on how much I hate hair care

So, let's talk about my hair.

95% of all first impressions people have of me have something to do with it.  I'll admit (and I may even boast) that my hair is pretty unusual, and I love it.  I'm grateful that I've grown out of the high school stage of wanting to shave it all off out of frustration, and that I have delusioned myself into thinking I actually know how to control it.  (I don't.  My hair is like a wild animal--after years and years of domestication, it trusts me and will sometimes do what I say, but you always have to remember that it is a very dangerous creature.)

There's a certain routine that comes with having hair this curly.  It's a routine so fascinating that I have had people stop what they're doing (band trips, sleepovers, new housemates, etc.) to watch and/or comment and/or ask questions about it.  It involves t-shirts, diffusers, various layers of hair products, and--most importantly--NO SHAMPOO.

Shampoo is the atomic bomb for curly hair.  Why?  Because 99% of popular shampoos have sulfates in them.  To provide a short, and very mangled, chemistry lesson: most hair products and conditioners contain silicones (dimethicone is the most popular, from what I've found), which coat hair strands and, for a short time, make hair look shinier/softer/etc. than before.  However, after time, coats of silicone--which usually aren't water soluable--can actually prevent moisture from getting to hair strands, making them more dry and unhealthy than before.  Sulfates, which are in most shampoos, are used to break down silicones and remove product buildup from hair.  This would be great news, except that sulfates also strip natural hair oils, which are absolutely vital for proper curly hair maintenance.  (Imagine how frizzy my poor 'do would be if my scalp wasn't working overtime to calm it down!)  The moral of the story is that I avoid shampoos--and silicone-based conditioner/product--like the plague.  Instead, I use water-soluable product and my hair is as buildup-less as can be....

...until two months ago, when I'm forced to switch conditioners because John Freida discontinues his curly line (sigh), so I simply change to another Freida conditioner and think nothing of it.  Well, my hair has been a garbled, frizzy mess as of late, and (to add injury to insult) my scalp has been an itchy, flaky mess.  (In my very hair-conscious world, this is the equivalent of someone ripping the cover off my 1911 copy of Peter and Wendy, or dropping my wedding ring down an elevator shaft, or something equally as terrible.  Call me dramatic, but anyone who has seen my hair in action will know how hard I work to keep it less-than-ferocious.)  Well, I traced my hair problems back to the time of "the switch," and I read the product ingredients to find that the second most common ingredient is a stinkin' sulfate!  In my conditioner!  I'm washing my hair three times a week with a chemical that's supposed to get rid of buildup that I don't have, and I'm wondering why my hair is being destroyed?  I would sue someone, but even the best lawyer couldn't make a case out of "I guess I just didn't think to read the label.  My bad."

In a not-so-dramatic ending to the story, I went to the store, read the ingredients on (literally) every brand of conditioner I could find, and only found one (made for African-American hair, no less) with no silicones OR sulfates.  That one, I bought, and my hair has since been restored to its healthy, bouncy self.  I know you were worried.

You're probably thinking to yourself at this point, "Did I really just read five paragraphs of Katie talking about her hair?"  Yes, you did.  Not only do I feel better after dumping that story on you, but I'm sure you have taken the message to heart and will now always make sure you know what you're putting on your head.  (Seriously, I thought I was suffering from a scalp condition.  Conditioner!  Who knew?)  You can thank me later.