Help Please! Im fed up!

Hi I am so fed up with my hair! I have been trying to control it for years and i have had no luck. I have a little longer than sholder length VERY thick frizzy hair. I have tried using hot rollers and sponge curlers to control it and make it curly during the day. My mom is trying to convice me to get a spiral perm but i am not sure. I would like to find a way to fix my hair so that it will be either curly or straight and stay that way for most of the day. Any advice? Thanx a bunch!!!

~*~Kat~*~

Hi,
You didn`t say what you are currently doing with your hair, in terms of conditioners and so on. My daughter, who is now 26, has hair like what you describe yours to be. When she was in junior high, she sounded just like you! Her hair was a dry frizzy mess until we discovered leave in conditioners. When she was in high school, she used massive amounts of Aveda Elixir leave-in conditioner, which turned her hair from pure frizz to actual curls. She, too has extremely thick, dense hair, and has to use a great deal of product. Several years ago, Aveda changed the ingredients in Elixir (it now includes silicone) and it stopped working for my daughter and her hair became drier than ever. Now she just uses regular conditioners, but leaves them in her hair instead of rinsing them out. She does not use styling products. Currently, she likes Aubrey Organics Jojoba and Aloe Conditioner, Nature`s Gate Jojoba conditioner, and Kenra Color Care Conditioner (which she sometimes leaves in her hair over night). She washes her hair about twice a week with Neutrogena Anti-residue shampoo, because she she leaves the conditioner in her hair she gets a lot of build-up. She wets her hair every day--either before going to bed or in the morning--and applies more conditioner. You might check out aubreyorganics.com--for many of the products there are letters than have been written by happy customers, who sometimes describe their hair type. It also has several products that are formulated for dry, curly hair. My daughter sometimes has her hair stylist blow dry her hair straight for special occasions.

If leaving in the conditioner is too heavy for your hair, you might try a technique that a Hawaiian hairdresser told me about when my daughter was a little girl. I used it and it worked well (her hair was a bit less curly then), but it`s more time consuming. He said to wash the hair, put LOTS of conditioner in it, leave it on ten minutes then rinse it out. Then repeat, and don`t worry about rinsing all the conditioner out. Good luck!

Did you ever consider doing the Japanese straightening treatment? Its kind of pricey (around $300 and up, depending upon where you live) but it keeps your hair PIN straight and you don`t even have to blow it dry!! Jennifer Aniston and Julianne Moore had this done and look at their hair. You get a touch up on the roots every 6 months or so if you want to keep it that way.

If you want to keep it curly, my stylist showed me a really good technique that works. After you wash and condition your hair (I use Redken products, which are excellent) put some gel in it and take about 1/4 inch sections of your hair and twist it in the direction of the curl - so it looks like you have dred locks. Then blow dry your hair with a diffuser on low speed - don`t fluff or pull apart the locks while you`re drying. When your hair is dry, you can pull apart the locks with your fingers and add a little shine spray. There will be no frizz -- trust me.