More than a year and 8 inches later, I finally washed my hair in sections on Sunday. Many long haired naturals swear by this method to minimising breakage while washing. I’d never tried it before because by the time my wash day comes my hair is so shrunken, I couldn’t really put it in the 4-6 sections they normally speak of. My hair could easily get into maybe 10 chunky sections, like how I do my stretching out mabutu/matuta but 4-6? So that’s when I thought, surely if I can use hair elastics, it could help to secure the sections? This is all new to me and I’m not sure how well my hair will do with this new stuff but I wanted to document it for my own memory so I can remember what works and doesn’t work.
What I did:
- I sectioned my hair into 6, securing them with elastics and cut up tights as hair bands (I only have like 2 elastic bands but plenty of tights. They do the same job and it’s resourceful hehe)
- I wet my whole head under the shower.
- I undid the first section, wet it thoroughly, then used a little bit of shampoo and lathered that in. I rinsed that section and repeated the shampoo application once. Once it was clean, I tied it in the hairband again.
- I did the same for the other 5 sections, starting at the back and working up to the front.
- Once I finished shampooing, I lightly patted my towel to get any excess water out.
- Starting from the back, I released a section, applied some deep conditioner, focusing on the entire length of my hair and finger detangled it. Once my fingers could go through easily, I used my wide tooth comb to comb from the ends to the roots. Once that section was detangled, I tried to twist it but it didn’t hold. So I braided it instead.
- I repeated this step for the other 5 sections. Some sections were bigger than others so they became two chunky braids.
- I put on my plastic cap (which is really a plastic grocery bag) and left the deep conditioner in for over an hour before rinsing my hair with the braids still in.
- I kept my hair wrapped in a towel for about half an hour to help it dry before spritzing with an oil spray and smoothing cream onto the braids.
- I let it air dry and loosely tied my scarf to sleep.
- This morning, I undid the braids and wore my fro free.
Results:
Well, yesterday my hair felt less dry than usual after wash day but it was still wet when I woke up in the morning! It took forever to dry so of course after I undid the braids, Fro shrank. I don’t know how those other natural haired girls
a) keep their chunky twists intact
b) air dry their hair with braids still in!
Also, even though I thought I thoroughly rinsed off the deep conditioner, there was still some in my hair. I feel like the braiding keeps too much water and product in so next time I might have to rinse it free (in sections) and use the hairbands to secure. Hopefully that will work. Sigh. New routines suck sometimes.
Loving the earrings, what hair dye do you use?
Garnier Nutrisse shade 7.3
i agree – drying hair in braids does take a while. but i think trying to get as much water out of it before bed helps – although it does mean twisting and re-twisting a MILLION times 🙁
(by the way, my hair only just touches my collar bone/base of my neck)
1. after finger/comb detangling in sections using water and coconut oil, i twist each section
2. soak with water in the shower. shampoo then rinse each twist individually, then twist again
3. deep condition – take out each twist, runs DC through the strands evenly, twist again
4. untwist and rinse each section to get DC out, then re-twist
5. use towel to soak up excess water from twists
6. take out each section (take out excess water again if necessary) and prep for bed using oil and cream to re-twist/style (i.e. my shower twists often don't hold well enough to give me definition i want the following day so often have to redo it. plus, can't seal my hair well enough unless i have access to each strand)
sounds like a helluva lot?!
but having never written it down before, didn't realise how complicated it can be! BUT all this takes me max 2hrs (longer if I DC for >15mins, which i've realised i don't need to do)
results the following day: hair's moisturised, but not wet – maybe just a tiny bit damp.
hope that helps?! :S
xx
My hair's about the same length as yours. Your routine sounds like a lot of twisting an re-twisting! I tried a couple of new things this past weekend and it worked out better, especially when it came to drying the hair. Will be sharing that soon. Thanks for sharing yours 😉
I don't think my hair is long enough to wash in sections. I've tried it twice and it just ends up getting tangled. I think the sections thing will only make sense when it's shoulder length. Right now, washing it while it's free works for me.
Yeah, I also didn't need to until about a couple of months ago. I suggest you only start washing in sections when your hair needs to (eg. tangling while washing etc.)
What kind if conditioner did u use?
Can't reveal that yet, I'm still testing the product out but will reval all when I do a review on it 😉
Im gonna try this method of washing my hair.
Sasa! When I first went natural (2010) I did everything the natural blogs said including washing in sections, lakini nikachoka because it took so long, so I stopped, my hair is fab now and am beginning to love my hair now that I do my own thing.
Have you tried washing with baking soda? I love it
I was soooooo tired this past weekend when I washed in sections. I hope it gets easier and less time as I do it more often. Baking soda? On its own? How do you use it?
my experience with drying hair in braids is similar, takes forever to dry. i have started (this year) washing my hair in braids, i mix my shampoo with water in a spray bottle, wet my braided hair and spray the mixture as i rub the scalp. (all this is done after i have pre-pooed overnight with coconut oil in chunky braids, then as i undo each section i detangle with conditioner and make slightly smaller braids, then i proceed to shampoo and deep condition in the braids) why am i doing this: i want a simple wash routine and less hair manipulation while at it.
I tried pre-pooing yesterday and it seemed to go well. I'm trying a bunch of different things every week to get to the right place. Yesterday I deep conditioned each section 'free' then tied them with hairbands. Did the job and it didn't take forever to dry!