hunting for leave in conditioners for curls (waves) that don't stank

[cimorene]

As you all are potentially aware, I have an allergy to at least one (unknown id) perfume and am hyper sensitive to other (many, but not all) perfumes and some natural fragrances. Besides one lavender tea incident, the throat swelling has only ever been in response to perfumed products on the lower half of my face for longer than the time it takes to wash it back off (so it's not TOO scary, since I always have time to escape). Hypersensitivity isn't the same as allergy, but when you add the knowledge that some unknown perfume aggressors out there will make my airway swell mostly closed, the hypersensitivity becomes very alarming and hard to deal with. Am I sneezing and feeling like I'm gonna choke because Smell, or am I risking anaphylaxis?

So as you can imagine, I usually buy unscented cosmetics, hygiene products, etc. And that's not always enough! As I was saying to twistedchick recently, sometimes I have to discard unscented products due to the smells of ingredients. Common offenders include burning (how?), ozone (this isn't unbearable but it's very annoying), a vaguely "gone off" smell in some moisturizers (rancid oils? Or some kind of fungal ingredient??), and urine (WHY! I know it's because they use urea in the manufacture but that's an issue I would think they would consider urgent to fix???)

But sometimes I feel compelled to try scented products because there doesn't seem to be a good unscented alternative. If you have any special requirements for shampoo and conditioner - in my case, I have low-porosity hair and lots of common ingredients don't work for me - there tend to be no unscented options, because unscented products are already considered a special requirement. I have decided that I need a new leave in conditioner that's more effective for holding curls and waves without frizz, and maybe a curl cream. (I don't like gel but it's always there if I can't find a good cream solution.)

Well, I tried a John Frieda Frizz Ease "curl revitalizing oil spray" today with great hopes.

My first impression was "this smells like my mother in law". waxjism agrees. It's a perfume, and the product does contain a little patchouli but it's not exactly patchouli that smells like her (but it is musky). The ingredients include "perfume", as usual, which should be illegal anywhere btw, so that's not much help.

Anyway, it's strong enough that I don't like it and will have to give it away, but it's not strong enough that I need to wash it out a day early, as long as my hair is kept back out of my face.

I've been reading the occasional perfume review reblogged by cleolinda and have got the idea it could be oud or some rose-related thing. Or maybe it's the combination of patchouli with one of these other things? I'm medium confident that it's not moringa...



Water/Aqua/Eau, Propylene Glycol, Magnesium Sulfate, Polyglycerin-3, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Polyquaternium-68, VP/VA Copolymer, Sea Salt/Maris Sal/Sel marin, Ethylhexylglycerin, Cetrimonium Chloride, Moringa Oleifera Seed Oil, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance/Parfum, Citrus Aurantium Amara (Bitter Orange) Peel Oil, Hexyl Cinnamal, Limonene, Linalyl Acetate, Pogostemon Cablin Oil, Rose Ketones, Tetramethyl Acetyloctahydronaphthalenes

Comments

[ironymaiden]

I am not sure what you have access to (since I'm in the US) but my current "holy grail" manufacturer for curl care is Briogeo. Smells are present but mild and disappate quickly.
(I also like Twist by Ouidad which is very lightly scented but I think it smells like paste.)

[cimorene]

I've seen that brand occasionally. I'll look into it, thanks!

[eyebrowofdoom]

this doesn't address your current curly hair styling product need I don't think, but might be helpful: this brand was all over youtube a while ago, they create custom hair product formulas to your order and list all the ingredients - https://functionofbeauty.com/pages/shop-all. You can pick your fragrance so I assume you can also pick none. A friend's kid has ordered from them to here in Australia and seemed happy.

The airway closing thing sounds scary and like the beginnings of anaphylaxis, I definitely would not be messing with that!

On the perfume front, I have a strong sneeze reaction to something in some perfumes, which seems to correlate with patchouli or wood notes. I was trying to narrow it down so I could stop buying things and having to get rid of them, but unfortunately as I read up on it, I realised that a listed note is not always produced by the same chemical/s. Even when a natural ingredient is used, there may be additional synthetic ingredients alongside it to enhance the natural smell or act as a fixative - eg natural rose smells more freshly rose-like when the synthetic 'hedione' is used. What I'm getting at is sadly you may not be able to narrow the allergen down just based on identifying smell to the nose.

There's a list of synthetic perfume ingredients here if you scroll down to 'Synthetic molecules today' - https://www.sylvaine-delacourte.com/en/guide/synthetic-raw-materials

DIY perfumery is a thing, so common perfume-grade ingredients including synthetics can be bought online - I am imagining if you wanted to go down a rabbit hole, you could order some key candidates and test. TBH I have considered doing this myself but thought it was too much bother - but my issue is not that big a deal compared to yours. Another difficulty is that fragrance blends (listed as 'parfum' etc on a product) are often proprietary as they don't want it copied by competitors, so they're not gonna advertise the whole list of component chemicals. I can imagine a customer service enquiry about whether one named chemical is present might be answered, though? I mean this would also be a lot of bother for you but otoh don't fuck with anaphylaxis.

Anyway, sorry if you already knew some of this, I'm braindumping a bit.

PS have enjoyed your recent posting on homoerotic kings and also lesser known golden age detectives a lot.

[cimorene]

Oh thank you! It's lovely to hear from you again, I haven't seen you around much (except Tumblr)!

I did not know about that brand and it does sound like they might help me if I get stuck for a product I can stand the smell of, thanks! I am not yet at a lack so severe that I need them, I think - I could also probably avoid this problem of throwing things away if I would take the trouble to go shop at a department store that had multiple products for curly styling that I could smell before buying (instead of just ordering online which is obviously a BIT risky with my issue).

The issue with allergy testing though - I think I could probably get it if I asked the doctor to pursue it, but as I've discussed a few times with other perfume allergy sufferers - including some people with much more severe reactions than mine - the fact that you can't avoid perfume easily in public places combined with the fact that in no place are companies legally required to disclose what perfume ingredients they use mean that knowing what your allergen trigger is still doesn't enable you to avoid products by their packaging, and nothing except avoiding public places or wearing a mask can protect you from perfume in public places. Fortunately for me, my perfume allergy isn't bad enough to put my health at severe risk from meeting a person wearing it in public.

Besides lavender, which is BADWRONG, and patchouli, which I find overwhelming and stinky but doesn't make me cough, there's shea butter which makes me sneeze unfortunately. PROBABLY I am not actually allergic to shea butter, because my wife uses a shea foot moisturizer and my MIL used it a lot, and I've never had a reaction worse than sneezing. But I can't put it on my body or hair, and unfortunately for me it is a SUPER common ingredient in both hair products and moisturizers. Someone above recommended the brand Briogeo which I've heard lots of good things about, but all their curl products turn out to contain shea quite high in the ingredients list so that's a nope.

[eyebrowofdoom]

hi hi yeah I have lost the knack, or vibe, or whatever, of longform journalling, but I still lurk. Was most active on twitter previously but that got too gross due to Elno the wonder-nazi. Have only managed to transition to bluesky under real name. So it's just tumblr and lurking for fandom self. I see you often on here but I forget that if I don't post then it's a one-sided catch-up with people lol.

Hope you find your product. Can relate to 'what do you mean I have to get dressed, go to a place and be seen if I want to buy a thing'.

(have just remembered I see you on ravelry, too. you are a fantastic knitter!)