Things I've learned... from winter 2011

Good evening! Well, now that the crisp winter weather is mostly behind us in the Northeast, I have been thinking about what I have learned. This past winter was the first winter of my hair journey. I started in the summer and my hair took full advantage of the humidity and warm temperatures and was moisturized, smooth and happy all of the time, but when winter hit things got a little crazy. I experience chronic dryness, some breakage and a ton of shedding in October. So here are a list of things that I've learned since the end of summer up until the weather warmed up:

• Frequent deep conditioning (2 times a week), as well as continuing not to heat style will save me from a lot of damage
• Silicone is my friend in the winter, but only in moderation (really only on wash days) to help my strands retain moisture.  I just have to be careful to rinse my scalp thoroughly because it is easily irritated by silicone buildup.
• Winter is the only season where my scalp is ever actually dry, so frequent scalp massages with coconut oil keep it moisturized and flake free.
• Since I don't produce a lot of sebum in the winter, sulfate shampoos wreak havoc on my scalp and make it itchy and flaky, so no sulfates for Jen Jen in the winter :)
• My moisturizers absolutely have to be protein free during the week because my hair gets so dry that even small amounts of protein will turn it into a brick and cause unnecessary breakage (found that out the hard way when I tried to use the Giovanni leave-in in November... epic fail lol)
• I also moisturize twice a day, as well as seal twice a day during stretching to prevent my hair from drying out too much
• However, out of all of these notes, the gold star goes to aloe vera juice for keeping my pH checked, my cuticles closed, for soothing my scalp and for keeping my hair moist during the colder months. Spraying my hair my aloe vera juice/water mix in between wash days left me with softer, shinier hair with longer lasting moisture retention... That really can't be beat ;)

Thanks for reading :),