Soft and NON-GREASY hair - only a dream???

[Charla]

Is it possible to have soft hair that's moisturized without it being greasy to the touch or giving you residue on your hand. A little will be there, I know, but what can I use or technique can I do that won't give my hands a greasy glow? Or is this a pipe dream?

I just want touchable hair where I don't feel like I (or my man) have to wipe my hands after I touch my hair.

Currently cowash with Tressemme Naturals or VO5 Strawberry. Then I spray with avj+glycerin. Then I apply Aussie Moist and seal with castor oil or apply a blend of Aussie Moist and hemp seed oil. I clarify once monthly with Quantum.

No matter what, I have an oil slick that I'm tired of! (and I'm ready to try oil rinsing but wonder if that'll just make matters worse!)

What are ya'll using or doing that's giving you soft, touchable non-greasy hair? Pleazzze!

 

[MsChelle]

I will take a seat and get ready for one of these pros to answer this one because I have the same issue!!!

 

[vivEz daNs lamouR]

I may be in the minority, but I think you're using too many oils.

I stick to a blend of three products post-wash..

Leave-in: Silicon Mix Bambu
Reconstructor: Aphogee Green Tea Reconstructor
Thermal Protector: Fantasia IC Spray

then before I flat iron I apply a dab of Bumble & Bumble frizz protector.

Hair comes out like in my sig every time.

 

[Aviah]

I use cantu shea butter and seal with coconut oil (a small amount). I usually mist with water beforehand. I love this combo, however if you overdo either the cantu, or oil you'll get residue (waxy/oily) . Where I need to top up moisture later in the week I mist to "revive" it or repeat the whole process if very dry.

 

[toiatoya]

i have semi-concluded that my hair hates oil. . .however i do have to heavy seal. the only oil that ive tried that it tolerates so far is castor oil and jbco. so my combo is to use the Claudie's Isha Hair Cream and seal with Castor or JBCO mixed in with the Isha. Claudie is however closed. My hair is finally "melty" (the soft shiny touchable look) and can dry without being bone dry or super oily. also my twist outs look good finally! HTH

 

[ms-gg]

Yep, I do it all the time. I said it once and I'll say it again: curl activator gel.

 

[toiatoya]

Yep, I do it all the time. I said it once and I'll say it again: curl activator gel.

ur twists/twist outs look so lush!

 

[Charla]

Yep, I do it all the time. I said it once and I'll say it again: curl activator gel.

ms-gg Thanks!
Maybe I've been missing it, but can you elaborate. Do you use something like this? How do you use it? Reggie details, please. And so with this you're able to skip the greasiness and still give softness. If so this sounds like my dream!

 

[faithVA]

Not sure if you are natural or relaxed.

You are using a water/glycerin mix with a heavy oil (castor or hemp seed oil) you may not need both or you may want to balance them out a little more so you have less glycerin in your mix or dilute your heavy oil with a lighter oil.

I am assuming you have tested that your hair likes the castor/hemp seed oil by applying them directly to your hair for a test. If you do a wet test and the hair dries moisturized, soft and not greasy your hair likes that oil. If it sits on top and is greasy or your hair feels hard you may want to try a different oil.

I would try reducing the glycerin first and then go from there.

 

[Charla]

I may be in the minority, but I think you're using too many oils.

Thanks, vivEz daNs lamouR
I've considered this too and have even cut out pre-pooing with oil, but even doing that hasn't helped.erplexed

 

[vivEz daNs lamouR]

Thanks, vivEz daNs lamouR
I've considered this too and have even cut out pre-pooing with oil, but even doing that hasn't helped.erplexed

How much of each product are you putting?

 

[Curlykale]

what about:

- no glycerin (it gets either dry or oily both on my hair and skin)
- oil under the leave in instead of putting it on top
- gel over the oil (it cuts the grease for some reason, I use flax gel)

 

[FoxxyLocs]

I use all of my oils during the wash process so they all get rinsed out. For sealing I wet my ends and use a butter or a small amt of castor oil (dime sized). I also put a dollop of castor oil in my leave in mix. The only time I have issues with oiliness is when I don't rinse well after my DC.

Sent from my HTC Evo

 

[Charla]

Not sure if you are natural or relaxed.

You are using a water/glycerin mix with a heavy oil (castor or hemp seed oil) you may not need both or you may want to balance them out a little more so you have less glycerin in your mix or dilute your heavy oil with a lighter oil.

I am assuming you have tested that your hair likes the castor/hemp seed oil by applying them directly to your hair for a test. If you do a wet test and the hair dries moisturized, soft and not greasy your hair likes that oil. If it sits on top and is greasy or your hair feels hard you may want to try a different oil.

I would try reducing the glycerin first and then go from there.

faithVA -- thanks, those are good points. I am natural.
I use 4oz avj+1 tbs glycerin. (I've tested and found this is a good proportion for me.) But if I only use this and don't follow with the Aussie Moist, then my hair dries hard. Ugh, I don't know!

I can tell it likes castor oil. I really can't tell that it likes hemp seed oil though. I started using it after I read about ceramides, but I don't think I'm getting benefits from them unless it's just unseen??? It's one of those things I'm using "just in case" it's doing my hair good. But I really can't tell it or not.

 

[faithVA]

what about:
- gel over the oil (it cuts the grease for some reason, I use flax gel)

hmm I didn't know this. I will have to pay more attention next time I use gel. Thanks

 

[Bublin]

OP, you are describing my hair.

I'm sick of the oil slick but still kinda dry hair.

I have stopped using Dax and am sticking to just the Castor Oil for my heavy sealing but i still have greasy hair that feels dry at the moment (i just did an Aphogee 2 step so that is prob why my hair feels really dry right now but has reduced breakage).

I seem to be on this endless search for a thick creamy moisturiser - i know that is what my hair needs - but i can't find one and i don't have access to all the goodies you guys have in the US. I even tried mixing up my own whipped Shea butter and added water. It felt like my dream moisturiser but it turned out to be a just another oil slick for my hair.

 

[Charla]

How much of each product are you putting?

Thanks, vivEz daNs lamouR

I spray my hair with the avj+glycerin (4oz avj+1 tbs glycerin) until it's just to the point of dripping. I then apply about 2 tbs of Aussie Moist throughout and then just enough castor oil to seal. It's not a ton of castor oil because it's so thick and not easily spreadable, but just enough to make me "think" my hair is sealed!

what about:

- no glycerin (it gets either dry or oily both on my hair and skin)
- oil under the leave in instead of putting it on top
- gel over the oil (it cuts the grease for some reason, I use flax gel)

Curlykale -- thank you, I appreciate your suggestions! I noticed that glycerin is oily too. I think it was mentioned a while ago that it is actually a derivitive of vegetable oil or something. But I don't get softness with avj alone. Oil under a leave-in instead of on top is something I have considered, but then wondered am I actually sealing if I do it that way?

As far as gel over the oil, I actually made a eco-custard (ecostyler+oil), and it was nice initially, but then about 3 days later, it was flaky. That just might be the lifespan of that combo! If so I'd definitely have to start washing every 3 days!

I use all of my oils during the wash process so they all get rinsed out. For sealing I wet my ends and use a butter or a small amt of castor oil (dime sized). I also put a dollop of castor oil in my leave in mix. The only time I have issues with oiliness is when I don't rinse well after my DC.

Sent from my HTC Evo

Thank you, FoxxyLocs -- while reading these posts, I actually started thinking of just what you suggested, like if I do my prepooing with oil and then cowash with the Tressemme and then just following up with sealing with castor oil (and maybe spritzing with avj before sealing with castor oil. Ph balance is in my mind with the avj.) Do you add oil to your shampoo/cowash?

 

[Bublin]

Not sure if you are natural or relaxed.

You are using a water/glycerin mix with a heavy oil (castor or hemp seed oil) you may not need both or you may want to balance them out a little more so you have less glycerin in your mix or dilute your heavy oil with a lighter oil.

I am assuming you have tested that your hair likes the castor/hemp seed oil by applying them directly to your hair for a test. If you do a wet test and the hair dries moisturized, soft and not greasy your hair likes that oil. If it sits on top and is greasy or your hair feels hard you may want to try a different oil.

I would try reducing the glycerin first and then go from there.

I think i am going to go through the many moisturises and oils i have individually and do this wet test.

I tried a Curl Activator Gel but i used my usual leave-ins (yes plural and i know it's too much erplexed - Mane n Tail Detangler and then Giovanni Direct Leave-in) first and then put this on top and my hair airdried in twists so soft but when i undid them my hair felt like straw but had a greasy coating. I had to wash it out.

eta - omg i just remembered i used the MNT detangler, Giovanni Leave-in, Bee Mine Balancing Moisturiser, sealed with Hempseed Oil and then put the gel on. Yikes....

 

[Charla]

OP, you are describing my hair.

I'm sick of the oil slick but still kinda dry hair.

I have stopped using Dax and am sticking to just the Castor Oil for my heavy sealing but i still have greasy hair that feels dry at the moment (i just did an Aphogee 2 step so that is prob why my hair feels really dry right now but has reduced breakage).

I seem to be on this endless search for a thick creamy moisturiser - i know that is what my hair needs - but i can't find one and i don't have access to all the goodies you guys have in the US. I even tried mixing up my own whipped Shea butter and added water. It felt like my dream moisturiser but it turned out to be a just another oil slick for my hair.

Bublin -- yes! I feel like a thick creamy moisturizer is what I need but it is elusive! I tried the shea butter too when my hair was really short and it worked out well -- soft, nongreasy and moisturized, but that feeling only lasted a day then it would feel dry and greasy or just dry. Unless my expectations are too high, I didn't feel like I should apply something as oily as shea butter every single day to maintain softness. I did revisit the shea butter a few months ago, but I ended up with breakage! I know it was the shea butter because as soon as I returned to the Aussie Moist, the breakage stopped.

I kinda feel like shea butter is still good for me, but I need it to be whipped, light and fluffy and actually STAY whipped, light and fluffy. It seems like after a day, it turns into a hard mass in the jar no matter what oils I add into it. erplexed

 

[Nonie]

Yep, I do it all the time. I said it once and I'll say it again: curl activator gel.

Thank you! @ms-gg for mentioning curl activator...but I skip the gel and do the spray. Find the gel sticky and gross...

As much as I preach about S Curl you'd think it'd be a household topic since in every post I rave about it I pretty much gush about how it gives me hair that uber soft without being icky sticky and hair that does not leave grease marks on furniture. And how it's the ONLY leave-in I will use coz I can't stand to feel product on my skin...but love it coz it makes my hair shrink up and away from my neck and stay in a fluffy puff.

@Charla, where da hell have you been????

 

[Bublin]

But Nonie the s-curl left my hair with that same dry, straw-like, greasy, coated feeling.
OK, i tried it years ago. You are ONLY using the S-curl aren't you? - no leave-ins (i am obssessed with leave-in's and probably use 2 or 3 before i even get to a moisturiser) and no sealing.

I may have to go 'bare' and put these products i have down. Just like faithVA suggests - put products on the clean wet hair and see how they perform indivdually.

 

[Charla]

Thank you! @ms-gg for mentioning curl activator...but I skip the gel and do the spray. Find the gel sticky and gross...

As much as I preach about S Curl you'd think it'd be a household topic since in every post I rave about it I pretty much gush about how it gives me hair that uber soft without being icky sticky and hair that does not leave grease marks on furniture. And how it's the ONLY leave-in I will use coz I can't stand to feel product on my skin...but love it coz it makes my hair shrink up and away from my neck and stay in a fluffy puff.

@Charla, where da hell have you been????

THanks, Nonie. I've tried Scurl before on wet and dry hair after a fresh wash or cowash, but once it dries, it leave my hair feeling nasty. It feels coated with something that has a feeling of a dry powder with a greasy underlay! I don't know, but that's the best way I can describe it. There's something in the ingredients that don't agree with my hair. I know one of the main ingredients is glycerin, which I thought (as a result of using SCurl) my hair didn't like.

But I decided to buy pure glycerin and make my own "SCurl" without the additives, so that's how I started using avj+glycerin. Actually I started with water and glycerin, but found avj to work so much better. But avj+glycerin or water+glycerin isn't enough for me to use alone and actually end up with soft hair. BUT if I apply Aussie Moist without spraying first with the avj+gly mix, once my hair dries, it's like I didn't put anything on my hair at all. It's hard and dry. So then I figured out to apply avj+gly, Aussie Moist, seal with castor -- which equals soft, moisturized hair, BUT it's still greasy to the touch.

 

[Charla]

But @Nonie the s-curl left my hair with that same dry, straw-like, greasy, coated feeling.
OK, i tried it years ago. You are ONLY using the S-curl aren't you? - no leave-ins (i am obssessed with leave-in's and probably use 2 or 3 before i even get to a moisturiser) and no sealing.

I may have to go 'bare' and put these products i have down. Just like @faithVA suggests - put products on the clean wet hair and see how they perform indivdually.

Bublin , our hair does sound exactly alike!

 

[Bublin]

@Bublin , our hair does sound exactly alike!

Aaah (sigh of relief) i found my hair twin...although your hair in your avi looks very lush, mine never does. Do you have a pic of your airdried hair, unmanipulated - mine looks like a birds nest

 

[Charla]

Aaah (sigh of relief) i found my hair twin...although your hair in your avi looks very lush, mine never does. Do you have a pic of your airdried hair, unmanipulated - mine looks like a birds nest

Yes, mine's a bird's nest too!

all these pics are in June. First set is just washed with no product or manipulation and when it dries, it looks even worse! Second set is after cowashing with VO5 and fully detangled.
[url=http://www.pikistrips.com/clicked/35852223][img]http://hosted.pikistrips.com/comic_strip/s/image/35/852/223/comic-p.jpg[/url][/IMG]
[url=http://www.pikistrips.com/clicked/35852183][img]http://hosted.pikistrips.com/comic_strip/s/image/35/852/183/comic-p.jpg[/url][/IMG]

 

[Curlykale]

yeah, there is the sealing problem and I used to wonder the same thing. But I saw some people either mix oil to their leave in or put it underneath, i.e.:
- lovegymnasts in this forum mixes Lustrasilk to wheat germ oil and she doesn't seal
- Kimmaytube on youtube mixes castor and jojoba and avj into her leave in and she doesn't seal
- mllecafeaulait on youtube even puts olive oil under her leave in (and she doesn't seal)

I tried their versions and for some reason the moisture felt sealed in. It is pretty confusing lol but for some people the order seems to matter (Chicoro in this forum uses products with different consistencies, first water based product, then oil based product, then a gum or wax or pomade), and for other people it doesn't.

I think I would only remove the glycerin first, and see what happens. Because AVJ alone doesn't work for me either, not even if I add it to a leave in. But as soon as I add an oil to it or on top of it, MMMMMMOISTURE! lol
since you are indeed applying castor oil and a leave in with it, it may work.

In short, on my nasty hair:

AVJ alone =
AVJ + leave in =
AVJ + glycerin on wet hair = (it may work on dry hair or the way Nonie uses it though, unfortunately where I live glycerin even alone gets sticky, must be the weather)
AVJ + oil = MMMMMOISTURE! but more like a pre-poo, bit greasy (Chicoro indeed suggests this as a pre-poo)
AVJ + glycerin + oil = sweaty margarine head
AVJ + leave in + castor oil = MMMMMOISTURE! non greasy (the conditioner binds the aloe juice and castor oil with its emulsifiers, I guess the Kimmaytube leave in works this way)

 

[Bublin]

Now this is a bird's nest....

 

[Nonie]

But @Nonie the s-curl left my hair with that same dry, straw-like, greasy, coated feeling.
OK, i tried it years ago. You are ONLY using the S-curl aren't you? - no leave-ins (i am obssessed with leave-in's and probably use 2 or 3 before i even get to a moisturiser) and no sealing.

I may have to go 'bare' and put these products i have down. Just like @faithVA suggests - put products on the clean wet hair and see how they perform indivdually.

@Bublin, dear dear dear...again, you've not been paying attention in class. That is what it's supposed to do if you apply it damp hair or if you apply with some other product.


First of all, I believe S Curl should be used alone. If applied to dry hair (<--CORRECTION: I meant to write "DAMP/WET hair"--thanks Kiki0130), it WILL and MUST dry hard. That's OK. After your hair dries, you're supposed to apply it again to the dry hair to soften hair and baggy for the night. And if you baggy every night, you can go for days with soft touchable hair that does not need anymore. If you're in a very dry climate, this may not work...but I do believe that a spritz or humidifier can fix that problem.

And yes, I only use S Curl if I do use something and that's only when I'm wearing my hair out. (Usually if it twists, my hair is NAKED. NO PRODUCT AT ALL). If wearing my hair out, I don't use anything else (S Curl IS a moisturizer and it is a leave-in, why would you need more?) and I do not seal because I've never felt a need to. Juice isn't like any ol' water-based moisturizer that might evaporate. It stays around and so no sealing necessary IMO.

Looks like you haven't been to church. Follow me and don't blink.

 

[curlyninjagirl]

I don't seal anymore! I gave up oils about 6 months ago. I tried EVCO again maybe twice more during the 6 months and then I was like "TO HECK WITH THIS!" My scalp does not like oils, my forehead does not like oils, my hair barely likes oils so I had to tell the oils to take a walk.

Whatever benefits I got from oils I must be getting from my AO HSR conditioner. I use it everyday in my conditioner/water spritz and my ends have never been softer or retained so much moisture. (I do tuck my ends away daily which also helps the moisture retention.) My brother wears a short fro (4b) tho and he also uses my spritz daily and his hair is so nice and soft!

 

[Nonie]

Charla, are you using it with something else? That's the only time it would feel greasy. Everyone I know who's done it the way I've suggested has always reported to be pleasantly surprised at how non-greasy it is. I even know someone who switched from Carefree Curl to S Curl and was blown away by how "clean" S Curl felt...and how it didn't stick their hair together.

I kid you not, S Curl makes my hair feel like a baby's hair. I'm talking about a little toddler with a full head that isn't smothered in products but that is just clean and soft. It is why S Curl is the only product I have extra bottles of. I don't buy things in bulk but I do make sure I have at least 2 bottles of S Curl--even though it's over a year since I used it.