Cleanses are all over the place right now. Juice cleanses, kale cleanses, you name it it's probably a cleanse. (Is there a Ramen cleanse? I'd be into that)
What I'm talking here about is a little different.
Once I passed my unruly teenage years of constantly bleaching and dying my hair to death, I turned over a new leaf and began forging my way into 'natural hair'. But I wasn't really having much success.
The problem was that I struggled with frizz and general unruliness that I didn't have with my heavily color treated hair. (I have semi-thick, coarse naturally blonde locks) So I did what I thought was the logical thing to do. Which was to use various fortifying and moisturizing hair products in order to combat my dilemma. I used them all and tried all the weird internet methods. Argan Oil, leaving coconut oil in my hair overnight (don't do that), deep conditioners, I'd leave normal conditioner in my hair for as long as possible in the shower, avocado oil, olive oil, the list goes on.
The issue with that was that I could never seem to find a product that really helped all that much. But I continued with this method for years! I would try one product, use it for awhile and then move on to the next one. What a waste of money, good grief.
After while, I began to notice that there was an incredible buildup in my hair that I could not get rid of. It would make my freshly washed hair feel like it carried a weeks' worth of hairspray in it. Gross! So not only was my hair still frizzy, but it felt dirty all the time.
I realized that all I had really been doing was constantly inundating my hair with stuff. Never really allowing it to be natural and produce it's own oils. I wasn't letting it be healthy by itself. So I lessened my product usage, but still I saw no change.
Eventually, a friend of mine who is a hairdresser and my mom both suggested that I cleanse my hair and not use ANY product. Gasp!! I used no extra product, washed every other shower with a Normalizing Reset shampoo, and the tiniest bit of conditioner. Then once a week I combined a generous handful or baking soda to my normal shampoo. After a week, the difference was incredible. Not only was my hair softer and cleaner feeling, the frizziness had died down exponentially.
My hair was sorting itself out naturally, and was reverting to how it had been when I was much younger. Before I began hair product bingeing.
I also switched my hairbrush. Another major problem I had was massive hair loss. Every day, I'd loose handfuls of hair in my old brush. It was so terrible, that I was starting to consider seeing a doctor. Then a few weeks ago I bought a new brush to replace my natural bristle brush. It's the Michel Mercier Detangling Brush. Apparently it's a "As Seen On TV" product which I wasn't aware of when I purchased it. I generally shy away from items like this, I don't know why. Even still, this brush changed everything for me! It hardly pulls out any hair and I've experienced minimal breakage. I'm so happy with it.
Now I've gotten rid of almost all of my hair products and only use Redken Diamond Oil for my fly-aways. I'm so pleased with my hair and my change of routine. As they say, sometimes less is more and in this case they'd be right!
Are you or were you a hair product nut like me? Would you consider changing your routine? Let us know in the comments!
-skyler
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