Protein Overload?

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Lately I've been noticing that my deep conditioner (Giovanni Smooth As Silk Deeper Moisture Conditioner) hasn't been making my new growth as soft as it once did. I didn't understand what would make my hair react so differently to the same product, so I decided to do some research. After scouring the internet for a few minutes, I found a potential cause: protein overload.

All hair is made of protein. Since the hair no longer receives nutrients from our bodies once it leaves the hair follicle (essentially becoming the hair that we see above the skin), our hair can lose some of its protein over time, especially more so with heat styling and chemical treatments. For this reason, many hair care products contain proteins to replenish the hair with the nutrients that it has lost. These proteins take form in the following ingredients: silk protein, soy protein, silk amino acids, hydrolyzed collagen protein, wheat protein, wheat amino acids, and other similar ingredients. Like so many other things in life, too much of a good thing can do more harm than good. Hair that has too much protein becomes hard, brittle, and difficult to moisturize. 

Reading these symptoms of protein overload certainly caught my attention. My hair seems to be doing the exact same thing. It's difficult to retain and restore moisture, and it is hard instead of soft after applying a DC treatment. I knew that Giovanni Smooth As Silk contains some protein, but I just didn't anticipate that it would effect my hair like this after some time. Hoping that this isn't an irreparable problem, I then began to look for a solution.

My research offered something simple: remove products that contain protein from your weekly or daily regimen. As it turns out, for hair that isn't chemically processed or heat treated, a light protein treatment will be enough to restore essential nutrients to the hair if done once a month. That definitely answered my question of why my hair so suddenly began to act differently. For the majority of my transition, I dried my hair using a bonnet dryer on medium heat. Although this is nowhere near the amount of heat that I used to place on my hair, I guess it was enough to take away some of the protein, making the proteins contained in my Giovanni conditioner to be effective but not overburdensome.  Over the past two months, however, I have been purely air drying my hair, which is around the same time that I began to notice a difference.

In light of all this information, I decided to make a change to my regimen. My beloved Giovanni conditioner will have to be shelved until it is time for a clarifying shampoo. Since I clarify my hair about once a month, this will be a good time to put that conditioner to use. I was already intending to try out the Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque, so I will be using this as my deep conditioner. I currently also use a Pro-Vitamin treatment and a leave-in conditioner also from Giovanni, both of which contain protein. I'd hate to have to throw away these products, so I'm going to stop using the Pro-vitamin leave-in treatment and continue to use the leave-in to see if just using one product with protein in it will still make my hair feel hard. If after a few weeks my hair still feels stiff, I'm going to remove proteins altogether from my regimen. Updates most definitely to come soon!