Lightened hair, now can hardly brush through it

I don't usually color my hair. I did a bad box job once in college and it was so horrible that I didn't try again until a couple of months ago. I did some research about colors and how my hair would react, so I knew what to expect. I started out really dark. I did two rounds of honey blonde and highlights and got down to a lightish auburn/dark red-orange color, which I love. Pictures below.  However, ever since I colored my hair, it seems that conditioner does nothing for my hair anymore. I use sulfate free shampoo (l'Oreal EverPure) and neither the matching l'Oreal conditioner nor Pantene does anything for me anymore. It doesn't matter how little I rinse or how long I leave the conditioner in, my hair just sticks to itself. I use a wide-tooth comb or pick to brush my hair, and I can hardly even get that through it. After showering, it takes me at least 10 minutes of brushing very carefully to get all the tangles out of my hair, when conditioner used to make my hair so slick and smooth that I could pull a comb through it in 10 seconds after showering.

Should I be using another conditioner? This one worked just fine before.  Is there a repair product (cream or something) that would fix this? I'd love to keep my hair this color, but if lightening my hair is going to strip it so much that I can't even brush through it, I'm going back to my natural dark brown.






Edited by erinspice - September 27 2009 at 6:48pm

That job above was done with two processes of boxed dye. I don't remember what brand. I did ION Believable Blondes 8G on last night with a 30 volume developer, and I used Colorful Neutral Protein Filler before and after.

I found the problem, though, in preparing for my touch-up last night.  Sulfate-free shampoo! Apparently I had so much product build-up in my hair that I couldn't brush through it. I used a clarifying shampoo last night with no conditioner at all and I was able to brush through my hair again better than with the sulfate-free shampoo + conditioner.


Edited by erinspice - September 30 2009 at 8:32am

I would use a clarifying shampoo first, the build up a products and silicones can make your hair tangle and matte together.

Also use a good de-tangler. Best one around in my opinion is Ecoly Tri-Wheat Spray De-tangler.

You can buy it here along with a good clarifying shampoo:
http://killerstrands.myshopify.com/