also how long is your hair? If it is long, your hair might be weighed down by the weight so that’s why it doesn’t curl the first few inches, this can happen with fine hair. Stringiness while wet sounds normal.
My hair is layered, and goes just past my collarbone when curly but goes down about 3 or 4 inches when you pull it out of the curl, not stretching. It snaps and doesn’t stretch so you’re probably right about the moisture. I have used cream and mousse, separately, but I mean it was a year or two ago and I didn’t read if it was right for me, and it turned out to be too heavy and weighed down my hair and made it look greasy. I looked at the product list on reddit but they don’t really tell you anything about porosity or thin/thick hair so I’m not sure what to try. I also wanted to ask if there was any place to buy products that are smaller containers so I don’t sink a bunch of money into stuff that doesn’t work for me.
Alright so I would go with products that say they are lightweight since your hair gets weighed down easily. If it doesn’t mention being lightweight or gives volume, you can probably skip it.
Companies that offer sample sizes (some you have to go online to their store to get them) would be: Curlsmith (weightless air dry cream), Moptop, Jessicurl (has lightweight versions of their products also available without fragrance), Ouidad, Shea Moisture, Aveda, and Not Your Mother’s (target and ulta). This is not an exhaustive list but is what I could come up with.
I agree I wish the list also had the person’s hair type listed, it really depends on the formula and not just individual ingredients to determine if it is light weight or not.
I guess I’ll just go with trial and error then, huh? I’m pretty sure ulta has a good return policy, too. I’ve got one close enough to me