So, because of all this experimentation, I have a lot of hair products. My plan is to try to use up as many of these as possible over the next few months, and have a few left over. I plan to keep the best, and the cheapest-that-work-well. I plan to only use the best ones if something happens and I need a deep treatment, because they are expensive, and to use the cheaper ones on the weeks where my hair is doing well.
My plan for that is:
Cheapest / most days:
As I am Coconut Cowash || Shea Moisture Low Porosity shampoo (<1$/wash)
Tresemme Botanique Coconut and Aloe conditioner (<$.50/wash) || Shea Moisture Superfruit Complex Deep Conditioner (<$2/wash)
Homemade flax seed gel (about 25 cent / wash )
More expensive:
Shea Moisture Superfruit Complex Conditioner (<$1/wash)
Adwoa Beauty Deep Conditioner (I think about $3/wash)
EdenBodyworks Almond and Marshmallow Serum (about $2/wash) || Uncle Funky's Daughter Curly Magic Gel (about 3/wash)
When I do the MHM, I only need a regular conditioner, a gel, and clay (I haven't figured out how much clay I need, but I do need about a tablespoon of ACV and a tablespoon of oil, so those prices should be factored in at some point. I actually don't think the oil is necessary, though, so I plan to try leaving it out when my hair is in better condition.)
As you can see, gels cost the most money per wash, because I have to use a lot and they are expensive. Deep conditioners are second, because I have to use a medium amount and they are expensive, and conditioners are the least expensive because though I use an extremely large (you are probably underestimating) amount of them, they start off being very cheap in the first place. My homemade gel is so much cheaper that I only ever use purchased gels when I cannot use mine for some reason. However, the more conditioned my hair becomes, the less I have to use in general, so the price-per-wash should go down as time goes on.
I'm trying to lower the time, money, and amount of products I have to use to keep my hair awesome, but this sort of hair-rehab was necessary to reach that position.
I do plan to try one more thing when it comes out in stores, which is the Taliah Waajid Green Apple and Aloe deep conditioner. It would be the cheapest DC I would own if it works, so if it is better than the Superfruit DC, I will switch. I may actually nix the superfruit DC entirely, due to how well the regular conditioner works.
So, what did I learn from this past month or so?
1. Low porosity hair needs to be cleaned.
Not just cowashed, but actually cleaned, even when you do not use any sticky ingredients. Low porosity hair can attract buildup from the simplest of ingredients and it can take massive amounts of cleansing over several washes to get rid of that. If you don't clean the hair, whatever you apply will just be washed off. This is why some low porosity curlies/coilies think deep conditioning is pointless, or that cones / silky buildup is good. They're simply not getting results they should be from their deep conditioner.The reason that the CG method seems to work a little but not a ton for us is because the lack of sticky ingredients like cones and polyquats tends to mean we have less buildup, but because we aren't shampooing, it is difficult to get the hair to absorb to full capacity due to the positive and negatives bonds on the surface and outside of the hair. The shampoo compliments them in the exact opposite way of conditioner.
2. For low porosity hair, a conditioner that is better than another conditioner, is still not better than a worse conditioner with baking soda.
Closed cuticles are a much harder barrier to cross than even product buildup (though they are similar in affect.) For my hair, at least, the best ways to compensate, if you do not wish to use baking soda, are [in order of effectiveness] leaving on overnight, indirect heat, using better (often more expensive) conditioners.
3. pH of products is extremely important for low and high porosity coilies to watch out for, but it is a delicate balance because extreme pH changes can cause damage over time.
Low porosity hair opens less, so it absorbs less moisture. That is why, although it take a long time to go from wet to dry, it takes less time than properly sealed high porosity hair to go from dry to dried-out. It has less moisture inside in the first place. However, if you have low porosity hair, once you get that balance figured out, it can last without any touch-ups, which is nice.
High porosity hair opens wide, but everything spills out as well. You need a good sealant to compensate, and to make sure that you work product in on very wet / dripping wet hair.
High pH opens the cuticle (baking soda, bentonite clay,) but can cause damage in the same way as saponification from lye. Low pH closes the cuticle, but is obviously an acid and can slowly wear away at the hair.
My current theories are to try to find the best middle ground, to get the pH as hair-neutral as possible but keep the desired effects to minimise the damage, sort of like hair bleaching / dyeing. For this I use not only water, but conditioner in my baking soda mix, and I mix my clay with apple cider vinegar.
4. Hair should feel strong, full, smooth, fluid, flexible, have either a sheen or shine, and tons of bounce / movement. It should be curly/coily when wet with no product.
However, it does not need to be any particular shape or size. Often, hair shrinks more when it is healthier because it has more water stored inside of it. This means that more shrinkage does not necessarily mean your hair is doing worse (as long as the shrinkage is due to definition.) Stretching well-moisturised hair should not be an issue because well moisturised hair is flexible enough to be stretched and bounce back.
A sign of hair that does not contain enough moisture is that either you cannot stretch it, or when you stretch it, it goes limp and doesn't bounce back. Hair should feel full, rather than empty / hollow, which is a sign that there are conditioning ingredients deep within the cortex, and not empty like a clump of your hair is squishy (I'm not entirely sure how to describe this, I spent most of my life with 'empty' feeling hair and never realised it was weird until that feeling was gone.)
Hair should feel both strong and moisturised. That is, it should feel stretchy, but not like it will snap if you manipulate it.
Hair should move fluidly, each curl should move individually, and it should be flexible enough to obey gravity and bend whenever possible.
Shine is a direct result of the combination of no frizz, product, and closed cuticles. High porosity hair will have a sheen when well defined with closed cuticle, and low porosity hair will have a shine. The more definition, the less shine, even if the hair is otherwise well moisturised. Only some products result in cuticles smooth enough to reflect light, usually gels work best. Roller-setting / flat ironing can also smooth the cuticles and result in smooth and shiny hair.
5. When you use any product, your hair should not be less moisturised when you are finished. Do not settle.
I've been learning this slowly over time. If any single product makes your hair worse, it is a detriment to your hair care regimen.Your shampoo process should leave you about the same as before you shampooed. You should not have less definition / more frizz, your hair should not feel like a fuzzball or wool. If this happens, you need a better shampoo. Even if you think it's fine because of your stylers, there is no point in going a step backwards before you go forwards. There are plenty of non-moisturising shampoos that still won't result in damaged feeling hair.
Your conditioner is mostly for detangling (and should be cheap or diluted, imo,) but you should have more definition when you apply the conditioner than before you did (or at least equal.) it needs to be slippery enough that you aren't damaging your hair when detangling, and conditioning enough to melt those tangles a bit for you.
Your deep conditioner should be completely sunken into your hair before you rinse it out. If it is sitting on top, it isn't doing anything. Find a better deep conditioner or try one of the above methods to get it to sink in. When you rinse out your conditioner, your hair should feel better than it did after you rinsed out either your shampoo or you regular conditioner (if you do both.) If your hair only feels better on the outside, or doesn't feel better at all, you need a better deep conditioner. Your hair should be as defined as possible when you rinse out your DC as it probably will not get any better than this.
Your leave in is what should keep your hair soft and moisturised through to your next wash day. This is what is going to give you the moisture you need so that your hair is still great even the next time you go to wash it. This means that if your hair gets too dry over the course of the week, this is [probably] the thing to replace. (I don't always use one of these as I tend to leave in a bit of DC and have a moisturising styler.)
Your stylers, once again, should not make your hair more frizzy. Literally the only thing they do is style. If you put on your stylers, do your hair, and your hair isn't perfect, something isn't working properly. I use stylers both to style and to seal moisture into my hair, which is why I use gel. Some can get away with oil, cream, or mousse. This should be something that makes your hair look the way you want it to, and it should be enough to last for the time you want in your climate. This means that when the temperature or dew point changes, you may need a new routine, or to use more or less of the product. It also means that if your hair slowly becomes too frizzy for your acceptable limits, this is probably the thing to replace.
Things you may want if you are looking to minimise:
A shampoo that is moisturising may mean you don't need a conditioner to detangle.
A deep conditioner with tons of slip may mean you don't need a conditioner to detangle.
If you have well-moisturised hair, you may not need a deep conditioner every time you shampoo.
If you have a very good deep conditioner and you're okay with not rinsing it all out, you might not need a leave-in conditioner.
If you have a moisturising styler, you may not need a leave-in conditioner
If your leave-in styles and seals your hair, you may not need a styler.
You could have [some examples]
Moisturising cleanser -> deep conditioner -> styler
Cleanser -> conditioner -> styler
Cleanser -> deep conditioner -> leave-in
etc
