What's your price range? I could give better suggestions if I knew.
I would say steam caps *can* be just as effective.
For the shoestring haircare budget, I say a couple plastic grocery bags and as many winter hats (beanies, skull caps, thick scarves) as you can stand to pile on top is just fine. TBH, in a super lazy mood, I have done this with 2-3 woolen hats and fallen asleep. The warmth on my head usually wakes me up, I'll take one or two hats off, go back to sleep, and rinse out in the morning. I'm sure you wouldn't need to leave your treatment on overnight like I do to get the full effect (like I said, pure laziness on my behalf), but the warmer you can get your head (while remaining comfortable), the better. You could even wrap some aluminum foil on top of the plastic grocery bag (or buy the foil processing caps to put over the plastic to be fancy).
I only have a steamer *and* standing dryer to be fancy; and for those less lazy more convenient days.
HTH!
Thank you, but those are still way too expensive for my taste. Are steam caps just as effective???