I was "blessed" with thick curly hair. The grass truly is greener, because I wish daily that my hair was about 50% thinner than it is, and I would gladly sell my soul for straight hair. Heck, I'd probably sell my soul for slightly wavy hair. But alas, such is not my lot in life.
In order to make my hair look like I want it to, I abuse the crap out of it. I admit it, I'm a hair torturer. I color it frequently, and bleach it when I want highlights. I blow dry my hair, then run a flat iron that is never set below 360* and is in fact generally closer to the maximum of 410* over it. If I'm not careful, I end up with dry, brittle hair that breaks if you look at it funny. And let's not even talk about the split ends.
Because of this, I tend to make sure that I purchase quality products to use on my hair. I've tried a lot of "drugstore" brands, and many of them just don't hydrate and condition my hair like my favorites do.
After much experimentation, I fell in love with the Shampoo and Conditioner offered by Keratin.
I'm so in love with this stuff that I buy it in bulk, lol. I get the big bottles, and then use the big bottles to refill the little bottles that I keep in my shower.
I love that the shampoo is sulfate free. I like to dye my hair with brownish-reds (auburn, if you will) a lot, and not having sulfates in my shampoo makes the reds last that much longer in my hair. There's nothing worse then falling in love with - and paying good money for - a hair color that is completely faded out within a couple of weeks. The shampoo doesn't produce a lot of suds, which makes a lot of people nervous, but my hair still gets nice and clean. When I'm shampooing, I like to amp up the cleaning power, so I'll mix my shampoo with baking soda. My roots get so clean this way, and I never feel like I have tons of product weighing my hair down.
The Keratin Smoothing Conditioner is super hydrating, without leaving a weird film on my hair like some conditioners do. It hydrates well, and rinses out really cleanly. I like to wash my hair first, then smooth on my conditioner and clip it up using a claw clip. Then I let it soak in and rinse it out at the very end of my shower. I don't apply my conditioner to my scalp, just to the ends of my hair and my bangs.
In the winter or just after coloring my hair, when it needs some extra conditioning, I use Aveda's Restructuring Conditioner in place of the Keratin Smoothing Conditioner. I can't use this conditioner regularly, because it's so rich that my hair will get greasy. So I use it once every other week in the winter, and for a week after getting my hair dyed. I love how this stuff smells. I don't know exactly how to describe the scent, but it smells really natural, fresh, and clean.
So those are my go-to hair cleansing products. I've been considering trying the "no -poo" recipes that I see all over Pinterest, but I'm a little nervous because of all of the heat styling that I put my hair through. Plus, I just bought these liters of shampoo and conditioner, and Keratin products aren't inexpensive, so I think I'll hold off on that experiment for now.
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