I've been using cheap, drug store/supermarket shampoos and conditioners all my life with no problems.

I have also been dyeing my hair with box dyes for about 7 years... went through a spectrum of all different shades except bleach blonde, red/auburn, and black.

 

In the past year my hair has been breaking off like crazy, split ends all over the place; it basically looked very fried, dry, and just plain disgusting - it literally formed into dreadlocks on its own.

Such a bummer since this started happening right after I grew my hair to halfway down my back. I have never had such long hair and I was so happy to finally have it that long, until all these issues started arising.

 

I've tried almost everything other people have suggested - from deep conditioning, to all sorts of different home remedies. NOTHING worked. I just got more and more split ends and damage till people started commenthing on how "different" my hair looked and that I should do something about it because it looked so unhealthy.

 

I decided to finally ditch the cheap shampoos and go for the salon stuff. Well, the thing about this is that I didn't actually buy the shampoos/conitioners at salons... I noticed more and more that drug stores and supermarkets are selling salon products. So I bought Nexxus Therappe and Keraphix at a supermarket.

Since it hardly made any difference in my hair, I decided to cut off 4 inches of my hair just the other day ( and of course now I hate it and miss my hair).

Now that probably 98-99% of the damage is gone, I've also decided to quit dyeing my hair with premanent dyes (they actually turned my ashy light brown hair to a nasty shade of copper and I can't get it out without stripping it, which would probably result in complete hairloss )...

I want it to grow back out to my natural color. It's gonna take a while but I'm ready to stick with semi-permanent dyes till this whole thing blows over and I can go back to my natural color.

 

Anywayyyy... now that my hair is in a relatively healthy state I want to make sure and keep it that way from now on. I have to do protein treatments and deep conditioning.

But since Nexxus hasn't really worked that great, I was looking into trying Redken. I wanted to try the Extreme shampoo, conditioner, the deep fuel treatment, and definitely the CAT treatment since I have to do protein fillers before dying my hair again with a semi-permanent dye.

 

I went to Target the other day and noticed that they sell Redken products. I'm wondering whether or not I should buy it there or go to a salon? I've read before that salon products should only be bought at salon and that the ones sold at drug stores/supermarkets either aren't authentic, or are very old.

How much of that is true? Should I just go to a salon and buy it there? Is there a difference in prices? I absolutely cannot spend a fortune on more products which may or may not work. I've already spend almost $80 on this stuff and it did nothing for my hair.

 

Thanks!

 

Good luck and great hair

Shary

I will definitely go to either a Salon or Target and buy Redken products. The Nexxus isn't making any difference for me and I've been using it for over a month. I was planning on getting the Redken deep fuel treatment, so I will definitely get that and use it as you recommended.

 

I hear what you're saying about Nexxus. They don't work for me either, except for the Emergencee treatment. I also really like the Joico one, so if the deep fuel doesn't do it for you (which it should) you can give that one a try.

 

Hope to hear you have achieved beautiful hair

 

Much love, Shary

I was planning on going to Trade Secret this weekend, hopefully they'll have good deals on this stuff. I'm definitely looking forward to trying to deep fuel treatment since there are so many positive reviews about it. My hair has been doing much better recently since I stopped blow drying it and using a ton of products. I'm sure protein treatments will help a lot. :)

I'm not 100% confident, but I think that this shampoo is actually slightly cheaper at Target, but only by maybe $.50 or so... not a very huge difference. I don't remember the price of the conditioner; for whatever reason the bottle is smaller yet costs more than the shampoo :(

 

It's disappointing that the bottles are so tiny yet cost so much. I was going to get the 33.8oz ones, but they cost 2.5 times as much, and since I haven't even tried it yet, I went for the small bottles.

I figure if it works well for my hair and improves the condition, than I'll start buying the large bottles... I figure I'd save about $16, and it will probably last me a really long time since I wash my hair every 4 days.

 

The deep fuel stuff is reasonably priced though since it lasts for 5-8 shampoos, so it will probably last me a really long time.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I hope this works.