In which I’m using skincare products on my hair. Whaaaaaaat?! Yeah, well, I was desperate. And then I was a bit tipsy when I wrote the following post. Just saying. But while I was sprinkling the text with a lot of vowels and exclamation marks, the concoction I came up with for my dry hair hacks does really work for me.
Let’s go back a few weeks:
My hair! Oh Gaaaaaaaaaaawd. Looking through this blog told me that I always grapple with dryness at this time of the year, but this year?! The horror. HORROR, I tell you!
Maybe it’s to do with the fact that I haven’t seen a hairdresser since summer. (I definitely missed the window when they were still open, because right now, le sigh, they’re closed, maybe until February.)
The situation
Untrimmed, grown wild, not bleached since December 2019 (gaaaaaaaaaaah), a few colour treatments along the way, done by yours truly. Dry. Knotty. Split ends galore. A disaster in epic proportions that apparently, no treatment can cure. Because: Briogeo’s Don’t Despair Repair Mask had to surrender, my usual conditioner wasn’t cutting it, and the Amodimethicone wonder that Labmuffin always talks about?! The healthy sexy hair Soy Tri-Wheat Leave in Conditioner (the only product with Amodimethicone that I own right now) just leaves my hair (still tangled and knotty feeling) greasy.
The solution: dry hair hacks
I’m rather good with skincare, but an idiot when it comes to hair. (I write that every time I write about hair, sorry, but it’s true.) It’s also a thing I just don’t want to spend time on, whether mentally nor practically. But I started to wonder: what would I actually do if this were a skin problem? Easy: add a hydrating toner, a moisturiser and seal that with an occlusive, either oil or silicones. Soooooo… why not try that with my hair? (I mean, people exfoliate their scalp now with The Ordinary’s Glycolic Toner and they might be onto something, so why not?!)
The routine
I’ve got a Japanese toner (Kiku-Masamune Skin Care Lotion) in my stash that I don’t like on my skin (it feels sticky) and consequently, use on my body to finally finish that 500ml bottle. That’s the first step after gently squeezing the water out of my freshly washed hair. Hydration – covered.
I then use a simple drugstore hair milk that delivers a bit of moisture, and then add about three drops of the face oil I’m trying to finish before the bottle goes off (The Ordinary’s B Oil). After my desperate attempts to finish a bottle of squalane I hope you won’t think that I fare better with a proper face oil, will you?!
I let that sit for a while and do my skincare routine, and when I finally start to untangle my hair, it’s not too bad. After that, I use a styling product and dry my hair in some way. (I try to avoid blowdrying.)
The outcome
And – it kinda works. I can feel that my hair doesn’t break as much as it used to, and it finally feels more conditioned. I still have some new Inkey List hair products to trial, so let’s see. But if you’re desperately trying to help your dry as eff hair, look around your skincare stash! Maybe you’ll find a solution there. Fingers crossed!
Please note that this review is not sponsored in any way. We buy products ourselves, with our own money, and don’t accept exchanging goods or money for reviews. We are completely independent, and our reviews reflect that.
I have long (currently waist-length) hair, fair, and each strand is very fine.
I find the best thing is to do as little as possible. A gentle shampoo, not more often than required, a good conditioner, and avoid bleach / hair spray / mousse / hairdryers / fiddling too much.
My ends were getting split and dry, so I trimmed them a bit – not too hard with entirely straight, one-length hair, and it feels much nicer.