I first started with asking hair dressers. My mother is one and I asked her friends...Then after reading several hair books, they all pretty much was against no-lye, and gave very good reasons why they were against lye. Some of the books I read are located in LHCF bookstore. I read a couple hair books before I found this forum. The symptoms that they listed that attribute to no-lye use I had them all.....dry brittle hair, easy breakage, constant tangling, raggedy ends....the list went on. I started using lye in October 2004...my hair is so strong right not, but i still have no-lye ends...it takes 2 years to grow out.....