Argan Oil

[Styyna]

cara4art - Funny how we can define the same thing the same way and yet differently, no?

When I was a child, I had sparse, thin hair. It was impossibly tangled as it had the very slightest hint of wave in it but not enough to do anything with other than the pin curls my mother put in at night.

As I got older, the strands of hair have remained thin with a slight wave but the number of follicles greatly increased. So, while I still have thin strands of hair, you're right, I have a thick mane of it when taken altogether. And getting product through it without weighing down individual strands is tricky.

With the argan oil I found that I can't expect instant results. Applied as others have suggested, particularly to the ends for frizzies if that's a concern, it doesn't at first seem to be quite the miracle of shine I experienced and even the frizzies aren't completely tamed. It seems to take some time and body heat help the oil to"spread" along and amongst the hair (maybe a diffused blow dryer on a low setting would accelerate this - I should try). I've tried combing it through but it still seemed like the oil itself has to slowly penetrate the hair, just like a drop spreads on a piece of tissue if left alone. I like my hair 15-30 minutes after I put on the argan oil better than immediately after.

If you could get a sample, even a teaspoon is plenty to last for a long time. Then you could try it first and see what you think. Are there Josie Maran's counters any longer? IIRC you're in the S.F. area and if such a counter exists I'd ask for a sample of the 100% stuff there. It is/was an important component of that line's products so I think they must have the pure version.

Sorry for all the words. I hope this helps and that you have at least a bit of success.

[cara4art]

@Styyna! I was actually born with a full head of hair, and kept getting more - hence the three-heads-full aspect of it LOL!
     Actually here at Sephora in SF they have Josie Maran's line of argan oil products, so I might be able to score a sample of the oil - it's worth a try!
     My hair actually does like some oils. What I do is spritz my hair with water, and work a bit of jojoba oil that has some lavender and rosemary essential oil in it(I got this idea off an expensive salon I used to go to in Santa Fe where the owner formulated her own line of oils for the hair). I also sometimes use my shea butter-coconut oil combo on my hair in the same way - it revives curls, acts as a pre-wash treatment and gives me a day or two before I have to wash. Straight unrefined coconut oil works too. Years ago, before I got into these combos, I used my Sicilian grandmother's idea of leaving olive oil and rosemary on my hair overnight in a cap and then shampooing out in the morning - it did help.
     My hair isn't really fine - it's just not coarse, more medium to fine and varying strands too. Some are coarser than others, some are curlier than others so I've got that mix going on. A lot of times, people who really do have predominantly very fine hair need more protein than moisture, and those with somewhat more robust hair textures all the way up to true coarse need more moisture than protein. I need more moisture myself. In fact, my hair cutter recommended for me to only use a deep protein reconstructor product maybe once a month, and the deep moisture treatments once a week or so. So it ends up with me doing the reconstructor just before coloring which works out fine.
     Anyhow, as with skin, what counts is what works on one's hair! We curly-heads often have temperamental hair and it takes some trial and error to get the right combo. Fortunately my right combo right now is actually pretty cheap, a plus.