Something I'd like to talk about in this blog is autism and, specifically, Aspergers syndrome. First of all I'd like to say that I myself have got Aspergers, but I'm still obviously not an expert, and I don't know much at all about 'classic autism' or PDD-NOS (the mildest form of autism, and one which is really sort of half way in between neurotypical and almost-aspie). Aspergers Syndrome is a pervasive developmental disorder on the autistic spectrum and the term was first coined by Hans Asperger in 1944 (I think I read that somewhere? not sure though). Aspergers children are just like neurotypical kids- they can have below to average to above intelligence, and some score exeptionally high in the IQ tests, although whether this is due to autism, we don't know. Aspie kids may be very intelligent but do badly in school due to lack of motivation, the ADHD which can sometimes accompany it, and the want to focus their abilities only on one chosen subject. Aspergers has become quite well known because of Mark Haddon's book, but I don't completely agree with his portrayal of it. Christopher seems much more to me like high functioning autistic. Usually the way you can tell HFA and Aspergers apart is when the child starts to speak. If there is no language delay, then it's probably Aspergers, which makes it harder to diagnose.
We don't know what causes it, but doctors have pointed to genetics and/or birth trauma as possible causes. If it's genetics, your parents or grandparents might possibly show some Aspie behaviours, but it won't be full blown autism. It's not due to bad parenting and some children can actually eventually even grow out of it.
I think that the word "syndrome" is a particularly bad choice of word. I don't feel like I have a syndrome. I've always known that I was a bit odd, but to me that's normality. Words like 'syndrome' I associate with diseases and things needing treatment. I think that families seeking 'cures' for autism are deluding themselves and that it can be so hurtful to the child. Sometimes parents need to step back and think to themselves that this is normal for their child and that if they want them to be normal, never mind, because that child is probably far happier in their world than in yours. That being said, good obviously can be done with a range of behavioural therapy, speech and motor therapy. If someone were to offer me motor therapy or social skills therapy (that one's quite new and we Aspies are the quintessential guinea pigs), I'd laugh in their face.
Parents who urge their children to be social, go on, make some friends, or why can't you stop that silly flapping- they're not doing any good and they're not making their children feel secure. I've gone on about Aspergers not being a syndrome and stuff, but there is a physical difficulty when it comes to socialising, and things like flapping is our way of coping.
I'm going to run through the main symptoms needed for diagnosis, and then I'll run through some more which are typical Aspergers traits.
Main symptoms-
- A need for repetitive behaviour, change is extremely difficult, the child will 'play' with their toys by lining them all up in order of size/colour/some obscure classification only they will think of. Flapping is something that a lot of us do, it's a type of stimming.
- Lack of appropriate social skills and lack of appreciation of social cues. Facial expressions and gestures are things which have to be learned to interpret. Unlike autistic children, Aspies are quite willing to make friends, but they'll demonstrate this in ways which will put the other children off. They might speak too loudly, stand too closely. However, there are a share of us who just aren't interested in other people and will willingly isolate ourselves. This may translate as flinching when people reach to touch them, thinking you're being friendly but coming across as aloof, cold and distant, actively disconnecting friendships. Conversations are minefields- whose turn is it to talk? Why should I make this small talk? I don't see the point of this exchange between myself and a person I find boring, etc etc.
- Obsessive behaviour. Usually over a very narrow topic, most commonly something based on logic, such as science, astronomy, maths, although the child can obsess over cartoons or music too. The child will spend a lot of time collecting information on that particular subject, and when prompted to talk, the child will focus on that. They will centre on the little details rather than the full picture. My obsessions have included the Holocaust, certain illness and books. At the moment, Aspergers is actually a semi-obsession, hence this post, which, I fear, will reach monstrous proportions.
Traits- these are not needed for diagnosis and a combination of them will not constitute a diagnosis, but alongside the main three above, they're typical autism.
- Need for pressure. For example, I get to sleep much easier if I have a weight pressing down on me. So I sleep with two duvets and a blanket in the middle of summer. This is a sensory thing (more about those later), but can also stem from the lack of physical contact. It can be very hard for an Aspie to comfortably accept contact from another human being, such as a hug or a pat, but we still crave that contact. Temple Grandin invented the hug machine for that!
- The sensory issues. It's an acute perception in one or more of the five senses. Some people are hypersensitive in all five. Textures are especially difficult for me. Also touch. For some people, their clothes bother them so much because all over their body their skin is hypersensitive. With me, it's just on my upper arms, shoulders and thighs. It's bad enough if someone just touches my hand quickly, but if they grab my shoulder I won't take it well! With the upper arms and thighs, I have periods of painfulness and okayness. Sometimes a light touch can be incredibly painful. Textures are in my mouth. Like, I hate liver because of the texture, but I don't mind the taste at all. Tuning out small sounds is impossible, and so is picking out a voice from background noise. I have to ask the person the repeat three or four times because I just can't distinguish the noise. But I can hear small sounds that other people can't. We usually have very good hearing, but mild or severe aucasia. You notice little details a lot more as well- things like if a pet has been replaced on a TV show (they were light grey before...now they're dark grey! shock horror!) or if someone's changed the position of a book or something in the room. I can't sit and read a book on a park bench because there'll be so many visual stimuli and sounds which will make it impossible to concentrate. I read most in the dark, with light only on the page. I can't stand noisy eaters- I can hear every chew and gulp and slurp and it disgusts me, I can't ignore it and it'll even make me quite angry.
- Clumsiness. Fine motor skills are difficult, but also just plain walking or things like sports can be a disaster. Sometimes I'll be walking in a wonky line and I'll try to make myself walk straight and fall over. It's pretty embarrassing. This can be linked to mild dyspraxia.
- Speech. Some people have a high pitched voice, some slur their words, some have a peculiar accent and stilted language is common. I talk very fast and people ask me to slow down. Aspergers kids are known as 'little professors' because they can know so much about a particular subject due to their extensive obsessive research. This means they'll often pick up words 'beyond their years'. Hyperlexia also occurs quite often. Hyperlexia (known as dyslexia's polar opposite) is learning to read especially early or especially quickly, and then reading material intellectually beyond what peers are reading, but often not understanding what they've been reading. I'd like to mention savantism. Austistic savants are extremely rare, but they're very well known (thank you, Mr. Rainman). We don't all have a special talent or an incredible memory, but savantism is due to the autism and for those who are savants, it's usually their whole life.
- Depression and ADHD are common. Sometimes the autism is initially misdiagnosed as ADHD. The depression often comes from the frustration of coping with the modern world and making friends and things like that, and this can be significant in teenage years when the gap widens much more.
- Seeming odd or cold or saying things which don't really match. Standing awkwardly, or with the hands being a bit floppy, things which make you think that the person's just a bit off.
- Not taking a special interest in your appearance or hygiene. Some people's lack of personal hygiene stems from the sensory thing- for some people, the sensation of water on skin is unpleasant, or the smell of shower gel is too strong, or something like that. I personally go round looking a bit of a mess- don't brush my hair, rarely wear makeup, manage to do my eyebrows a couple of times a year, if that! Aspies are often teased because they don't really care about brands and clothes marks, same with 'must have' material things such as iPhones, although they may have one or two treasured objects.
- Young children may not recognise themselves in a photograph, or they may not know what they look like. I remember thinking that I didn't look like anything- I thought I had a very unrecognisable face. I couldn't picture it in my mind and I was always surprised when people recognised me in the street. Having said that, autistic children think in pictures rather than words- if you're reading a book, it's easier to create a picture of them in your mind.
- Wanting to separate foods into colour groups, or only eating a certain type of food.
- Having meltdowns, which can last hours. These aren't just temper tantrums which you have to control, otherwise the child will be 'spoilt'. They are sparked off by something which will have appeared very scary to the child. It can be a shiny object or the bright lights in a shop. Seizures are relatively uncommon, but they can be considered a symptom.
- Children are more likely to form attachments to objects than to people.
- Having a non-modulated, monotonic voice, lack of facial expressions, lack of eye contact, echolalia. Sometimes children will repeat former conversations and certain sentences to get the inflexions completely right. With the eye contact thing, it's really difficult. People don't get why you can't just look them straight in the eye and they'll see you as rude in the end. It's like a barrier. Your child may look like they are day dreaming or like they're off in their own word, up in the clouds, but that blank stare can be them paying attention to you because facial expressions have to be learnt.
- Learned behaviours- your child won't be able to interpret social cues and she'll be a bit like a blank canvas when it comes to simple behaviours which others can pick up naturally. Things like putting your hands on your hips, slouching, standing with one arm behind your back, raising your eyebrows- these can all be learned. When I was little I used to watch the other children and copy them and store away their mannerisms so I could use them later.
- Body focused repetitive behaviours- this can turn into a sort of ritual. These are things which happen for a long time each day, regularly, and without which the person will feel nervous. This includes nose picking, biting the inside of the cheek, picking the skin around the fingernails, picking spots, the scalp and dandruff, ears, whatever. On a lesser level, they can cause minor infections and bleeding, but they can also turn into obsessions.
- Being too trusting, not knowing when someone's made a joke and feeling the pressure to laugh when everyone else is, even if you haven't understood anything.
- Children will voluntarily spend a lot of time in their room on the internet, because they'll find likeminded people on there.
- Aspies are known to be unempathetic, but I don't necessarily agree with that, although quite a few of us are remarkably "cold-hearted". We are also known not to have imagination- not in things like art or writing, but social imagination. We don't know what the other person will do next, things like that.
- Anger management will be a chore, because a lot of things will be frustrating and foreign.
- Wanting to smell or lick things. I will smell most things before using them, cutlery, my fingers all the time, pens, paper etc etc.
- Having a genuine and unconditional love of animals. Animal are much more simple to understand than humans and you know how they're feeling. Real and complex relationships are struck up much more easily and faithfully with animals. Children may also find it easier to make friends with younger children, although shared make believe can become a struggle.
- Obsessions with trains or maps and globes are very frequent.
- Not trusting parents to wash up 'their' cups and plates- they'll do it themselves.
With all that said...there are hundreds more little traits and tricks that Aspies have, we tend to be pretty original individuals! (:
Friday, May 21, 2010
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Shampoo!
Recently I became a whole lot more aware of the sorts of shampoos I should and shouldn't be avoiding. This was in part due to a warning from my own hair- after a vicious seven month episode of TE, my poor scalp became too sensitive to cope, and, instead of the hair fall stopping, it increased! It was blocking the follicles or something. After a shampoo my scalp would be red raw and it would itch incredibly. It was pretty disgusting, if I touched my hair flakes would fall from it. As an already self concious 16 year old, after I'd lost a good third of my hair, this was the last thing I needed.
I knew about things like sodium laureth/ lauryl sulphate (laureth is the gentler version, but it's still pretty harsh. It's a detergent and it produces bubbles, which you don't need), but I hadn't really taken it all seriously. This time, I found myself up and down the shampoo aisle in Tesco, trying to find one free of SLS, parabens, propylene glycol, ammonium LS, colours, parfum, etc etc- there wasn't a single one! I checked all my shampoos at home, and I'm sad to say that I've had to abandon L'Oreal kids, Tresemme, Head and Shoulders (AGGRAVATES dandruff! Like pouring bleach onto an open wound! Nothing you put on your hair should smell that "nice"), Le Petit Marseillais, The Body Shop banana shampoo...everything had at least three or four "danger" chemicals. Even baby shampoos- they had some pretty nasty stuff too. People think that it's really mild, but it can actually be very tough on your hair and scalp, because it's used to remove cradle cap, and also it won't "clean properly" because it's still quite mild. I know it doesn't make sense. It's good for hair, bad for the scalp. I went to four different shops and pharmacies trying to find a completely clear shampoo. In Boots, I came across their expert range.
When I'd been a hair straightening addict, I'd used their protection spray. I hadn't noticed much of a difference, and it had a bloody long list of ingredients. I noticed they had a dandruff shampoo for sensitive scalps and checked the ingredient list. C'etait un miracle! NO SLS, ALS, colouring. There were parabens and parfum, but I decided to give it a go.
After shampooing (yesterday night), it itched a little, but not as much as before. My scalp was a nice normal scalp colour, which was a big point in its favour. Obviously it wouldn't work at once. It doesn't make your hair look all shiny and everything, and it can be a bit hard to wash out because it's quite thick. But that's to be expected if they've got milder chemicals. The next morning I felt some itching, but there were absolutely no hairs on my pillow! It's not like before it'd been covered, but there'd always been a few. So that was good...Now I just have to wait. But I'm impressed that it doesn't have SLS in it, because shampoos without them are very hard to find usually (even "clear, all natural" shampoos, like from Suma, still have SLS and other things like that in them).
Boots Expert anti Dandruff Shampoo for Sensitive Scalps ingredients:
(Lauryl means from coconut oil).
aqua (water), cocamidopropyl betaine (it's a much gentler version of SLS- it's what makes this shampoo lather up well, so not essential and can sometimes be an allergy trigger), PEG-18 glyceryl oleate/cocoate ("not to be used on damaged skin"), lauryl glucoside (a thickening agent), sodium cocoamphoacetate (lather and foam, so not essential), citric acid ( a weak acid which makes the hair scales lay flat, therefore making it smoother and acts against bacteria, so it can't be that mild), parfum (the shampoo doesn't smell of anything really), phenoxyethanol (a weak irritant which has been linked to cancer*, used in suncream for protection), piroctone olamine (has been linked to hair loss*, is well known to be anti dandruff, and is much milder than other anti dandruff agents), sodium methylparaben (parabens left for a long time on the skin can be absorbed into the blood stream and has been linked to breast cancer, methylparaben in particular has been linked to skin aging prematurely) sodium ethylparaben, dipropylene glycol (low toxicity, gentle on skin),Tetrasodium EDTA(another one which can be absorbed into the blood stream, it's a preservative and is an eye irritant). That's a lot less than some shampoos!
When I say it's been linked to cancer, I'm not saying it makes the shampoo canceregenous! Hamburgers have been linked to cancer, the sun's been linked to cancer, everything is these days. Hopefully no one's going to be drinking the shampoo. Same with hair loss- shampoos won't cause hair loss, they'll usually just make the hair weaker, and if they do cause hair fall afterall, it's because it's triggering an allergic reaction which is probably making your head an unhealthy enviroment for growing hairs (i.e. your scalp will produce excess sebum, which clogs your follicles, as in my case). Parabens won't cause an allergic reaction but with the bloodstream thing, I'd make sure to rinse thoroughly.
It's in a white, 400ml bottle and looks a bit like a supermarket 'value' range shampoo because it's a very simple design. It was £2.49 or thereabouts, which is definately reasonable, but then you can't expect it to be really expert or medicated.
Note that:
Hypoallergenic doesn't mean it's special. It just means that, on most people, it won't provoke a serious allergic reaction (which is wrong- I was 'allergic' to quite a few of those supposedly non-allergenic shampoos). So, in fact, most manufacturers could claim that. It's a big selling point and people fall for it.
Mild doesn't mean it's mild. Mild means they've probably added even more chemicals into it to make it smell "milder", look "milder" and act "milder" on your hair.
PH balanced doesn't matter. Your hair and skin and the water you'll use have their own PHs, which will change the shampoo's PH anyway once you use it. Plus what does "balanced" mean? Does it mean neutral or "acidically balanced"? It means nothing, it's a marketing tool.
"I have melon/ banana/ tea tree oil extract!"- it won't do anything! It'll probably be melon flavouring and it's not going to sink into the hair shaft or anything because the molecules are too large. Even if it is pure fruit extract, if that can sink into the hair, so can all of the other nasty ingredients. Same with biotin shampoo- it won't do anything because it won't go in. It's etremely rare for someone to have a biotin deficiency. Usually people who eat a lot of raw eggs have one.
No more tears means another load of chemicals. And anyway, that's a lie! They always do sting. No more tangles mean they've mixed in a good measure of conditioner and they haven't told you it's a 2in1, and they're expecting you not to rinse it all out because it's too thick for water to remove so that it'll coat the hair, making it more slippery and easier to comb.
2in1s, when they tell you, I used to really like, especially in summer, when you're in and out of the pool all the time. Make sure to choose a very light one and rinse it all out!
"I'll make your hair glossy/shiny/straighter/generally more socially acceptable"- every person's hair is different. My own hair is very picky because it's fine and very thick (or, at least, it used to be very thick!), which is a weird combination (fine refers to the diameter of the actual hair). Apart from the sensitive scalp, it'll go strawlike and flyaway if I don't use the right one. It'll never go sheetlike and there's not a whole lot of point in straightening it, since it's dead straight anyway (I can't stress how bad straightening is for your hair. You're not just burning the ends, but the whole length of your hair. The ends will let you know first, but it's just as bad for all of it).
Hydrating shampoos are a complete lie. It's just something to fill up the label. It doesn't hydrate your hair at all. It'll probably dry it out. Herbal also doesn't mean much. Rosemary is good for hair, but what are they using? Just because it says 'herbs', i.e. all-natural, doesn't mean it'd have any effect on hair, good or otherwise. And usually it's just parfum which smells of "herb" (don't trust herbal essences, even if they do smell amaaaaazing).
'Recommended by a salon'- maybe the brother of the cousin of the wife of the manufacturer's son worked in a beehive parlour somewhere and told him he used it on old Mrs Brown and it worked very nicely, thanks for the free sample, the blue tinge was especially appreciated. Or maybe Tony and Guy personally call all of their clients to recommend the product to them. Either way, it doesn't mean it's good for your hair. It means it makes it manageable and "clean". Hairdressers often don't know what's good for your hair. If they did, they wouldn't use all those sprays and serums and things while they're working on it.
Henna is great for your hair- at least, it doesn't do anything to it (except dry it out a little) and it makes it look fuller. It doesn't regrow hair or make it grow faster or anything, but it coats each hair and makes it stay shiny for longer. It's completely natural. Steer clear of "blonde" and "black" henna- they've had stuff added to them and probably have about 2% real henna plant in them. Henna marketed as 'neutral' is also not real- it's based on cassia obovata and it's known as 'neutral henna' because it doesn't leave colour deposit on your hair. Pure 100% cassia obovata isn't henna, it's another plant, but it's good for your hair. Real henna turns blonde hair ginger and gives dark hair a sort of auburn tint. If you want your light hair to go dark, you have to mix pure indigo with henna, don't just buy the 'black' henna, even if the box says 'ammonia free'.
Conditioner only is something I don't know much about, but conditioner is basically a watered down, emulsified version of shampoo. I imagine it takes a good while for your hair to adjust to CO, but I've heard rave reviews about it.
Using egg on your hair is very good, but make sure to use very very cold water when washing it out, or the egg white will actually cook on your hair, and it'll be an absolute bugger to get out. Yoghurt dries your hair out a bit but it's still good. Apple cider vinegar (ACV) and lemon juice are meant to give your hair shine, but they are very acidic and should be watered down a lot. What they do is strip the hair of its dull outer layer, revealing the new, shiny, vulnerable underlayer. It'll quickly become dull again, and it'll be very weak. So water it down and don't leave it on the hair (it probably won't have much effect anyway like that). Lemon juice also lightens the hair, and lots of people apply it in summer. Don't! It'll fry your hair! When the sun hits it, it'll be like a softer version of bleach. Using oil is difficult because you need a fload of shampoo to wash it out, which kind of defeats the purpose. It'll leave your hair feeling quite clean and the roots won't feel clumpy (you know after it's wet, it sort of all clumps together?) and they'll be separable, but it'll look greasy.
p.s. I couldn't be bothered making a new blog so I edited a post in this. I actually posted this on May 20th 2010, not 2007.
I knew about things like sodium laureth/ lauryl sulphate (laureth is the gentler version, but it's still pretty harsh. It's a detergent and it produces bubbles, which you don't need), but I hadn't really taken it all seriously. This time, I found myself up and down the shampoo aisle in Tesco, trying to find one free of SLS, parabens, propylene glycol, ammonium LS, colours, parfum, etc etc- there wasn't a single one! I checked all my shampoos at home, and I'm sad to say that I've had to abandon L'Oreal kids, Tresemme, Head and Shoulders (AGGRAVATES dandruff! Like pouring bleach onto an open wound! Nothing you put on your hair should smell that "nice"), Le Petit Marseillais, The Body Shop banana shampoo...everything had at least three or four "danger" chemicals. Even baby shampoos- they had some pretty nasty stuff too. People think that it's really mild, but it can actually be very tough on your hair and scalp, because it's used to remove cradle cap, and also it won't "clean properly" because it's still quite mild. I know it doesn't make sense. It's good for hair, bad for the scalp. I went to four different shops and pharmacies trying to find a completely clear shampoo. In Boots, I came across their expert range.
When I'd been a hair straightening addict, I'd used their protection spray. I hadn't noticed much of a difference, and it had a bloody long list of ingredients. I noticed they had a dandruff shampoo for sensitive scalps and checked the ingredient list. C'etait un miracle! NO SLS, ALS, colouring. There were parabens and parfum, but I decided to give it a go.
After shampooing (yesterday night), it itched a little, but not as much as before. My scalp was a nice normal scalp colour, which was a big point in its favour. Obviously it wouldn't work at once. It doesn't make your hair look all shiny and everything, and it can be a bit hard to wash out because it's quite thick. But that's to be expected if they've got milder chemicals. The next morning I felt some itching, but there were absolutely no hairs on my pillow! It's not like before it'd been covered, but there'd always been a few. So that was good...Now I just have to wait. But I'm impressed that it doesn't have SLS in it, because shampoos without them are very hard to find usually (even "clear, all natural" shampoos, like from Suma, still have SLS and other things like that in them).
Boots Expert anti Dandruff Shampoo for Sensitive Scalps ingredients:
(Lauryl means from coconut oil).
aqua (water), cocamidopropyl betaine (it's a much gentler version of SLS- it's what makes this shampoo lather up well, so not essential and can sometimes be an allergy trigger), PEG-18 glyceryl oleate/cocoate ("not to be used on damaged skin"), lauryl glucoside (a thickening agent), sodium cocoamphoacetate (lather and foam, so not essential), citric acid ( a weak acid which makes the hair scales lay flat, therefore making it smoother and acts against bacteria, so it can't be that mild), parfum (the shampoo doesn't smell of anything really), phenoxyethanol (a weak irritant which has been linked to cancer*, used in suncream for protection), piroctone olamine (has been linked to hair loss*, is well known to be anti dandruff, and is much milder than other anti dandruff agents), sodium methylparaben (parabens left for a long time on the skin can be absorbed into the blood stream and has been linked to breast cancer, methylparaben in particular has been linked to skin aging prematurely) sodium ethylparaben, dipropylene glycol (low toxicity, gentle on skin),Tetrasodium EDTA(another one which can be absorbed into the blood stream, it's a preservative and is an eye irritant). That's a lot less than some shampoos!
When I say it's been linked to cancer, I'm not saying it makes the shampoo canceregenous! Hamburgers have been linked to cancer, the sun's been linked to cancer, everything is these days. Hopefully no one's going to be drinking the shampoo. Same with hair loss- shampoos won't cause hair loss, they'll usually just make the hair weaker, and if they do cause hair fall afterall, it's because it's triggering an allergic reaction which is probably making your head an unhealthy enviroment for growing hairs (i.e. your scalp will produce excess sebum, which clogs your follicles, as in my case). Parabens won't cause an allergic reaction but with the bloodstream thing, I'd make sure to rinse thoroughly.
It's in a white, 400ml bottle and looks a bit like a supermarket 'value' range shampoo because it's a very simple design. It was £2.49 or thereabouts, which is definately reasonable, but then you can't expect it to be really expert or medicated.
Note that:
Hypoallergenic doesn't mean it's special. It just means that, on most people, it won't provoke a serious allergic reaction (which is wrong- I was 'allergic' to quite a few of those supposedly non-allergenic shampoos). So, in fact, most manufacturers could claim that. It's a big selling point and people fall for it.
Mild doesn't mean it's mild. Mild means they've probably added even more chemicals into it to make it smell "milder", look "milder" and act "milder" on your hair.
PH balanced doesn't matter. Your hair and skin and the water you'll use have their own PHs, which will change the shampoo's PH anyway once you use it. Plus what does "balanced" mean? Does it mean neutral or "acidically balanced"? It means nothing, it's a marketing tool.
"I have melon/ banana/ tea tree oil extract!"- it won't do anything! It'll probably be melon flavouring and it's not going to sink into the hair shaft or anything because the molecules are too large. Even if it is pure fruit extract, if that can sink into the hair, so can all of the other nasty ingredients. Same with biotin shampoo- it won't do anything because it won't go in. It's etremely rare for someone to have a biotin deficiency. Usually people who eat a lot of raw eggs have one.
No more tears means another load of chemicals. And anyway, that's a lie! They always do sting. No more tangles mean they've mixed in a good measure of conditioner and they haven't told you it's a 2in1, and they're expecting you not to rinse it all out because it's too thick for water to remove so that it'll coat the hair, making it more slippery and easier to comb.
2in1s, when they tell you, I used to really like, especially in summer, when you're in and out of the pool all the time. Make sure to choose a very light one and rinse it all out!
"I'll make your hair glossy/shiny/straighter/generally more socially acceptable"- every person's hair is different. My own hair is very picky because it's fine and very thick (or, at least, it used to be very thick!), which is a weird combination (fine refers to the diameter of the actual hair). Apart from the sensitive scalp, it'll go strawlike and flyaway if I don't use the right one. It'll never go sheetlike and there's not a whole lot of point in straightening it, since it's dead straight anyway (I can't stress how bad straightening is for your hair. You're not just burning the ends, but the whole length of your hair. The ends will let you know first, but it's just as bad for all of it).
Hydrating shampoos are a complete lie. It's just something to fill up the label. It doesn't hydrate your hair at all. It'll probably dry it out. Herbal also doesn't mean much. Rosemary is good for hair, but what are they using? Just because it says 'herbs', i.e. all-natural, doesn't mean it'd have any effect on hair, good or otherwise. And usually it's just parfum which smells of "herb" (don't trust herbal essences, even if they do smell amaaaaazing).
'Recommended by a salon'- maybe the brother of the cousin of the wife of the manufacturer's son worked in a beehive parlour somewhere and told him he used it on old Mrs Brown and it worked very nicely, thanks for the free sample, the blue tinge was especially appreciated. Or maybe Tony and Guy personally call all of their clients to recommend the product to them. Either way, it doesn't mean it's good for your hair. It means it makes it manageable and "clean". Hairdressers often don't know what's good for your hair. If they did, they wouldn't use all those sprays and serums and things while they're working on it.
Henna is great for your hair- at least, it doesn't do anything to it (except dry it out a little) and it makes it look fuller. It doesn't regrow hair or make it grow faster or anything, but it coats each hair and makes it stay shiny for longer. It's completely natural. Steer clear of "blonde" and "black" henna- they've had stuff added to them and probably have about 2% real henna plant in them. Henna marketed as 'neutral' is also not real- it's based on cassia obovata and it's known as 'neutral henna' because it doesn't leave colour deposit on your hair. Pure 100% cassia obovata isn't henna, it's another plant, but it's good for your hair. Real henna turns blonde hair ginger and gives dark hair a sort of auburn tint. If you want your light hair to go dark, you have to mix pure indigo with henna, don't just buy the 'black' henna, even if the box says 'ammonia free'.
Conditioner only is something I don't know much about, but conditioner is basically a watered down, emulsified version of shampoo. I imagine it takes a good while for your hair to adjust to CO, but I've heard rave reviews about it.
Using egg on your hair is very good, but make sure to use very very cold water when washing it out, or the egg white will actually cook on your hair, and it'll be an absolute bugger to get out. Yoghurt dries your hair out a bit but it's still good. Apple cider vinegar (ACV) and lemon juice are meant to give your hair shine, but they are very acidic and should be watered down a lot. What they do is strip the hair of its dull outer layer, revealing the new, shiny, vulnerable underlayer. It'll quickly become dull again, and it'll be very weak. So water it down and don't leave it on the hair (it probably won't have much effect anyway like that). Lemon juice also lightens the hair, and lots of people apply it in summer. Don't! It'll fry your hair! When the sun hits it, it'll be like a softer version of bleach. Using oil is difficult because you need a fload of shampoo to wash it out, which kind of defeats the purpose. It'll leave your hair feeling quite clean and the roots won't feel clumpy (you know after it's wet, it sort of all clumps together?) and they'll be separable, but it'll look greasy.
p.s. I couldn't be bothered making a new blog so I edited a post in this. I actually posted this on May 20th 2010, not 2007.
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