Any Ladies With Thick Hair Strands?

[Nightingale]

Hey ladies! I'm starting this thread because I'm looking for others with thick hair strands. So many on LHCF seem to have fine hair and what they like my hair doesn't respond as well to.

Thick strand ladies, this is your roll call! Let me know the following:

1. Relaxed? Natural? If relaxed, did your strands get thinner after processing?
2. Porosity?
3. What are you using?
4. Have any holy grails products, ingredients, or techniques?
5. What did your hair hate?


About me:
1. I'm newly natural, with 2. low po thick strands.
3. I like thick, heavy products but use them sparingly so they'll sink into my low po hair. Currently, I'm using ITDF products.
4. Holy Grails- ITDF Intense Moisture Cream, Oil prepooing, finger detangling (so far, so good atleast), avocado oil, avocado butter.
5. Straight Coconut Oil, Shea Butter, and Shea Moisture Conditioners and DCs. For some reason they just won't penetrate my hair. The curl enhancing smoothie was exceptionally bad leaving me with dry, coated hair.

 

[ms.blue]

I don't believe shea butter penetrates the strands. I have low porosity hair and I must use heat for any deep conditioner to penetrate my strands or the dc will just sit on my hair.

 

[bluenvy]

Hi! Thick strands here.

1. Relaxed? Natural? Natural since two years
2. Porosity? Low po
3. What are you using?Grapeseed and jojoba oil prepoo (and seal). Creme of nature shampoos, clarify once a month using Darcy's shampoo bar.
Vo5 strawberries n cream to detangle. Dc with Aussie 3 mins.
Apply Darcy's leave in.
4. Have any holy grails products, ingredients, or techniques? All above products but shampoo bar are staples. Other staples, Darcy's pumpkin seed curl conditioner, Miss Jessie's jelly soft curls, brown protein gel.
I like protein and dc products that has panthenol.
I wash/dc 1-2x weekly in sections, use wide tooth comb or fingers to detangle.
Squeeze water out and apply products to wet hair, add few braids or bun to dry. I get more definition, shine and bounce styling on wet hair.

5. What did your hair hate? I don't use hair brush, don't hate it, it's not necessary. My hair don't like as I am cowash, Darcy's daily cleansing cream. I also don't like Sm curl smoothie. My hair hates going longer than a week without washing, and long term protective styles.

 

[LivingInPeace]

I wish I had thick strands.

 

[flyygirlll2]

1. Relaxed? Natural? If relaxed, did your strands get thinner after processing? I have medium/thick strands. I'm relaxed but currently 10 months post. My hair is pretty resistant, the times that my hair thinned out was due to being sick and shedding badly.
2. Porosity? I'm normal to high porosity.
3. What are you using? DE Creme Shampoo, Nexxus Humectress mixed with Bekura YAM, Soultanicals Knot So Fast Kink Drink, Komaza Protein Stenghener, Tailored Beauty Moisturizing Mist, and Everything Butter. I'm still on the hunt for a very good moisturizer.
4. Have any holy grails products, ingredients, or techniques? DE Honey Creme shampoo because it doesn't leave my hair stripped. I also really like the Soultanicals Knot So Fast Kink drink to detangle my hair. I prefer products with some type of slip to help aid in detangling, it can take me 2 hours to just detangle. I blow dry my hair on the cold setting now using a comb attachment to help stretch it. I really want to just air dry and call it a day, but it hasn't been working so far.
5. What did your hair hate? Organix shampoos and their conditioners. None have worked for my hair. At one point my hair didn't do well with shea butter, but now it's ok depending on what other ingredients it's mixed with surprisingly. I try not to use too much of it because it will leave my hair feeling coated if I use too much.

 

[blackeyes31626]

1. Relaxed? Natural? If relaxed, did your strands get thinner after processing? natural
2. Porosity? low
3. What are you using? right now I am using SM shampoo and dc, Komaza care protein tmt, care free curl gold activator afroveda shea amla and their oil
4. Have any holy grails products, ingredients, or techniques? My hair loves glycerin and I think it likes avocado oil. When I dc'd o/n with raw avocado my hair was so healthy. Anyway, QB hydrating balm, ctdg and aethiopika butter. Finger detangling and protective styling.
5. What did your hair hate? My hair has always hated shea butter but I can use this shea amla(but not much) on top of my activator gel.

 

[fasika]

Natural.

Very low porosity as a natural. I did that strand test, and forgot about the hair in cup. I went to get it an HOUR later, and that hair was STILL floating! It never sank. I did it multiple times, and got the same results each time.

Right now, my hair is absolutely loving the CG method, so I use CG approved products.

I don't have holy grails, but products that work for me: Ecostyler gel, Hollywood Beauty Olive Cholesterol, honey, oils (my hair used to absolutely HATE them when I was relaxed and was extremely hi-po) Coconut, Vitamin E, Sweet Almond and Grapeseed oils are what I'm using. I'm also using Tressemme Naturals condish, KCKT, Shea Moisture Hibiscus and Coconut condish. I don't love them, but they're doing a good enough job until I find my holy grails. Favorite technique as a prepoo is to first have a layer of coconut oil, then add a thick layer of conditioner on top, and then let it marinate for at least 20 min. I learned it from Naptural85. As a quick in-shower DC, I mix the HB Olive Cholesterol with EVCO and honey, and leave it in my hair for 5 min, then rinse and do my wng.

As a natural, I find that my hair does not like cones even though it loved them as a relaxed hi-po. My hair doesn't like shampoos either. It absolutely does not like any alcohol-containing gels. It hates KCCC gel, even though I've tried and tried. KCKT + KCCC is the recipe for the driest and crunchiest hair ever. My hair doesn't like light and runny products, which is one of the reasons I'm not in love with KCKT, Shea Moisture's condish above or flaxseed gel. It loves thick and heavy stuff. Lately, I find that it's liking cold water rinses even though it used to hate those. It's liking the no-comb/brush part of CG because I lose way less hair - the good news is that my hair doesn't tangle much anyway thanks to the thick strands.

 

[Queensheba88]

1. Relaxed? Natural? If relaxed, did your strands get thinner after processing? Relaxed 4c. Thick strands w. High density. Even when i used a no-lye...ive always been textlaxed lol
2. Porosity? Low....heat is always needed
3. What are you using? Suave shea shampoo and cond. Neutrogena triplemoisture line(love!!) elasta qpdpr11, ors hair mayo
4. Have any holy grails products, ingredients, or techniques? Mentioned above. Rollersetting is my friend..cut
down on heat and manipulation

5. What did your hair hate?hard protein!! Can only use ors hair mayo and aphrogee 2 min.

 

[PureSilver]

Fine strands lurker here I really wish I had very thick hair

 

[Nightingale]

Thanks ladies, your info has been really insightful so far.

Anymore thick strand LHCFers?

 

[Nightingale]

5. What did your hair hate?hard protein!! Can only use ors hair mayo and aphrogee 2 min.

My hair is pretty particular about protein too. I have goods results with Keratin protein, but use it only every 8 weeks or so.

 

[fasika]

1. Relaxed? Natural? If relaxed, did your strands get thinner after processing? Relaxed 4c. Thick strands w. High density. Even when i used a no-lye...ive always been textlaxed lol
2. Porosity? Low....heat is always needed
3. What are you using? Suave shea shampoo and cond. Neutrogena triplemoisture line(love!!) elasta qpdpr11, ors hair mayo
4. Have any holy grails products, ingredients, or techniques? Mentioned above. Rollersetting is my friend..cut
down on heat and manipulation

5. What did your hair hate?hard protein!! Can only use ors hair mayo and aphrogee 2 min.

Yeah, my hair was texlaxed whether I liked it or not. Even when using the Super strength and leaving it on longer than recommended in an effort to get it bone straight. In fact, every time I relaxed (every 3-4 months), I'd apply it root to tip , and my hair would stay texlaxed!

I haven't used enough protein to say whether my hair is finicky or not. I occasionally add an egg to my prepoo, and the HB Olive Cholesterol is more protein than moisture, and my hair feels fine. I do need to moisturize it some (which is why I add things like oils or honey), but nothing serious.

 

[flyygirlll2]

My hair does not like hard protein. I like light to medium protein. @Nightingale my hair responds well to keratin protein too.

 

[Ogoma]

My hair is medium-coarse in most places, but not coarse.

1. Relaxed? Natural? If relaxed, did your strands get thinner after processing?
Natural. I didn't notice a change in my strands.

2. Porosity?
Normal

3. What are you using?
I make my own products, but also use these:
Rinse out: Aussie 3 Min Miracle and Tresemme Perfectly (un)Done
Gel: Wet Line Xtreme or Super Wet gel
Protein: CJ Repair Me
Clarifying: Lush Fair Trade Honey. Testing out Shea Moisture African Black Soap next
Oil: Unfiltered Pumpkin Seed oil & Argan oil

4. Have any holy grails products, ingredients, or techniques?
- Monthly clarifying and protein
- Use cones
- Use oil as first layer in moisturizing, conditioner, and then gel
- Been doing mainly WnG this summer
- Make sure I never need to re-moisturize between washes; hair remains very soft and moisturized (longest time between washes is a week)

5. What did your hair hate?
- Re-moisturizing: layering conditioning products on unwashed hair.

 

[bluenvy]

@flyygirlll2 it takes 2 hours to detangle your hair

 

[flyygirlll2]

@bluenvy Yes girl smh I'm about 10 months post and my new growth is very thick, so I have to do everything in sections. One of my freinds, who happens to be natural, told me I am blessed, but after telling her how long wash days take.. She was like

 

[PureSilver]

@bluenvy Yes girl smh I'm about 10 months post and my new growth is very thick, so I have to do everything in sections. One of my freinds, who happens to be natural, told me I am blessed, but after telling her how long wash days take.. She was like

Your hair is a beauty. If I had thick strands like yours, I'd be acting like I had hair like Diana Ross

 

[flyygirlll2]

@PureSilver thanks. My hair is a time consuming peice of work sometimes.

 

[overtherainbow]

1. 2 years natural

2. High-Po

3. ATM, I am only using curly girl approved products. I prepoo with EVCO, then right before the wash, would saturate my hair with a conditioner. If I'm using a moisturizing DC that day, then I would use a mild protein as a prepoo and vice versa. I wash weekly with SM restorative moisturizing shampoo, and condition with either their deep treatment masque or the JBCO masque. To style I twist/braid with SM curl and style milk, their mousse, and seal with coconut oil. If needed, I will CoWash with VO5 clarifying conditioner and WnG using the anthony dickey method using the styling products above. In the winter, my routine varies A LOT. I use more cones (OGX shampoo and conditioners) and do my stretched WnG's in the shower with just good ole Blue Magic Grease. I do this because I hide my hair under a hat for the majority of the cold season.

4. HG: Shea Moisture JBCO masque, Shea Moisture Curl &Style Milk, EVCO, Aubry Organics' conditioners, Giovanni SAS, whipped sheabutter, Shea Moisture Moisture Retention Shampoo, Giovanni 50/50 Clarifying shampoo. Technique:Sealing was a game changer for my hair. Washing and styling in sections helps combat the thickness. Monthly clarifying. Strictly finger detangling or else my coily strands would wrap around combs like an anaconda and refuses to let go its prey.

5. My hair hates heavy proteins too!! It also hates when I use dimethicone in a product that doesn't get rinsed out right away. And it hates the majority of the cheapy conditioners. Oh and it despises wheat protein. This could be because I have celiacs, or just a fluke.

 

[nothidden]

@Nightingale, I have also noticed a lot of users mentioning fine hair. Not me. I may complain every now and then about working with this thickness, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

1. Natural and dye-free
2. Porosity?

Started out low all over. As I moisturized more and more over the past year, my porosity has normalized almost everywhere but the crown. (Didn't do the porosity test -- I think it's bogus. If your hair takes FOREVER and EVER to dampen, your hair is low porosity.)​

3. What are you using?

Cleanse: DIY Soap Nut Shampoo; DIY Sodium Bentonite Clay with Coconut Water; Terressentials Mud Wash (Left Coast Lemon, Lavender Garden)
Condition: DevaCurl One Condition; Kinky-Curly Knot Today; Acure Organics moroccan argan oil + argan stem cell conditioner
Deep Condition: Acure Organics hair mask moisturizing root repair argan stem cell + mint deep conditioning
Styler: DevaCurl Styling Cream; DevaCurl Light Defining Gel; Kinky-Curly Curling Custard
Tools: Steamer; plastic caps; shower water filter
**edit**
Growth: Inversion Method (w/or w/o oil)
Nutrition: Garden of Life Raw Protein powder - added to smoothies to nourish my hair (and body) from within​

4. Have any holy grails products, ingredients, or techniques?

Installing a shower water filter is a MUST. The chlorine and minerals wreaks havoc on my hair;
Sodium Bentonite Clay w/Coconut water - this combination is awesome, but i'm on a break from DIY products;
Terressentials Mud Wash - when free shipping is offered, and I've got the extra cash, I'll stock up.
**edit**
Garden of Life Raw Protein powder
Until I stop noticing a boost from the Inversion Method, I'll continue doing it​

5. What did your hair hate?

ALL masques. They all leave my hair hard, not feeling the least bit conditioned.​

 

[Nightingale]

@Nightingale, I have also noticed a lot of users mentioning fine hair. Not me. I may complain every now and then about working with this thickness, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

1. Natural and dye-free
2. Porosity?

Started out low all over. As I moisturized more and more over the past year, my porosity has normalized almost everywhere but the crown. (Didn't do the porosity test -- I think it's bogus. If your hair takes FOREVER and EVER to dampen, your hair is low porosity.)​

3. What are you using?

Cleanse: DIY Soap Nut Shampoo; DIY Sodium Bentonite Clay with Coconut Water; Terressentials Mud Wash (Left Coast Lemon, Lavender Garden)
Condition: DevaCurl One Condition; Kinky-Curly Knot Today; Acure Organics moroccan argan oil + argan stem cell conditioner
Deep Condition: Acure Organics hair mask moisturizing root repair argan stem cell + mint deep conditioning
Styler: DevaCurl Styling Cream; DevaCurl Light Defining Gel; Kinky-Curly Curling Custard
Tools: Steamer; plastic caps; shower water filter
**edit**
Growth: Inversion Method (w/or w/o oil)
Nutrition: Garden of Life Raw Protein powder - added to smoothies to nourish my hair (and body) from within​

4. Have any holy grails products, ingredients, or techniques?

Installing a shower water filter is a MUST. The chlorine and minerals wreaks havoc on my hair;
Sodium Bentonite Clay w/Coconut water - this combination is awesome, but i'm on a break from DIY products;
Terressentials Mud Wash - when free shipping is offered, and I've got the extra cash, I'll stock up.
**edit**
Garden of Life Raw Protein powder
Until I stop noticing a boost from the Inversion Method, I'll continue doing it​

5. What did your hair hate?

ALL masques. They all leave my hair hard, not feeling the least bit conditioned.​

@nothidden
I heard that the Deva products were light, maybe even too light for coarse (thick strand) hair. How do they perform for you?

Also, How long have you been using the protein powder and doing inversion? How much extra growth do you think you gained? I told myself I'd start inverting 8/1. The last time I tried it I lasted four days.

 

[Nightingale]

3. What are you using?
Rinse out:...Tresemme Perfectly (un)Done - Does this have a lot of slip? Better than Tresemme Naturals?
Gel: ... Super Wet gel - I wanted to love this, but it just didn't work for me. Not enough hold and my hair was dull after using it.
Clarifying: ... Shea Moisture African Black Soap next - The soap, old formula clarifying shampoo, or new formula dandruff shampoo? I LOVE the old formula shampoo, its my HG shampoo.

@Ogoma See bolded.

 

[nothidden]

@nothidden
I heard that the Deva products were light, maybe even too light for coarse (thick strand) hair. How do they perform for you?

Also, How long have you been using the protein powder and doing inversion? How much extra growth do you think you gained? I told myself I'd start inverting 8/1. The last time I tried it I lasted four days.

Well everything's relative. I didn't like DevaCurl's No Poo but it wasn't light to me at all. I wouldn't call One Condition light either. I've even watered it down on occasion. The Styling Cream and Light Defining Gel are light, but since I don't like to style w/anything heavy, they work for me. As w/the conditioner, I either water the stylers down and apply w/a spray bottle or apply the products in the shower so they're able to spread somewhat evenly.

My first attempt at IM was last Fall, but I didn't complete the cycle either. This time I was determined. Too many women claim it's worked for them, it makes scientific sense, and it cost me nothing. I started using protein powder and IM in July. With IM I gained .5-1" of growth. Despite feeling that I massaged evenly, the growth was random (weird). I did not use warmed oil that first run but plan to in August, probably a JBCO mix.

 

[PureSilver]

Natural ladies, name your most moisturizing product that is the least expensive. No oils please, I'm referring to creams and puddings, preferably in a jar with medium to heavy consistency; it must be yummy too that defines curls. I think I'm a 4a.

 

[moneychaser]

@PureSilver qhemet biologics burdock root butter cream

 

[LadyAmani]

I'm going to need everyone in here talking about they have thick strands, to post some pictures.

 

[bluenvy]

I wear stretched styles mostly.