Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Going Cone-Free After 2 Years

I was cone-free for two years before I lightened my hair back to blonde, but after repeated dying to get the blonde shade that I love, I've had to use silicone-based conditioners in order to be able to detangle my hair at all.

While I have nothing against cones, I do find it easier to use cone-free conditioner, as that way I can  CO with one conditioner. When I use cones, I really don't like to CO with cones on my scalp, so I only use it from the nape down.

After my last clarifying and deep moisture treatment, I thought I'd try to do a CO wash with cone-free conditioner and see what would happen.

I knew I could always put in a coney leave-in if I needed to afterwards, but I didn't have to. My hair was tangle free and I just used my Burt's Bees cone-free conditioner as a leave-in. I thought that perhaps after a couple of weeks I'd really need to use cones again, in order to give my hair some slip, but it didn't happen.

I'm happy that my hair is in good enough shape not to have to use cones if I don't want to. I was quite surprised. I guess the remaining damage isn't that bad.

I do have to say that if it wasn't for silicones, I'm sure that I would have had to cut my hair to nape length after the big dye jobs two years ago. Cones really did save my hair, and allowed me to maintain my hair well below shoulder length as I cut out most of the damage.

So I'm feeling pretty good about the condition of my hair and I'm feeling hopeful that once I've trimmed out the remaining damage to the point where I have breakage, my hair will look and feel almost as healthy as someone who doesn't use hair dye.

This is a very good hair day for me, and yet another mini-milestone.

'Til tomorrow. Much love to all, my friends.

4 comments:

  1. Franny, like you, my ends are not as healthy as the rest of my hair. I attribute this to not having a trim of any kind since April 22nd 2009. My ends are surely showing their age! My last cut was traumatic enough to keep me focused on growing as long as I can before adding some shape to my very non-descript hairstyle. My goal is waist length, softly layered hair. THANK HEAVENS FOR UPDOS, they surely help to hide my tattered ends. I am going to buy some Burt's Bees shampoo and conditioner tomorrow and do what you described above. I too have been using cones to help with my crunchy ends, without them I get snarls after washing. I have been wearing my hair in a wrapped hairstick bun almost continuously (thanks for the video!) since the arrival of my Ketylo hairsticks. They are so lovely! I am so happy that you are happy with your hair!!

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  2. Hi Franny,
    Happy you had a great hair day, you certainly worked hard for it, enjoy!

    Warm regards,
    Linda

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  3. A milestone indeed! Now...could you just tell me what a good hair day feels like??? I swear...most days I feel like I have a head full of icky pubic hair.

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  4. Sounds like you're making great progress!

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