Trying out a hair moisture treatment from LHC

Last update on my hair was this post. Since then, my hair has considerably grown, but my ends are starting to thin out again. I've been trapped in that infernal cycle of thinning ends for a long long time now. If I trim the ends of my hair, I will again have to grow out my hair, and when my hair will have grown in a couple months to a year, I'll be facing the exact situation as right now.

To prevent the above circumstances from happening, I've decided to try caring more about my hair. My current hair routine is fairly simple: washing hair every day (mostly around 8 pm) with shampoo and conditioner, then Moroccan oil application on the roots + ends of my hair after washing. I also occasionally use dry shampoo. I flat iron my bangs and very rarely my entire head (maybe 1 time every three weeks).

I recently bought the Apple Cider clarifying shampoo from Live Clean because I wanted to wash my hair less often, and with the dry shampoo, there would unwanted product residue that I'd want to wash off. However, my hair still looks very greasy on the second day even with dry shampoo, so I've mostly been continuing my bad habit of washing my hair every day (except during the weekend when I don't work and can wear a winter hat to go outside).

I've also wanted to use hair masks or hair treatments. Even though my hair is far from being dry, moisturizing it one time a week cannot be a bad thing, and can maybe do something for my ends. 

Back in 2011, I once used a repair mask from Paul Mitchell to repair my damaged bleached hair. I don't really remember how my hair felt after the mask, but I don't recall any bad memories from using it and one thing I do remember is that it made my hair smell extremely nice as if I had just came back from the hair salon. However, I read on the Internet that professional hair products weren't worth their expensive price and that DIY hair masks could do the same job.

Two weeks ago, I found this moisture treatment on Long Hair Community (LHC). People were raving about it and I thought why not join the party. But because I couldn't find pure aloe vera gel in stores, I decided to get an aloe vera plant to get the gel from the real source! I didn't find aloe vera plants in stores near me so my mother bought me one. I waited until I visited home (March 2nd) to try the treatment.

Second-day hair, you can see the thinning ends

and some overall greasiness

My new aloe vera plant

I never liked plants and I surely don't have a green thumb but I'm making an exception for this one since I get something very interesting out of it.

Getting the gel out of the leaf is hard, messy and time-consuming. The gel is very slimy and sticks to your fingers. Maybe I used the wrong technique but anyway, I really hoped the hair treatment would be worth this hassle.

It took 5-6 leaves to get a little less than 1/4 cup...

I used 1/4 cup of honey and 1/4 cup conditioner,

and a little less for the aloe vera gel

I forgot to heat the mixture in the microwave before applying it on my hair, but it seems heating serves to prevent the hair from going lighter and doesn't have an impact on the effectiveness of the treatment (but anyway I'll try the treatment again and write an update here.)

After applying the treatment in my hair, I wrapped it in a shower cap and waited two hours before washing it off (no shampoo or conditioner).

The above picture was taken the morning after the treatment the evening before. My hair smelled really good, but it's because I used 1/4 cup of conditioner. Apart from the amazing smell, I didn't feel my hair easier to detangle, softer or shinier, nor did I notice anything different. However, my hair became extremely greasy later in the day (which was to expect cuz of all that conditioner and my thin hair being easily prone to greasiness).

I also had some white stuff which I'm not sure comes from the aloe vera gel or the honey:

In sum, this hair treatment was not much worth it. It didn't mess my hair, but it didn't improve it either (from the outside, at least) and made it very greasy. I'll try it one more time with a little less conditioner, a little more aloe vera if I'm patient enough and won't forget to heat the mixture in the microwave before applying it on my hair.

Have a nice evening.

Edit March 9th 2019, 17.47: I did the hair treatment yesterday and kept it for about 3-4 hours in my hair (washed it off around 7 o'clock). Still had a lot of white stuff in my hair and can confirm it comes from the aloe vera gel that isn't perfectly liquid when applied in the hair (there are some more solid, gelatinous stuff—I know some people mix the aloe vera gel from what I've seen on YouTube though). 

Added less conditioner than aloe vera gel and honey. Didn't forget to heat the mixture 15 seconds this time. Didn't notice anything different in my hair. Had to take a shower the morning after because the roots of my hair were very greasy. Although a lot of people are praising this hair treatment, I will personally not do it again.

Edit May 31st 2019, 22.02: in foresight of the upcoming blog post, thought I should update this one. Actually, I did make this hair treatment again, about 2-3 times, because my aloe vera plant still had leaves that had to be used. The last time I did this hair treatment, which was like last week, was surprisingly not as bad as the previous times. I washed the treatment in the late evening, and I was able to go the work the day after without the need to take a shower – and not that greasy hair.