I have been toying with the idea of switching to natural only hair products, I am starting to get suspicious of all these long-name-ingredients on all my hair products.
Take Methylisothiazolinone for instance. It shows up in the ingredient list of a gel that I bought today. Wikipedia says that it is a powerful antimicrobial ingredient used in personal care products. It also says that an in vitro neurotoxicity study into this ingredient showed that it was lethal to mature neurons at certain concentrations. Of course the cosmetic industry have hit back saying that the concentrations used in cosmetic products are safe but can I really trust everything that I’m told or isn’t it time that I started thinking for myself?
I could look up the rest of the strange sounding ingredients but what’s the point when I know I will find that it is a man made chemical that probably has some health concerns but the manufacturers swear its safe.
I only bought the gel because my stash recently got finished and I was trying to find an alternative to what I currently use. A few months ago I realized that I am definitely gluten sensitive so I wanted to avoid gels that contain wheat protein. As it happens, it’s very difficult to get a gel without wheat protein. In my BSS I was only able to get a Soft n free protein styling gel with the aforementioned potential health hazard.
To be honest, I find that commercial gels just don’t do it for me any more. When my hair was shorter, they were fine but now I have to use way too much gel to give my frizzy mop head any definition which means that it takes ages to dry a braid out. When I use less product, I get no definition and my hair is a frizz-ball by the end of the day.
Anyhoo, yesterday I took my braids down, well kind of. I undid them but left about an inch or so braided at the roots mostly because I am still not in the mood to deal with detangling for a couple of weeks yet. I also wanted more volume than I got with the flat braids.
Wash day this week was a very condensed affair. I was busy all day long so it wasn’t until 11pm that I was able to get started on my hair. Luckily I had pre-pooed and GHE’d overnight the previous night so I quickly shampooed with my usual curls unleashed sulfate free shampoo and I dc’d for only 1 hour with no heat. I used Elvive full restore ceramide conditioner to DC. I also added half a teaspoon of hydrolyzed keratin for the extra protein.
Styling consisted of braiding my hair in 6 large braids and going to bed. My braid out has good volume but because my hair is still braided at the roots, there is no tangling at all and I got good curl separation.
I expected a very shrunken affair and my kinks didn’t disappoint. I have to say, it doesn’t matter how long my hair gets, I bet I could grow my hair all the way down to my butt and it would still shrink to shoulder length! Ah such is the life of a 4a hair type.
I will post a picture of my naked hair later in the week so y’all can see what I’m dealing with. Well I’m off to look into flaxseed and okra gels.
