Hi – I just came across this website when I was looking for reviews for Babe de Caracol. My mother just bought this for me and I have not yet tried it. I am 39 years old and for the past 4 years or so my hair has been thinning ALOT. I noticed after the birth of my second daughter (3 1/2 years ago), my hair changed alot. I used to have curly thick hair and now it is so thin. I have areas in the back of my head where you can see my scalp. The thinness in my hair caused me to cut my hair into a pixie cut 2 years ago. Don’t get me wrong; the short hair style looks great, but I still have the thinning and it looks as if it is getting worse. I have had every blood test you can imagine, and the only thing that comes up is low-normal iron levels, so I am taking vitamins for that. My father passed away close to 2 months ago and the stress from that has wreaked havoc on my hair loss. I was definitely a daddy’s girl . Any advice from you on what I can try? Should I give this Baba de Caracol a try? Anything else I can use? I have heard of Espiritu de Canela, but I heard its strong and I have to use the right amount — any suggestions? I would appreciate any advice you can offer. Thanks in advance –Carmen

Hola Carmen,

First, I’m sorry for the loss of your father. My prayers go out to you and your entire family.

Yes, you’re right…stress certainly DOES wreak havoc on, not just your hair, but manifests itself in countless ways. Couple stress with possible hormonal changes, the possibilities are endless.

Typically, during pregnancy, a woman’s hair is incredible. It’s thicker, glossy, healthy and sheds very little. Inevitably, after the baby is born and Mom’s hormones begin to go back to normal levels, the shedding, that did not take place during the pregnancy, usually commences. What worries me about your situation is the fact that it’s thinner than it was prior to pregnancy. At least that’s what I gathered from what you wrote. If I’m wrong, please correct me.

I was going to ask if you’ve had your thyroid levels tested…but it seems that you’ve taken the initiative to do that already.

I think Baba de Caracol would leave your hair feeling super silky. Yes, I’m biased and think that unless you have stick-straight, oily hair, Baba de Caracol would a great addition to anyone’s hair supplies. I also think that Spiritu de Canela will help with hair loss, as will a host of other products that I can recommend.

The problem I have is making a recommendation for hair loss, without knowing for sure what the problem is.

Again, I think that Baba de Caracol is an excellent product. However, if your hair is not damaged, but instead you are experiencing falling hair for another reason, then the effectiveness of Baba may be limited.

So, let me ask some questions:

1. Do you relax your hair? If so, how frequently?
2. Do sleep well?
3. Is r hair thinning more since the passing of your father?
4. Are you using heat on your hair?

I know that you’ve had blood work done, but if your hair is not damaged, I recommend you see an endocrinologist. If you can rule out stress, and damage, you may have something going on physiologically.

If you can, let me know what’s going on.

Mil besos!

LaNegra

Now you all know that I have hair products stashed away for every occasion, so I don’t even know why I was feigning like it was a state of emergency, but I digress.

Anyway, I pulled out my rarely-used-jar of UNA Protein Treatment. I used to swear by this product, but because it’s increasingly more difficult for me to find it, I wanted to salvage what I had for such an emergency, as today. There was about 1/4 of a large jar of UNA left and about a 1/4 cup of Aphogee left, so I just poured the remaining Aphogee in the UNA jar and stirred. Then I added a cap full of silk amino acids that I recently purchased online at lotioncrafter.com into the mix and applied to my hair.

I left my protein “shake” on for about 10-15 minutes, rinsed thoroughly and then applied KeraCare Humecto to my hair. I left that on for about 20 minutes and braced myself for the worse. I expect to have to fight my tangles. However, that wasn’t the case. My hair was relatively easy to comb and that comes as a huge shock, because I haven’t done a relaxer in a very, long time.

When I looked at the ingredients in Aphogee, I realized that the first ingredient is hydrolyzed collagen and most of the protein conditioners that disagree with my hair are keratin based.

Suddenly, I recalled seeing hydrolyzed collagen somewhere, but it’s slipping my memory right now. I’m wondering if I can get this in liquid form, like the silk amino acid that I purchased from lotioncrafter…again, I digress.

The point of this is to say that I think that the silk amino acid really left my hair soft, supple and easy to comb. I’m not experiencing breakage, but combing is a little tough these days and I have to decide whether or not I am going to go natural, or relax again, but for the moment, I think that my hair is thanking me (and Ayanna) for this protein shake.

The silk amino acid is definitely a keeper!

ADDENDUM: As soon as I touched my dry hair, still wrapped around the rolos, I knew it was going to be a good experience.

My hair felt soft, smooth and silky. In fact, it felt like I had just done a desrizado, a relaxer. My “don’t know how long it’s been since a touchup” roots were even soft and easy to comb.

Now, the only thing to do is figure out exactly what worked for me – was it the mixture of UNA with Aphogee,  the added silk amino acids, or the combination. We will investigate.

I took a couple of pics, but my batteries died, so I’ll add them later.

I need to be kicked, because I have a lot of products that I haven’t touched in months. Some have not even been opened yet: Apretadora, Silicon Mix, Aciete de Moska. I feel like I hit won the lottery.

I forgot all about my beloved apretadora! Mi madre lo me compró Apretadora cuando visitó DR. My mother picked up one jar in DR and I used it a few times, trying to ration it, because I couldn’t get any when I was in school, so I used it sparingly.

She rarely goes to DR, so this stuff had to last me until…well, until I could get to NYC, or afford to buy some online (on a student’s budget – NOT!).

Entonces, I ended up finding a jar of apretadora from DR and another jar made in Jersey, which was just a medicating – yes, it’s the junky in me; what can I say?

Apretadora was my best friend during the summers. I used to put it on about half an hour before I washed my hair. When I was done, my hair felt so soft.

Faviola Carrect – I cannot remember the last time I used this one either, but I used this after I washed my hair and if memory serves me well, my hair thanked me for it.

I used to swear by Silicon Mix when my hair was in bad shape, but I think that I prefer Aphogee now. Una blanca in Sally’s told me about Aphogee. I thought to myself, “What does this white girl know about kinky hair?” Pero, when my friend, who is mixed and has a mini-salon set up in her house said that she used religiously, the week before relaxing, I decided to give it a shot. I’m glad I did.

I’m going to try Silicon Mix next time I intend to relax, as well as Alter Ego – I like to give a product at least 3 tries before deciding to stash it, or trash it.

There are a few more things that I pulled out, but I didn’t have time to take pics. There are also some products that I’d like to try, such as whale sperm. Yep, that’s what I wrote, “w-h-a-l-e  s-p-e-r-m.”

If you have tried  product, I’d love to hear your thoughts. In fact, if you have trash-it or stash-it experience, I’d love to hear about them, regardless to whether or not it’s a dominican product. I know I’m not the only addicted to buying hair care products!