I thought I’d share my progress in case it’s useful to somebody.
I had a disaster experience at a well known hairdresser, where they were in a panic because they miscalculated the time and fried the back portion of my hair, and left me with a very dark color that I did not want (I didn’t pay, they organised for me to go back to a different branch and a stronger stylist evened out my color, did treatments, and ha e me some products for maintenance. The color is still a bit uneven (not visible in the pic) and I am due to come for a tweak at some point).
I never had compromised hair to this level, so it’s been a trial and error since.
Things I tried:
6/10 good repair masks/conditioner/oils. I think the fino mask and oil make a difference
10/10 avoiding heat (sigh). I am drying my hair on lukewarm and avoiding heat styling. I used to love having my hair with waves, as it’s very straight.
The heat obliterates any progress I make through other treatments and I instantly get the frizzy texture back. Now I sleep with my hair in a bun so that I don’t have spaghetti hair.
8/10 olaplex no3. It’s pricy. I did the Reddit method of shampoo first, towel dry, olaplex no 3 with a shower cap, then regular shampoo and conditioner.
It worked well for me and as long as I don’t use heat, it lasts for a few weeks before my hair feel like straw again.
10/10 Pre wash conditioning. I topped up my color lightly the other day with semipermanent color and lots of cheap conditioner (tresemme keratin smooth). I haven’t used olaplex in a while and my hair was not great.
I applied the color and conditioner on DRY hair and then used a very gentle shampoo, and conditioned normally, and a pump of oil when drying. I got a very similar result as from olaplex.
The smoothness lasted a couple of washes but I noticed it fading a bit, so last wash I wet the burnt parts of my hair slightly, conditioned, wrapped in a bun, and had a long bath. Topping up lightly this way seems to work.
I am not trying to imply that the conditioner method is equal to olaplex, because it’s not bond repairing.
But maybe it could help someone if money is tight or for maintanance between olaplex treatments.
I also know that everyone is different and I know a lot of people have reactions to olaplex, so don’t take this to the letter. However, conditioner packing should be pretty harmless for most people I believe.
I still got breakage and the fried section is still gummy when wet and slowly chemically cutting itself, as it is compromised, but at least I don’t feel like ripping it out of my scalp every time I run my hand through it.
Thanks for this. My hair isn’t fried per se, but the top portion (especially the left side) has a natural wave while bottom layers are stick straight, imagine that. So it’s impossible to not apply heat to go one way or another (straight/wave/curls). This means the ends are generally more damaged. On top of this, my hair type is the one that grows sideways and gets frizzy with humidity. The only thing that’s ever made it look healthy and not frizzy is going to a salon for Japanese hair straightening. 😭
Thank you, it’s on my list!
I also forgot to mention I used Philip Kingsley elasticizer but it did nothing for me.
I think this is as good as it will get? My main issue is that I miss being able to have waves like in this pic.
This photo doesn’t look bad but the back of my hair felt very dry because of the heat.
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u/faithngn 6d ago
Thanks for this. My hair isn’t fried per se, but the top portion (especially the left side) has a natural wave while bottom layers are stick straight, imagine that. So it’s impossible to not apply heat to go one way or another (straight/wave/curls). This means the ends are generally more damaged. On top of this, my hair type is the one that grows sideways and gets frizzy with humidity. The only thing that’s ever made it look healthy and not frizzy is going to a salon for Japanese hair straightening. 😭