We’re NOT gonna waste money in 2017! Gather all your drying, flaky, USELESS products and join me on my our journey to fix them all.
This post is dedicated to all my naturalistas who have struggled with products that don’t work. Clearly, the companies didn’t get the correct formulas, so we’ll just have to make our own. I even included a video at the end of this post so that you can see a demo.
SHAMPOOS
When it comes to shampoos that don’t work, you have three options:
1. Pre-poo: If you do a pre-shampooing treatment with a light oil, your hair will feel softer.
2. Add oil: Mixing your shampoo with a little bit of oil and you’ll have a nourishing, conditioning shampoo session. Instant cowash!
3. Dilute it: Decide on an amount of shampoo that you want to use, then dilute it in a squeeze bottle. This will prevent you from using too much and drying out your hair.
In my tutorial, I used Irresistible Me’s Liquid Gold Shampoo and LuxeOrganix’s Moroccan Argan Oil Sulfate Free Shampoo. They both smell wonderful, but do nothing for my hair. I love African Black Soap and any kind of hair mask.
CONDITIONER
All conditioner’s smell good and fell soft until you rinse them out. One such conditioner is LuxeOrganix Moroccan Argan Oil Conditioner. It smells heavenly, but it does nothing spectacular for my hair. It seemed fine when I first used it, but I have found better products. What I do is add a little bit of oil for slip and softness.
OIL
Not all oils are created equal. Some are heavy and others are light. Some have slip while others are sticky. Each has a purpose ranging from scalp health to heat protection. When an oil does not work, you can do the following:
1. Hot oil treatment: Any oil is good enough for a hot oil treatment or pre-poo.
2. Body oil or lotion: Many oils can double as body oils or can be mixed in your favorite lotions to help your skin look soft, supple, and dewy.
3. Thinners: If the oil is light weight, use it to thin or dilute thick oils like castor oil. You can also mix the oil with shea butter or coconut oil so that they don’t solidify easily.
LEAVE-IN CONDITIONER
I’ve only ever loved one leave-in conditioner. All others are just okay. I usually use leave-in conditioners when I want to detangle my hair and I mix them with an oil or serum for slip. It’s the perfect combination.
SERUMS
I like to think of heat protection serums a mini protein treatments to prevent hair loss problem since they do have proteins in them to give your hair strength. I use them two ways:
1. For slip: They give more slip than other oils when detangling your kinks.
2. Mix them with a blow out cream or heat protection spray before blow drying especially if you are prone to dry hair.
MOISTURIZERS
Sometimes, I wonder if companies create moisturizers for the sake of saying they created one, because I rarely encounter a good one. Here’s what I do:
1. Add glycerin. My mom would put it in hair products and baby lotion so that I could have soft hair and skin. Your hair will thank you.
2. Mix it with a gel. Usually, a moisturizer mixed with gel becomes a pretty good styling cream.
STYLING PRODUCTS COMBINATIONS
Styling products are hit or miss with my kinks. I’ve found that combining two or more types of products seems to work for curls lasting at least 4 days. My general rule of thumb is mixing light and heavy products. Here are a few to try from my least to most favorite:
1. Moisturizer and gel
2. Mousse and gel
3. Mousse/ wrap lotion and heavy styling cream
I’ve never tried a heavy styling cream and a gel before, but I will definitely look into it.
EDGE CONTROL
There is only one thing to do with a useless edge control that has no hold; slick your ends when you roller set your hair. You will have a smooth set with perfect ends.
It’s pretty clear by now, that the first answer to your hair styling products is OIL. To see these tips in tutorial form, watch the video below.
