Protein Sensitivity

Protein sensitivity can be a very irritating thing to deal with. When your hair has an over dose of protein, your hair becomes dry, brittle, and can even break off. Hair that has OD'd on protein usually feels like straw. But why does this happen? This happens when someone naturally has an overabundance of protein already, and more protein is added, resulting in the side effects mentioned above. People with coarse hair, and/or low porosity usually have problems with protein sensitivity. I have medium/coarse hair AND I am low porosity, and I avoid protein at all costs!

But there are certain times when a protein sensitive person still needs a little protein.If you have over-moisturized your hair (your hair will feel mushy and will not curl as well), you may need to do a protein treatment to get back on balance. Also, all hair naturally needs protein, even if that means just 3 times per year. But you have to experiment and find the right balance. I am still in the process of trying to figure out what the correct balance is for me. But so far, I have not had to use any protein at all! But anywho, It's not that difficult to find good conditioners that do not contain protein, but finding GOOD gels that have no protein is tough!

There are a lot of things to avoid if one has a severe protein sensitivity such as certain plant extracts like aloe vera gel, nettle, horsetail, and brewers yeast, because these extracts can sometimes act like proteins. Amino acids may also need to be avoided because they can also act like proteins in severe protein sensitivities. Common Amino Acids are: Alanine, Leucine, Lysine…ect. As you can see they all end in ine, so if you have a severe protein sensitivity and you run upon ingredients that end with "ine" , the best thing to do is google that specific ingredient. Most of the time you can find out the properties of each ingredient. I personally avoid Proteins, Amino Acids, and Aloe Vera gel (Aloe Vera Juice is fine). I have never had any problems with Nettle or Horsetail, but other fellow naturals have had problems, so I'd say just experiment with different things and see what works best.

Here is a list of Proteins that I found on naturallycurly.com:

Cocodimonium hydroxypropyl hydrolyzed casein
Cocodimonium hydroxypropyl hydrolyzed collagen
Cocodimonium hydroxypropyl hydrolyzed hair keratin
Cocodimonium hydroxypropyl hydrolyzed keratin
Cocodimonium hydroxypropyl hydrolyzed rice protein
Cocodimonium hydroxypropyl hydrolyzed silk
Cocodimonium hydroxypropyl hydrolyzed soy protein
Cocodimonium hydroxypropyl hydrolyzed wheat protein
Cocodimonium hydroxypropyl silk amino acids
Cocoyl hydrolyzed collagen
Cocoyl hydrolyzed keratin
Hydrolyzed keratin
Hydrolyzed oat flour
Hydrolyzed silk
Hydrolyzed silk protein
Hydrolyzed soy protein
Hydrolyzed wheat protein
Hydrolyzed wheat protein
Keratin
Potassium cocoyl hydrolyzed collagen
TEA-cocoyl hydrolyzed collagen
TEA-cocoyl hydrolyzed soy protein
Jojoba protein
Blue-green algea
Quinoa seed extract