Straw like hair so went and bought silicon and SLS free shampoo and conditioner.....

[LaCerbiatta]

..... and now my hair is straw like, dull, no bounce, sort of sticks out and a lot greasier than usual... I've even tried a cider vinegar rinse and that was even worse.

What am I doing wrong? The conditioner and shampoo are from body shop btw, some new forest-something range.

My hair is straight, fairly greasy (has to be washed every other day)and until I had to colour it frequently very shiny and manageable.

Can anyone help?

TIA

MN told me to wash with conditioner for my dry hair. Did you try that already?

My hair is too greasy for that I'm afraid. That sort of worked when I was pregnant and my hair was a lot drier than normal. Even then I could only do it once a week max and the rest of the time I had to use shampoo.

Thanks though

try faith in nature seaweed shampoo and conditioner. it turned my strawlike hair into silken newborn hair.

conditioner needs to be left on for 5mins to get best results an you won't be able to leave your hair alone.

I loooove it!

How about an intensive conditioner - my step mum uses a loreal salon one which comes in a pale yellow tub and she swears by it for her coloured hair. She has the matching conditioner too, but if you reckon washing too often is drying it out more, you could try using Batiste dry shampoo on the roots and maybe a leave in spray conditioner on the ends in between full washes?

kerastase nectar thermique is a leave-in conditioner which has done wonders to my fried highlighted hair. not sticky and smells nicer than morrocan/amargan oil.

i find organic hair products a massive disappointment, i'm afraid. coconut oil is perhaps the one exception - if you massage it into your hair and scalp and leave for a few hours, then wash out by shampooing twice, it will actually reduce the greasies. greasy hair and skin is also meant to be a sign of vitamin b deficiency so might be worth taking a supplement?

You don't need natural products, you need the most intensive salon expensive conditioners. Apply to your hair but not your scalp IYSWIM? Have you been colouring your hair at home or at a salon?

There is a reason why SLS and silicone are everywhere. They give the shampoos and conditioners the nice texture, good foam and silkiness we expect. I've used a natural conditioner for a long time and I'm not sure why I bother - it doesn't do much to my (strawlike highlighted fine blonde) hair.

If you want to go all out natural, try vinegar and chamomile tea rinses. My mother tortured me with them when I was a child (also the odd egg yolk wash). Didn't do much to tangles though and I haven't bothered since. Oil is very tricky if your hair is fine and greasy. I used to live in Brazil, all hair products there were heavy on natural oils and my hair was limp and streaky and dirty-looking all the time. I started buying shampoos from Europe and that helped. So switch back to your old products?

I just looked at old family photos yesterday and my relatives seemed to have really bad-looking flat, dull, shapeless hair 70, 90, 100 years ago when everyone used "natural" hair products. Thank God I get to live in the age of SLS and highlights!

Thanks everyone. I think those sls/silicone/paraben free products are just not for my hair...

I colour my hair at home. Unfortunaley there;s no way I can aford a salon visit every month . I might go back to usin this though. It washes off too quickly and is a pain to apply but it is a lot kinder on the hair.

Bamboo: where do you get the faith in nature seaweed products from?

Bicarbonate soda works quite well as a natural shampoo- just mix it in a little water.

My hair can get really dry and straw like at times, due to years and years of constant bleaching and straightening. I absolutely love Redken all soft ends products for shampoos, conditioners etc and TIGI for styling/leave in shine sprays etc.

Very expensive but well worth the money.

I use the Faith in Nature stuff too - buy it from our local herbalist but also saw it in Oxfam the other week. I try to use less chemically products for all of us and this is one of the best ranges I've found

When my hair gets dried out (from colouring and straighteners etc) I use Tigi Dumb Blonde intensive conditioner, and it is BRILLIANT !! I love it, and its not too expensive imo.

funnily enough have been testing SLS free shampoos (I dont use anything with SLS in it anyway) as am preparing a feature on sulphate free shampoos....isn't ready yet, but I can tell you that I have very thick dry coloured hair that is like straw and took 6 different ones to find the best....which is Liz Earle actually!

if you knew how bad these ingredients are you wouldn't use them, trust me...

re conditioner, Liz Earle for dry/damaged hair is good, but Gielly Green's is even better; Tara Smith is also v good (I didnt rate the shampoo)

Thanks MissFoodie.

I'm not sure if I should go and spend more money on SLS free products... Isn't the SLS that does th job of removing the grease?

Tell me how bad SLS is so that I'm convinced!

no, SLS is what makes it foam!
why dont you ask for samples?
read feature called Bath & Body on www.yumetc.blogspot.com

Tugamommy, try using Kerastase Elixir Ultime. It's an oil that you apply either as a pre-shampoo treatment or on towel-dried hair. You only need to use a small amount so although expensive it lasts ages.

I am using LOreal Full Restore 5 shampoo and conditioner for my dry, coloured hair and it works wonders. The Royal Jelly version is also very good. The only styling product I use is a little Kerastase Volumising Spray. I have also found that any mousse products make my hair much, much worse even those for dry hair.

A wikipedia article on SLS here and SLES here - I couldn't find anything very incriminating in them.

I recently read the ingredients list of a shampoo that said it was SLS free and instead it just had some other salt of lauryl alcohol - ammonium perhaps.

i get mine from here

I am the worst for home hair colouring i do it about every 2 weeks and straighten my hair every other day! my hair is very dry but i have it cut regularly so it never looks too straw like (I hope). I try a different shampoo roughly every month trying to find the miracle cure (that doesn't exist lol). However I have just found the dove intense repair shampoo and conditioner and have found it really lovely and at around £2.50 each they are really reasonable and smell lush!. My hair feels soo soft ( i actually coloured and straightened today). Before this i'd been using paul mitchell colour shampoo and the PM moisture treatment conditioner and there's no comparison for me the dove wins hands down!

SLS AND SLES products have been linked to skin irritation . I have a very tender scalp which does not like any products with SLS or ALS.My hands also get very dry and bleed if exposed to harsh soaps. I have had big red and burning lumps on my scalp caused by shampoos with these chemicals in them , which had to be treated with greasy steroid creams which left me looking like a scarecrow.If you have a Waitrose near by they often stock several sls / paraben free products. I agree with other posters that Faith in Nature shampoos are very good.

Aveda damage remedy should sort it out, not cheap but your hair sounds like mine used to be. You would need the shampoo and the conditioner though.

Highly recommend lavera mango milk, I only condition about every 4 days when I use the shampoo but if your hair is bad then you could use it more often. They also do an intensive treatment. lucyrose.biz and naturismo.com both do free delivery and you can choose free samples - you could try the green people intensive conditioner as a free sample and I think I got a sachet of the lavera mango intense mask thing from one of them too

Should have said lavera have no parabens, sls, sulphates etc

I had hair that actually sounded crunchy after a fortnights scuba diving and baking in the sun at the Red Sea.

It has taken me ages and many different expensive treatments but finally i've got silky, glossy locks again.... by using Head and Shoulders shampoo and conditioner for rough hair or something.. was dead cheap in morrisons.