My hair loves, loves, loves protein. I retained alot of length in 2006, but did not in 2007 because I kept reading that naturals do not need alot of protein, so I cut back.
I started again this year using it once a week. Recently, I looked at all the ingredients in MT/OCT (hydrolyzed keratin, muccopolysacharides, amino acids, panthenol, marine proteins) and made up my own version of it -- mostly to try to use up some of the conditioner I have and just as a small experiment that I could stop if it disagreed with my hair. It did not. Not only is my hair thus far loving it, I am using up some of the myriad conditioners I have in my linen closet, cabinet and laundry room.
It is a creamy concoction of the horse conditioner (I use Cabellina del Caballos - keratin amino acids, horsetail, panthenol), Aphogee intensive keratin reconstructor (the creamy one, see ingredients below*), Freeman Sea Kelp/WR Ocean Mist (marine proteins, panthenol, botanicals) conditioners, which give me all the ingredients for far less money, plus the Cabellina has horsetail to boot. I made a gallon of the stuff -- half of it is the horse conditioner...
I also have a liquid concoction made up of Duo Tex (collagen), aloe vera (mucopolysaccharides), Aphogee keratin and green tea restructurizer and avocado mist (panthenol and more mucopolys...) that I spray on first on (saturate) dry hair. My scalp immediately starts tingling, itching, crawling (in a good way, smile) and does not stop. I then layer on the creamy stuff, leave on for up to an hour and rinse. For the most part, my hair does not rinse hard at all, but soft, strong, detangled, moisturized. (The one time my hair rinsed not hard, but not as moisturized as it usually did, I ran some VO5 honeydew smoothie through it, let it stay on a minute and rinsed and my hair felt like I wanted it to...) My ends are the best they have ever been -- no roughness, very smooth cuticles.
I have been doing nearly daily for two weeks now and my hair is thriving, thriving, thriving -- thicker, lusher, stronger, incredible moisture retention, considerably less shrinkage and, I daresay, I have even had some new growth, which is phenomenal because I only get about one fourth inch of growth a month and I have already had that, a bit more, really...
*(Hydrolyzed Hair Keratin, Hydrolyzed Mucopolysaccharides, Collagen Amino Acids, Wheat Germ Fatty Acids, Linoleic Acid, Linolenic Acid, Arachidonic Acid, Squalane, Avocado Oil, Acetimide MEA, Panthenol, Wheat Germ Oil, Jojoba Oil, Tocopherol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Sulfur -- in addition to the chemicals it contains, of course, smile)