Shampoo Update: “Boing!”

Okay, so in January I tried two different shampoos, Not Your Mother’s Naturals Tahitian Gardenia Flower & Mango Butter Curl Defining shampoo and Ouidad’s  Climate Control Defrizzing shampoo

As you can see, I didn’t add a link to the NYMN shampoo because, meh, it was almost too mild. I would almost categorize it as a baby shampoo. I think it could still be for curly hair, but not coarse curly hair. Also, I wasn’t really pleased with how my scalp dried out. Conclusion: Mild, fruity scent, still suffered from scalp irritation.

Now, the Ouidad shampoo is a different story. Initially, I thought “meh, this one is not that great either,” but I decided to rotate it with the Aveda Rosemary Mint shampoo. First, it passed the scalp test with very little scalp irritation. Second, it did not strip my hair. Let me say that my hair feels clean after use, but not stripped. It does have a really frothy lather, which initially freaked me out (the scent is very mild and clean). Also, this is one of those products that one has to use several times before coming to any conclusions. I’ve noticed after using this for over six weeks that I’ve gotten consistent results–no super dry hair or scalp, minimal tangles, and my crown is not as dry as it usually is by wash day (I only had to refresh one section). That is, I think this shampoo has progressive results.

I’ve also changed my leave-in. I mentioned that I was rotating in the Camille Rose Almond Jai Twisting Butter. Well, I decided to use this as a leave-in and rotate out Curl Junkie’s Smoothing Lotion, which has been what I consider a HG product. I was really hesitant about taking this out of the rotation, but I see the results are completely different and in a good way.

I have gotten more “pop, boing!” and longevity with my curls than with other regimens I’ve used over the past 8 years. And I’ve significantly reduced scalp irritation and itch. I’m

gonna keep doing it until, and if something changes.

 

 

 

Shampoo Update 2017

Happy New Year All! I was settling, but not completely satisfied with the Aveda Rosemary Mint shampoo. I am still going to use it because it is the most non-irritating shampoo I’ve used. Well, that is, until yesterday.

So I decided to do a little bit more digging on the surfactants/detergents in shampoo. This is ongoing research for me, but I decided to venture back in to see if there was more detailed information. And there was. I found it on Curly Nikki’s website. I didn’t go directly to her site, but used Google, and a link to this article popped up. I was searching for shampoo for sensitive scalp, but this one on shampoo for dry natural hair was on the return results list. I won’t go into detail because all of the information is contained within the article, but I can say that this helped me select a different shampoo.

I have found that after being a serious product junkie that my scalp had become super sensitive. I’ve had severe dry scalp, sore spots on my scalp, and some hair loss — from cheap sulfates!! When I use anything with SLS/SLES or Sodium C12-14 Olefin Sulfonate, Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate, I have an instant reaction. As soon as my hair dries, my scalp is dry and within a day or two my scalp is itchy, and then a few more days out, my scalp is itchy and has sore spots. When I attempted to do no-poo (with Wen and many other cleansing conditioners) the same thing happened.

I decided to go back to Aveda brand shampoo. I first purchased their Scalp Benefits formula, but that made my scalp dry and itchy (see the ingredients list). And then I moved on to the Rosemary Mint. This shampoo significantly reduced my symptoms, and it’s actually supposed to be a clarifying shampoo. I thought that using it once a week would dry my hair out, but it doesn’t. And as I mentioned in a previous post, my scalp seems to prefer watered down sulfates. I still get the itchies with Rosemary Mint, but it’s nothing like the severe reaction I get with the other shampoos. That is, on a scale of 1 to 10, Rosemary Mint is about a 2-3 by wash day. But I think that this is only part of the story.

After reading the article on Curly Nikki’s site, I ran out and purchased Not Your Mother’s  Naturals Tahitian Gardenia Flower & Mango Butter Curl Defining Shampoo . I really don’t like fruity body care products, but I decided to give this a shot. I purchased this because of the mild cleansers. Mild doesn’t mean that this won’t get your hair clean. It means that it is less likely to irritate your scalp. I would usually wait until I’ve used a product for four washes before I post, but after my first wash, I could tell that this was going to work. I have not experienced any burning or itching so far. I will definitely be able to confirm by Saturday.

I purchased a Ouidad brand shampoo with C14-16 cleanser — I knew that I should not have because the Organix brand uses this cleanser, and it always dried my hair out, and irritated my scalp. But because Ouidad is supposed to be great for curly heads, I decided to risk it. Well, it didn’t work, ha! So, I exchanged it for the Ouidad Climate Control Defrizzing shampoo . I was simply going to return the Ultra Nourishing formula, but I noticed that the Climate Control formula contains some of the milder surfactants. So I will try that one next, and let you know how it goes.

I’m not that thrilled about how my curls turned out with the Not Your Mother’s, but if my scalp is inflamed and not healthy, it’s not going to matter too much anyway, so I’m sticking with it! All of this is connected to my slow hair growth! Ugh!

I may simply rotate these with the Rosemary Mint. But I first have to try the Ouidad!

Did this post help you? It’s taken me about five years to figure all of this out, and I am surprised that I’m not bald. Let me know.