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Curlies, I’m at work right now so I can’t post pics till I get home, but I had to post about how happy I am with the results for the Lustrasilk! Really surprised at the results. I’ll put pics up tonight !!!

During the week the straw like feeling continued. But I also felt like my hair was stronger. It’s hard to describe what stronger hair feels like – kinda of like the strands seem more dense. Because of this I decided to henna again the following weekend and this time I only used 100 grams of Henna Boy Red Henna. It was just the right amount . I mixed with some honey this time and left it on for 6 hours again. I deep condished for an hour and a half with coconut oil and yogurt. Then some Pantene Breakage defense. And still my hair feels like straw after. But it does have a lot of bounce. And the curls are more defined. And I do like the color. I decided to see how it will feel mid -week before passing judgment. Next time I think I will try the Honey Suckle Rose like you guys have been suggesting!

Just after I washed the henna out

Just after it has dried with no product in it

I finally did it. After months of lurking on sites like the fabulous naturallycurly.com and the equally great yet more hard- line nappturality.com I felt armed with enough knowledge to put scissors to extensions for the last time. I had spent half an hour in the local Boots inspecting every hair conditioner and cream for the right ingredients: no sodium lareth sulfates, no parabens, only the removeable silicone if any at all… Let me tell you – this is not an easy task at Boots- you would think but no… these kind of products are few and far between. I finally landed on Pantene Pro- V Restoratives Breakage Defense Intensive Mask.

At home, scissors in hand I chopped of the plastic hair and unraveled the braids underneath and looked at my hair – really looked at it for the first time. It was a dark brown, and a tiny bit gray and nearly to my shoulder. I hopped in the shower and co-washed with Faith in Nature Jojoba Conditioner (which I’ll review in my next post) and the add the Pantene Mask. My initially reaction was of . It was slippery and thick and smelled nice. It defined my curls into stretched out clumps

Pantene Pro V Breakage Mask

So I let it dry

( OMG the Shrinkage)

I got ready to do my first Youtube update, i was so excited- I had my natural hair out and the world didn’t end- Then I looked over the ingredients list again and there at the end of the list I saw something that made my heart sink. SODIUM HYDROXIDE.

Now that can’t be good – can it?

I didn’t know why it was there and what purpose it served. I decided it was research time. What the heck is lye- what is it doing in my conditioner?

I went directly to the source. I called Procter and Gamble and just asked.

Sodium Hydroxide is listed on our product. It is added in minor amounts to the formulation for PH adjustment, this material does not occur in the final product but becomes a salt which is considered harmless. The EU Cosmetic Directive requires us to label all materials added to the product, which is why Sodium Hydroxide is listed and not the respective salt.

Sodium Hydroxide

PH Adjustment? I need to know more. I discovered

Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH): Also known simply as caustic, this is the most widely used alkaline neutralizing chemical in use in industry today. Sodium hydroxide is easy to handle, inexpensive and very effective for the neutralization of strong or weak acids. NaOH is available in concentrations of up to 50%, which is the most commonly used concentration.

source

Which sounds like a good thing- doesn’t it?

Turns out lye is used for all sorts of things “ph” including making the oldest kind of soap – bar soap in a process called saponification which is also used in my favorite body soap- castile soap. SO where did all the bad press come from?

I came upon 2 enlightening blurbs
One on soap:

For centuries, people have been making their own soaps. Some people just do it for recreation or fun. With just a little chemistry know how, you can make a quality soap tailored to your specific tastes. The process does involve the use of the caustic alkaline substance ‘lye’ and so shouldn’t be done without first learning the proper procedures. If the wrong proportions are used, there can be an excess of the alkali in the resulting soap, and it can be irritating or even damaging to your skin.

It in east, nobody understood the chemical process involved in making soaps. The scenario was worse in the case of hand made soaps. This has made hand made soaps unpopular and have given it a bad impression of being “harsh”. For years, the chemical process of soap making was poorly understood, and handmade soaps were often out of proportion in this way. Handmade soaps have therefore gotten a bad reputation for being especially harsh, or high in lye. are often referred to as “Lye Soaps”. If we have a clear understanding of the process, all the lye is converted to glycerin and soap.

and
one on relaxers:

The shape of hair is partly controlled by chemical bridges, called disulfide bonds, that connect protein fibrils together. Because these bonds are so strong, a powerful chemical reaction is required to break them apart before the hair can be straightened. This reaction requires a very high pH. For those of you who fell asleep during chemistry class, pH is a measure of how acidic or basic a substance it. The pH scale runs from 1 to 14. Chemicals with a very low pH value (around 1 to 3) are very acidic and can be damaging to hair and skin. Chemicals with very high pH (10 to 14) are very basic and can also be damaging.
Relaxers must have a very high pH (11 or above) in order to work. Unfortunately, this pH can also weaken your hair and damage your scalp. Historically, relaxers used a chemical called sodium hydroxide (also known as “lye”) to create such a high pH. Over time, chemists found similar chemicals like calcium hydroxide, lithium hydroxide, ammonium thioglycolate, and guanidine carbonate which basically do the same thing. Relaxers based on these chemicals are called “no lye” because they don’t contain sodium hydroxide. But they still expose your hair and scalp to very high, potentially damaging pH.

things that make you go hmmmm….

That plus an abundance of info I read over the course of the week I’ve come to the conclusion that it is mostly about MARKETING.
And I’m okay with it being in my Pantene. Now I’m just curious about the other ingredients.