Wash Day...Lessons

pre-poo, hot oil treatment

I usually wash my hair at the beginning of the week, but I posted my wash day a few days late last week. Initially, I thought yesterday's wash day was pretty uneventful. That is, until today, when I felt like I should have just started again and co-washed to be in better condition. Here's how yesterday went down:

{1} Pre-poo: I lightly sprayed my hair with water and added Aubrey Organics GPB conditioner to the length of my hair. Then did a hot oil treatment with a mix grapeseed, olive and coconut oils and a few drops of both peppermint and tea tree essential oils. Covered with a plastic cap and scarf for a few hours.

{2} Shampooed with Shea Moisture African Black Soap Deep Cleansing Shampoo and CON Argan Oil Moisture & Shine Shampoo (in sections of course)

{3} Since I did such a long pre-poo treatment, I opted to do a short conditioning session at the same time experimenting with protein layering I've read about a few times lately. So, I put a strengthening conditioner on my ends for a little while, then applied Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose to all of my hair. I left this on for about 15 minutes.

{4} After rinsing with cool water, I sprayed with my apple cider vinegar rinse. I let this sit for few minutes then rinsed with the coldest water I could stand. 

{5} I wrapped my hair with a towel to soak up the excess water then t-shirt dried for about 30 minutes. 

{6} I applied my usual leave ins, Elasta QP H2 and Aphogee Green Tea & Keratin Restructurizer, while detangling section by section. I definitely lost more hair this week than I did last wash day. I'm not sure if that protein layering experiment went awry or what. Then again, I did lose an unusually small amount of hair last week so I probably shouldn't put too much stock in that.

towel dried hair

I put a scarf on my edges and decided to let my hair air dry. By the time I went to bed, my hair still wasn't dry, but I didn't want to put it in a bun because with the thickness of my hair, I knew it still would be damp in the morning. Here's where I messed up. My hair was dry by morning, but it was also a little bit tangled because my scarf didn't stay in place. I decided to deal with that later and just put it in a bun for the day. However, once I got home and started into it, I was upset! 

My 10-week-post roots had shrunk up and coiled on themselves! UGH! I was not even thinking about the possibility of this happening. At this point, my roots have to be stretched when air drying or this will be the result. Not fun detangling all over again. And I lost more hair. Probably because I was frustrated. Bummer. Lesson learned. I moisturized, sealed and braided my hair up in preparation for a quick weave I am planning on installing soon. 

How was your wash day this week? I hope better than mine!

2 comments 10 weeks post, hair journey, wash day

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