Ren

At 250 ppm plus iron I would spend the money on a shower filter before either product. Treating the hair afterwards means fighting the tap every single wash. A filter will not fix it completely and the cartridges are annoying, but the difference in how the water felt was obvious to me within two showers.

Timebox differently. 45 minutes split across three activities is 15 minutes each, which is barely enough to warm up. I moved to two 30 minute blocks, one input and one output, five days a week, and got more out of less total time.

If you have to shoot under them regularly, ask the venue for the CRI or TM-30 figures for the fixtures. Below about 90 CRI you will fight it every time, and knowing in advance means you can tell the client rather than discovering it in the edit.

Also plain silicone buildup. If your conditioner contains dimethicone and you switched to a gentler or sulfate free shampoo at any point, the shampoo stopped removing it and it accumulates until one day it tips over. Six weeks is about right for that timescale.

Protein overload. Fine hair is already protein heavy and a reconstructor is a rescue treatment, not a twice weekly habit — the bottle instructions are optimistic because they would like you to finish the bottle. Stop entirely for three weeks. Deep condition with something that has no hydrolysed anything in the first six ingredients, use gentle heat and 20 minutes, and the snapping should ease within two washes. After that, protein once every three to four weeks at most.

The hair itself does not repair, but the stiffness goes as the protein washes out and moisture comes back. The genuinely brittle ends may need trimming — mine did, about a centimetre.

Shoes matter more than the desk. Four hours in flat trainers with worn soles on a hard floor is a completely different experience from doing it in something with real support. I keep a pair under the desk and only wear them for standing blocks.

Check that your gel actually has hold. A lot of curl creams sold as defining have almost no film former in them and will not hold a clump through a full dry. If it never goes crunchy, it is not holding anything.

The two finger seat depth check is new to me and my seat is clearly far too deep.