Wash Day Diary: 22.10.15

"It's been a minute since I pulled together a wash day post!"

Over recent months I have either written posts or taken photos for posts which I have not typed up  and those poor half-posts never saw the light in the blogsphere but this one has.  I can't remember when my last Wash Day Diary was posted but this one will give a little insight into how simplified my wash days have become and also a fair few photos of the texture of my hair and its current length.

This is a wash day post which pretty much serves as length/thickness/condition check for me to use as a reference point going forward, so it is pretty picture heavy.  

My wash days are now fuss free when compared to a few years ago.  My wash day steps were as follows:

Pre Poo

Put on my latex gloves which stop my hair from snagging and it also protects my current mani
Mist hair lightly with water & conditioner mix

Apply Shea Moisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil Strengthen Grow and Restore Treatment Masque & Affirm 5 in 1 Reconstructor (intense protein treatment)

Finger detangle

Leave conditioners on hair for 30 mins under heated cap

Shampoo

Rinse
Shampoo using Shea Moisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil Strengthen Grow and Restore Shampoo

Condition for 5 minutes using ultra moisturising KeraCare Humecto Creme Conditioner

Styling

T-Shirt Dry for 45mins

Apply KeraCare Natural Textures Leave In Conditioner (I also applied Shea Moisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil Strengthen/Grow and Restore Leave-In Conditioner to the crown)

Apply Oil Mix to seal

Apply Shea Moisture Coconut and Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie & Shea Moisture Organic Coconut & Hibiscus Curling Gel Souffle

Twist

Apply a generous helping of the Toni Unit & Go 'bout mi business!

These days I seriously don't have the time or inclination to stand around doing my hair for hours and HOURS so I wash, wig and keep it moving......

So, now it's time for some pictures which I took during the application of my leave-ins and subsequent 'styling'.

MY HAIR WITH ZERO PRODUCT
After T-Shirt drying following shampooing and deep conditioning my crazy shrinkage is in full effect and is at its finest with no product in my hair.

ADDING LEAVE IN PRODUCTS
One of my favorite leave-ins is KeraCare Natural Textures Leave In-Conditioner and seal in with oil.  I made an oil mix a while ago which includes EVOO, EVCO, Almond Oil, JBCO and some other oils but I can't remember which ones.   I also add a little of this oil to my scalp if required.

I then apply a little Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie and Curl Defining Custard before smoothing and twisting each section.

BACK
This is my favorite section in terms of texture and manageability.  It grows like weeds back here!!!  It tangles but is more resilient to breakage, combing and manipulation.

There is a lot of shrinkage but the hair just feels a lot nicer and is easier to deal with than other sections on my head such as the sides and front of my hair,

FRONT
This section has a coarse texture and is pretty tightly coiled.  As you can see the shrinkage here is crazy - 2 thirds worth of crazy!

There are some looser textures here in the front and when this combines with the super coily texture it leads to tangle city!  I get a lot of shedding and probably breakage but strangely it all seems to be the same length and density.

FRONT (Top)
The texture here is pretty loose, instead of sticking up it kinda flops over.

It likes to tangle and is quite fragile but in it's defense it plays very nicely indeed when in a twist out.

SIDE (left)
On this side of my hair it plays nicely, rarely gets tangled despite the different textures.  I think this is because the super coily and super shrinky parts are nearer the front and there is a clear demarcation between the coily and looser texture toward the back of the section.

The right side is pretty much the same as this, so much in fact that I didn't photograph it!

BACK (left)
This section of my hair was always pretty resistant to relaxer, I have no idea why.  It would never texlax properly and was always under processed but never broke off.  In fact, it thrived and has continued to do so now I am 100% natural.  The texture has a looser curl pattern, tangles a little but plays very nicely especially when in a twist out.

Again, the right side is pretty much a carbon copy of the left in his section.

NAPE
It is fair to say that my nape area in particular thrives from not being relaxed!

You can check out my Hair Story to see what my nape used to look like at the beginning of my HHJ.  I'm very happy with the progress here.

The texture is pretty much the same as the left and right back.

CROWN
This part of my hair has the loosest texture and is softer and most fragile so prone to tangles and more breakage and shedding than any other section which probably isn't helped by the few coarser and tighter curl patterned strands in the section.  

This was the first area of my hair that I chopped prior to my Big Chop because I got sick of the shedding and tangles in this section.  I am now (finally) giving this section a little extra TLC so I will get an extra shot of protein during every wash day.

ALL TWISTED
All the twists are done.   I have fine strands and I think medium density.  I still don't know what my hair texture is, there are so many textures and to be honest, I can't be bothered to fill my head with hair typing so I just use products and processes which suit both 4a and 4c textures.

I used to put my hair into 10 sections but over the past month I have been trying 7 sections instead so I can have one twist at the nape instead of two.  This helps when it comes to wearing my hair in a twist out.

 I twist it this way to wear underneath my textured units so I have the flexibility of a smaller twist at the front for my leave out.   I can also easily untwist half a twist at the sides if I want more leave out for the unit.  Twisting like this also gives me flexibility of wearing my own hair in a twist out (by far my preferred way of wearing my hair) if I want to and not using a comb to make partings means that it does not look scalp when I do wear my hair out.

I had to go to the shops directly after washing my hair so I put on my trusty Toni Unit from ToniDaley.com .  You can see my review of this unit by clicking this link.

It's Toni Time!  Excuse the grey hairs, I need to dye them this week so I can't perform my usual camouflage.  Obviously, my twists were still wet so leaving the front out was not an option.  The Toni Unit is very forgiving so I can easily get away with leaving the front twist intact and it is pretty much undetectable!

I have had this unit for 4 months and I wear it most of the time.  it is my go to unit.  It still looks great, in fact, I think it looks better with age.

So that is the end of what feels like an epic wash day post.  

I pretty much do this for every shampoo wash day and for my cowash days I do an adapted version of  the Naptural85 25 Minute Cowash.  I'm happy with my easy routine, I don't really have a regimen, I just do what my hair needs - when it need it.  

Happy days!