Protein Treatment

I did my first protein treatment since my youth and I want to wait a few days to post the results. The verdict is in and I LOVE IT! I refuse to buy anything else so I made my own treatment.

1/3 Cup Lustrasilk Shea Butter Cholesterol

1 Large Egg

2 tablespoons Olive Oil

Apply to entire head (dry hair) and let sit for 30 minutes. Rinse with cold water. Deep condition and style as usual.

I never did a protein treatment before because I ate a pretty high protein diet and I didn't want to overload. For the past few months my diet has been extremely poor and I could tell my hair was missing something. You know that voice in your head? It told me to try a protein treatment. I did and my hair feels so much stronger. As of this moment I have not decided if this is going to be a regular in my regimen. I will do it as needed.

Protein in your diet

The nutrients that we take into our body are reflect by our outward appearace. If you indulge in a lot of healthy snacks and drink lots of water, more than likely you will have that healthy glow. However, if you take in a lot of junk....you get the picture.

Over the summer my husband and I began to workout and part of our work consisted of us drinking protein shakes. During this time I was also trying to discover the best hair care regimen for me. I began to look at different protein treatments and I am so glad that I did my research before I put one of those treatments on my hair. Too much protein will make your hair hard and brittle. Since I was drinking protein shakes daily, I was getting way more than my recommended daily value. When you intake too much of anything it gets absorbed into your body and/or excreted out. So basically, my hair got it's protein through my nutritional intake.

Hair is a protein so if your diet is rich in protein that will often result in better hair growth.

Protein Shakes:

1 Cup of fresh fruit (your choice)

1 Scoop of protein powder

1 squirt of lemon juice (optional)

1 tablespoon of honey (or more to taste)

1-2 cups of plain yogurt

Yummy quick delicious breakfast. There are many variations of making protein shakes but this is just how I preferred mine every morning. Now that it is getting cooler....I need to look into other options.

Deep Conditioning

Deep conditioning is very beneficial to anyone and everyone that has hair on their head. I consider myself to be doing deep conditioning treatments on my hair weekly. However, this is a topic and regimen that I never bothered to research and just relied upon my general knowledge to develop a deep condition routine. What I am doing has been working for me but if it could be better then why not give it a shot. Also, none the authors mentioned using a specific type or brand of conditioner to deep conditioner. One even stated that any conditioner can be used as a deep conditioner if left on the hair for at least 20-30 minutes. I examined various sources to compile the most frequently recommended suggestions and why those recommendations are made (I like to know the ‘whys’ about things).

According to the articles I read, deep conditioning should leave your hair feeling soft and moisturized. To achieve this outcome:

• Hair should be saturated with conditioner for 15-30 minutes.

Why? To allow the conditioner to penetrate

• You should cover your hair with a plastic cap, sit under a dryer, or cover your head with a warm towel

Why? The heat allows the hair shaft to swell and the cuticles to open and allow the conditioner inside. The heat helps increase the conditioner’s effectiveness.

• The conditioner should be rinsed out thoroughly and rinsing should end with a final cold water rinse.

Why? The cold water helps the cuticles to close and trap the moisture inside the hair.

Additional info that I found interesting:

The type of deep conditioner used should depend on the condition of the hair. If the hair feels mushy when wet and stretches a lot before breaking then a protein conditioner is required to restore the hair's strength. If however, the hair feels brittle and just snaps when any tension is applied; the hair is in need of a moisturizing conditioner. The aim is to get the hair to a stage where the hair is both strong but has a certain degree of elasticity. Too much protein will make the hair go hard and too much moisture will make the hair mushy. Moisturizing deep conditioners should be used in conjunction with protein deep conditioners in the hair care regimen to maintain a healthy balance.

So after reviewing this information I have decided to make a few changes to my regimen. I will now include heat and the final cold water rinse to my regimen.

Resources:

Why Is Deep Conditioning Important

-Alma Campbell

How To Deep Condition Your Hair

-Lisa Richardson

Tutorial On How To Deep Condition Your Natural Hair

-Alma Campbell

Tips for Health and Growth Part 2: Treatments and Conditioners

Treatments

Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Protein Treatments Because hair is over 50% of your hair is protein, protein treatments are used to rebuild hair structure and strength. When harsh styling and an improper diet results in broken protein bonds or low protein levels, If this protein is not replaced, it will eventually cause the hair to break. Protein can be restored by using egg treatments, breakage usually decreases shortly after. A protein treatment is recommended for application every other week if your hair is extremely damaged For healthy hair, a protein treatment should be used every other week, alternating with a moisture treatment.

(More about hair protein composition: http://www.keratin.com/aa/aa012.shtml#01)

Moisture treatments

Moisture treatments are helpful for maintaining or restoring your hairs pliability and help with preventing breakage. It would be helpful to combine protein treatments with moisture treatments. Unbalanced treatments could lead to breakage. Many conditioners contain silicones – which lead to that smooth feeling. However, those “cones” are good at hiding damage. For truly healthy hair you need to know what you are working with, split ends and all. How can you get rid of them if you can’t see them? The “cones” also kinda waterproof your hair- preventing moisture to get in. So basically if you are using a conditioner with silicones – all the time spent moisturizing may be time wasted. When moisture is locked out hair becomes dry and brittle…..again breakage occurs.

Silicone free conditioners

Alberto Vo5 Conditioner, for Strawberries & Cream

Ingredients: Active Ingredients:Water (Aqua); Cetyl Alcohol; Stearyl Alcohol; Stearalkonium Chloride; Glycine Soja (Soy Bean) Seed Extract; Fragaria Vesca (Strawberry) Leaf Extract; Steareth-21; Glyceryl Stearate; Octoxynol-9; Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C); Thiamin HCL (Vitamin B1); Retinyl Palmitate (Vitamin A); Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E); Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B5); Propylene Glycol; Disodium EDTA; DMDM Hydantoin; Fragrance (Parfum); Red 33 (CI 17200)

Suave Naturals Conditioner, Tropical Coconut

Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Cetyl Alcohol, Cetrimonium Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Fragrance (Parfum), Distearyldimonium Chloride, Disodium EDTA, Glycerin, 2 Bromo 2 Nitropropane 1, 3 Diol, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Propylene Glycol, Silk Amino Acids, Honey/Mel, Nettle (Urtica Dioica) Extract, Rosemary (Rosmarinus Officinalis) Extract, Coconut (Cocoa Nucifera) Extract

LeKair Cholesterol Plus

Ingredients: Deionized Water, Cetearyl Alcohol & PEG-40 Castor Oil & Stearalkonium Chloride, Cetyl Alcohol, Mineral Oil, Fragrance, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Cholesterol, Hydrolyzed Collagen, Tetrasodium EDTA, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Jojoba Oil, Citric Acid, FD&C Yellow #5, FD&C Red #4, Aloe Barbadensis, Retinyl Palmitate (Vitamin A) & Ergocalciferol (Vitamin D).

Bumble and Bumble Leave in Conditioner

Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Cetyl Alcohol, Sambucus Nigra Flower Extract (Elder), Wheat Germ Glycerides, Panthenol (Vitamin B5), Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetrimonium Bromide, PEG-100 Stearate, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Lactamide MEA, Propylene Glycol, Citric Acid, Tetrasodium EDTA, Methylparaben, Polymethoxy Bicyclic Oxazolidine, Propylparaben, Fragrance (Parfum) Shea It Ain't So

Ingredients: purified water, shea butter, jojoba oil, honey, rosemary oil, nettle oil, thyme oil, birch leaf oil, chamomile oil, clary, lavender, lavender oil, coltsfoot leaf, yarrow oil, mallow, horsetail oil, soybean protein, cetyl alcohol, vitamin E, citric acid, sodium hydroxymethylgycinate and grapefruit seed extract

Use moisturizers correctly

Do you use a moisturizer and still have dry hair? The reason may be you’re your moisturizing products contain petrolatum, lanolin, and/or mineral oil. If you apply those “moisturizers” on your hair before properly moisturizing, you can do more damage because you can prevent moisture from penetrating your strands. Water based moisturizers effectively penetrate and moisturize the hair. Oil based moisturizers can be used to seal your strands after using a water-based moisturizer. Water-based moisturizers have water as the first ingredient while oil-based moisturizers have a type of oil as the first ingredient.

Some examples are:

Giovanni Direct Leave-in

Triple Moisture Silk Touch Leave-in

Profectiv Breakfree
Elasta QP Mango Butter
Cantu Shea Butter Leave-in

In The News: Protein Treatment=No Frizz

This is interesting...a process that straightens hair but fades over time. The stylist describes it as going from Diana Ross to Beyonce. Hmmm?

Key points:

• Applying Coppola Designer Hair Care’s Keratin Complex Smoothing Therapy to hair works by infusing the protein keratin into the hair, decoiling curls and taming frizz certified keratinologistoffer this treatment as a solution to unruly, frizzy, dry or damaged hair

• A client can repeat the treatment every four to six weeks to continue improving the quality of the hair, but touchups aren’t entirely necessary. Unlike chemical relaxers, results from this semi-permanent treatment fade after four to six months, depending on lifestyle and maintenance

• Treatments start at $300, depending on the amount of product and time the stylist needs to administer it and requires at least three hours during the first appointment

My overall opinion about this is that I feel that this "treatment" will eventually stretch out the coils too much. I also don't like the amount of heat that is used through out the process. It seems to be a healthier alternative to relaxers but only time will tell.

For the record....I LOVE ME SOME DIANA ROSS, HAIR AND ALL!

Check out the story here:

Protein treatment helps fight frizz, decoil curls