followup to "the score: giovanni smooth as silk shampoo"

i don't like to shampoo my hair.

i tried the giovanni SAS shampoo about a day or two after i blogged about it. i love everything about it, the smell, the texture, the feel....but what i don't love is how it made my hair feel, and of course, that's the most important thing here. *big collective sigh*

my method of shampooing is to apply the product to my fingertips, then distribute it on my roots, since a) the purpose of shampooing is to clean your scalp and b) it's the best and quickest way for ME to tell how it's going to affect my hair. for those shampoos that work well with my hair, like aubrey organics gbp and kinky curly come clean, the suds will simply distribute down to my ends and my hair will feel clean, but not stripped or extremely dry. for those that we (me and my hair *smile*) can't get along with, like ALL shampoos with sulfates, organix shampoos, and unfortunately giovanni SAS, my fingers get trapped in my roots and i have to use half a bottle of conditioner to add the moisture back in. it's shampoos like these where i have a serious problem on my hands if i don't DC after washing.

before i relegate it to the body wash stockpile (or give it away), i think i'll try mixing in some conditioner as i shampoo my hair. i've heard this can cut down on the drying effect. anyone know of any other tips and tricks that can cut down on this tangling effect?

oils > butters, dang it

i am STILL looking for a moisturizer for my rollersets even though it is long gone now. i have been experimenting on my 2nd day puffs, and unfortunately had to come to the conclusion that my hair hates butter. i tried putting shea butter on my ends - they were dry as crap. i tried it in my DCs - dry hair under the showerhead. i even baggied overnight with the stuff - how did i wake up to a dry puff under the baggy?! of course i'm frustrated being that i bought 8oz of the stuff and have yet to use about 4-5 oz of it, but it's making me wonder what i CAN use on my hair. i know it loves oils, especially castor oil and my beloved africa's best herbal oil, so i guess i will have to break down and get some coconut oil like i keep on saying...this is a sad sad day but at least i pinpointed what it was that i added to my DCs that kept them from working their magic.

the ups and the downs

the up: after 9 weeks on RAM and one week on MaMa lotion, i finally feel like i am getting to the point where i am happy with my skin. i keep catching a glimpse of my face in the mirror and for once i'm not embarrassed to look; the chronic patch of small bumps on my left cheek is going away very rapidly and the acne scars are fading too. that picture that made me almost break out in tears a few weeks ago now brings me joy, cause i almost have the skin of my 12-year-old self again. i expect to be fully satisfied in a few weeks, right on time for me to start school makeup free. (well, concealer free...i like the other stuff too much!) right now i have one active blemish on my very resistant forehead, and a red spot on my left cheek. i got the RAM .1% the other day and i actually think i like it better; it is making me peel more like the derm said but underneath the peeling is flawless skin. i took more skin pics tonight and i am still keeping track of what is going on. even my pics from august 8th look worse than the ones from today and that was only a week ago. i'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that i'm not seeing things.

the down: ugh, my hair is breaking and shedding like crazy. i am pretty sure it is the MT making me shed like an animal, but where the breakage is coming from has me dumbfounded. i DC'd tonight with kenra mc for a few hours (half an hour with heat) and when i was rinsing it outm y hair felt dry...it was weird. then i did a 2 min aphogee treatment hoping to work things out and that didn't help either. i was running conditioner through my hair and pulling back hair balls, the most distressing thing ever. i sighed, put some suave tropical coconut in my hair and slapped it in a wet bun (hey i can do a wet bun!), and tried to figure out what to do. the rollersetting/flat ironing i had planned for the rest of this month is defintely out, cowashing is back in, and i will have to do a garlic powder/EVOO treatment, once i get the recipe out of the MT thread. that should take care of the shedding; as far as the breakage, guess i'll have to peruse Supergirl's breakage thread. i just don't want to lose all the progress i have been making this summer.

another up: it's been two months since my BC! yay! and that means there are only two months left till my birthday...and my APL goal check-in.

"you have to stop using suave..."

what kind of nappyheaded (excuse the language) buffoonery do we have here? i was on mahoganybutterfly reading a great article on jennifer hudson's new album cover when i realized that this site is not only a blog but a community of sorts for black women. cool, i said, and i looked for hair care stuff, just cause that's what i do. when i saw an article entitled "Best Products to Manage and Grow Our Hair" (link here) i got excited. (oh come on, if you have read anything i have ever typed you are NOT surprised.) i began reading with a smile on my face...and boy did that sucker disappear in 6.3 seconds. i got to this...

"You have to stop using Suave, Salon Selectives, Motions, and Alberto VO5, because although affordable, hey will leave your hair type dry and brittle..."

and i felt one of my curls drop. ok so i have kinky twists, but you know what i'm saying. it is no secret that i stan for suave and VO5 like a teenybopper loves B2K (moment of silence for my adolescence); see my previous posts on these two darlings. i do agree that making a regular habit of using the shampoos is hazardous to your hair, but i admit that i love the suave daily clarifying shampoo when i feel the need to lose some weight on my scalp. what gives? i will admit that i know nothing about salon selectives, and motions is garbage to me (anyone want a tub of the moisture plus conditioner? how about the 32oz shampoo?) but not my babies! oh lawd not my tropical coconut!!! i seriously hope whoever wrote that article got paid by ojon, cause while i have heard nothing but good things about that restorative treatment - yes it's on my list, i'm a PJ - that doesn't mean they have to bash strawberries and creme! that's like comparing apples and oranges...like saying pink oil moisturizer has nothing on kenra mc. uh hello, cowashing conditioners and the ones we use for DCing are completely different. the brands they mentioned are not bad, but i refuse to believe that "there are only two hair care companies on the market that will leave your hair in salon quality condition" (direct quote). puh-leaze, spend five minutes lurking on LHCF and you will find so many product reviews, rants and raves, and general questions about so many brands your head will spin. shescentit, hairveda, and miss jessie's make equally splendid products, most of them in the same price range if not cheaper. so gimme my strawberries and creme, thank you very much, my hair is doing just fine.