Wash Day: 31.03.12

“I haven’t shampoo’d or cowashed my hair since last Saturday.   My HAIR well and truly needed a wash and a thorough detangling ~ but I was dreading having a shedding nightmare on my hands!”

My hair this week has been in a bun using some synthetic bulk braid hair (the cheapo stuff for 99p) to make the bun. I have taken the bun down every night and either moisturised my hair loads and sealed in sections or just carried a quick moisturise with my moisturising spritz containing aloe vera juice, water and Elasta QP Mango Butter and Olive Oil and seal combo concentrating on the perimeter, length, ends and the parts of my hair which are exposed to the elements when in the bun.  At night I have removed the hair tie, plaited or twisted the ends and tucked them under, whilst keeping my hair formed in the style of a bun for ease of styling the following morning. I then repeat the moisturising and sealing process in the morning.

My HAIR TIE:  I have found that using this type of hair tie (which is actually a headband) worls best for me as it puts much less stress on my strands and takes out little to no strands when it is removed every evening.  I loop it around on itself three times and then look the hair tie around my hair twice.  It works well and has no rough bits of glue exposed to snag my hair.

As my hair hasn’t been combed since Saturday, I decided against detangling with my comb and instead chose to finger detangle as this has been helping with some shed hair tangles I have encountered this week. It took ages but gave me more control with the tangles and removing the shed hair without causing breakage.

My hair on the left not detangled - My hair on the right has been finger detangled, sectioned and clipped up ready for the pre-poo.

On the left, hair shed from the left side of head and on the right is the hair shed from the right side.

Shed hair from left side is at the top, hair shed from right side is on the bottom.  Second picture shows total hair shed during detangling prior to washing.

A large tangle, I don't think detangled after taking down my PS so I have had a few tangles like this that I have removed carefully by hand.  The picture in the middle shows the amount of hair shed from the section once fully detangled.  More would have come out if I'd used a comb, even if it was my trust HS Jumbo Rake!  Fingers were definitely the best tool for the job.

1. I prepoo’d on dry hair with grapeseed oil overnight as I didn't fancy washing my hair as it was late by the time I had finished thoroughly detangling with only my fingers.  It was well worth it as I think I lost less hair this way and breakage would have been minimal.

The grapeseed oil has penetrated my hair nicely.  It feels damp.  I love it when I have time to prepoo overnight, it always gives me better results.

2. I then jumped in the shower and washed with ORS Creamy Aloe shampoo in order to chelate my hair then rinsed.

3. Next I applied Keracare Cleansing Cream.  My product ban is well and truly failed.  I don't care because at the moment I am prepared to try anything to get my hair back to health so it's not the right time to be depriving myself of purchasing products.

4.  I then did a black tea rinse.  I don't usually like the way these make my hair feel as my hair goes hard as soon as the tea is applied.  I usually do a tea rinse as the final rinse and do not wash it out.  This time I made up the rinse using 4 PG Tips tea bags.  I then decanted the tea into my bottle with an applicator nozzle this made it easier to apply the tea directly to my scalp.   I gave my scalp a quick massage, I only did a quick one as I don't want to manipulate my scalp too much at the moment.  Then I covered with a plastic cap and left of 25-30mins.  This step is so messy!!!!  Not enjoyable at all.  Lets see if it works. Right now I'll try anything short of rubbing raw garlic on my scalp!!!!

5. I didn't rinse the black tea from my hair, at this stage I applied my conditioner mix of AO HSR cnditioner, Keracare Humecto, Aloe vera Juice, Lustrasilk Shea Butter Cholesterol, Roux Porosity Control mixed with a little Silk Amino Acid powder and left this on for 1hr under heat and then a further 45 mins without heat with a towel wrapped around my head before rinsing.

5. Applied leave ins Elasta QP H2 and Bee Mine Deja’s Hair Milk and then air dried to 60% dry using the scarf method.

6. Lastly I applied more BM Hair Milk and then a little AtOne With Nature Leave In conditioner, sealed with Grapeseed oil followed by a little Organix Coconut Milk Anti Breakage Serum on my very ends, hairline and nape then put my hair into a loose bun and reapplied the scarf.

I am currently sat with the scarf on my head whilst I type this post. This wash day I tried to steer clear of protein in an attempt to keep the softness in my strands.  I will be spritzing with my moisturising spritz which contains water, conditioner and glycerin in an 70:20:10 ratio in order to keep the moisture up in my strands. 

At The Moment:

Breakage ~ is low

Shedding ~ is medium, it could be better!

I plan to put my crochet braids back in tomorrow using the afro kinky braid hair.  I will probably only keep it in for 2 weeks though as it's just a trial run really to see what it will look like.

These are my new 'Wash Day Clips' they are super easy to remove and replace in my hair, even with new growth.  They are also smooth with no jagged pieces to snag on my hair.  To top it off, they were a complete bargain at £1.50 for two, so I got four!!!  I use 2 in the back and 2 in the front.

Ciao 4 Now

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