Unspeakably ugly

Well, in case you were wondering what one of my bad hair days looks like, I'm about to give you a front-row seat to that horrifying spectacle.

I went to work yesterday fully confident that I would have a good hair day. I conditioned with Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose, followed it up with some Shea Moisture Leave-in, and then scrunched in some Biotera. All these products generally work well for me. I was purposely trying to go easy on the protein, since my hair had been feeling a little straw-like of late.

And yet by lunchtime, it was painfully apparent that something had gone horribly wrong. This photo actually makes my hair look better than it was! My hair was brittle, flat, lifeless, and frizzy. Spraying it with Jessicurl Awe Inspiraling Spray seemed to only make it worse. By the time I got home, even Chris was visibly surprised when I walked in the door.

Why did this happen? I honestly don't know, but the weather had to have played some role. The temperature soared to 85 degrees, the dew point descended from 46 in the morning to 38 by the time I got home, and the humidity was a paltry 33 percent. The environment was hot and dry -- a very rare set of circumstances in San Francisco.

But my hair had been heading in this direction for several days. Increasingly limp and less curly. Normally, these are signs of overconditioning for me. But I wouldn't accept that this time. I wanted to believe (and still want to believe) that the weather is the culprit.

I posted some photos of this hideous development on naturallycurly.com and two people suggested it might actually be overconditioning and not the weather. So, this morning, I dutifully did an ACV (apple cider vinegar) rinse. I then conditioned with Robert Craig conditioner, applied Rockin' Ringlets, and scrunched in Max Green Alchemy Styling gel (the lightest gel I own).

It helped, but not to the extent I was hoping, as you can see here in today's photo. My hair's curls are more defined but overall, it's still pretty flat.

Which leaves me with that weather excuse again. But what the heck should I be doing to combat this dry weather? Today was 92 degrees, a dew point of 34, and humidity of 23 percent! What is this: the Sahara? I'm stumped about what to try next, but I'm a firm believer that less is more, so tomorrow, I'm only going to use conditioner. No stylers. We'll see what happens.

Stupid hair.