zahra

Thanks so much to everyone for the wonderful suggestions
on caring for curly hair!

Babylonia

I love Palmer's products!

Once a week I use pure coconut oil on my hair and sit in the sauna or steam room. It really helps my ends feel nice.

Freya

Dear Babylonia,

I was just wondering if you have had any experience with palmers oil or olive oil for that matter in blond hair. From your avatar you look fairly dark (coppery?) but perhaps you have "experimented with color". I'm a "golden" blond and when I tried olive oil in my hair it seemed to dull the "light" in my hair--the color just did not look right. I love the idea of putting oil in my hair, especially in the sauna. Perhaps coconut is different?

Freya

Babylonia

Dear Freya, I only use the cocoa butter on my body since my skin is sensitive and this is something I've found that doesn't irritate me.

As far as the hair goes it's actually "virgin" hair, I've never used color on it. However that's going to have to change as I've noticed a gray hair here and there :eek: . My hair is also pretty long (past my butt to about the tops of the thighs). I use coconut oil that I purchased at a healthfood store. It looks pretty clear so I think it would be ok. I like this because its pure coconut oil and have tried other oils but find that mineral oil is usually one of the main ingredients. I concetrate the oil on my ends. It can take a little extra shampooing to get out, maybe you left a little oil in your hair and that why it dulled it. Sometimes I'll just rinse it out and even though my hair is a little oily I don't care, I'll just wear it in a braid. I would definitely give it a try. Best of luck!

Freya

Thanks Babylonia,

I will definately give it a try, that is, if I can find pure coconut oil here in Sweden. It's true that olive oil has a bit of color which may have been why my hair was dulled. Or did it perhaps become blond with a tinge of green... My hair is pretty dry so I'm not too worried about it becoming oily. Sometimes, in a pinch, I have actually used body lotion if I've run out of conditioner!

Speaking of body lotion: I have sensitive skin as well and Lubriderm as well as Vaseline Intensive Care has worked well for me. Unscented of course!

I am so envious of your long hair! Since mine is so curly it takes forever to grow (all those roundabouts), and apparently it's too fine to achieve an impressive length anyway. I think it takes a certain type of hair to be able to grow it long. I'm very happy with my curls though so I would'nt really trade it for longer hair anyway, but I do admire it

Thanks again for the advice,
Freya

Babylonia

Freya,
I'm sure you can find coconut oil on the internet it there's none where you are.

As far as growing your hair long I have heard several times that your hair's maximum length is really determined by genetics.

I always wanted curly hair as a child but my hair doesn't really hold one. However my 4yo daughter has ringlets, she got what I wanted so it worked out perfectly :p . I think for the most part we're born with what looks best for us.

Peace and shimmies,
Babylonia

Freya

That makes perfect sense to me.


I agree! I'm not much for experimenting with my hair or trying new colors or hair styles. I'm sure a lot of people would find that dreadfully boring, but it works for me. I think my curls fit very well with my personality as well as my looks.

The one radical change I ever did was not by choice and it was also reversable (to a certain extent at least). It's kind of a funny story: I got sucked into this promotional deal at a fancy hairdresser on Madison Avenue, New York. Hair, manicure, pedicure etc for only $ 50. Of course it was a set up, and I ended up paying a lot more for the worst haircut ever. First I tried to tell the hairdresser not to cut so much as I was trying to save it, but I soon realized that she had already taken much, much, more than I was comfortable with. (This is of the reasons i'm not very fond of hairdressers) Then she started to blow dry my hair straight--assuming that I would not even consider leaving it to its own wild ways. Since I had never worn my hair straight I thought it might be interesting to see what I would look like. Besides it would be normal again, although to short for comfort, when I washed it.

Seeing myself with straight hair was extremely alienating, to say the least. The hairdresser kept ooing and awing: "oh my Gaawd you look like a mooovie star!!" I stared at myself in horror and thought "Oh my God I look like a CNN anchor woman." I was living at a student house at the time, and when I came back my friends were actually weirded out. It wasn't me. One of my friends said: "You remind me of a secretary from the sixties" (a combination of my glasses, turtleneck, and hairstyle I suppose). My best friend described my appearance perfectly (when she saw the pictures later): "You look like a serial killer..."

So yes, it stays the way it is

Freya

AliPies

I wish that was true for everyone I've had black hair for about a year and a half, I was born with medium (read: mousy) brown hair. I've not had one person yet tell me I looked better with brown hair. Everyone I meet says that it would just look wrong, and my friends who knew me before dying it say that it looks much better and actually looks reasonably natural.

tim'ema

Until recently I had, like Babylonia, "virgin" hair. I dyed it black just...I don't know, for a change I guess! I'd never done anything to my hair (and was actually quite proud of the fact that even at my age I didn't have any grey to cover!

My hair is quite curly and very, very thin and fine - so it breaks easily. I've managed to keep it at mid-back length for many years, though. I am another one who uses no hair dryers or curling irons - no heating things...they just dry my hair out horribly. I've tried basically every product on EARTH! I loved Frizzease, but it made the skin on my neck and back break out - so I had to stop using it. Currently I've started using Sunsilk's Defrizz Shampoo and Conditioner and so far so good!

I comb my hair over the sink before showering (and collect the broken hair from the sink and discard it), then use only a tiny bit of shampoo on the scalp ONLY - not on the ends! Then conditioner - very heavy on the ends and put my hair up with a barrette for the rest of my shower - rinsing at the end. After squeezing out most of the water, I put a little extra conditioner on the ends and leave it - no rinsing. Then I comb over the sink again (and again collect all the broken hair and discard it), scrunch, and put a tiny bit of hair gel in my hand. I rub my hands together to cover them thinly in gel and then slip them quickly under the tap to water down the gel and then run my fingers through my hair.
I shower at night and go to bed with wet hair. I put a towel on my pillow.
In the morning I just have to run damp fingers through my hair and it's fine!
I usually only shampoo every second day, any more and it's dry as straw no matter how much I condition it!

I need a tidy-up trim every 3 weeks or so because of breakage. I've had a couple of stylists say it's totally normal for hair as thin as mine - one even said she'd never seen hair as fine as mine grown this long!
TLC's the only way for us Curly Girls, eh?


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Shakira

Lol I thought I was the only one that did that