Wash Day Diary: 28.10.11

"The twists came out on Friday 28th October.  Below is the rather long-winded but highly effective process that I followed."

Kinky Twist Take Down & Detangling 

I sectioned hair into 9 and applied grapeseed oil liberally to the braids. I then took down the kinky twists using more grapeseed oil on the twists and my fingers. I took down all the twists in one section before finger detangling my hair that had been released from the twists. Once I'd finished finger detangling, I removed more shed hair using a wide tooth HS mini rake comb and more grapeseed oil as required – my hair was just soaking this stuff up. Once each section was relieved of the shed hair I twisted that section into a two strand twist. I have A LOT of new growth ….yaaaaay!!!

Grapeseed oil is definitely the best way for me to take down my tangled hair. I used both oil and conditioner during my last take down. It was messy and I think that the conditioner made my fine strands too wet last time. I will be using oils from now on for this purpose as I lost less hair and it made the process quicker. Grapeseed oil has a wonderfully smoothing effect on my hair.

Hair shed from kinky twist take down 28.10.11 detangling

Pre-Poo

The liberal application of grapeseed oil and the fact that it was about 1am all worked in favour of an overnight prepoo session. I made up a conditioner mix of AO GBP conditioner, Bee Mine Beeutiful conditioner, 2 x tsp aloe vera juice, 1 x tsp amla powder, 1 x heaped tsp of fenugreek powder and of course some more grapeseed oil! I mixed this thoroughly and then applied it to my detangled sections of hair, paying extra attention to the ends and the line of demarcation . I then covered with cling film, put cotton wool in my ears and covered with a silk scarf and a woolly hat before hopping into bed!

The Wash

To minimise matting and tangling I washed my hair in the same sections used for the overnight deep protein rich deep conditioning. I started out thinking that I should wash my hair with a protein heavy shampoo so I started off in the front section using the Aphogee shampoo for damaged hair. That was a mistake. It made my hair feel hard and horrible and worst of all tangled! I stopped straight away and switched over to using AO Desert Jay ‘moisturising’ shampoo. Second big mistake. Moisturising my arse! That shampoo made my hair feel even drier than the Aphogee and it smells horrible. I don’t own many shampoos so I felt my options slipping away – I really didn’t think it was an appropriate time for a co-wash seeing as I hadn’t washed my hair in about 3 weeks – yuk I know that is gross. (Actually I think the lack of washing helped me to shed less and made detangling easier than last time.) I then remembered my stash of Keracare products which I keep in a different place to my other products and low and behold I found a full bottle of Keracare Shampoo for Colour Treated Hair. I applied this to my hair and BAM!!! It felt amazing!!! No more hard tangled feeling hair just softness – why didn’t I use this in the first place and how did I forget that I had this (probably cos I have too many products!)?

After washing with the shampoo I rinsed and applied a mixture of Nutrine Garlic conditioner and Aussie Moist conditioner to my each section as I went along. Once I got to the end I rinsed all the conditioner from my hair and placed a t-shirt on it to soak up the excess moisture.

Deep Conditioning Process

Even though I’d dc’d overnight, I wanted to deep condition again , this time with a moisturising concoction. I mixed together Giovanni Smooth As Silk conditioner with 1 x tsp of honey, 1 x tsp of grapeseed oil, 1 x tsp of Roux Porosity Control Conditioner. I mixed this well and then applied to my hair in sections. After applying to all sections, I began the laborious task of thoroughly detangling each section. I started off using my wide tooth comb but this felt ineffective to me, the process was taking too long. I decided to give my Denman brush a try. I was extremely cautious about using this as I feared it would rip out my hair. I started on the ends and worked my way halfway up then started on the roots to half way down then back to the ends again. This process worked fantastically well. My hair is usually really weak but I think the fact that I took down the twists with a ceramide rich oil, grapeseed oil, deep conditioned overnight with amla and fenugreek mixed in and had my hair in protective styles for over 3 months worked wonders on the overall strength of my hair. I don’t think I suffered much if any breakage and all shed hair came out wonderfully with the use of the denman brush.

Once each section was detangled, I piled my sections on top of my head and then went under the steamer for 30mins. After steaming I let my hair cool for 10mins before rinsing out the conditioner thoroughly, before ending with a final acv rinse.

Final Steps

I then applied my liquid leave ins of Aphogee Pro-Vitamin Leave in and Aphogee Keratin Green Tea Restructurizer. I then applied some HE HE Leave In cream, followed by some CHI Silk Infusion. I then re twisted each section. When 70% dry I applied Bee Mine Luscious and sealed with grapeseed oil.

My hair feels amazing and IS NOT SHEDDING! I am such a happy bunny right now.

(From left to right against a 1p) Shed hair during take down, Shed hair during deep conditioning & Shed hair during detangling

Ciao 4 Now