Hair becomes snarled up when combed in one direction!?!

Hi folks,
For a long time now I've had a very odd problem with my hair. It is
short (about an inch on top) and rather wavey on the right hand side but
pretty straight on the left. My hair is quick thick in terms of coverage
(rather than individual strands being thick).
I have to wash it every day as the waveyness renders it impossible to
comb it into a reasonable shape in the mornings.
I part my hair on the left and like to comb it back. When I do this,
however, the upper layers of hair on the right hand side of the top my head
becomes frizzy, "snarled" and "straggley". I can see that the the layers
underneath remain quite shiney and smooth but the top layers render the
whole of the right–hand side feel rough and look dried out. (I don't
actually have naturally dry hair – indeed it goes greasy within 24 hours.)
The rest of my hair remains absolutely fine. In fact if I comb and dry my
hair any other direction, even the right–hand side looks fine! I've been
using a Conair Ionic dryer which helps a bit.
I can't use an ordinary men's comb at all as it just worsens the
frizziness/snarling.
A couple of years ago I started using a shampoo called Elvive For Men
(which came in a silver/grey–coloured bottle but was NOT the "Regenium"
version) and from the very first time I used it, it worked absolute wonders
for my problem. In fact my hair positively shone and felt silky smooth all
over! It was almost as though the shampoo had physically changed the texture
of my hair. Unfortunately Elvive withdrew it from the market a while back
(at least, here in the UK) and their replacement (an anti–dandruff version
in a blue–coloured bottle) presumably uses a different formula as it doesn't
work for me. I've also tried the Regenium version (even though I don't have
thinning hair) but to no avail. It occurs to me that there must have been
some moisturising or smoothing element in the original formula that was
absolutely compatible with my hair.
I'm currently trying out different shampoos (including Pantene Pro V
which apparently contains some sort of silicone–based element) and
conditioners but to no avail. None of them can recreate the sheer silky feel
and shine that the Elvive stuff did.
If anyone else has this peculiar problem and/or can suggest things to
try, I would be very grateful indeed!

Do you still have an old bottle of your miracle shampoo? Look at the
ingredient list and confirm whether it contained silicones as a main
ingredient. If it did, a hair serum directly applied after a shower may
help. An example of an inexpensive hair serum (in the US, anyway) is:

r_serum.htm

"ami kio" <...@cant–take–anymore–spam.com> wrote in message
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http://www.drugstore.com/qxp43362_333181_sespider/john_frieda_frizz_ease/hai
Unfortunately I don't have any old bottles and I don't know whether it
contained silicone or not. I've noticed some bad press about silicone, so I
wonder if the Elvive stuff *did* have it and that's why they withdrew it
from the market.

If you don't want to use a silicone serum, you could try using a drop
of jojoba oil or any unscented oil after you shampoo – that could help
to tame the frizz. (Use just one drop or two, rub your palms together
and then run your hands lightly across the frizzy part.)
Or more oil before you shampoo.

Another thing to try would be a mousse (since it sounds like your hair
is quite fine).