Wednesday, May 11, 2016

#WashDayExperience: My Monthly Search & Destroy Session

This wash day post is from Friday May 6th's wash day.
Once a month, I search and destroy my splits, weathered ends, and single strand knots. I do this in order to preserve length: if I cut each "problem" end individually instead of just trimming my whole head (and possibly the healthy strands), then I preserve my overall length. I only trim my whole head once every few years. 2012, 2014, and my next trim session will be the next time I straighten my hair--I'm shooting for Christmas Eve 2019. That's in 593 days (I have a countdown).
I do not find trimming my whole head regularly if I do not wear my hair straight. I believe that trims to get all of your hair blunt is for aesthetics. A blunt hemline looks beautiful on straight hair. However, I wear my hair curly so I do not need a blunt hair cut. My whole s&d session takes hours but personally I feel like it's worth it.
    Not everyone s&d. Many people prefer to just trim their whole length once every few months. I believe whatever works for you is best. I prefer to trim my own hair so that I have control over how much length I cut off, and I buy professional scissors from Tweezerman. I send them in to get sharpened every few months. Sharp scissors are the ONLY scissors that should be used to cut your hair.
I believe that one of the top reasons why I preserve so much length is because I make sure to cut off my problem ends. If you do not remove your splits, they WILL travel up your hair shaft and cause breakage. I also remove the single strand knots (ssk), because it is easy for shed hair to get tangled around knots, which just causes more knots and more problems. I remove weathered, thin ends because they are prone to becoming split ends, which like I've stated, can cause breakage.
So back to the wash day!

My Wash Day Line-Up: 
#1: What I used to Detangle
#2: My coconut oil (It is infused with Indian powders)
#3 & #4: My Cowash and Conditioner (I poo 1x wk, cowash 1x wk)
#5: My Deep Conditioner






The process was started two days prior on Wednesday the 4th. I started it early because I had to search and destroy and I wanted to try out a product I purchased--Amla & Olive Heavy Cream.

 On Wednesday night, I applied coconut oil as a prepoo. The coconut oil I use is infused with Indian powders (Amla, Bhringraj, Brahmi, Neem, Shikakai). There will be a future post on why I incorporate Indian powders into my hair regime.  The next day, a Thursday, was my s & d session. To search and destroy, I gathered together several strands of my hair, clipped off splits, single strand knots, or weathered ends. Then I braided the hair strands together and moved on throughout my hair. In order to detangle my hair to help me with sectioning it so that I could find and cut the splits, I used Qhemet Biologics  Moringa Tree Conditioning Ghee. I coated each strand with the conditioning ghee in order to detangle.
  






This pictures are not all of the strands I cut. This is just to give you an idea of what I was cutting off.
That night, I used the Amla & Olive Heavy Cream as an overnight deep treatment. I applied it to my head and let it sit overnight.

I will do a review in the future of this. It can be used multiple ways but I wanted to try it as an overnight treatment. It is a very thick conditioner with castor oil as its first ingredient.

On Friday I took out the braids I'd put in my hair during the s& d session. Then I sectioned my hair in four. I wrapped my hair around itself and put on my sectioning clips.

 
 I washed and conditioned my hair:




 Because I try to dry my hair before I deep condition it (in order to maximize the amount of conditioner that is absorbed into my hair), I wring out my hair and cotton t-shirt dry it.



It is dry enough that it is no longer dripping. When I wring it out, no water comes out and no more water is being soaked into the cotton t-shirt. This is "dry enough."



 

Next I apply the deep conditioner. I apply it in four sections, braiding each section as I finish it. 






 

 I put on a plastic bag and  a satin cap and wait 30 minutes. The heat source I am using is my own body heat, and 30 minutes is the maximum time that conditioner will be absorbed into the hair. I rinse my hair in the coldest water I can stand in order to seal the cuticle (cold water= seal cuticle hot water=opens cuticle, causes frizz). I rinsed each section about 4 times because of the bits that were in the deep conditioner. The deep conditioner is handmade so that the fact that there are a sprinkle of bits in the deep conditioner was understandable. I just have to be extra careful in rinsing out my hair.














Next I braid my hair in 10 braids.: 
I made 2 sections. With both sections, I did the following format (left to right):
1. Sprayed with the purple bottle (lottabody/water mix)
2.)Applied Liquid Leave in (that had been refrigerated) 
3.) Applied Cream Leave in 
4.) Applied Another Coating of Moisture 
5.) Applied Lok & Blok, a silicon-filled product to lock in moisture. This keeps the good moisture in and block out excess moisture. 
This is my own version of the LOC method (Liquid, Oil, Cream), which is used to seal in moisture. First they apply the moisture (L) then the oil (O) since oil seals in water (oil and water does not mix, so oil sits on top of water). Lastly, they apply the cream (C) to act double duty as a moisturizer and a sealant. I have the liquid through my lottabody/water mix and the liquid leave in. I have the cream through the Moringa Tree Conditioning Ghee. It is moisturizing, has oil (so it is a sealant), and it is infused with Indian powders. The Olive & Honey Hydrating Balm is another form of moisture, and it has oil as well. Lastly, the Lok & Blok seals all this goodness in. 





After I apply this to both sections, I further divide each section into 5 so that I have 10 sections each. Then I braid each section. I re-do the products I listed above on the ends of each braid since that is the oldest part of the hair. I do this so that they are extra protected:  




If I keep these braids in until they are fully dried, then I would get this result: 
The above is the result of 10 braids 
This is the result of 8 braids: 


I get very defined results when keeping my braids in until dried. However, because my hair is so defined, I cannot do a poofy updo such as this: 

So I took my braids out when they were still slightly damp in order to achieve a top puff, which is honestly my #1 go-to style. 
When I first take out the damp braids, my hair is kind of "flat": 
Saturday 5/7/16

 After a few hours, when it dries, it looks like this:


As you can see, the bits from the deep conditioner remained in my hair despite the fact I rinsed each section multiple times. I had to pick each bit out individually.



And that was my wash day(s)!  

(Good thing I do not have to s&d until next month--whew!

 

Next week's topic is Voluminous Curls. I'm going to attempt a perm rod set for the first time. Wish me good luck!

The Wash Day Experience

11 comments:

  1. Good luck with your perm rod set chica!

    And thanks for the reminder to sharpen my scissors! I haven't sharpened them in forever..EEK!

    KLP @ www.savingourstrands.com

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  2. Your hair is pretty, and I like how defined your twist out came! How are you finding the Qhemet products? I have always wanted to try them out.

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    1. I think they are great! They are very moisturizing and ever since Ive been using them, my hair stays moisturized for longer. Plus the ingredient list is great. The leave ins I use (the moringa conditioning ghee and the olive and honey hydrating balm) are light weight and a little goes a long way. The moringa conditioning ghee is my favorite so far because it can be used as a prepoo, detangler, and a leave in. I love that it has slip, coconut oil, and infused with indian powders

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  3. Your twists came out really nice. Well done.

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  4. Wow, you only trim once every few years?! That's amazing and your ends still look really healthy! I'm soooo lazy and have started with the S&D method only to end up fully trimming my hair. lol

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    1. I can understand because it is SO time consuming. What I also do is try to keep a pair of scissors on me as much as possible (obviously I can't bring them some places) so that if I ever see a split before my monthly session I can cut right then and there. I'm pretty anal about cutting splits and I'm sure my ends could be better. Btw I LOVE your blog and have been following for YEARS 😀😀😀😀

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  5. Shed hairs wrapping around SSKs are incredibly annoying. Monthly S&D is a great idea!

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    Replies
    1. I know right and thank you! BTW I love your blog and it was very inspirational for me when I started my hair journey.

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  6. I have been wondering about the amla and heavy cream product. I really want to try it now! i'm not much of a product junkie so it will just go on my wish list til i make it through my other products.

    Re: search and destroys, i sort of do them every wash day but i go by the feel of my ends. Having very fine hair, I can't see a darn thing!

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