During the time I was wearing my quickweave, I was diligent about moisturizing & sealing, and applying my growth aid. The whole time I've been on this journey to long, healthy hair, I've never had my hair cornrowed for more than a couple days. So, I was a little nervous about the state my hair was going to be in when I took them out. One thing's for sure, I had the best braidout ever once I did. It had so much volume and definition! I was upset I did it right before washing and didn't have a chance to wear it out anywhere. Here's how my wash day went:
{1} When taking the braids down, I loaded my hair (and hands) with grapeseed and coconut oils to ease both the friction between strands and removal of shed hair. My hair felt surprisingly soft and moisturized! I was glad my diligence paid off.
{2} I separated my hair into 4 sections, applied a protein conditioner to my ends, L'Oreal Damage Erasing Balm, and put on a plastic cap for about 20 minutes.
{3} In the shower, I rinsed then shampooed with both Shea Moisture Deep Cleansing and CON Argan Oil Moisturizing shampoos. It's not unusual for me to use both in one wash, but I did want to make sure I got a good deep cleaning this wash.
{4} After letting the excess water soak up in a towel, I applied my deep conditioners,
Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose and Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Restorative Conditioner (1st use), and put on a plastic cap. I ended up leaving it on overnight. Simply because I got tired and did not feel like getting back up to rinse my hair.
{5} The next day, I rinsed with cool water and did an ACV rinse. Let it sit for a few minutes before doing a final rinse with cold water.
{6} I t-shirt dried for about 20 minutes before applying my leave-ins: Elasta QP H2 and Aphogee Green Tea & Keratin Restructurizer.
{7} I let my hair air dry clipped in sections in an attempt to stretch my roots. I left it that way until it was about 80% dry.
{8} Everything went smoothly until I got to this point - detangling. Ugh. My new growth was still so coiled together it was hard to separate into smaller sections. I lost enough hair to fit inside the palm of my hand, but when examining it, I found that the majority of it was shed hair (bulbs still attached). Not necessarily bad for over two weeks, but still more than I'm used to experiencing. And it took so long to get thru all my hair.
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| air-dried and detangled |
My guess with the shedding is that it's just that time for me. A lot of women experience increased shedding when the weather changes in the fall/winter. The same thing happened to me last year around this time, which caused me to start trying tea rinses. Until this summer, I was a regular tea rinse girl. I'm not sure where or how I let those fall away, but this is a sign I need to get back on that. I'm also considering trying a coffee rinse to see if that makes any more of a difference than the black/green teas I normally use.
This wash day made me long for a relaxer. It also made me wonder how I will ever go natural. Lol! I'm sure, like with anything, learning to deal well with my different textures just takes practice. Stretching is definitely a testament to that truth. I never would have thought I'd get to the point of being well past 3 months post relaxer either, but here I am :)
Has anyone else's shedding increased in the past month?
