Co-washing and Unintended Consequences

This week I did a co-wash using a longtime favorite, Herbal Essence Hello Hydration conditioner. My hair had been in one for almost a week. Most of my washing time involved just letting the water fully saturate my hair and using water to loosen up the dirt/grease on my hair and scalp. This involved massaging my scalp with the pads of my fingertips and using the closed palm (like you are praying) method to smooth my hair. 

If I was washing, that braid would be a loose wet section of hair. Smooth the closed palm down the section from root to end to apply product, wash the hair, etc. This way the hair stays relatively detangled.

Whenever I wash my hair I try not to disrupt the clumps my curls want to be in. I've found that is the number one key to reducing tangling. I think back to my childhood when shampooing involved wild hand in hair motion, trying to create the most lather possible. lol good old days. Washing was fun, combing after, not so much. 

Once my hair was fully saturated with water, I applied a shilling size amount of conditioner to each of four sections on my head and let it sit for about 5 minutes. I then rinsed it out, section by section and did a cold water acv rinse to finish off. I dried my hair with a cotton tee to avoid frizz.

Drying with an old cotton t-shirt to avoid frizz

During washing I could tell that my coconut prepoo I did a few weeks ago was still in effect as my clumped curls were well defined and healthy looking while washing. You can really tell once you get out of the shower and the hair is dried a bit. Look at the definition of my natural hair with no products in it whatsoever. This is the true definition of wash and go. One of these days I'll try and experiment to see how tangled my hair would get if I just left it like that to fully dry. lol

Once my hair was about 30% dry, I applied my kimmaytube-based leave in. I used the following recipe this week:

• 2 tbs Giovanni direct leave in
• 1 tbs Kinky Curly Knot Today
• 1 tbs Redken Antisnap
• 2 tsp jojoba oil
• 2 tsp castor oil
• 1 tsp avocado oil
• 1 tsp coconut oil

As you can see, I forgot the aloe vera juice this week and boy could you tell. My braids were way more frizzy than usual without that added acidity and the curling power aloe vera juice has on my hair. 

Nothing tying with a satin scarf couldn't fix though.

The resulting braid-out made me fall in love with braid-outs all over again (sorry! no pic but I'll repeat it sometime). I don't know why I ever stopped doing them but I expect to be doing more in the future. I did another braid-out a few days later using Ms Jessie's curly pudding. I think I prefer the effect from using my homemade moisturizer better but this was very pretty as well. I wore this to a job interview.

About to get my interview on lol