Your Hair Type & Routines?

My hair is naturally very wavy and gets lose curls sometimes.  It is just touching my collarbone in length.

My hair strands are fine.

I measured my ponytail circumference and it is 4 inches.

I used to colour my hair with Feria blush blonde, but it was so drying and damaging that I went searching for something better and now I use Revlon Colorsilk in strawberry blonde because it is ammonia free and has alot of natural ingredients.  Colorsilk makes my hair so soft and it does not burn or sting my scalp during application.

My routine is to wash my hair twice a week with Redkin ALL SOFT shampoo.  Before shampooing I put coconut oil in my dry hair and leave it in for 2 to 3 hours.  I use Redkin ALL SOFT conditioner and sometimes I use Fructis 3 min deep conditioning mask.  I do not brush my hair, I use a wide tooth comb and gently use it when my hair has conditioner on it wet before rinsing.   I also get my fiance to give me scalp massages a couple of times per week.

My hair grows fast, so soon it will be long again.  I had to cut it really short because I used to bleach my hair to Platinum blonde and then my sister curled it with a curling iron and it all broke off to about one inch long.  Now all the old blonde hair has been grown out and my hair is really healthy. 

Naturally slightly wavy although it can air-dry anywhere between straight and medium wavy. Naturall it is a blend of 50% brown, 30% red and 15% black and 5% dark blonde.

Strands are mainly coarse but smooth.

7 inches around and over 25 inches long. It has cosistent thickness all the way down.

Permenant dye two years ago (about an inch left) and a few natural semi-permenants. Hair is currently all natural apart from the inch at the ends.

I wash once a day with Pasionately Red shampoo and conditioner(because I had a red semi in and I liked the boost the shampoo gave). I clarify with Vosene Original once a month. I don't brush my hair when it's wet and only comb it if I need to. I trim the ends myself and only use straighteners once every one to two months. I wear it in braids when I go to sleep.

Tell us if your hair is naturally straight, wavy, curly
or chemically straight, wavy, curly.

My hair is naturally wavy - it would be curly if it were short, but not terribly so.  It seems to be a short wave.

When you hold an individual hair strand would you consider it to be fine, medium, or coarse?

My hair is finely textured.

If your hair is long & able to make a ponytail and then use your fingers or a tape measure to measure the circumference / thickness. Is it a thin tail, thick tail, or really thick. The more hairs you have the thicker it is. 2-4 Inches is considered Medium. If you don't have long hair but used to you can guess.

Apparently it is between 4 to 5 inches.  My hair is thick but not bushy thick.  Did not realize that it would be that thick.  The pony tail itself is fairly thick and does slim out alittle towards the end.  I can get  a fairly braid too, but it does not rival someone like Anna Kournakova's wrist-thick braid.

My hair is about waist-length in the back (was a little longer, I recently trimmed it).  It is in that U/V shape trim, not layered.  I have shorter bangs up front, I cut myself in that wedge-cut.  Not sure of the over-all length - how does one measure this?  Do I simply pluck a long hair and measure it to determine overall length?

Also let us know if you have used any chemicals or colors on your hair within the past few years.

I use L'Oreal hair color - Excellence - a store bought brand, nothing special - to touch my roots up.  It is dark golden blond in color with it getting lighter on the surface ends.  I realize that with longer hair, maybe I should not color, but after coloring down close to my natural color (I used to routinely highlight my hair and it got real bright)  I detected a hint of gray recently and simply refuse to put up with it.

While I toned my hair down (this was over a period of a few years), I experiemented with related colors in my range - mainly red golds although I tried brunette once.  I stuck with L'Oreal, and I have used Feria once or twice.   Once in a while I get the high-lighting bug, but will use a slightly lighter Excellence hair color rather than a harsher standard highlighter. 

(Note - it has taken me a number of years to get to this length and when I got bored, rather than cut, I would frequently play with color.  And it has taken a long while to get it to this length.  Have been considering gorwing the bangs out - but am not sure.)

After you tell us your hair type please tell us your current routine and the products you use. Also if you've tried routines or products before that let us know about those too and if they worked and also tell us if you liked them or not?

I shampoo/condition every other day (used to be every day).  I prefer Biolage's shampoo/contitioners - the hydrating kind for color treated hair if possible.  The conditioner that comes in the L'Oreal boxes is also excellent and the tubes provide several treatments worth.

I recently began not combing my hair out when wet and it dries with a lot more wave to it.  Plus I am trying to pick it out versus straight brushing.  My hair can knot-up, so I have to be careful.

Styling products - mainly mousse and hair spray.  And whily I let the hair dry naturally, I will use a hair dryer on medium to style the bangs or it will look goofy.

I can get split ends and sometimes breakage, but in the past two years, this seem to be lessening as a problem.  One possibly cure to it was that I had been using a very stiff plastic brush and happened to find a more gently one (at Target).  Also, spot trimming helps eliminate problems.  The breakage occurs not in the longer, older portions in the back, but the somewhat shorter sides that are a lot closer to the 'styling' activity.