confused about conditioners

After dying my brown/copper hair blonde for almost 4 years, i have decided to let the natural color grow back out and to let it grow long. Right now, the back is a right above my shoulders and my shortest front layer is right past my chin. Since I want my hair to grow back healthy I have eliminated all of my caffiene intake, stopped smoking, started exercising, and using Thermasilk heat activated shampoo & conditioner since I blow dry 1 or 2 a week. I want to use hot oil treatmnets and deep conditioners, but I don`t want to over do it and end up with oily hair. What should I do? Should I do both the hotoil treatments and deep conditioners? What are the "rules" of conditioning?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Congrats on your decision to go natural and grow your hair long and healthy!

Well, the "rules" are....there are no rules! But that doesn`t help you much, does it? ;-) What works for one person doesn`t always work for the next. Part of the joy of this journey is the fun of experimenting and learning about your hair.

Hot oil treatments are wonderful. I do them weekly, using either Monoi (fractionated coconut oil with macerated Tahitian Tiare flower), sweet almond oil with lavender EO, or jojoba. Whatever fits my mood, or my hair. I`ve done them with extra virgin olive oil, too. Some people have problems with EVOO being too heavy and difficult to wash out. I haven`t had that problem.

I also deep condition 2 to 4 times a month. Just depends on my hair and my memory. ;-) I`m sort of inconsistent with that.

As to your concern about ending up with oily hair if you overdo it, I find that my hair is less oily the day after a hot oil treatment because my scalp isn`t producing as much oil to compensate for shampooing. As an aside, I found that my scalp became much less oily after I started using a moisturizing shampoo and shampooing less frequently. Apparently, I had been stripping my hair of its natural oils and my scalp was going into overdrive to compensate. I don`t know why I was surprised by this, my skin reacts the same way to overcleansing!

Well, that`s probably way more than you wanted to know about me! I hope I`ve helped you some!

Happy Growing!

Hot oils add lubrication to the hair.

Recontructor/Protein Conditioner - basically attaches to the hair to help strengthen hair as well as smooth out rough cuticles.

Mositurizing Conditioner - add moisture to the hair to add elasticity to hair and prevent dryness.

No, you won`t have too much oil on your hair if you do a hot oil treatment, wash and then follow with a deep conditioner. But you have to give your hair what it`s asking for. if its dry, that means you need to concentrate on lubricating and moisturizing your hair. if its breaking that means you want to concentrate adding protein to hair, however, protein conditioners are drying and should be followed with a moisturizing conditioner.

YOu should avoid products that contains petroleum, lanolin, mineral oil, sda40 alcohol, isopropyl alcohol and shampoos that contains sulfates.


and NOOOOOOOOOOO HEAT w/the exception of a hood dryer.

Jennifer is right on the money (the poster above her is correct regarding protein conditioners.) Not all sulfate-based surfactants are harsh cleansers. Sodium lauryl sulfate is often confused with sodium laureth sulfate, which is considered a mild, gentle detergent. Just because something is a chemical doesn`t automatically make it hazardous for your hair. On the contrary: some of the best moisturizing agents are synthetic (stearyl alcohol, polyquaternium-18, cetrimonium chloride.) Although more natural-sounding ingredients might appear to be better, many are just thrown in for show and have little effect on hair. Aloe vera, for example, has no proven benefit for hair, only skin. Lemongrass and peppermint extract are potential scalp irritants. Even if these ingredients could actually help your hair, they are more often than not present in such minute quantities that they couldn`t help your hair even if they were truly effective. Mineral oil is not hair-hazardous--it can moisturize extremely dry hair--but it can weigh fine locks down. Silicone derivatives can have the same shine-enhancing effect without the weight.