Low Porosity Support Thread

[HanaKuroi]

How do you use hair grease without your hair feeling greasy?

I just put some on my hair this morning. It doesn't feel greasy. I think it is the sunflower butter. I rubbed a small amount to melt it between my palms.

I really like it. I bought it on BF from foxymango. I used it years ago before I knew about sealing on my ends.

Sent from my iPad using LHCF

 

[seemegrow]

I always use the grease after my hair is wet from using the LOC method and my hair just stays moist. I use it on my hair only not my scalp. I use wigs as a protective style but when I have my hair out it still stays moist and not greasy.HTH

 

[uofmpanther]

I'm on a no-buy until Mother's Day, but I put the Type 4 cream on my potential to-try list for then.

I have the Coconut Hair Milk. I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it. It has glycerin, so I may wait until it is more humid outside to try it again. It reminds me of Oyin Hair Dew in texture.

 

[divachyk]

I started a product hits thread for us to consolidate our hits. Plz chime in! I'm on my phone so I don't have the link but can link later if you all cannot find it.

 

[faithVA]

Here is the link :http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?p=19386019#post19386019

 

[uofmpanther]

I started a product hits thread for us to consolidate our hits. Plz chime in! I'm on my phone so I don't have the link but can link later if you all cannot find it.

This is a great list! It gave me some new things to try when I come off my no-buy

 

[divachyk]

I was hoping participation would be more on the things that work. Surely there are more low porosity heads than what chimed in. Should we even make a spinny of what doesn't work?

You're very welcome uofmpanther

 

[hnntrr]

Did a full head shingle and diffuse. MUCH better. Less frizzy ness and my hair is really soft.

All I used was water, curly curl soufflé and Eco styler Evoo. My hair does better without adding oil straight into it I think.

I also figured out why my hair is so undefined unless I put gel in it. Woo!

 

[Gryphyn]

I always thought I had medium porosity hair, butconsidering what's been working for me in my regimen I think my hair has low porosity so I'm adding my stats.

--Share your hair background
I have fine 4a hair. I went natural 9 years ago because my relaxed hair was in really bad shape. My natural hair was always dry, and never grew past my collarbone. I tried so many different things to retain length, but because I struggled with styling my hair I liked to keep it straightened with rollersets and braidouts for easy styling and avoided moisture since it would cause my hair to revert. In summer 2012 I got my hair texturized b/c if my hair wasn't going to get any longer, I at least wanted hair that was easy for me to style. After that I started doing wash and gos daily, either worn loose and curly or put up in a curly puff. After 2 months I thought my hair looked a bit longer, and by my next touch up 3 months later my hair was definitely longer . I've stuck with this regimen ever since.

--What symptoms is your hair exhibiting?
Dryness and crunchiness unless I'm very heavy-handed with moisture. Crunchiness if I use heavy products on my hair.

--What have you tried that worked?
Wetting my hair daily. I don't co-wash daily since I find that makes my hair too mushy, but I will at least rinse my hair with water. My hair likes light leave-ins and moisturizers, like Cantu shea butter and ORS olive oil, applied to soaking wet hair. I follow with light oils like EVOO. I use light gels like Fantasia and the purple Miss Jessie's to style. I've also gotten great results from baggying/GHE.

--What have you tried that did not work?
Products like JBCO/castor oil and butters are a no-go for my hair, but I will use a little bit on my ends sometimes. Using moisturizers alone also didn't work for me, my hair has thrived when using a light oil after my leave in and moisturizer. Long-term protective styling also doesn't work for me. A few years ago I spent an entire summer in cornrows thinking I would retain length since I was constantly protective styling No such luck - my hair needs to be soaked with moisture daily.

This is a great thread! Off to read some of the older posts now

 

[faithVA]

hnntrr[/USER];19411391]Did a full head shingle and diffuse. MUCH better. Less frizzy ness and my hair is really soft.

All I used was water, curly curl soufflé and Eco styler Evoo. My hair does better without adding oil straight into it I think.

I also figured out why my hair is so undefined unless I put gel in it. Woo!

Why is your hair undefined without gel?

 

[faithVA]

Kiwi[/USER];19468099]I always thought I had medium porosity hair, butconsidering what's been working for me in my regimen I think my hair has low porosity so I'm adding my stats.

--Share your hair background
I have fine 4a hair. I went natural 9 years ago because my relaxed hair was in really bad shape. My natural hair was always dry, and never grew past my collarbone. I tried so many different things to retain length, but because I struggled with styling my hair I liked to keep it straightened with rollersets and braidouts for easy styling and avoided moisture since it would cause my hair to revert. In summer 2012 I got my hair texturized b/c if my hair wasn't going to get any longer, I at least wanted hair that was easy for me to style. After that I started doing wash and gos daily, either worn loose and curly or put up in a curly puff. After 2 months I thought my hair looked a bit longer, and by my next touch up 3 months later my hair was definitely longer . I've stuck with this regimen ever since.

--What symptoms is your hair exhibiting?
Dryness and crunchiness unless I'm very heavy-handed with moisture. Crunchiness if I use heavy products on my hair.

--What have you tried that worked?
Wetting my hair daily. I don't co-wash daily since I find that makes my hair too mushy, but I will at least rinse my hair with water. My hair likes light leave-ins and moisturizers, like Cantu shea butter and ORS olive oil, applied to soaking wet hair. I follow with light oils like EVOO. I use light gels like Fantasia and the purple Miss Jessie's to style. I've also gotten great results from baggying/GHE.

--What have you tried that did not work?
Products like JBCO/castor oil and butters are a no-go for my hair, but I will use a little bit on my ends sometimes. Using moisturizers alone also didn't work for me, my hair has thrived when using a light oil after my leave in and moisturizer. Long-term protective styling also doesn't work for me. A few years ago I spent an entire summer in cornrows thinking I would retain length since I was constantly protective styling No such luck - my hair needs to be soaked with moisture daily.

This is a great thread! Off to read some of the older posts now

Thanks for sharing. I think my hair needs daily water as well, but since I'm natural I have yet to try it for any long period of time. But thank you for sharing your findings.

 

[hnntrr]

Ahhh I think its because I have two diff types of curls on my head, so the parts that are super undefined/frizzy are the parts that cant merge together.

Like on my crown to like halfway down the back of my head I have like big S curls that turn into small S curls all over my head (mostly on the sides, they are looser in the back) and then depending on how I shingle the smaller s curls shrink up and the larger ones cant fit in them, and if I finger coil then thats a whole other issue in and of itself.

I think I really have to make sure i go through in small sections and smooth/moisturize properly because I have just been putting moisturizer/ curl defining cream and its fine I just put gel to seal it and to keep it from shrinking so much and from not being so frizzy.

I need to find another style other than WNG's though startin to take a toll on my ends.

 

[Cocoloves]

I always thought I had medium porosity hair, butconsidering what's been working for me in my regimen I think my hair has low porosity so I'm adding my stats.

--Share your hair background
I have fine 4a hair. I went natural 9 years ago because my relaxed hair was in really bad shape. My natural hair was always dry, and never grew past my collarbone. I tried so many different things to retain length, but because I struggled with styling my hair I liked to keep it straightened with rollersets and braidouts for easy styling and avoided moisture since it would cause my hair to revert. In summer 2012 I got my hair texturized b/c if my hair wasn't going to get any longer, I at least wanted hair that was easy for me to style. After that I started doing wash and gos daily, either worn loose and curly or put up in a curly puff. After 2 months I thought my hair looked a bit longer, and by my next touch up 3 months later my hair was definitely longer . I've stuck with this regimen ever since.

--What symptoms is your hair exhibiting?
Dryness and crunchiness unless I'm very heavy-handed with moisture. Crunchiness if I use heavy products on my hair.

--What have you tried that worked?
Wetting my hair daily. I don't co-wash daily since I find that makes my hair too mushy, but I will at least rinse my hair with water. My hair likes light leave-ins and moisturizers, like Cantu shea butter and ORS olive oil, applied to soaking wet hair. I follow with light oils like EVOO. I use light gels like Fantasia and the purple Miss Jessie's to style. I've also gotten great results from baggying/GHE.

--What have you tried that did not work?
Products like JBCO/castor oil and butters are a no-go for my hair, but I will use a little bit on my ends sometimes. Using moisturizers alone also didn't work for me, my hair has thrived when using a light oil after my leave in and moisturizer. Long-term protective styling also doesn't work for me. A few years ago I spent an entire summer in cornrows thinking I would retain length since I was constantly protective styling No such luck - my hair needs to be soaked with moisture daily.

This is a great thread! Off to read some of the older posts now

This has mirrored my experience except I ended up relaxing 10 years. There is so much more information available now than it was 10 years ago. I have learned what is best for my hair on plan on continuing with that.

 

[hnntrr]

My hair looks exactly like this without gel/straight out of the shower, especially the front (my s curls are smaller than hers by like half), but yeah it does this if it has no gel at all..... Its been coming around though.

So i dunno my theory could just be wrong and I have frizzy hair hahahahaha.

 

[classoohfive]

Did a full head shingle and diffuse. MUCH better. Less frizzy ness and my hair is really soft.

All I used was water, curly curl soufflé and Eco styler Evoo. My hair does better without adding oil straight into it I think.

I also figured out why my hair is so undefined unless I put gel in it. Woo!

I signed into LHCF today just because I'm fed up with my frizzy hair, and before even searching I think your post may have really helped me. No matter how well I style my hair, it gets frizzy fast, and it just doesn't look neat when it's frizzy. I need to look into these products.


Thank you.

 

[Saludable84]

As much as I hate to admit it, I used curl junkie curl fix which has aloe as the second ingredient and against my better judgement, it was really good. Left my hair stiff, hard and uncombable, but after I roller set it was nice and soft. I was feeling like a million bucks. I might stick it out with aloe in reconstructors because I really liked the smoother results. I think it might allow me to go longer with a protein treatment as well.

 

[uofmpanther]

I always thought that aloe vera and apple cider vinegar closed the hair cuticle, but I just read this blog post today from Natural Haven, which seems to suggest otherwise -- http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2010/06/investigation-does-ph-affect-your-hair.html. I wonder if it is accurate.

 

[jennwantslonghurr]

Subscribing

 

[divachyk]

Bump....

Ladies, please swing by and list your....

Low Porosity Staples
Low Porosity Misses

 

[hnntrr]

So I did this new thing with my DC. I washed and conditioned and detangled my hair. Then to apply my DC I ended up applying it heated (microwave) with about a tablespoon??? of EVOO in my DC and applied it in sections and bantu knotted each section when I was done.

Now this is the part I have to figure out for future reference. I ended up greenhousing for about.....12 hours (cause I was lazy and doing other things around the house) by the time I realized what time it was (about 2/3am) I took the plastic cap off and wrapped my hair up and the just let the DC dry on my head. So overall DC was on my head for probably 16 hours (I know).

So I just go rinse my hair out, I take each bantu knot out rinse it and put it back in a knot and do that all over my head.

Ya'll.
My hair is SO SOFT and feels moisturized without feeling mushy. Its not tangly at all felt like running my fingers through butter. My curls were still there but my hair had some serious hangtime and it felt good.

So now I am plopping in these bantu knots and I am about to shingle and diffuse the sections and put it in a puff prolly

We will see if I have any type of moisture overload once it dries but so far it is fine. No breakage in the rinse out at all. Its been so dry here esp cause of the resent blizzard I think my hair just really needed moisture.

So now. I have to figure out what gave me these results.

1. Letting DC dry on my hair (I know it doesnt *do anything* letting it set past 30 mins but guys.)
2. Applying heated DC like a relaxer to make sure it got on every strand
3. Applying EVOO to my DC
4. Letting it dc in small sections instead of as one big puff like i usually do.

Maybe it is all of those things. Def going to try again next week with a shorter DC time like...max 3 hours to see if I get the same results.

 

[hnntrr]

I always thought I had medium porosity hair, butconsidering what's been working for me in my regimen I think my hair has low porosity so I'm adding my stats.

--Share your hair background
I have fine 4a hair. I went natural 9 years ago because my relaxed hair was in really bad shape. My natural hair was always dry, and never grew past my collarbone. I tried so many different things to retain length, but because I struggled with styling my hair I liked to keep it straightened with rollersets and braidouts for easy styling and avoided moisture since it would cause my hair to revert. In summer 2012 I got my hair texturized b/c if my hair wasn't going to get any longer, I at least wanted hair that was easy for me to style. After that I started doing wash and gos daily, either worn loose and curly or put up in a curly puff. After 2 months I thought my hair looked a bit longer, and by my next touch up 3 months later my hair was definitely longer . I've stuck with this regimen ever since.

--What symptoms is your hair exhibiting?
Dryness and crunchiness unless I'm very heavy-handed with moisture. Crunchiness if I use heavy products on my hair.

--What have you tried that worked?
Wetting my hair daily. I don't co-wash daily since I find that makes my hair too mushy, but I will at least rinse my hair with water. My hair likes light leave-ins and moisturizers, like Cantu shea butter and ORS olive oil, applied to soaking wet hair. I follow with light oils like EVOO. I use light gels like Fantasia and the purple Miss Jessie's to style. I've also gotten great results from baggying/GHE.

--What have you tried that did not work?
Products like JBCO/castor oil and butters are a no-go for my hair, but I will use a little bit on my ends sometimes. Using moisturizers alone also didn't work for me, my hair has thrived when using a light oil after my leave in and moisturizer. Long-term protective styling also doesn't work for me. A few years ago I spent an entire summer in cornrows thinking I would retain length since I was constantly protective styling No such luck - my hair needs to be soaked with moisture daily.

This is a great thread! Off to read some of the older posts now

Ahh! I am 4a natural and I have to soak my hair with moisture daily as well. Usually I end up spritzing my hair with a 80% water/ 20% Avacado/EVOO Oil mixture until its as close to soaking I can get without dunking my head in water, and then seal with a cream (so I guess I am doing the LOC method), then diffusing about halfway on low. Wetting hair daily for me is a MUST.

 

[faithVA]

uofmpanther[/USER];19471391]I always thought that aloe vera and apple cider vinegar closed the hair cuticle, but I just read this blog post today from Natural Haven, which seems to suggest otherwise -- http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2010/06/investigation-does-ph-affect-your-hair.html. I wonder if it is accurate.

Thanks for posting that.

One thing she says in the next article is that a persons hair ph can range from 3 to nearly 7. So even though she says that using something in a range from 3 to 9, doesn't show any change, I would think that would vary based on what your normal ph is. I would think a product that is at a ph of 7 would have a different result on a person who has hair with a ph of 4 versus someone whose hair has a ph of 6.

Maybe saying opening and closing the cuticle isn't the right terminology.

I have a feeling that my hair has a lower ph. When I use water which is only a ph of 7 to 7.9 my hair has a drastic reaction. When I have used a mudwash with a ph closer to 10, it started to corrode my hair over time. My hair seems to do better with things with a ph lower than 7 but without knowing the ph of my hair, I'm not sure what range I am looking for.

Usually it is assumed that hair has a range of 4 to 5.5 or something like that. I wonder if low porosity ladies have a lower normal hair ph.

Yeah, that was long

 

[divachyk]

ACV only works for me when I've shampooed with something my hair doesn't agree with. ACV helps calm the cuticles and stabilize ph. Any other time, pass! ETA: I would think our ph differs faithVA which is why our product likes/dislikes differ.

 

[faithVA]

divachyk[/USER];19494807]ACV only works for me when I've shampooed with something my hair doesn't agree with. ACV helps calm the cuticles and stabilize ph. Any other time, pass! ETA: I would think our ph differs faithVA which is why our product likes/dislikes differ.

I think so too. I just never thought about it until I read the article.

I think I will try keeping the ph of my products in the 4 to 6 range and just use heat to open my cuticles.

 

[brsugarbabe]

Any recommendations for leave in and creamy moisturizers instead of greasy ones(no Shea butter)?

I was thinking that maybe I will just use a leave in followed by coconut oil, grapeseed oil or almond.

I've been natural for 6 years and I'm still struggling with my low porosity hair. Nothing seems to work well on my hair.

I need help.

 

[faithVA]

divachyk[/USER];19494807]ACV only works for me when I've shampooed with something my hair doesn't agree with. ACV helps calm the cuticles and stabilize ph. Any other time, pass! ETA: I would think our ph differs faithVA which is why our product likes/dislikes differ.

I didn't see your update. You may be right. I also think your being relaxed and I'm natural plays a hand. You are still my go to girl/women though

 

[faithVA]

brsugarbabe[/USER];19518763]Any recommendations for leave in and creamy moisturizers instead of greasy ones(no Shea butter)?

I was thinking that maybe I will just use a leave in followed by coconut oil, grapeseed oil or almond.

I've been natural for 6 years and I'm still struggling with my low porosity hair. Nothing seems to work well on my hair.

I need help.

Check here for recommendations: http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?p=19386019#post19386019

 

[faithVA]

I have been working with spritzes lately with a ph between 4 and 5. So far I haven't had any issues. I am in extension twist this week but spraying with the marshmallow balm spritz twice a day. I will know on Thursday, how will it is working out. I have a feeling that products with a ph of 7 cause my cuticle to raise and that my hair likes the lower ph products of 4 to 5.

 

[uofmpanther]

I have been working with spritzes lately with a ph between 4 and 5. So far I haven't had any issues. I am in extension twist this week but spraying with the marshmallow balm spritz twice a day. I will know on Thursday, how will it is working out. I have a feeling that products with a ph of 7 cause my cuticle to raise and that my hair likes the lower ph products of 4 to 5.

You now have me curious about the ph of my products. When things calm down at work this week, I'll try testing a few. Right now, I basically work, exercise and sleep. I'm posting right now from bed because I was going through withdrawal

 

[faithVA]

You now have me curious about the ph of my products. When things calm down at work this week, I'll try testing a few. Right now, I basically work, exercise and sleep. I'm posting right now from bed because I was going through withdrawal

Let me know what you find.