faithVA
Well-Known Member
I may have to check out that leave-in. I use TGIN right now we I twist.
Modified Maximum Hydration Challenge 2023
- Thread starter Togolese
- Start date
Togolese
Active Member
For the past 6 years I've been mostly putting them into the clay masks along the Ayurvedic powders, glycerin and sometimes hydrolised proteins. If I would keep my hair twisted/braided only, I would mainly use a leave-in like Kinky Curly Knot Today + water and seal it with tiny bits of whipped butter blend or just shea butter. This year I've started oiling my scalp again before shampoo and put a bit of coconut oil to the length of my hair just to see if it affects the cleansing in a negative way. What I only wonder is, if the oil makes it through the gel cast or am I wasting it? Coconut tends to harden when it's not formulated properly, so I try to avoid mixing large amounts into clay masks.
Putting oil on my hair was never a real thing for me because I didn’t like the greasiness running my fingers through and having oil on my hands. People used to touch my hair when I did my first big chop while being in high school and I hated the embarrassment when my friends wondered why my hair needed so much oils... I tend to overuse them and still would suffer dry hair when I don't use a film-forming humectant rich base like I've learned doing with the second big chop. In my early natural hair days I would literally use water and olive oil to do a twist out, because I had no excess to natural hair care products besides ORS/Pink & grease like Dax or Blue Magic.
So later I would mainly use oils to unravel braid/twist outs. Already beginning my relaxed & early natural hair days I occasionally did hot oil treatments with coconut oil and the Dabur Amla oil brand (which isn't pure amla oil and contains mineral oils) mainly. I used to love these hot oil treatments but never used appropriate cleansers to get rid of the excess and usually had hair that repelled water. You think it's wet & being washed and walking out of the shower it's dry.
Togolese
Active Member
Yesterday’s Monday Hair Wash, it's been 3 weeks since I washed & styled, not intentionally, but it's the cold season, I fetched a few colds.
- diy scalp oil massage
- detangle with brush with aloe vera + glycerin and water spray bottle.
- shampoo with Innersense Hydrating Cream Hair Bath once
- clarify with bentonite clay + acv
- condition with Innersense Hydrating Cream Conditioner
- kaolin + rhassoul clay mask mixed with water, acv, he shou wu + glycerin.
Styling with water spray bottle
- As I Am So Much Moisture Hydrating Detangling Lotion as leave-in
- Ecoslay's Jelloshot
I didn't take pictures this time but I'll show my day 2 hair tomorrow. I'm super happy with my hair because I don't need a lot of Jelloshot gel to give me the hold I want. My hair looks more shrunken, but it’s due to my curl pattern. Instead of getting the stretched wavy look, I'm focusing more on tiny spiral corkscrew curls and zigzags in the front.
I also finally got the curly girl handbook and can't be happier because it really reenforces my hair care routine & I'm just confident to say, I won't change anything. She gives basic information on hair care from porosity to genetics along the styling. I always knew the mhm was a modified version of the cgm but didn’t realise the cleansing step & styling step which Lorraine Massey also preached. She shows various curl types (not all, but it's the most she used to work with) and says there are multiple curl patterns on one head and I happen to have micro spirals, fractal corkscrew curls, micro & tiny zigzag curls. It's super refreshing to see curls described in a more beneficial way than letters and numbers. But the downside is, the models don't represent my hair type, so it might be disappointing for somebody going through first. But if you look at the curl samples and read properly, you will find your curls. She advises a daily routine, in some pages she mentioned gel will live in your hair for 2-3 days, so it needs appropriate ingredients until your hydration levels get right over time. So very similar to what hairstylists advise today. And that's why the original mhm was so tedious and you had the feeling your hair never dried, because you repeated the process every day and only air dried. In this re-edited edition she also shows how to use a diffuser, but still advises to air dry.
Her whole approach on hair care was to buy as green, organic & clean as possible. Eat healthy & organic. No wonder the cgm is so popular in Europe. Her steps are basically to cleanse, condition and style with gel. So it’s really no reinvention when we see curl experts preach this these days. Anthony Dickey's and even the Tightly Curly Method by Teri LaFlesh preaches the same so called 3 Step Method. She says to wash with sulfate free cleansers or to use Botanical conditioners to cleanse. So I get where the mhm is coming from, but they simply could have used sulfate free shampoos or co-wash cleansers and even clay rinses like I do. There was no need to use baking soda rinses, if they've read the handbook. So the cgm isn't about co-washing alone and leaving conditioner in, the internet kind of put its own spin on it and no wonder people are suffering buildup until today.
The conditioning step should be done with botanical conditioners only, so plant based, which means, you can't use many popular brands if you're strict, because they may contain surprising ingredients. And then she says that some curl types could benefit from leaving the botanical gel in by squeezing the excess water & conditioner out of the hair. Sounds like the popular bowl method trend to me.
The styling is about gel (non harmful ingredients, no silicones, no mineral oils & drying alcohols). Gel creates a cast and holds your hair & protects your curls. You can scrunch the cast later out when it's dry. No oils even mentioned to do this. It's interesting she doesn’t mention botanical gels. So I guess that's a spin-off from the mhm and Kinky Curly is a plant based company. She talks about multi- curl-tural hair, but she literally says we suffer the most abuse & suffocate our hair with petroleum derived products (grease, mineral oils), drying oils, silicones, waxes, because they don't provide moisture, but repel water, leaving our hair dehydrated over time. Curls will not happen overtime, when it's been over abused, but will unleash their full potential over time. Her styling advise won't help me though. I need the smoothing in small sections and not scrunching. I'm still reading through and love how she compares curly hair strands to merino wool that needs to be treated delicately. I definitely also want to read the Anthony Dickey's Book and Tightly Curly by Teri LaFlesh to see what the old school ogs said, because they all sound so similar.
- diy scalp oil massage
- detangle with brush with aloe vera + glycerin and water spray bottle.
- shampoo with Innersense Hydrating Cream Hair Bath once
- clarify with bentonite clay + acv
- condition with Innersense Hydrating Cream Conditioner
- kaolin + rhassoul clay mask mixed with water, acv, he shou wu + glycerin.
Styling with water spray bottle
- As I Am So Much Moisture Hydrating Detangling Lotion as leave-in
- Ecoslay's Jelloshot
I didn't take pictures this time but I'll show my day 2 hair tomorrow. I'm super happy with my hair because I don't need a lot of Jelloshot gel to give me the hold I want. My hair looks more shrunken, but it’s due to my curl pattern. Instead of getting the stretched wavy look, I'm focusing more on tiny spiral corkscrew curls and zigzags in the front.
I also finally got the curly girl handbook and can't be happier because it really reenforces my hair care routine & I'm just confident to say, I won't change anything. She gives basic information on hair care from porosity to genetics along the styling. I always knew the mhm was a modified version of the cgm but didn’t realise the cleansing step & styling step which Lorraine Massey also preached. She shows various curl types (not all, but it's the most she used to work with) and says there are multiple curl patterns on one head and I happen to have micro spirals, fractal corkscrew curls, micro & tiny zigzag curls. It's super refreshing to see curls described in a more beneficial way than letters and numbers. But the downside is, the models don't represent my hair type, so it might be disappointing for somebody going through first. But if you look at the curl samples and read properly, you will find your curls. She advises a daily routine, in some pages she mentioned gel will live in your hair for 2-3 days, so it needs appropriate ingredients until your hydration levels get right over time. So very similar to what hairstylists advise today. And that's why the original mhm was so tedious and you had the feeling your hair never dried, because you repeated the process every day and only air dried. In this re-edited edition she also shows how to use a diffuser, but still advises to air dry.
Her whole approach on hair care was to buy as green, organic & clean as possible. Eat healthy & organic. No wonder the cgm is so popular in Europe. Her steps are basically to cleanse, condition and style with gel. So it’s really no reinvention when we see curl experts preach this these days. Anthony Dickey's and even the Tightly Curly Method by Teri LaFlesh preaches the same so called 3 Step Method. She says to wash with sulfate free cleansers or to use Botanical conditioners to cleanse. So I get where the mhm is coming from, but they simply could have used sulfate free shampoos or co-wash cleansers and even clay rinses like I do. There was no need to use baking soda rinses, if they've read the handbook. So the cgm isn't about co-washing alone and leaving conditioner in, the internet kind of put its own spin on it and no wonder people are suffering buildup until today.
The conditioning step should be done with botanical conditioners only, so plant based, which means, you can't use many popular brands if you're strict, because they may contain surprising ingredients. And then she says that some curl types could benefit from leaving the botanical gel in by squeezing the excess water & conditioner out of the hair. Sounds like the popular bowl method trend to me.
The styling is about gel (non harmful ingredients, no silicones, no mineral oils & drying alcohols). Gel creates a cast and holds your hair & protects your curls. You can scrunch the cast later out when it's dry. No oils even mentioned to do this. It's interesting she doesn’t mention botanical gels. So I guess that's a spin-off from the mhm and Kinky Curly is a plant based company. She talks about multi- curl-tural hair, but she literally says we suffer the most abuse & suffocate our hair with petroleum derived products (grease, mineral oils), drying oils, silicones, waxes, because they don't provide moisture, but repel water, leaving our hair dehydrated over time. Curls will not happen overtime, when it's been over abused, but will unleash their full potential over time. Her styling advise won't help me though. I need the smoothing in small sections and not scrunching. I'm still reading through and love how she compares curly hair strands to merino wool that needs to be treated delicately. I definitely also want to read the Anthony Dickey's Book and Tightly Curly by Teri LaFlesh to see what the old school ogs said, because they all sound so similar.
faithVA
Well-Known Member
Don't think Togolese is around anymore.
I finally got around to pulling out the clay and it was so worth it.
I haven't used clay in a few years so I no longer remember my measurements. I just threw clay and water in a pitcher, shook it and was done with it. I do remember that I like the clay, watery so I can just pour it on my hair.
I rinsed my hair to get some of the gel out. Then I poured the clay over my hair and saturated it. I forgot how messy it is
I then went through my hair and worked on separating at my roots. I have a lot of webbing. I left it on long enough to work through my roots. I thought about getting something to get at my roots better but I figured I would do it next time.
I rinsed and I could tell that my hair was holding more water than usual. I applied the gel over each section and just kept adding gel and water until I thought it was the right amount of heaviness.
I definitely plan on doing this more often. It allows me to reset my hair without using shampoo. And the clay is gentle enough that I can forgo the conditioner.
I got much better results yesterday then I did when I was doing MHM years ago. Will try it for the rest of the month to see how it works out.
I finally got around to pulling out the clay and it was so worth it.
I haven't used clay in a few years so I no longer remember my measurements. I just threw clay and water in a pitcher, shook it and was done with it. I do remember that I like the clay, watery so I can just pour it on my hair.
I rinsed my hair to get some of the gel out. Then I poured the clay over my hair and saturated it. I forgot how messy it is
I then went through my hair and worked on separating at my roots. I have a lot of webbing. I left it on long enough to work through my roots. I thought about getting something to get at my roots better but I figured I would do it next time.
I rinsed and I could tell that my hair was holding more water than usual. I applied the gel over each section and just kept adding gel and water until I thought it was the right amount of heaviness.
I definitely plan on doing this more often. It allows me to reset my hair without using shampoo. And the clay is gentle enough that I can forgo the conditioner.
I got much better results yesterday then I did when I was doing MHM years ago. Will try it for the rest of the month to see how it works out.
snoop
Well-Known Member
Why is that? How different is your previous routine as compared to what you did yesterday?
faithVA
Well-Known Member
The only thing I can think of is my hair is already more hydrated and I'm able to wear a wng whenever I want. Changing my shampoos and dropping oil were critical to get to this point.
Last time I did the full regimen and the modified for a while and my hair never hydrated. I'm sure there was something I was doing to keep it from working but I wouldn't be able to pinpoint it at this point.
Chicoro
5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
I love clay. What kind of clay did you use?Don't think Togolese is around anymore.
I finally got around to pulling out the clay and it was so worth it.
I haven't used clay in a few years so I no longer remember my measurements. I just threw clay and water in a pitcher, shook it and was done with it. I do remember that I like the clay, watery so I can just pour it on my hair.
I rinsed my hair to get some of the gel out. Then I poured the clay over my hair and saturated it. I forgot how messy it is
I then went through my hair and worked on separating at my roots. I have a lot of webbing. I left it on long enough to work through my roots. I thought about getting something to get at my roots better but I figured I would do it next time.
I rinsed and I could tell that my hair was holding more water than usual. I applied the gel over each section and just kept adding gel and water until I thought it was the right amount of heaviness.
I definitely plan on doing this more often. It allows me to reset my hair without using shampoo. And the clay is gentle enough that I can forgo the conditioner.
I got much better results yesterday then I did when I was doing MHM years ago. Will try it for the rest of the month to see how it works out.
faithVA
Well-Known Member
Almost Clarifying: TGIN
All purpose: Trader Joe's
Moisturizing: Madison Reed
I use the moisturizing shampoo each time and rotate through the others for my first shampoo, depending on what I think I need.
Rotating and combining shampoos has really helped my hair hydrate. I was either drying it out or creating build up before.
faithVA
Well-Known Member
I combined several a few years ago into a large container, so I'm not sure what's in it. I made this about 4 years ago.
I know there is bentonite, rhassoul and kaolin.
Chicoro
5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
Thank you for the response.
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