Experimentation Results

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

June 4th 2018 - Midweek wash

So this is a midweek wash due to the frizz I encountered in Indianapolis this weekend.

Cleansing and detangling:

In four sections, I wet my hair, squeezing it to get the water in. The top of my hair felt a bit matted and tangled and I was worried about having stopped using the Aussie Moist because I simply haven’t found anything with enough slip to replace it. However, my hair felt soft and firm, as well as strong and full. I think these experiments have been going well! I used the Shea Moisture Low Porosity shampoo and separated the pieces of my hair as it was not slippery enough to fully detangle. Then I rinsed thoroughly. After finishing each section, I applied four total (two bottom, then two top) pumps of the Shea Moisture Superfruit conditioner until dripping stopped, and detangled the section a little. After finishing all four sections, I finished detangling and rinsed, which went extremely well. I think the fact that the Superfruit conditioner is such a good conditioner for my hair is why it had no problem loosening the tangles, even though it wasn’t quite as slippery. My hair felt a little better after rinsing out the conditioner.

Deep Conditioning:

I then deep conditioned with the Adwoa Baomint deep conditioner and a HotHead while making flaxseed gel, eating breakfast, and finishing up this episode of Leverage (The Carnival Job.) I detangled a bit more as I rinse, both before and during the actual rinsing process. My hair felt absolutely amazing: soft, buttery, firm, full, and coily. This is certainly the best deep conditioner I have ever used. If only it weren't so expensive.

Styling:

After rinsing each section, I applied the Adwoa Baomint leave in styler in the same way as the conditioner.  The last step was the same as usual, applying the Eden Bodyworks and then my flaxseed gel in lots of small sections, detangling and clumping the curls as I went along. I blow dried it with my regular diffuser until about 80% dry and wondered why I had stopped using that diffuser for the DevaCurl hand diffuser, because this one is better in every way.



Remarks:

Whoa.
Alrighty, the Adwoa Beauty Baomint deep conditioner is by far the best one I've ever used.
It actually made its own leave-in conditioner kinda pointless.
I'm in awe. From now on, I'm only going to use this leave in when I've used a less powerful DC, and I'm going to not use any regular conditioner when using the DC. That should stretch them both out because they are more expensive than most of my other products.
Still wet hair:

I will hopefully post more pictures in the coming days.

May 30th 2018 - Maximum Hydration Method reboot

I decided to temporarily nix Aussie Mega Moist Conditioner and return to (the now smaller) Tresemme Botanique Coconut and Aloe. I also decided to stop my no-baking soda and do the full maximum hydration method.

Basically, my hair was too undefined when wet with no product (unless extremely soaked,) so I have decided it's worth it to return to a >90% level of hydration even if it means using old products.

I didn't decide this until I was already into my DC. So I shampooed with shea moisture low porosity, the began to DC with the Tresemme. I rinsed it about 90%, then began the MHM.

I used about a tablespoon of baking soda in 2 oz of Tresemme Botanique, filling the rest of the 8 oz applicator bottle with water. I applied it to my hair and left it for about 15-20 minutes and then rinsed completely. My hair felt amazing. I then made a clay mask with (in order and mixed before applying the next things) bentonite clay, hibiscus powder, apple cider vinegar, argan oil, and water to texture (thicker seems to be better for my hair). I had to make two batches again, so clearly I need to start making much more in the first place. I'll start measuring.

I left that on for about 45 minutes then rinsed thoroughly. I applied watered down 50/50 Tresemme until the hair stopped dripping (not a lot.) then took small sections and squeezed in Eden Bodyworks Serum, then Uncle Funky's Daughter gel. 

My hair looked absolutely amazing until I got to the con Friday night, when it frizzed up fiercely. It didn't feel crunchy, it felt soft but firm, almost like I used a cream instead of a gel. Overall, my hair felt amazing, but I need to figure out what to do with my gels to improve the hold in the summer. I'm thinking [more] honey to start.

My 28 - 30 - Dye

May 28 2018

I needed to dye my hair for an event. Also, I've decided to stop double styling (waiting for my hair to dry, then reapplying all of my gel. I did this about 4 times total.) because it leaves me with extremely dry crunchy hair, and I get the same results from using the Eden Bodyworks serum before using the gel.

I shampooed with Pantene Pro-V Micellar Water shampoo, the one shampoo I found with several sulfates but no silicones or polyquats (sticky ingredients.)

It left my hair feeling stripped but weirdly soft; however, it had less definition when rinsed out than the Shea Moisture Low Porosity Shampoo. I shampooed twice in 4 sections, then applied the 10 in 1 Superfruit masque from Shea Moisture. It looked as though it was still beading up on my hair, so I was worried about my porosity or potential buildup. I then applied an ample amount of Aussie Moist onto my hair for slip (the DC has none,) detangled my overstuffed hair, then deep conditioned with my HotHead cap for about 45 minutes. After this, I rinsed my hair thoroughly and applied Sally Beauty's black semi-permanent hair dye. I also left that for about 45 minutes with the cap, and rinsed. It seems like most of the dye came out (my hair isn't as black as I'm used to,) so I will probably return to demi-permanent after I finish with my last two actually, this was so useless that I am going to return the other semis to Sally's and purchase the demis. While it was enough to cover my entire head with extra, but it didn’t sink in as well as the semi-permanent that I remember. I then applied Aussie Moist to dripping wet hair, wrung out the hair so that it was damp, and grabbed a small section.

Lastly, I applied water, then the Eden Bodyworks Almond and Marshmallow serum, then followed it with Uncle Funky’s Daughter hair gel because I hadn’t made any flaxseed gel.

I wrapped my hair with a scarf for about an hour, which didn’t actually do much. My hair never fully dried because it turned out that I left a lot of dye on my scalp, and I had to wash it again the next day.

I am terrible at taking pictures, and my hair looked kind of the same every day, so here is a picture from last week:

May 29 2018

I had to wash the dye out of my hair. Every time I touched my scalp, black came off. It was a little gross.

I used Shea Moisture’s Low Porosity shampoo once each on four sections of my hair (I tried doing the left section twice because it seems to be more low porosity, but it didn’t change anything.) I have to say, my hair does feel more full of water when rinsing out shampoo. My hair felt stripped, not as soft as the Pantene [somehow], but still not terrible. It did have a large amount of definition, and I was able to separate my hair with it (not detangle, but a bit of light separation.) I then followed up with the TGIN Honey Miracle Mask with a HotHeads cap. I tried to work it in by detangling, and that worked a little. When I removed the caps, it did appear to have sunken in, and I had slightly more definition than when I had finished the very thorough shampoo rinse (my hair gained loads of definition from the shampoo, but it was gone when rinsed too thoroughly.) but it felt extremely coated with silicone and a little webbed (my hair hates cones, but I thought I would try.)
I applied 1 pump of Aussie Moist to dripping wet hair, then squeezed out all excess. Without applying water, I used the Eden Bodyworks serum, then some homemade strong-hold flaxseed gel which had a tiny amount of: aussie moist, olive oil, honey, and hydrolysed protein. Considering that my hair wasn’t dripping wet, I was surprised to have the same amount of definition as the previous wash. This serum is great!
I sprayed some of the Design Essentials shine spray then blowdried until about 30% dry and left the rest to airdry.

May 11th 2018 - Gelatin Protein Treatment

After the gelatin protein treatment.
The entire wash day, my hair felt amazing. I think the much smaller amount of conditioner + layer of oil (it's a personal mix of coconut, argan, and castor) + gel made my hair softer. My hair, each time, has been better conditioned. More full, shiny, and defined, every time I've washed it.

My hair is flat because I blow dried it to damp (it took about 45 minutes,) then put on a silk scarf which flattened it, and went to bed. It's still a little wet, so I'm not going to shake it / fluff it yet. I hope that all the blow drying means it won't take the rest of the day to finish drying. I also used a hair serum that is supposed to make it last longer as well as dry faster. So, we shall see if this combo works.
The next day, I used the Mofajang hair gel in red to do a little tip dyeing.

x

May 7th 2018 - No leave-ins | Camille Rose Gel

Still not dry, and shrunken, yes, but the condition and definition are amazing and all I had to do was not leave in any conditioner!? I used a product for the first time : Camille Rose gel, but it's the same as Uncle Funky's Daughter gel ingredients wise, it's just easier to find and more expensive. I'm going to try some new things this week to see if I can keep my hair in better condition during the week. Basically to see if I can keep it looking about the same rather than getting frizzy as time passes. I got a bunch of cool CG / MHM friendly stuff so we'll see. Also because I used no conditioner, I have no flakes, which is crazy awesome. It's still not totally dry so I can't say officially. I ran it through a dryer (still trying to use the Devacurl diffuser, y'all) a little at 12 but I didn't do it for more than like 6 minutes so it's still wet.

[Update: I have not had any flaking since then. I used to leave in a massive amount of conditioner.]

April 25th 2018 - Detangling with Curlformers

My hair had been been extremely tangled due to not fully detangling both sides before my two week trip to Japan, and then failing to properly detangle after. So, I detangled with a Denman brush and then used Curlformers to set my smooth, detangled hair.

 

Cowash
I used the As I Am Long and Luxe Growash. I have started using this instead of coconut purely because I dislike coconut and like pomegranate, but since it is more expensive, I'm not going to buy it again when I run out.
Detangle and Condition
I've been using Aussie Mega Moist for a while honestly. I know it has a cone, but it's not one that can build up on itself so I haven't had any problems (plus I started a low poo every handful of weeks specifically because of this product.) It just has more slip and sinks in better than any other conditioner I own. It makes it so I don't have to use baking soda in my cowash just to get my conditioner to penetrate the cuticle layer.
Gel Setting Cream
I actually used a setting cream.  DevaCurl Styling Cream. This kinda makes sense. I bought it, thinking it was a cream type curl definer (I also bought a gel by the same company so I'm not sure why I thought this would work) and it was *clearly* a setting cream.
I immediately decided I wanted to do a curlformer set and bought new curlformers (wrong ones, though...) specifically because of this product and it has worked amazingly.
I can't use gel to do a rollerset, as it turns out, because it fights the rollers and I end up with really poor results. This worked absolutely amazingly and I'm going to keep it around for whenever I need to do any sort of style that isn't a pure wash-and-go.
My hair is soft, bouncy, and defined, but not weighed down.
About 3 days later, I did a twistout on dry hair (no product.)

Installing a persistent Kali Linux Live (from Linux)

Background:

(((Scroll to / Control+F 'Process' for the required steps.)))

I have been trying for the last month or so to install a persistent security distro on a flash drive. My original issue was that I simply did not have a USB drive with enough space. My old keys broke, and those remaining were at about 4GB each, not enough to have any reasonable amount of space. Why are they so floppy flimsy‽ I cri. I cri.

Oh, thanks ^_^/.

After finally acquiring a flash drive with enough space (Thanks Wes!), I began the process of trying to install BackBox, but even though it would install and sometimes even load, it had no persistence. I then tried various ways of setting up persistence, such as using a casper file, making the bootable USB using various programs in both Windows and Linux (Lili, Rufus, Unetboot, Startup Disk Creator, dd, etc), and even manually creating a "persistence" ext4 partition. None of them was able to save files past a reboot.

It was suggested that I try Kali instead (Thanks Steve!), because most of the reason I used Backbox was size and I now have a 32GB flash drive. I was sceptical because I am used to Backbox and will need to learn a new OS--the last time I used Kali it was still BackTrack--but Kali has also been updated much more recently than Backbox and thus I assume may have more support for various issues.

Upon attempting the same as the above for Kali; I could not even get the operating system to load. I downloaded Kali two times (torrent), to see if the file was an issue. In the end I found a process that worked, and when I finally got it up and running, and triple checked the persistence and stability, J0hnny told me I should post about it, so I'm going to start a series on random stuff like this!
Anyway, the process that worked is below, but first here are some error messages and what I think they meant.

Things I Learned / Errors: 

The Startup Disk Creator program is only for Ubuntu isos and will throw an error:
An uncaught exception was raised: Invalid version string 'GNU/LINUX'

You need to disable Secure Boot in the BIOS or you will see:
Selected Boot Image Did Not Authenticate
I have not yet figure out why Backbox does not require this, but Kali does, you'd think they'd be the same. Here is a handy website for on-boot function keys in a nifty table. I am using an HP Spectre x360, so F10 for bios and F9 for the boot selection screen.

Process (AKA Get Dunked On, Struggle!):

 

http://docs.kali.org/downloading/kali-linux-live-usb-install followed immediately by http://docs.kali.org/downloading/kali-linux-live-usb-persistence
These contain the only commands I've found which seemed to have written Kali in a way where it would boot on my laptop and retain information after a reboot.
Here are my specific steps, followed again as I am writing this guide May 9th 2017.

1. (Optional) Remove all partitions from the drive.
2. Make sure you know your drive location [$ sudo fdisk -l] and that it is mounted.
3. $ sudo dd if=kali-linux-xfce-2017.1-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=512k
1. if is the input file, so make sure it points to the exact location of your iso.
2. My drive was in /dev/sdb, note that this does not point to sdb1 or any other specific partition. I believe (thanks to J0hnny) that is one of the reasons this worked over the other guides.
3. Definitely change this command, I'm using kali xfce for reasons that you likely are not. Tab completion is your friend, as always.
4. This actually installs Kali, so if you don't need persistence, you can stop here.
• You could even grab a coffee, reboot your system, or go to the bathroom right now!
4. su
1. type yo' root password!
5. end=7gb
6. read start _ < <(du -bcm kali-linux-xfce-2017.1-amd64.iso | tail -1); echo $start
1. Ctrl+shift+v if you don't remember how to paste into a terminal.
2. You should see a number as output.
7. parted /dev/sdb mkpart primary $start $end  
1. If the response includes '...the closest location we can manage...' and it doesn't seem suspect (where suspect is something like two equal numbers, which happened when I had incorrectly partitioned the drive: start over) then confirm.
2. If it says 'the resulting partition is not properly aligned for best performance', you can ignore that.
3. You'll likely see 'Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab'. For some reason I thought this meant I broke something, but it is fine.
4. When this is done you should have 3 partitions on /dev/sdb. If you have fewer or more (and I have messed this up in both directions): start over. You can check this with fdisk -l since you are probably still the superuser. If you aren't: do an su again for the next set of commands.
8. mkfs.ext3 -L persistence /dev/sdb3
9. e2label /dev/sdb3 persistence
10. mkdir -p /mnt/hostd
11. mount /dev/sdb3 /mnt/hostd 
12. echo "/ union" > /mnt/hostd/persistence.conf 
13. umount /dev/sdb3 
1. I actually received a 'not mounted' once, but everything still worked that time. You probably shouldn't see that, though :P.

Restart and you're good to go!

 

Now, go Hack the Planet 

 

Upcoming projects

Learning about passwords and rules in JTR (jumbo edition) and Hashcat. Already made great progress thanks to people in the Burbsec Slack channel!

Getting a chromebook for conferences (an amazing suggestion by the aforementioned Steve,) so I can have a dedicated machine. I'm tweaking this installation now and will end up permanently installing it on the machine. I am currently looking at this model: ASUS C100PA-DB01 Chromebook Flip. This means there will likely be a post on installing Kali to a chromebook in a few months.

My new regimen: Half MHM - Every day

I haven't had time to do the full MHM since having a full-time job in the summer. I'm doing information security for a company and I love it so much, but it's seriously putting a damper on the 5-hour hair routine that is the Maximum Hydration Method. In order to care for my increasingly drying (but still very well defined hair) I began to do what I am calling a Half-MHM.

1. Cleansing: I do not leave this in my hair for any extended period of time. I mix the baking soda, conditioner, and water, shake it up, apply it in two large sections. After I finish with the second, I immediately rinse it out of the first, then pin that up and rinse it out of the second. This takes substantially less time than applying it and leaving it in for the rest of the 30 minutes.

Deep Condition: I skip this entirely.  I've found that my hair doesn't respond as well as others to deep conditioning, and I have a history of getting the same results without it. Since this is the most time consuming process, I simply skip it.
Clay: I skip this entirely as well. Honestly, I think this is great at getting extra sticky ingredients off of your hair, but after your hair knows the shape it wants to take, you don't need it for curl definition anymore. It is also incredibly time consuming, so I skip it.

2. Leave-In Conditioner: I use a very thick homemade, coconut cream / creamed coconut based conditioner [will write a review in the future], since I haven't done the DC. Because of the intensity of this conditioner, I know I need to do the full MHM at least once a week, to get rid of any extra oils or sticky substances.

3. Gel: This is one of the most important steps of MHM in my opinion; it seals in all the goodness you've done so far. I use a Flax seed and Xanthan gum based gel, sometimes adding Marshmallow Root and / or Slippery elm. I make it very thick, and apply it with a colour applicator bottle. Works wonders.

So this is my new, daily routine. It takes an hour on average. Here are results from last night:

The Maximum Hydration Method and Protein Treatments

So I haven't posted about my hair in a while. I started doing the Maximum Hydration Method (MHM) over winter break this past year, and it's been amazing. My curls are defined, and my hair has swing and bounce even when it's dry. My shrinkage isn't nearly as bad as it used to be [though it's still real. People are even attempting to correct me about my hair length. -__-]
Here are some picture of my hair right now:

I'm getting great results even though I've missed a bunch of days. [I'm at almost 30, I think, and I should be probably more than twice as much as that at this point.] I can literally take my hair out of the scarf and just shake it out. It's pretty wonderful. As a result, I haven't been posting too much because I'm following someone else's regimen. However, I can post about what I do specifically.


Step 1 — Baking Soda:
So you're supposed to do a Cherry Lola Treatment first, which I have never done and do not really feel like buying the ingredients to actually preform.
I used to use TreSemme Radiant Volume, but that version seems to be gone. It was by far the cheapest way to follow this regimen. Instead, I now use Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle conditioner. I'm not a fan because it's quite tingly overnight, but it's the cheapest conditioner left by far.
I mix about a tablespoon and a third of baking soda, and 1 oz of conditioner with water.
I recently started adding a bit of coconut milk even though coconut oil is supposed to be avoided, because it works really well for me personally and is a great way to stretch the conditioner [Trader Joe's is only about $1 for a can.] I have not yet had any negative affects, only positive so far. We'll see if buildup becomes an issue, but I think the baking soda should really take care of it.
I put the mix in a colour application bottle and apply it to my hair, making sure to get the hair as wet as possible in the process, then leave it on for about 15-25 minutes. I do detangle lightly.

Step 2 — Deep Condition and detangle:
I ended up needing to get a different conditioner because I couldn't access Trader Joe's for a little while and purchased Kinky Curly Knot Today. This stuff is amazing and I wish I could afford to get it all the time [maybe with the new internship... fingers crossed] I have it pretty heavily diluted with water, and it has very good slip and conditioning performance. Because it can be diluted so much, it actually lasts longer than Trader Joe's, but it costs more either way because I'd run out of it well before the 4-5 bottles of Tea Tree Tingle I could get for the same cost. I just pour and smooth this into my hair in four sections while detangling and sleep with it overnight under a shower cap. On the weeks where I decide to use a comb or brush to detangle, this is the step in which I do that. If I can't do overnight deep conditioning, I'll put a hat on and deep condition throughout the day, usually until about two hours before whatever even I need to go to, but no less than one hour. I use one of those Turbie Towels [?] as a roll to catch the water.

Step 3 — Clay:
I use Calcium Bentonite clay because it's the cheapest where I live. I mix about 3 table spoons of clay, a teaspoon of raw honey and a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil with enough water to fill an old clay mask container. [I gave a review of the hair mask a while back. It was nice, but this is actually better. It doesn't smell as good, of course.] It is pretty watery, so I make it the night before and it thickens up into a creamy paste for the next day.
I apply it onto my hair in four sections and let it sit for total of at least fifteen minutes. Adding the oil and honey doesn't seem to change much, to be honest, so in the sake of keeping my honey, I think I might stop adding that part.

Step 4 — Leave in:
Kinky Curly Knot Today super diluted with coconut milk in a spray bottle. Very straightfoward.

Step 5 — Gel:
I make gel using flaxseeds [about two teaspoons] and a teaspoon of xanthan gum. I boil that in with a lot of water [more than 20oz], stirring the xanthan gum in slowly. I strain it after taking the heat off and throw it into an old Aloe Vera Gel pump bottle. It's amazing. I absolutely love that it adds weight and gives just enough hold to look gorgeous and shiny without being hard and crunchy.

Step 1.5 — Protein:
So I struggled with this for a while. I couldn't figure out how to get protein in. I bought the Soy Aminos as were suggested, but they smell horrible [my hair isn't Americanized Chinese Food, but it totally smelled like it was,] and didn't actually help my hair feel any stronger. I determined that this regimen is meant for people with protein sensitivities. Since [as you might know from previous articles] my hair is no such beast, [low porosity, 4b and 4c, medium thickness and high density] I believe I can use Gelatin. Gelatin is a hydrolysed collagen, [but not as small as 'hydrolysed collagen itself.] that is a very strong protein. I used about 10 grams of Knox Gelatin [that should be about 1.5 packets. You should almost definitely use less than this.] in 1/3 of a cup of water. After boiling it, I used the same bottle as for the baking soda and put it on, leaving it for ten minutes. I might have done more but I had class this morning and wanted to transition to deep condition before that happened.

So now you know what's been going on with my hair. It's amazing and I love that it falls when I take it out of a ponytail, without being stiff. This is wonderful. I've been getting great reviews and other African American women have asked me what I'm doing.
Truth be told it's very tedius [it took 6-8 hours my first week, 5 the next month, 3 until this month and it's been about 2.5-3 now, not including when I decide to add Curlformers. I do that much less now, because my hair looks great even without it! :D]

Healthy hair to you all!

InfoSec

So it's been almost a full year since my last update. For this I apologize. I've been having difficulties with school, and even changed my plan from being a game designer to my absolute original desire: being an information security specialist.

My history:
When I was a little girl, I originally became interested in hacking when I discovered that I could change the data [read as: hack] into Pokemon and obtain Suicune without having to chase it around in Silver. Kid me spent so many hours chasing that adorable little blue dog down, that a new path opened in my life upon realising that games—like computers, which I'd understood by then—were all composed of manipulatable data. Since learning that, I bought every version of a gameshark, action replay, or other hardware / software I could use to manipulate data to my advantage.
Disclaimer: I've always been a nice person to other people, just not to software, so I'd never use any of that manipulated data against another person.  I didn't try to battle pokemon online, or race hacked cars, anything like that. I mean, I didn't like playing games with other people anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal for me, but I was strongly against friends who would cheat against a real life individual.
I firmly believe that software should be shaped to the whims of the user, even if that entails making it do something for which it was not originally intended. My opinion, especially for gaming, is that purchases of independent equipment gives you the right to do whatever you wish with that equipment. If someone wants to give their characters maximum levels, and steam-roll all their opponents because their idea of fun is to dominate, that's their business. I personally like to hack backups, so that if there is a cheap, easily replicable item like a potion, I will have an infinite number of them. There are also sometimes one-off items that I believe simply shouldn't be singular. As long as it doesn't infringe on anyone else's enjoyment of their purchased product, I believe it's alright. Adding to the enjoyment of the product can aid in the reputation of that product, even for otherwise less-appreciated products.

As I grew, my love of technology increased. I began to get an interest in learning programming. It reminded me of the complexities of learning a language [like English] so I studied as much as I could by myself. However, my high school did not have programming classes and I turned to English instead, planning to become an English teacher. As you can and will see, a lack of access to classes has shaped my life more than it should have. After realising I did not want to teach any students who did not want to learn, I double majored in English and Computer Science at a private Liberal Arts college, then left that college after finally realising I wanted more from my Computer Science degree.
When I got here, I asked about two things: English and Hacking. I wondered if I could still pursue those avenues here, but received very little information. I realise now that I probably asked the wrong people, but I wish the information had been easier to find.

On a chance encounter, I ran into some hackers and realised I could actually do it as a job; however, I was already into my senior [though with one more year left] year of college. I struggled quite a bit in college, not due to my major necessarily, but due to some mandatory classes related to Math [we have to take 6 Math classes here, under Computer Science.]
Luckily, only a little while ago [literally a few days] I got an internship, so I'll be able to learn even more than I have currently. I'm very excited for this, and now that I feel slightly more secure, I plan to update more on the technology side of this blog. Hope being the key word.

Wash Day #2 of Week of May 25

EXXTREME MOIZTURE CHALLUNGE

Because making letters different makes it more extreme, right?

You may have noticed my posts are longer. I've decided to make this more informative by describing each important product / word every time I write a post. I'm doing this so that you can see how things change over time. I means I can write a review of a product several times, and see how it changes. It also means you don't have to find my older posts to learn what, for example, an anti-humectant is. Feel free to skip anything you know ^_^.

So I did my second wash yesterday and I actually used a soft bonnet hair drier for thirty minutes. New products! I just got these two days ago because my Walgreens had a *huge* sale on Shea Moisture, As I Am and a bunch of other stuff. I figured that I'd get them because I'm probably never going to see any of these products on such a large sale again, and I wanted to try them.

The night before I twisted my hair up, as you've seen below. I did that using the Shea Moisture Coconut and Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie.  I think this product may be an antihumectant. Basically, it's a finisher. It isn't supposed to moisturize, condition or anything else like that. Don't get confused! It is supposed to add shine, close the cuticle and work to prevent frizz by blocking excess moisture penetration and loss. Some of the ingredients, however, are moisturizing, including glycerin, so I don't know how well it will work for preventing frizz because of that. Since I only used it overnight, I don't have much experience with it other than it was my best twists and twistout yet.
I do know that this product is the best thing I've ever used to separate curls and twists; it causes virtually no frizz. I also know that it took a very long time to dry and a larger amount of water than normal for my hair to revert to its natural state. As it was just a twist out on an old Curlformer set, I know it's not heat damage. The only new product is this smoothie, so this smoothie is probably a very good antihumectant.  That's amazing, and I really hope that this will continue to remain true and allow my sets to last through this Chicago Summer.

Anti-humectant: By this point you should know that a humectant is a thing that absorbs water into itself. Like if you leave a strong humectant on a table, you will get that humectant + water after a few hours. Literally collected right out of the air.  An anti-humectant, on the other hand, is a thing that prevents water from penetrating it.

• Humectants are good for deep conditioning, and are good to seal into your hair so that you can hold onto the moisture you have. If you are okay with frizz you do not need to seal them and they will continue to attract moisture to your hair as long as they are in your hair, all day. The problem is if they do not penetrate, you will lose more moisture as the humectant balances itself and the air around you.
• Anti-humectants are good for when you have a style that you really don't want to revert. A lot of natural things act as anti-humectants, including most oils and shea butter, however they are not very strong. Cones work even better, and are the main ingredient in most anti-humectant products like the acclaimed Sabino products [Moisture Block, and Lok and Block, I believe they are called.] and the newer Aveda Brilliant Anti-Humectant Pomade. I've not used any of those products so I can't comment on them. Basically, if you flat iron and apply them, your style should not revert even in humid conditions. In fact, last I checked, Sabino had a girl enter a sauna and she left a few hours later with still straight hair. Crazy, right? I want to try these so badly, I just don't have the money.

Process:

I'm thinking of dating pictures during the process if I ever get a better camera.

Cleanse:
I used Shea Moisture African Black Soap Purification Masque.  I applied it very thickly, probably much more than I should have but on first use I like to make sure I know exactly how the product works. I did make a dent in the container, but only a small one. I sectioned my hair into 10 bantu knots again [this means I don't need to use clips. They're useful, but I feel like they're unnecessary for washing.] and quickly dampened my hair by simply smoothing water over it until it reverted. As mentioned before, this took quite a bit more water than I'm used to due to the Curl Enhancing Smoothie, but I'm glad.
I then applied the mask on my ends, and then directly onto my scalp thickly, a lot like a relaxer. I then smoothed some onto the length of the hair and knotted back up.  After doing that in each section, I worked out for 25 minutes and allowed the heat to let the masque penetrate. I then rinsed my hair in the shower in sections.

The Shea Moisture African Black Soap Purification Masque smells...weird. I didn't like it when I opened it originally, and I thought it was too jelly.  When I actually used it last night, however, the smell wasn't bad anymore, just kind of clay like. The texture was also much creamier than I originally thought and it smoothed on extremely well. You could tell where it was in your hair, and it had a nice, cooling sensation. My scalp itching does seem to have decreased a bit, but I'll have to keep using this to see the long term effects. It rinsed easily and seemed to take all the extra stuff off while cleansing my scalp. It did a much better job than the shampoos I use, and was on par with the As I Am Coconut Cowash in terms of scalp cleaning, yet not as strong on my hair. I really like this product and will use it whenever I need a good scalp cleansing and to rinse off my homemade products [which don't contain products that stick to the hair and need sulfates.]  The As I Am will now be for more harsh things, like if I use a company's conditioner(s).

Condition:
After rinsing 2 sections at a time, I'd apply my homemade deep conditioner. When I finished all the sections I reapplied it out of the shower [I do this in case the water washes some of the conditioner off.] I twisted the hair back into bantu knots and let my body heat work for a while.  While I was twisting the hair, it felt so incredibly smooth I wasn't sure what was going on.  I don't know exactly how to describe it, but the texture actually felt different. I liked it a ton, but it was definitely different.

I applied my homemade conditioner a lot more sparingly than last time. It was still a lot of product, but I figured I didn't need as much since I'd just DCed a few days ago. It felt great going on and gave me a little curl definition as well.

Style:
I took each section down, combed the hair and applied the Shea Moisture Coconut and Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie, then roller set. Then I actually dried using a soft bonnet, [and then worked out with the Curlformers! Crazy.] but I decided at the end that I wanted to just leave them in until Friday [the day I'm writing this] in case I randomly decided to go out.

The Shea Moisture Coconut and Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie is one of those products where a little goes a long way. I applied a finger tip portion to two to each two roller sections.  It smoothed on nicely, and I could feel that my cuticles were nice and closed. I got a ton of shine from this product even just from the application.
 
Rollers out and Pictures:
For some reason, my hair doesn't seem to respond when I take it out of the curler and recurl it later, because they weren't curled this morning....it didn't work!?  Well, my hair is so smooth and shiny due to the smoothie that I think my moisture will stay even longer than it already has been this week!  It is a tad firmer than I expected, but I'm actually okay with that because it feels like my curls will stay nicely defined all day. It's not hard, in fact it's soft, it's just very firm. Pictures abound!

 I always know my hair is really moisturized when it the sets come out extra short.

 Only one of them ended up curling so I just made them into bangs.

So there you have it. Today's style. I dunno what I'm going to do for tomorrow, we'll see if the moisture holds up.

Wash Day #1 of Week of May 25 2014

EXXTREME MOISTURE CHALLENGE!

It's more extreme if you add another x, right?

I'm doing a self imposed challenge of doing a major DC session three to six times in two weeks. I've done the first two on Sunday and today, Thursday. I plan on doing another one Sunday depending on if I have any major plans [though now that I have a soft bonnet I can probably dry my hair fast enough to not ruin any plans.] Basically, the very first sign of moisture loss is a signal for a DC. We'll see if I get over conditioned or something. Due to how awesome my new homemade DC, it's been three/four days instead of 1.5!

As you know, I've been bad. Cones and mineral oil abounded in my poor locks, but I found my last can of coconut oil and decided to begin anew.

Sunday Wash

I began with a clarifying shampoo to remove all the crap. I actually used two shampoos but kind of quit halfway through with the second one since it wasn't a clarifier. I used Ion Clarifying Shampoo and Paul Mitchell Super Skinny's shampoo line [I still have like 1/4 of that tiny trial bottle I got several years ago!] The one I quit on, obviously, was the non-clarifier. I did this in 10 sections, five on each side and when I finished rinsing I applied my homemade protein treatment and bantu knotted the section back up. I waited for about 45 minutes before rinsing it out and cowashing [I was determined to get my hair clean.] with As I Am Coconut Cowash, which I bought on a whim at Sally's a while back. I then applied my homemade moisturizing DC twice. Once after each two sections [I do one from left and one from right at the same time] were done, [then I'd hop back into the shower to do the next two sections] and again when I was done. I proceeded to work out hard for about 30-40 minutes, letting my body heat warm up the conditioner.

Now, I put a ridiculous amount of conditioner on my hair. I was afraid it'd either get over-conditioned or hard. It was one of those where you could see the product sweating out as I twisted my hair up. When I took it down to put the rollers in, my hair looked like I'd just applied a normal amount. My hair ate that conditioner like some sort of bawse. It was glorious. Anyway, I applied my hair moisturizer [this is new but I don't remember the ingredients and frankly, it isn't necessary.] and set.  I woke up the next morning to the smoothest, shiniest set I've ever had, but guess what? It was still damp! :(

I washed my Curlformers the night before and wet rollers = really long drying time. I had an appointment I couldn't miss, though, so I just lightly blow dried from far away with cool air. My hair has never looked that good while still partially wet, and dry was even better. I wish I had a picture, but my electronic devices tend to hate me. My day hair style was the bantu knot out you've seen:

 In a mirror

I dunno why I had on my homemade lip balm that day. Boredom?

Selfie

Dat moisture doe. Mmm.

Thuesday I rocked a twistout and on Wednesday I was about to retwist just to get my hair out of the way and get more twisting practice. Here's a pic of it half done:

 Sorry, this was the only camera I had!

I want to get better at twists, and at making my fro more round. I just subscribed to a YouTube hair girl I'd actually been following for a while and I noticed how beautifully round her hair is. I think mine might be weird because of all the relaxed hair pieces at the ends, but I'm planning to play around with it on Sunday's wash day.

Ion Clarifying Shampoo: I really like this because it gets my hair squeeky, horribly, definitely clean. I know a lot of people hate that feeling but I only use it when I know I've done something bad and need to start over. It works really well for that and I'd give it a 10/10 for this purpose. However, because of all the above, I wouldn't use it for anything else.

Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Shampoo: I enjoyed this back when I was actually using shampoo every wash day. It got my hair clean but not rough, and it smelled great. As far as actual shampoos go, it's wonderful. I just don't really have a need for them anymore. It's my favourite of the ones I've used, though. Not that that's saying much.

As I Am Coconut Cowash: This product is amazing. I used to use VO5 to give my hair a nice cleaning without taking out too much of the bad stuff, but this is better in every way. I don't have to use nearly as much of the product, and so I've realised that I can actually just buy this because I get more mileage [yay, math!] per bottle than I would buying an equivalent amount in dollars of VO5. If you use it once, you get more defined, slightly more moisturized and much cleaner hair. If you go through a second time, you get really clean hair. It's versatile and wonderful. It also has a lot of slip for detangling.

The Walgreens near my house had/is having a HUGE sale on As I Am and Shea Moisture products. Since I liked the SM so much, I got some. You'll see my reviews tomorrow for m Thursday Wash Day blahblah post.

New Protein Treatment, Deep Conditioner and Face Mask Recipes!

I made a face mask last week and have applied it every other day since then. My pimples are almost *completely* gone even though I'm still working out and sweating hard. This is good.
I made a DC because I ran out of the amazing Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque about a month ago and have started DCing with coconut milk or cream recently. This time, though, inspired by my return to watching awesome hair gurus on YouTube, I tried making another DC and it worked so well my hair is still moisturized intensely two days later with tons of shine and significantly less breakage [nearly 1/5 of normal for the past two days, I might actually be able to use the Denman if this keeps up!]  and it stretches better: I can actually get my hair straight when I pull it taut to comb it [which is probably helping to stop breakage by making detangling easier.] The only problem is that overuse [I used it against yesterday. It was unnecessary, though.] makes hair sticky. I think that's related to the honey, so I'll have to use less next time.

Disclaimer: Every bit of information below is from my own memory so I apologize if it's bit off. In an effort to not lie, anything that I can't remember the validity of is not included. Feel free to tell me if something is wrong, especially if you have links to scientific articles.

Face Mask:

1:1 [3 TBs?] ratio of Turmeric powder and Bentonite clay, 1TBs of AVG, 1/4 TBS of honey, 1.5 TBs Castor Oil [this was an accident, actually...], 1 TBS Grapeseed oil [what I meant to use], ACV to desired consistency.

This makes...a lot...of this. For my skin stuff, I don't really know how many uses I get out of things. Several weeks, generally.

Turmeric is a thing that apparently tons of people already own [I didn't]. It's a curry powder and is delicious. It's also one of the most healing things in the world. It's actually higher on my list than Aloe Vera Gel! I use them both, though. It's great for healing spots, bumps, bruises, etc, but nothing open. It's amazing at fading closed scars, discolouration, and it leaves the skin so soft and smooth you might be surprised it's your skin, but it stains something fierce. Turmeric also stunts hair growth, so try not to use it on problematic areas where you want more hair. It is good if you're trying to slow some thing's growth, like legs or facial hair.

So, If you are white [not Caucasian necessarily, but if your skin is pigmented white] use this very sparingly. You will be yellow for a few hours if you use to much, perhaps even overnight! If you're darker, it'll make your skin look more golden. Some people don't like this but I actually think it's cool. Just make sure you use a yellow / red / black towel! Seriously! Mine is red. Do this every time you wash your face for the next like two days or so. Make sure you thoroughly clean your sink, and don't ever let little spots of clay sit on any surface. If you wait too long, you'll need to get some actual detergent or something, and do a hard cleaning. I get mine from Trader Joe's because that's where I saw it the first time. I haven't researched brands yet, but it works so...


Bentonite clay is another healing ingredient. Honestly, it's like a lower powered version of turmeric or aloe vera.  It's good at removing minerals and oils and other things you might have lodged in your skin.  It's not as good as Rhassoul clay, and the PH is different, so you must balance it out before applying it to your skin. Don't get me wrong, this stuff is amazing, it's just surrounded by other, slightly more amazing stuff :P. When I use this to make cleansing hair masks, it sometimes develops a weird, jelly-like texture. I'm not sure what causes it, but it's still usable, just strange.


Aloe Vera Gel you probably know about this already. It's incredibly healing, doesn't agitate even sensitive skins and is great at healing acne. This is better than turmeric for cuts, open wounds and burn type things. It's good at healing bumps and bruises as well, less so for spots and hyperpigmentation. It's amazing for itchy skin relief, it's the major reason my legs aren't causing me to scratch holes into my pants. This was a serious, costly issue for me.

Honey is a humectant, which means it attracts moisture to itself. It is rumoured that AVG is as well, and glycerin is probably the most humectant of all of them because if you leave it sitting out [open] you can see a great deal of water in the container. I would like glycerin to try, however, I do not have the money. Honey has multiple bodily uses: hair, skin and food / natural sugar. Glycerin would only be used for hair and possibly skin for me. Honey has a bunch of micronutrients and imparts shine, but in very high prolonged [probably more than a cup, and for several hours with heat] exposure, it can lighten hair. You might not want this, so make sure you always wash out the honey before it can work [it is the same process as lemon, just a lot healthier for your hair]. Generally, normal use will not create this issue. Now, heating honey [or anything] tends to destroy the nutrients. As a result, I do not heat my honey. I make a simple syrup with honey dissolved in water [takes a while] and I use that in all my products. I also use it on things I'd normally put syrup on.  This does means my concentration of honey is pretty low, unless I add a whole lot of syrup, but honestly you don't need that much honey unless you really want to lighten your hair.

Castor Oil is an amazing antibacterial oil that promotes hair growth, because of this, people apply it to their scalps weekly or so. I've done this, but it hasn't been a dramatic increase.  I mostly do it because my scalp needs more moisture [I have extremely dry, itchy, skin] and it's the only oil I trust to not break out my scalp [except maybe grapeseed.]  I tend to add a bit of it to skin products, but it is slightly drying when not balanced with other carrier oils.  Castor oil is a key ingredient in oil cleansing, which I do every other day alternating with this very mask!
There is debate between whether castor oil or Jamaican black castor oil is better. The difference is only that, at the end, they add the ash from the seeds back into the mix.  Honestly, it smells bad and I'm not sure I really need ash in my oil so I haven't bothered. I don't think the nutrients come from burned residue, for reasons stated above, but I'll probably end up trying it eventually.  I accidentally added way too much of this, but my skin seems to be okay.
This oil makes the most wonderful serum/sealant, because it's thick, smooths the cuticle and imparts a lot of shine. It's the reason I haven't bought Vitamin E oil yet, I don't need a serum any more, I just use straight Castor Oil instead..

Grapeseed Oil is an extremely light oil that is noncomedogenic. That means it can't clog your pores. A lot of oils claimed to not be able to clog my pores, yet they did. Grapeseed and castor are literally the only two oils that I can use on my skin without breaking out.  Coconut, while great for my hair and for food, breaks me out. Jojoba broke me out even though it's a wax esthor and not an oil, and even mimics the sebum [natural oil] in skin, apparently. So did every other oil I own, so grapeseed goes into my lotion, hair oil, face masks, etc. I even use it as a heat protectant [I used to use jojoba, but it didn't end up having enough different uses for me to keep it. I'm very picky on that matter.]
Grapeseed oil might contain ceramides, a protein-like chain that does wonders for people who don't need too much protein or who might have issues using normal proteins, but I need a much harder protein.  This doesn't make my hair stronger, but it does work well in my hair oil as the only nonpenetrating oil. [EVOO and Coconut oil are penetrating, and I've heard that Argan can as well.]
When oil penetrates the hair, it acts like a protein and holds onto moisture for you, it also prevents the hair from absorbing so much water that it swells and becomes weaker, which is called hydral fatigue.

Apple Cider Vinegar:  This is a highly acidic substance that is good for hair and as a supplement. I do not use it for such and will probably switch to either regular vinegar or aloe vera juice [which is more acidic than the gel].  It smells very harsh, but is the best way to make a basic solution more acidic to close the cuticle. It imparts shine and smoothes hair like no other substance I've ever used, but sometimes might give your hair a red tinge [at least, in my experience. It seems to have done the same to a few other people as well.]
I use this a lot, and have actually bought a second container in case the AVJ doesn't work as well, because PH balance can be the difference between frizz and curls. I like curls, so...

Extremely Hard Protein Treatment:

Black Tea [Try for less than 4oz]

Gelatin

Apple Cider Vinegar [1.5 tsp]

Good for one wash. Seriously, this stuff expires quickly and you can't really stick it in the fridge unless you want protein jello. Use it all / don't make too much!!!

First, make black tea as black as you want, preferably with less than 4oz water. After removing bags / straining, pour that into a pot and boil it. As it starts to boil, add the gelatin [I use a Knox packet] and stir so it mixes without clumping. I then took it off the heat and added about 1.5 tsps of ACV.

Make sure you wait for this to cool down! Also, the idea of using gelatin comes from the Sciency Hair Blog, which I love...so much. I mean...science? Yes plz.
 
Why?
Black Tea helps shine, the caffeine is a DHT blocker which halts shedding [if applied to scalp] and it darkens hair slightly. This is not permanent, but if you want blacker, shinier hair, you should use this at every wash! I have before/after pictures on this blog that might help give you an idea.  Every time I stop using this and then remember to do it again, I wonder how I forgot [probably because it's tea! Heh.]

Gelatin is a VERY hard, protein. This is serious, probably stronger than the loved incredibly hard Two Step Protein Treatment by ApHogee. I've never used it, so I can't say. So beware if you are even a LITTLE protein sensitive to not do this treatment. Only do this if, like me, all those store bought protein treatment never worked for you :(.

Apple Cider Vinegar [see above].

Extremely Moisturizing Deep Conditioner:

Raw Honey [2TBs]

    Random extra honey - not necessary

Coconut Milk 7-8 oz?

Extra Virgin Olive Oil 4oz?

Aloe  Vera Gel  2oz?

Enough for 2-3 conditioning sessions [4-5 if you have less hair/use less product]. Please refrigerate this unless you deep condition your hair like every day. I'm doing every third day for two weeks [it's a personal challenge] and even I stuck it in there. Things only last as long as the shortest expiration date, and coconut milk is pretty fast.

Once again, this is extremely concentrated. You might over condition your hair with it. You guys remember how I love that 'full' feeling? Coconut Milk is the only thing that's ever given me too much of that feeling and weighted my hair down to the point where it seemed like I must have flat ironed it or something.
I put the raw honey [Ys Eco Bee Farms, but this doesn't matter] into a container, but this was still hard so I let it sit for a little while. I took a can of Coconut Milk [Thai Kitchen. Honestly, the brand doesn't matter but this one seems to be the thickest I've tried.] and poured uhh, about...7oz of it into a different container, so I didn't use the whole can. I poured the rest onto the honey and mashed it a bit until most of the honey melted. Then, I randomly came upon more, non raw honey which was syrupy and just poured some in there...why not? After waiting for that to melt [I could have mixed it, food processors are awesome, btw.  You might not know all the amazing applications if you don't have one, but they're incredibly versatile!] I poured in EVOO. I'm not sure how much, I just kept pouring until it looked good. It created a layer over the top of the rest of the ingredients so I mixed it with a spoon. Much later, I squirted what was probably 2oz of AVG into the mix and stirred.

Raw Honey: [See Above]
Coconut Milk: As you probably know by now, Coconut Milk is the best conditioner that has ever touched my hair. End of discussion.  Why? It really sinks into my hair. So here are some facts about coconut: coconut oil is the most penetrating oil of all the ones that actually penetrate [well, of the tested ones...science may march on after this post, lol.] It is comprised of really healthy fats that are just incredibly tiny and can actually get into the strands and prevent hydral fatigue by making up that space for you.  Because it penetrates so well, it can act as a protein, helping fortify your hair from the inside without actually causing as much damage as a person with protein sensitivity may normally receive. Coconut milk, therefore is a super penetrating liquid AND oil combined into one amazing conditioning ingredient. I couldn't go without this stuff, it's my one true staple.  People use coconut milk as a 'natural relaxer' because it weighs down your hair due to how much of it actually penetrates. It makes my hair significantly more springy, shiny, conditioned, strong, healthy and defined than literally anything else.  When I do roller sets following a coconut milk DC, my hair comes out smooth and basically straight. When I apply it to my hair, my natural curls spring right back up [they tend to get droopy while I do my whole washing process] There's no tugging or pulling to get anything flat [which I can't really do with my tender head.] and my hair stays moisturized for longer than any other product as well. Seriously, try this. Trader Joe's sold some for like 1 or so last I was there, that might still be a thing.   I do have an article about coconut milk, so I won't say anything else :P.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil:  Tons of people use and love this without exactly knowing why. I didn't actually ever get any until this year because I had coconut oil, but this is cheaper and more readily available.  It's the second most penetrating oil, and it's incredibly useful in a DC that you're going to warm up. If you can't get extra/virgin coconut oil, get some EVOO, heat it up and do a hot oil treatment. The results are a win!
Aloe Vera Gel: [See Above]

So there you have it. I mostly posted this so I could remember the amazing ingredients in these super strong treatments. In the time of writing this, I actually DC'd again and my hair breakage is still so little that I used my denman in the front! Amazing~
I'll try to post pictures of the set in the morning!