Tumblr repost! No, you are NOT seeing double! (Unless you are, then I'm horribly sorry)
You may remember I talked about trying out Carol's Daughter's Black Vanilla Collection (some of it anyway) and hair milk. If not, I did here on Tumblr or just have a link. In any case I hadn't used the products very long when I did that drive by review so, more in depth:
Shampoo is amazing. Some products claim that a little goes a long way and it's a FLAT OUT LIE *echo* but this really does. It lathers wonderfully and leaves my hair very soft on its own. The hair smoothie has also gotten better--I just have to use a little more and I realized that I'm better off detangling my hair with a leave in conditioner which is fine with me anyway. I think it's kind of deceptively thick though, maybe I should add a little som'n to it. I think the biggest disappointment of that pool is probably the hair milk though. For the great reviews it gets, it just doesn't seem to work out for me.
Here's the thing--it definitely does its job. I have amazing curls when I use it after twist outs, it works pretty well on dry hair, it does make my hair feel soft, and if you don't mind the lemony-fresh scent of lemon grass oil (which it contains) then it smells really nice. So what's my problem?
It. Is. Greasy. As. HALE. To the touch. I'm pretty sure it's the lemongrass oil (and the other essential oils it contains). For the price, I looked at the ingredients list and was a little frowny face'd at the fact that I probably could have whipped something similar at home ("So why didn't you Xands, you product mongering mongerer?"). It doesn't absorb very well and as a result makes my hair look...strange. Understand I have unnaturally color'd hair so this probably isn't typical for everyone. I was too broke to go for a big bottle so I have to use this stuff lightly as it takes GOBS of it to make a difference in my hair--and only if I've done some sort of twist out where I actually have curls to define. If your hair is like mine and is more afro-frizzy normally, no amount of twirling and scrunching will give you those ~perfect~ bouncy curls.
I'm not QUITE ready to give up yet as I think maybe the simple solution would be to try the hair milk when my hair is WET (somehow) but...you know what...why must I WORK THIS HARD? *sniffle*
Also, I was discussing some of my woes with my mother and she told me that she thought I took great care of my hair, and for all the random shit I do to it maybe it's NOT as dry as I think it is. I'm starting to think she's right. As I said, my hair isn't so kinky-curly as it is just...frizz'd out. It doesn't fit very well on the 1-4 hair chart (which I don't really like anyway) so the best I can say is it's very S-shape coiled at the roots and then just sort of fuzzes out at the top. I think I definitely work too hard against it, maybe feeling insecure because I DON'T have the perfect bouncy coils that flow majestically in the wind (note my hair is fairly short too, about 3-4 inches at best & I try to get it trimmed regularly).
In any case, I picked up some Hello Hydration by Herbal Essences thanks to a tip from my Tumblr posse (yay!). It's getting close to my second official year of being natural and I'm still figuring some things out, but I think I'm getting back on the track of having HEALTHY hair, not ~perfection~
