Hello folks

I got myself into a mess and I need some advice. Before we start, I’ll admit that it’s my own fault for trying something new and for trying something that I read doesn’t always go well for people with coarse hair, but in my defence I had tried some protein masks such as mayonnaise or olive oil in the past without any problems.

Tale of woe commences….

On Thursday, as a treat, I put a protein mask in my hair: 1 egg, some mayonnaise, some olive oil. Since then my hair has been awful; it feels hard and crunchy, has no definition or even much in the way of waves, is frizzy, isn’t shiny, waves won’t clump, and my canopy has gone nearly straight.

Things I’ve tried since Thursday to fix the hair:
- Coconut Oil overnight
- Jojoba Oil overnight
- Spraying strong, homemade leave-in conditioner in it
- AVG spritz
- Conditioner in hair with shower cap for a couple of hours
- Logona after-colour conditioner - on the basis that the conditioners you get with a hair colour are usually really good
- Conditioner & jojoba oil for a few hours followed by repeatedly rinsing it in a strong infusion of hibiscus flower, camomile flowers, and burdock root.

It is a little less hard that it was immediately after the protein mask on Thursday but nothing like it used to be. The only layer of my hair that’s behaving even vaguely like it should is the hair below my ears and at my nape, although it’s still frizzier than it used to be. I’m avoiding shampoo and I’m cowashing. I’m putting at least 3 times the leave-in that I would normally use but my hair still won’t clump, it still feels hard, and it looks frizzy. I’m baffled as to what to do.

To be honest, I’m feeling really low because of it; my own stupidity has sent me back to the beginning of CG again, cos my hair feels just like it did when I first tried CG: out of control and unpredictable. And it took me quite a number of weeks to feel comfortable with CG so it’s disheartening to start again. None of my wee tricks and tips that I’ve learned over the last 6 weeks are working on my hair at the moment and I feel so frustrated. I nearly took the straighteners to it this morning but my husband talked me out of it - he told me to stick with my natural texture

Can anyone offer any advice on how I can fix my hair? I’m not looking for an instant fix, although that would be fantastic LOL, because I know that’s probably not possible, but has anyone done anything similar and, if so, how long did it take for your hair to go back to normal? BTW, just to make things difficult, I have skin sensitivity problems so I use natural or organic products, as they have less chance of giving me rashes etc, so I tend to avoid most of the haircare products available on the High Street.

......Tale of woe ends

I’d be so grateful for some encouragement or help.

PS I even changed my Avatar pic cos seeing my previous hard-won waves was too miffing LOL.

Keep putting deep conditioners on - put the co with the most moisture you have on and leave it on for a while (say 1/2 hour).  (even pop to shops & get Garnier fructus repair & shine - that is CG and is quite moisturising) This will pass - it’ll come back to normal.  Stop using stuff that has any protein in it too just now just till you get the balance back.    Hang in there!

curlyhairmich - 26 April 2010 04:58 PM

Keep putting deep conditioners on - put the co with the most moisture you have on and leave it on for a while (say 1/2 hour).  (even pop to shops & get Garnier fructus repair & shine - that is CG and is quite moisturising) This will pass - it’ll come back to normal.  Stop using stuff that has any protein in it too just now just till you get the balance back.    Hang in there!

Thank you, curlyhairmich for the encouraging words - I’ll pop to Boots tonight and then try a 30 minute conditioning.

I have never wished so hard for a Time Machine in all my life, so I could go back and tell myself to put the protein mask down and step away from it

You’ll get through it - just stay away from all things protein just now and now you’ll know that your hair doesn’t need extra protein as it makes enough itself.

Mich,

Just wanted to sympathise with you… I’ve been following all your posts with great interest and just felt really bad for you there.
My hair loves protein and I seem to get good results with AOGPB. I’ve never felt the elusive hardness that people talk about so I guess my hair still hasn’t got optimal amounts of protein.
Got really lucky yesterday at Sally’s in Bangor….. they had a discount area….I got some Biosilk Rock Hard Gellee for 1.99 and a protein repair masque for 64p.
Ach I really hope you have better news for us today.
Good luck

:(

Feel so sorry for you….it will get better though. And at least you know to stay away from protein now (maybe the egg was too much?).

celticbreeze - 27 April 2010 09:47 AM

Mich,

Just wanted to sympathise with you… I’ve been following all your posts with great interest and just felt really bad for you there.
My hair loves protein and I seem to get good results with AOGPB. I’ve never felt the elusive hardness that people talk about so I guess my hair still hasn’t got optimal amounts of protein.
Got really lucky yesterday at Sally’s in Bangor….. they had a discount area….I got some Biosilk Rock Hard Gellee for 1.99 and a protein repair masque for 64p.
Ach I really hope you have better news for us today.
Good luck

Hello celticbreeze

Ach, thanks for the sympathy, you’re awful nice :D I have read that finer hair tolerates protein really well and that coarse hair doesn’t, but I foolishly convinced myself that my hair wasn’t as coarse as I thought it was. Hmm, well…I was wrong LOL. I was toying with buying some AOGPB but I think I’ll give it miss

Go you for getting some really good bargains! I love a good bargain, which reminds me that my friend told me about a 7.5% discount on Feelunique.com (http://beaut.ie/blog/?p=24050). Feelunique don’t charge VAT or delivery, so this is a pretty good offer.

I tried curlyhairmich’s advice and went to Boots and got the hair mask with the fewest ingredients (just in case of skin sensitivity) and the least protein. I whacked it on my bonce for about 45 mins and I did find that my hair was much clumpier and less frizzy afterwards. So curlyhairmich is a lifesaver!! This afternoon, instead of revising like I should have, I stuck a Logona herbal hair colour into my hair, as they always leave it very soft and promote waves - I’m plopping now, so we’ll see what happens later this evening…..

Btw, have you given any thought to trying the Belfast salon I went to?

CloClo - 27 April 2010 05:00 PM

:(

Feel so sorry for you….it will get better though. And at least you know to stay away from protein now (maybe the egg was too much?).

Thanks very much, it’s good to have people who can tell me what to do to fix the problem and to let me know that things will improve  

Oh, I am staying so far away from protein in the future!!!

You could be right, it could have been the egg that tipped the balance - I’ll stick to eating eggs rather than attempting to beautify with them LOL

Glad your hair is feeling better! 

Missed all your posts here Mich! So glad your hair is recovering from the shock of protein overload! I’m medium/coarse and I find that a little AOGPB every 10 days or so does the trick for me - it’s all the protein I need. I can use stylers with protein (eg FSG, CJCCCC) but I rotate everything constantly so thankfully haven’t had a problem. At least you know for sure now.

Sorry Mich I missed this too and had the same thing happen to me a few months back. Hair reacted very badly to eggs/mayo/olive oil hair mask (never again will I add food to my hair!)

Mine did return to normal, though when it was breaking off htat first night I thought it might not! I got some great suggestions about using a moisture shampoo and I eventually bought AOHR which worked brilliantly (if you’d like a sample PM me).

My hair is fine with my canopy being a little coarse but I’ve found that using AOGPB and other products with small amounts of protein have been much better for me than one big hit.

curlyhairmich - 27 April 2010 05:18 PM

Glad your hair is feeling better! 

thank you very much for your advice about the low-protein conditioner

you’re welcome - just glad things are getting back on track

CrystalTips - 27 April 2010 09:34 PM

Missed all your posts here Mich! So glad your hair is recovering from the shock of protein overload! I’m medium/coarse and I find that a little AOGPB every 10 days or so does the trick for me - it’s all the protein I need. I can use stylers with protein (eg FSG, CJCCCC) but I rotate everything constantly so thankfully haven’t had a problem. At least you know for sure now.

Thanks very much, the kindred spirits here on BC have really cheered me up over the last week

I used a Logona herbal hair colour on my hair last night and immediately afterwards my hair felt great. The herbal colours have a really good effect on wavy or curly hair. I wish I didn’t have to go to sleep last night cause I was really chuffed with how clumpy and curly my hair was after the colour - when I use Logona, my hair shrinks into curls (which usually takes quite a bit of work for me to achieve). Unfortunately, the curls didn’t survive a night’s sleep but the clumps did, and my hair is in much better condition, is much less frizzy and is shiny again - almost back to normal, I’d say. Did a co-wash tonight and am very happy with the results

That’s really interesting to know about rotating products and trying stylers with protein rather than treatments - thanks for that info. And you’re quite right, at least I know now that massive doses of protein are not for me, and at least it happened when I had the advice of the BC curlies to draw on, can’t imagine how much I would have panicked if I’d had no-one to talk to about it! You put a nicely positive spin on things for me!

confusedcurls78 - 28 April 2010 04:00 PM

Sorry Mich I missed this too and had the same thing happen to me a few months back. Hair reacted very badly to eggs/mayo/olive oil hair mask (never again will I add food to my hair!)

Mine did return to normal, though when it was breaking off htat first night I thought it might not! I got some great suggestions about using a moisture shampoo and I eventually bought AOHR which worked brilliantly (if you’d like a sample PM me).

My hair is fine with my canopy being a little coarse but I’ve found that using AOGPB and other products with small amounts of protein have been much better for me than one big hit.

I know what you mean about feeling wary about using food in our hair - it will take a LOT of persuading for me to try anything like that again!

Oh, that sounds awful, you poor thing! I noticed a little breakage and it did panic me quite a bit when I saw one or two of my curls actually broken off and lying in the sink after I washed my hair, it was much more frightening than the normal small amount of hair I lose in a wash - I think that’s why I worried so much and put out an emergency call on this forum

I shall look out for a moisture shampoo as you suggest. I have to admit I would like to try AOHR as it gets great reviews, and I had intended to try it, but I’m worried now because I’ve read that some protein sensitive people don’t react well to it. Thank you very much for the offer of a sample - when my hair settles down I would very much like to take you up on that

Wow, at this moment in time, I think you’re so brave using AOGPB but I see your point about small amounts of protein rather than one big dose. It makes sense!

Mich - 28 April 2010 09:15 PM

CrystalTips - 27 April 2010 09:34 PM

Missed all your posts here Mich! So glad your hair is recovering from the shock of protein overload! I’m medium/coarse and I find that a little AOGPB every 10 days or so does the trick for me - it’s all the protein I need. I can use stylers with protein (eg FSG, CJCCCC) but I rotate everything constantly so thankfully haven’t had a problem. At least you know for sure now.

Thanks very much, the kindred spirits here on BC have really cheered me up over the last week

I used a Logona herbal hair colour on my hair last night and immediately afterwards my hair felt great. The herbal colours have a really good effect on wavy or curly hair. I wish I didn’t have to go to sleep last night cause I was really chuffed with how clumpy and curly my hair was after the colour - when I use Logona, my hair shrinks into curls (which usually takes quite a bit of work for me to achieve). Unfortunately, the curls didn’t survive a night’s sleep but the clumps did, and my hair is in much better condition, is much less frizzy and is shiny again - almost back to normal, I’d say. Did a co-wash tonight and am very happy with the results

That’s really interesting to know about rotating products and trying stylers with protein rather than treatments - thanks for that info. And you’re quite right, at least I know now that massive doses of protein are not for me, and at least it happened when I had the advice of the BC curlies to draw on, can’t imagine how much I would have panicked if I’d had no-one to talk to about it! You put a nicely positive spin on things for me!

So glad your hair is recovering, Mich - and that you got such great results from the Logona hair colour! When your hair has fully recovered, you could try protein experiments. For example, you could try avoiding all protein for a couple of weeks (or more) and then use something like AOGPB as a rinse out (just leaving in for a couple of mins) and then seeing how your hair reacts (I would recommend using a moisturising condish (like AOHR) straight after for a couple of mins also). That way you can better determine how your hair truly reacts to protein (in hair products). Then perhaps you could try using stylers with protein and see how they work out etc. HTH!