Welcome Gigi!  Your hair breakage is most likely due to the perm.  Once it has all been trimmed off, the breakage will certainly lessen considerably.  In the meantime be extra gentle and condition, condition, condition!

Nice to see you here, Gigi! What a lovely name, and it's one of my favorite musicals

/Kate

Lazy me, I've never read the book.

When I was a little girl I was desperately in love with Louis Jourdan (and Howard Keel, but that's another story). I was mightly heartbroken when I saw that thriller where he plays the psychopath husband opposite ummm... Doris Day I believe. He was incredibly creepy!

/Kate

Hi everyone,

Thank you for being so sweet to me.  I feel so warm and welcomed

Gigi is indeed my middle name.  My first name is kind of weird, so I tried not to use it online.  Wanna guess?  Ok, It is a drink; It is the favorite drink of a leading character in a very famous movie series.
I never understand why my parents named me after a DRINK ???  My older sister's name is Anna, a normal pretty girly name.  I wonder what was on their minds when I was born

I typed a very long and detailed post last night but when I clicked on "review", it said my post was too long and I needed to shorten it.  When I click on "back" button, my post vanished   I was too shock to type it all over until today.  So this round, I am going to split my post to two

I went on a mission last night to go through all the junkie in my shower tray.  So here is the list:

Shampoo:
ABBA Creme Moist Shampoo
ABBA Shampure
ABBA Curessence Damage Relief Shampoo
ABBA Molasses Purifier Shampoo
Bath & Body Works Bergamot Coriader Shampoo
EQ Lavender & Aloe Botanicals & Pure Essential Oil Sham
F.A.S.T. Shampoo
Kiehl's Herbal Shampoo
Philip B Scent of Sante Fe (Extracts of Pinon, Sage, Juniper Berry) Shampoo
Philip B Peppermint & Avocado Shampoo
Victoria Secret SO SEXY Volumizing Shampoo
Aphogee Shampoo for damage hair

Conditioner
Aussie Moist Conditioner
Aussie 3 minutes Miracle Reconstructioner
ABBA Moisture Sensational Conditioner
ABBA Creme MAsque
Philip B Deep Conditioning Creme Rinse
Dove Foam Conditioner
Bath & Body Works Eucalyptus Spearmint Hydrating Conditioner
Mane'n Tail Deep Conditioner
F.A.S.T. Conditioner
Victoria Secret SO SEXY Conditioner
Feria Color Moisturizing Treatment
Origins Happy Endings Conditioner
Excelsior Millennia Mud Conditioner
Burt's Bee Avocado Butter

Treatment/Leave-in
Aphogee  Treatment for Damage Hair
Philip B Rejuvenating Oil
Queen Helene Placenta  Hot Oil Treatment
Queen Helene Jojoba Hot Oil Treatment
ABBA Norishing Leave in Moisture
Kiehl's Leave-In Hydratin Conditioner with Panthenol and Coconut Oil
ION anti-frizz Leave-In Conditioner
Aveda Styling Curessence Hair Rejuvenator
Aveda Light Elements Finishing Solution
Prfectiv Mega Growth Anti-Breakage

To Be Continued...

A bit of my background first

Look back in my family, both my mother's and my father's side has thin fine hair.  My father has been half bald since he was in his thirties.  My mom has always had thin hair even when she was young, I remember I could easily see her scalp through her hair.  In conclusion, I am not born with the gene for full luscious hair

"Stress" is one of Hair's biggest enemies.  I got stressed easily since I was a kid.  School work, Exams and all that.  I lost 15lb over two weeks for my A-Level Exam.  I weighed 128lb before losing the weight.  Years went by, I worked in Investment Banking for the last 7 years.  Another stressful envoirnment.  I never quite gained back the weight, the most I could do was 120lb.  Now, I am 34, I weigh only 106lb and almost forgot to mention- I am a 5'9"  And I have been told that being underweight is another cause of unhealthy hair.

I have always wanted to have long hair.  However, all through the years, my hair would start to get dry and rizzy once it passes my shoulder.  I always managed to overlook how bad it was until at one point I couldn't take it  and have it cut.  Then I started growing it again.

Now, things I have done that I think is good to my hair:
I don't blow dry my hair, I always cover my hair when sunbathing, deep conditioning/treatment every week or two, never rub my hair with towel.  I don't brush my hair, I always finger comb it.  Accidentally been doing CO, I don't have oily scalp.  I can last 4 to 5 days without shampooing.  But my ends would started drying up in 2 to 3 days, so I tied a pony tail in shower, put conditioner on the pony tail, then put on shower cap and started doing all other stuff, when I am done, I rinsed my ponytail.  My hair would then be fine and smooth again to last till next shampoo.  So I have been doing sort of CO unconsciously

Things I have done that were bad to my hair (this will be long)
I had started a routine of getting a full perm once a year and a root perm every three months for 6 years since 8 years ago.  The procedure of root perm (which also called twist perm) is to take tiny tiny section of my hair around my crown, twist the root really tight, pin it and add perming lotion.  When it is done, the root around my crown area is all zigzaged (creating volume), the hair of the top of my head would cover and conceal these zigzaged roots underneath.  When I grew out my hair in three months, my hairdresser would relax this part of the hair which by then was down to my above ear and permed my new roots.  No need to say that, this process badly damaged my hair.

I also had been using level 3 color dye for my hair every 4 to 5 months for the past 10 years.

All in all, my hair has always been dry and frizzy towards the ends of my hair.  Hair start breaking towards the ends so much that even though the circumference of my pony tail is 3", the circumference comes down to 1" to 1.5" towards the last 5 inches of length.  Whenever I run through my hand in my hair, I will get handful of hair in my hand. It's worse after I wash my hair, always able to collect heap of fallen hair off the drainage.

Better stop here and talk about the Junkies I like and hate in the next post...

Stuff that I like from my junkie collection, basically what are left in my shower tray now (which are also on the list I posted earlier) are those that work for me.  The rest were either being given away or sitting in my cabinet waiting for their days.


Philip B Rejuvenating Oil
It is pricy.   $28 for 2oz but it is one of the very few things I bought that I was able to finish using it.  That tells how much I like it.  I am on my third bottle now.  However, after I found LongLocks, I learned why I like this oil.  All the ingredients in this bottle were mentioned here that they are good for hair.  No Wonder!  Maybe I can think about mixing my own rejuvenating oil at lower cost...
Anyway, here is the ingredient:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Sesame Oil,Sweet Almond Oil, Jojoba Oil, English Walnut, Lavenda Oil, Bourbon Geranium Oil, Ylang Ylang Oil, Gardenia Oil
I saturated my hair with the oil for 30 minutes to one hour, shampooed and then followed with my second favourite-

Philip B Deep Conditioning Creme Rinse
Deionized Water, Stearalknium Chloride, Propylene Glycol, Cetearyl Alcohol, Shea Butter, Glyceryl Stearate, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Olive Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Jojoba Oil, Wlanut Oil, Sesame Oil, Peanut Oil, Lavender Oil, Geranium Oil, Ylang Ylang, Gardenia Oil, Imidazolidinyl Urea, BHT, Fragrance, Methylpapaben.
The best time to do this treatment is at night.  My hair would feel a bit greasy at the end when drying, but the next morning, it will be all wonderful. Smooth, Soft, tangle free and no weight down....la la la....

I believe regularly usage of this treatment did save my hair from a total disaster with all the perming and coloring I did all those time.

ABBA Creme-Masque
Another funky smell product that works miracle.  It has a fishy smell   but boy, this creme is good!  Make my hair so soft and shiny.

Aphogee Treatment for Damage Hair
it smells SOOOO bad but it works.  Hair feels stronger after each treatment.

Burt's Bee Avocado Butter
I hate it first.  It is so thick that I had a hard time smoothing it onto my hair. Hair felt strange after using it, I had to rinse it again and again.  But then I found a way to use it, I mix it with some light conditioner.  It works much better and hair is stronger and shiny.

Kiehl's Leave-in Hydrating Conditioner with Panthenol and Coconut OilI like to use it when my hair is almost dry as the finishing touch during Winter time.  Or sometime when I feel my hair is getting dry, I dap a small nickel size onto my hand and smooth it evenly to the ends of my hair.  Hair will be happy again



One'n Only Frizz Remover
I moved to Southern California two years ago.  So I had to stop going to my previous hairdresser for 10 years anymore.  I found an Aveda Salon here and got a full perm from them.  The Hairdresser is good but I guessed he didn't have a lot of experiences in handling Asian hair.  The perm didn't last two weeks, so he gave me a perm again... this time the perm lasted but my hair became really dry and all tangled.  So I went to Sally's and came across this One n'Only Frizz Remover.  It did eliminate the frizz but it also took away my curls too (so I guess it probably is a form or relaxer!)  I was misled by the name "Frizz Remover"  It sounded like a conditioning process to me... but I was wrong.  My hair completely lost all the shine after using it.   It was totally dull and matt!

Clairol Radiance Colorgloss Translucent Deposit only Color
Read from MakeupAlley that people really like this product...Mega Glossy result, amonia free, how happy they are the fact that they can change color as frequent as they want without damaging their hair.  Therefore, I was sold.
The result on me was good too, my hair got the shine back.  As I was happy with it, I kept using it every three to four weeks, sometimes even two weeks for almost a year.  BUT now that I read more from longlocks, I learned better that amonia-free doesn't neccessarily mean there is totally no damage to my hair at all!  I now blame it for the non-improving hair breakage problem.  It didn't cause it but it prevents my hair from healing.

Profectiv Mega Growth Anti Breakage
This is simply too thick for me.  I only put it on the ends when hair is almost dried.  My hair feels softer after putting it on the ends but it looks gressy, even on the next morning.  So porbably this is going to be on my TO GO List.

AFTER LongLocks

I started CO and ACR every other wash.  My hair stops shedding like crazy anymore.  I also started taking vitamins, hopefully this can tackle my problem of being underweight, not enough nutrition provided for my hair.
Now that I stopped using Clairol to give me glossy hair, I think ACR helps in keeping my hair shiny.

I have also tried the Coconut Milk recipe.  I added honey and a few drops of jojoba oil.  Sat under Heating Cap for 30 minutes.  I like the result.  Hair felt wonderful.

That's about it.  If anyone is interested in what I think about other products in my list, please let me know.  I will use it in my next wash and give you a better report

Hi Anne-Marie,

I used to get Philip B at Neiman Marcus but then I found drug.com.  They have free shipping for order over $49 and I don't need to pay tax.   Drug.com offers a package for 4 items at $79 only.  It is a pretty good deal.

I sort of like the ABBA creme moist shampoo, I like it as in it didn't do anything bad to my hair.  I never used it alone, I always followed with conditioner.  So it is kind of hard to tell whether the satisfying hair condition is due to the shampoo or the conditioner I used afterwards.  But then, at least I can say that, hair is easy to be combed off before putting on conditioner.  With some other shampoo I used before, I sometimes had a hard time combing through my hair before putting on conditioner.