In my attempt to use up shit that I already had sitting around before buying anything new, I'd been using some mediocre conditioners for several months. My hair has been pretty sad looking for those corresponding months. I assumed it was from over-processing more than from the products I was using on it. After the crappy conditioners were empty, I moved on to using up sample packets of deep conditioners I'd accumulated (Fekkai, John Freida, L'Oreal, etc.). They made a little improvement, but not a lot, which confirmed my apathy about improving my hair without just cutting it all off. My hair was [insert list of marketing words describing not pretty hair here]. But really, it was the paradigmatic "dull, lifeless, dry, damaged, limp, frizzy, straw-like, rough" sad state.
I finally finished up the samples and allowed myself to buy a conditioner that had been on my shopping list for a long, long time: Neutrogena Triple Moisture Deep Recovery Hair Mask. I should have picked it up a long time ago, because it's fucking good. I could have been alternating this with the bad crap all along and looking much better. Even though I had been doing the occasional coconut oil treatment and using some ridiculously expensive Aveda deep conditioner that I got suckered into buying (this one, if you're curious - don't buy it) now and then, nothing worked as well as the Neutrogena stuff has done. My hair feels softer and smoother, it looks shinier and healthier, etc. I don't like sounding like a commercial, because I'm really not, but it looks and feels and performs better in the ways that people typical want their hair to do. The best part is that its effects last a few days, even after shampooing and conditioning with something less spectacular in the meantime. So your money will go a long way - and you can get this from about $6-10. Shop around.
The downside is that it's in a stupid jar with a screw-off lid. So you have to pick up the jar and screw off the lid, scoop some out with your fingers, and then try to screw the lid back on without getting the jar all full of shower water or dropping it or whatever. Fucking annoying. I guess the jar is, as usual, meant to convince us that this is totally more special than something in a much more practical bottle or tube. Ugh.
But if your hair has been making you sad lately, or if you are less melodramatic and it's just kind of blah, I suggest giving this a shot. I am impressed, personally.
I've also been using John Frieda Frizz Ease Expert Finish Polishing Serum. It does a nice job of adding some extra shine and smoothness. It can be a little heavy for my fairly fine, straight hair, though, and leaves it looking a bit stringy if I don't use the lightest possible touch. Just a drop is all I need. Maybe I should have tried the original version? But it's your basic silicone finishing serum. You don't really need to get into fancier oil serums and shit, since the ingredient that makes most of those works so well is the silicone anyway. This stuff is about $8 (and there's an extra $3 off coupon from Amazon at the moment) and it works well.
So that's how I went from being resigned to having unimpressive hair to petting my own head at regular intervals. Ooooh, soft. Thought you might like to know.
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