Frustrated Ramble...

Sigh...
I've been having a hard time trying to find a new shampoo/conditioner. I've been feeling super picky lately about what ingredients can be in there. (I don't want parabens or silicone's). The more I educate myself about hair and the ingredients found in hair products, its hard for me to act like I don't know. Like, it's hard for me not to care that Herbal essences is full of parabens and silicone's. It makes since why my hair hasn't been growing at the rate I expected it too.

So far I've looked at KeraCare, but some of their products have mineral oil in them. If they don't have mineral oil in them then it's hard for me to research the products. I don't know, maybe their just not as popular as the products with mineral oil?

I also looked at Paul Mitchell, but their products 'tingle'. I don't like 'tingly' products because they never feel good in my opinion.

I was thinking about using Aphogee's deep moisture shampoo, but it doesn't have a lot of reviews. Also, it has keratin and a few parabens.

I've looked at matrix, elasta qp, organic root stimulator,cream of nature, Burt's bees, nexxus humectress, cat walk, bed head, biolage, kenra, mizani, joico, redken...all of them have something wrong with them. Either it's the reviews, ingredients, price or availability. Ugh, this is so frustrating.

I'm beginning to become a believer of 'you get what you paid for'. The cheaper products seem to have tons of parabens in them, but the more expensive and exclusive ones don't. I have about half a bottle of Herbal essences left, so that's a while to find a new shampoo/conditioner combo. But GOSH!! Why does it have to be soo d i f f i c u l t???????

Herbal essences Ingrdients... :(

So..after I told you about the Herbal essences (apparently they prefer to spell it with a upper case 'H' and lowercase 'e') shampoo and conditioner and how much I LOVED them, I read the ingredients. I wrote a blog about it a while back..long story short-- THE INGREDIENTS ARE TERRIBLE! Ughh.. I thought I got over that but nowthe idea of silicone's and parabens in my hair bother me so much. Honestly I'm not completely sure what they are but I know they're bad and should be avoided. (I'll look it up later). What bothers me is that theres pretty much hundreds of them in that one small bottle! (exxageration, I know.) I was thinking of getting the Kenra Moisturizing Shampoo, but the reviews for that were so mixed I'm scared to use it. What I really want to use is Shea Moistures Moisture Retention Shampoo. BUTTTT my local Target is out of it so I'll have to wait. BUTTTT...Target has been out of it for a while so I'm not sure if they'll be getting it back. HOWEVVVEEERRRR...its inventory time at Target so I'm sure they'll be getting some more soon. If not, I'm going to have to find something else. My rule of thumb is going to be if it has more than 4 parabens and/or silicones then I'm not going to use it.

New DC and pre-poo mixture

Thus far in my HJ, I've been mixing a bunch of random things into my deep conditioners. Sometimes it's a hit. Other times it's a miss. To prevent this problem I'm going to come up with a special recipe in order for it to work consistently.
DC Recipe:
6 cap fuls of Kenra Moisturizing Conditioner (or what ever one I use at the time)
about 10 drops of two different essential oils (right now I have eucalyptus and rosemary)
about 5-7 drops of a carrier oil (whatever I choose to use)


It's not exact, but it's better than mixing a lot of random things into a bowl and not knowing what works best or needs to be avoided next time. Also, I used to use a lot of oil in my DC's and they would always be runny. With much less oil used, it won't be so runny.


Pre-poo:
about 6 scoops of a pre poo (lustra silk or sauve)
10 drops of essential oils
few drops of a carrier oil
a few scoops of what ever conditioner/moisturizer I'm trying to get rid of

Kenra Moisturizing Conditioner- Can't wait to try it!

Additional Uses: (copied and pasted form kenra.com)

• Add maximum moisture by applying Moisturizing Conditioner, covering hair with plastic cap and placing client under warm dryer for 10-15 minutes.
• Revitalize old perms by working Moisturizing Conditioner and Styling Gel into relaxed curls and diffusing with a blow dryer.
• Work small amount of Moisturizing Conditioner into dry hair ends to control frizz.

Key Ingredients: (Copied and pasted from kenra.com)

• Stearalkonium Chloride A humectant moisturizer for added manageability and softness.
• Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein A protein that adds moisture to hair.
• Benzophenone-4 Sunscreen for UV protection from drying and color fade.

Yesterday, like I said, I bought the Kenra Moisturizing Conditioner. My plan was to get the 10.1 ounce bottle, but instead I got the 33.8 ounce (1 liter) bottle. My original plan was to walk around the mall and search for the best price since there are three salons that carry Kenra products. So I walked into Trade Secret and noticed that they were having a 50% of liter sale. I still wanted to check to see if I was going to get the best price, so I left the store. I must of walked less than 30 feet away from the store and turned around because I couldn't pass up such a great deal. So, instead of paying $30 for it (the regular price), I only paid $16.10. I thought this was a great deal because the 10.1 ounces are sold at prices ranging from $9-$14. So pretty much I got over three times more for (at most) an extra seven dollars. I didn't even look at the other salons.



Example of a liter-sized conditioner
with a pump

 What I don't like about the packaging is that most of the time when you buy shampoo/conditioner a liter, it comes with a pump instead of having to pour it into your hand. The pump would have made it easier to measure how much conditioner I'm putting into my mixing bowl.
 
(random) When I was reading the reviews on this product, a lot of people said it had a strong coconut smell, it didn't really smell like coconuts to me.
 
What if I don't like it? I already committed to the liter size and it's going to take me forever to get rid of it. I'm not buying any more products for a while unless I run out of something, so I really hope it works well.

AGHHHHH! Ingredients...

Frustration. Pure frustration. Why? I thought I found the best shampoo/conditioner for me. Sigh, I suppose I was wrong. Herbal Essences contains a few if-y ingredients. It has a few silicone's in it and I'm scared its going to ruin my hair! I know silicone's are bad, but I love the way this shampoo makes my hair feel. Now I'm beginning to wonder if it's just crap in a bottle. I'm not sure. Both the shampoo and conditioner contains high amounts dimethicone. (A silicone derivative. Adds luster and sheen.) I also looked up a couple of other ingredients and a lot of them were linked to causing CANCER! (but then again, isn't pretty much everything a link to cancer?) I used to think that as long as mineral oil and petroleum weren't in the product then it was good, now I'm scared to buy anything. I hope what ever ingredients they did put in there are to help my hair become healthy and are not temporary fixes that only make my hair look good for now.

I found a deep conditioner I want to try called 'Kenra Moisturizing Conditioner.' Not many people on the hair forums use them, but Sunshyne (the creator of Hairlista.com) used it and she liked it, also after reading a lot of reviews, a lot of other people love it and swear by it. I'll get it tomorrow while I'm shopping and it should cost around $10-$14. (almost five times the amount the HE costs me, but that's okay because hopefully it'll be a quality product and worth it.)

NOTES:

-I know I said I was interested in the MoroccanOil for a DC, but I read the ingredients and they said NOTHING about Moroccan oil. I know just because the brand is called Moroccan oil doesn't mean they have to put Moroccan oil in it, but it's HIGHLY assumed.  

-I might start doing what Megan from 'ulovemegz' on YouTube does- instead of having a rinse-out conditioner and a separate DC, she just leaves the rinse-out on her hair for a long time and considers that her DC.
-Silicone: Some will say that silicones bond to the hair and do not allow moisture into the hair shaft. Supposedly once the silicone is on the hair it acts as a barrier between your hair and prevents moisture from penetrating your hair shaft.

Petroleum and Mineral Oil for hair

Petroleum (aka petrolatum, petroleum jelly, soft paraffin, white paraffin, and mineral oil) is a common ingredient for black hair care. I bet if you check the ingredients on your tub of blue magic, petroleum is the first ingredient- meaning it is the number one ingredient. For many years (centuries even) its been used as a hair moisturizer. When in fact, it only coats the hair instead of penetrating it. Mineral oil basically coats the hair not allowing the moisture to penetrate. Hair that has no moisture is more likely to frizz (which is not cute!).
Also, these products clog the pores of the hair shaft. So whether you spend $3.99 on a hair product with soft paraffin, or a $59.99 product with petrolatum in it, you're most likely wasting your money.

The reason these products and their AKA's are so widely used in black hair care products is:
a) they are cheap
b) they give our hair an artificial shine

This is why on your hair journey it is important to check the ingredients to make sure they do not contain these products.

Other ingredients to avoid:
Propylene Glycol (PG): not exactly sure, I just know its bad :)
Isopropyl Alcohol: drying
Polyethylene Glycol (PEG): strips of moisture
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS)/ Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES), TEA lauryl : cheap, stripping, irritating
Diethanolamine (DEA), Momoethnanolamine (MEA): can cause cancer (then again, what doesn't cause cancer in this world?)
Silicones: builds up, other bad stuff..

Personally, i just make sure it doesn't have any petroleum or mineral oil in it.