My Faux Wash and Go

In fairness, the results of my last wash day, where I attempted a faux wash and go wasn't a complete fail.

When I first started I was sceptical. It just looked like an ordinary twist out (and we know how extremely not brilliant I am at those).

But wait! What's this? MY finest area - co-operating? Separating of their own free will?

Goodness...could this be.....a good hair day?

No, make that - a really amazing hair day! It's the first time I have ever been complimented on my hair by work colleagues. I felt fresh. I felt amazing. I had to make this last more than a day!

So I tried naptural85's bagging method after a light spritz of water, pineappled everything and tied it all on with a silk scarf to prevent my instinct of taking things off my head while I'm sleeping.

Didn't work. Between 2 and 4am, I distinctly remember ripping said baggy off my head, muttering darkly about being too hot and how all this was nonsense.

Day 2 was okay - wearable, but not as great as Day 1.

Day 3, my shedding really kicked it and my looked like it was locking. When it looks like this, I know I need a detangle, because all the shed hair has gotten stuck at the roots, thus forcing my hair to 'clump'.

But it was midweek! No time to wash properly, so I'm just bunning for the rest of the week. *Sigh* My next wash day is going to be horrendous

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Wash and Go in the Winter

Remember when I said I was craving wash and go hair? Well, that feeling has not gone away at all - maybe it's my mental refusal to let go of summer? Or maybe because I got so used wearing the style (and having it dry in under an hour)?

But I thought, no, I'll be good and wear my hair stretched this season. Wash and go hair in winter is just asking to turn into an icicle or catching pneumonia, or something equally ridiculous as that life choice.

Well, I stumbled across this video today and it inspired me to rethink wearing wash and go hair in the cooler seasons up here in the Northern Hemisphere.



Her hair came out beautifully and it sparked my memory of something similar - you know, the infamous Naptural85 'Winter Wash and Go'? My texture is closer to Whitney's (Naptural85's) than it is to Tasha's (pashtash's), so I think the resemblance would definitely lean that way.

But two different women having done something so similar successfully (and Whitney has helpfully made a video detailing how she maintains this style for 5 days after) makes me think that it might be possible.

From what I've seen, it's clean hair + moisture + medium sized twists + finger detangling + gentle separating/fluffing = awesome hair.

What's not to love?

And hallelujah for my fine strands, it's low manipulation.

Let's see how my luck turns out with this twist out that's not a twist out....Maybe the paradox will save me?

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Sally Hau...um, Order.

It's not really a haul if you're only buying one thing, and the rest is so you get free postage, is it?

Last year, I swore off scissors (kinda). Plus, it's been over a year since my last trim. Somewhere between Paris and (new) home, my old hair shears went missing.

I didn't want a supermarket pair, and my last pair from Superdrug were shockingly bad.

So I went to the experts and ordered some from Sally.
They have free delivery over £25, the scissors were £21 and it's about £6 for the bus ticket to my nearest store, so online delivery it was.
I just ordered a few non-essential fillers to get me up to the price and away we go!

I had to pick it up from the post office and the box said....

Yikes. No wonder the man in the Post Office gave me an odd look.

A few details about Sally's delivery service: They only charge you when your items have been dispatched, and they can come at different times. So the filler stuff was actually in the suspicious looking box above and the scissors came through my door a few days later.

Another thing is that not everything in their stores are featured on the website, which is annoying, but it's definitely better than it used to be, because it used to drive me absolutely bonkers!

As per usual, the Wonder Thing cut my hair. I asked him to take off anything that wasn't curling at the end of my twists, which was about 1 to 2 inches. He threw the strands in the bin before I could take a picture of them, because he's normal (I guess), so here's a picture of one of my lovely and fresh blunt ends.

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No Water Month - How did it Go?

So, I went a whole month without washing my hair.

At first, I kept telling myself that it was absurd, that I would cave, that water = moisture and I was basically setting myself up for a setback.
Around week three, when it started to get a little itchy, I put some diluted apple cider vinegar on my scalp, and boom! Back to calmness. At first, I thought I could scrub my partings (what partings? My frizz eats my lame partings for breakfast!) with an old, no longer used toothbrush. As soon as those bristles met with my hair I couldn't even move it one jot, it was so comfortably entwined with my coils.
So, fingers it was, as it is with the rest of my hair care, really.

I moisturised every couple of days with coconut oil or Anita Grant's Cafe Latte when I wanted a little bit of a yummy scent. I could tell when my hair needed some moisture, because it would feel crisper than normal, or I could hear it, like a rustling alarm.

Time to moisturise!

Incredibly, it worked well. As in, really well. My hair, when I took it down, was well moisturised and not at all crunchy - not even the ends. Plus, the take down was reeeeally easy. Not anything worthy of hyperbole - the usual knots and tangles in my finer, wavier area were still present to greet me in their usual, sullen manner - but there were a lot less of them (which I appreciated).

The only negative aspect of this experiment was the aesthetic side. I disliked the perceived limp appearance of my twists and constantly wore it up in a bun to prevent me dunking my head in a bucket of water for some plumpness.

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No More Scissors!

If you're a fine haired lady, you've seen it almost everywhere - something along the lines of 'If you have fine hair, you are more susceptible to breakage and split ends and should trim more regularly to get rid of them.'

Okay. Well, that's advise I've been following since 2010.

During the past few years, I noticed a recurring pattern with my hair that went a little like this:

- Hair suffers from breakage
- I do a search and destroy and get rid of my split ends
- Hair suffers from breakage
- I do a search and destroy and get rid of my split ends
- Hair suffers from breakage
etc

Because I had fine hair, I knew split ends were inevitable and was determined to get rid of them.

Can you see that split near the top leaf? Noo joke, my split ends.

My little revolt against trimming more frequently happened quite by accident. I got a hair cut. Then I went away and promptly lost my hair shears.

During the (rather frustrating) period where I searched for the shears that didn't want to be found, I came to the realization that, even after the trimming, the cutting and the split end elimination, my hair was still breaking.

If split ends are inevitable on my fine hair, then even after trimming, they'll still be there and I'll be both suffering from breakage and getting rid of length.Wait...didn't that mean I was cutting and trimming my hair despite the seemingly inevitable damage I was going to have? Thus, I was chopping off progress... in the hope of progress????

I stopped looking for those scissors QUICKSHAPP!

We were done. Finished. Finito. End of. Nevermore.

Yep. I've quit cutting.

Well, okay, not forever, but I've drastically reduced it from every month to once every year. I'm gleefully anticipating my results (can't be worse than what I was doing before...)

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5 Hour Wash Day

It began with some hubris and my Curlformers.

I can't even remember the last time I did a Curlformer set, so when I saw this tutorial, I was going in like a flash. Yes, I would like stretched out curls for my friend's birthday party! And I had a whole day free as well, so the caveat of it taking 3 hours didn't phase me.
I only remembered to pre-treat my hair with coconut oil that morning, so it got half an hour instead of overnight.
I started off with a bentonite clay treatment, which was bad of me - I've been meaning to do a Cassia for a couple of weeks, but didn't want to end up with minuscule pieces of grass in my head whilst meeting new people. So bentonite only it was. I added a bit more water to it than normal, to make it easier to rinse out, as well as  my usual splash of apple cider vinegar

Using less water meant my hair wasn't as weighed down, but it still had the same effect as normal. I always love the results of my bentonite clay treatments, because they're always the same - happy, bouncy hair, with pretty defined coils.

After rinsing out the bentonite, my hair felt so yummy, I considered skipping conditioning. Then I realised that this was crazy talk, conditioned as normal (leaving conditioner on for 5 minutes) and the skipped out the shower.

Once out, I applied aloe vera juice to my hair, and then split it up into sections, in preparation for the curlformer business. Smaller sections = easier to handle. I deliberately made myself choose smaller sections, and on those sections, I applied some Shea butter mix and Eco Styler Olive Oil gel. 

I knew I didn't have enough Curlformers for my entire head (I hoped...), but because my sections were so small, they dried faster than normal and initially still came out silky smooth when I took the Curlformers off that section to use elsewhere. I used rosewater in my spray bottle to refresh the parts of my hair that had dried whilst waiting. 

I started all these shennanigans (from the pre-poo) at 10 in the morning. 

By half 3 in the afternoon, I was done. 

5 hours??

It was all pink on the left and all orange on the right.
I need to be more strategic where I use my curlformers - in some parts, my hair has already outgrown them!

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 Becase of my haphazard placement of the curlformers, I couldn't stretch them in the same manner as naptural85 does in her video, so I gently pulled the curls to one side, for a regal pinned up kind of look.

I only have one picture because by the time I was ready, it was time to go! I over applied the gel in some areas, so I got flakes *sigh*

I find that Curlformers only ever last me one day. I'll have to work out a way to make them work for me for longer.

But despite the loss of the curls, I didn't want to let the awesome stretch go. So I started mini twists the next day (Saturday), trying to do at least 2 for each curl section. Today is the third day, and I'm barely halfway through >.< However, my hair still feels so moisturised from the aloe vera juice and shea butter from Saturday! Win!

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This wash day was not sponsored by Garnier

My wash day last week was pretty simple - no bells or whistles.

1) Pre-pooed overnight with Coconut Oil. 2) Shampooed with Garnier Fructis Anti-Dandruff Shampoo. There are two reasons why I probably shouldn't have been using that shampoo. One,  It has SLS, which seems to be the ultimate RED BUTTON; DO NOT TOUCH on the curly, kinky interwebs and two It contains white willow bark, an excellent anti dandruff treatment, since it is a rich source of salicyclic acid. It is also an active ingredient found in aspirin (for dilating blood vessels or something) so as an asthmatic, I'm supposed to avoid it. But if I'm feeling halfway rebellious, may as well go all the way, no? I applied the shampoo in sections, to make sure I got to every inch of my scalp. Also meant I used, like, 10 times the recommended amount... 3) Rinsed like the Dickens. 4) Applied my Garnier Ultra Doux conditioner, with Vanilla milk and Papaya pulp. It's formulated for long hair, so I reckon it should help my fragile ends. Also, smells like heaven. Fruity, but not too much and mixed with that irresistible scent of Vanilla. Love it. I left it in for 5 minutes while I bemoaned the state of our shower, thanks to the hard water. 5) Rinsed out, but not intensely - I don't mind if a little bit of the product is left behind because then my hair smells gorgeous :) 6) Applied home made Rose Aloe Moisturiser. 7) Sealed with Hempseed oil and some whipped shea butter on my ends.


Happy, happy hair! Soft and fluffy. And my scalp was completely and utterly clear! Nothing else to report really with the shampoo, apart from a nagging,persistent headache the following day. I'm not sure if it was from the shampoo or not - I'll find out next time.

To stretch, I decided to indulge in some banding for a couple of days. 

 When I released it, it simply went up in a bun, to avoid my hair brushing on my scarf. The first picture is my hair after I decided to finger comb a little.

I love how big looking it turned out!

It's only now as I've written this up that I've realised both commercial products used are Garnier. 

I've never really paid attention to any brands (outside of Tresemmé) but my experience so far is definitely making me think I might try them out when I go back to England.

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My Twist and Curl......former set

So, during the Christmas holidays, I chanced upon pure, unadulterated hair gold. 

For me, at least.

I was bored and simultaneously feeling extremely inspired to play with an idea I'd had for a while now. I'd always wanted to try a twist-and-curl, but I don't own any rods or rollers (any more) and was loathe to buy any for a simple experiment.

I parted my hair off into six sections (I got the number from Shelly, who also has quite fine hair like myself) and my fringe and dampened them as I went along with a vinegar water mix, since it was...week 1 of not having washed (a pattern that sadly continued for another 2 weeks). I flat twisted the roots to prevent too much volume there and for increased definition.

Also meant I minimised the amount of handling I had to do on my wet hair. I only twisted until 2 inches of hair were left, to minimalize tangling at my fragile ends. They kept trying to undo, so I ended upholding some of them in place with hair bands/ponytail holders. First time in my life I've ever had to do that!
I also applied Eco-styler gel on the ends of my hair, in the hope they would keep their shape.

 On the fatter twists, I used a curlformer on each twisted section, so some twists had 2 curlformers per twist.

Just to note, this was far nicer and easier to sleep in than when I do my whole head full!

The next morning, I admit, I was holding my breath a little when I took the Curlformers off. 

I shouldn't have worried. Perfect curls, every time, no?

The first unravelling had me a little nervous and unsure, but then I fluffed with my fingers to mess and place it some...

Turns out I still love big hair. After all this time.

Wheeee! Look at me! I'm Curly Nikki!

I'd never really gotten the fuss about the twist and curl until I tried it.
Instantly, my ends didn't look as raggedy. Immediately, it felt so much more fun, and bouncy and lively!
Genuinely, the pictures don't do it justice. I fell in love all over again.

 I loved it so much, I wore it down and out, as it was. And I never do that! And this was despite my woollen scarf and the wind and drizzling rain.....

Yeah. By the end of the day, my hair had gotten so obnoxiously big, I had to tie it up from fear of it being a hazard in the car, and people staring at me... but man, it felt great while it lasted!

For other people's adventures with a twist and curl (and my references, really) check these out:
Curly Nikki's original tutorial here and a small update here.
MahoganyCurls' tutorial here.
Shelli of hairscapades tutorial here.
Shelli also talks about the progression of her T'n'C here.

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Weave Really got to Stretch it Out...

When packing in a slight rush to move to a foreign country, there are things you may leave behind.

Unimportant things, such as your sewing machine; those pair of jeans with the hole; toothpaste.

But today, I realized I'd left behind something mega important.

My CURLFORMERS.

It's winter! Rain, and thus tangles, will surely be upon me. How will I survive without stretching?

 What to do? 

Eotteoke?!

Ah, but look what I did remember to pack.

Weave thread somehow managed to find itself into my bag, despite the fact the first (and last) time I had a weave, I was not even legally old enough to do a paper round. Whatdaheck?!

Anyway, having stumbled across this very informative video by the lovely Nadia of GirlsLoveYourCurls, I may give African Threading a whirl this winter.

Granted, the last time I had this style done, I was too young to consent to the actions being taken upon my person, so my mum did it in looped arches over my head that had the other kids calling me spidey-head.

Nowadays, they'd be calling me innovative! 

I actually took my twists out on Friday. I'd started on Thursday night and hoped it would take me till Friday afternoon to take them all out, but nope, I didn't finish till 10pm on Friday night. So I just bunned it and left it like that.

On Saturday morning, I quickly mixed up some bentonite clay mixed with some ACV and water and slathered my head in it. I ended up leaving it in for an hour, because my housemate got to the bathroom before me >.<

When I finally got in the shower, I rinsed it all out quite easily and then conditioned. 

I tried my best to leave it on for longer than three minutes, but there's only so long a girl can scrub her elbows for.

Rinsed that out, put in my homemade moisturiser, and then decided to thread my hair to stretch it.

It took me nearly two hours to do my head, but that's because the technique takes a while to get down, and I was wrapping quite tightly. 

Also, on some of the sections, I would be nearly to the end, check the mirror and realise that I hadn't secured it tightly enough at the root and the thread had slipped, so I'd have to undo it and start again.

I used about 5- 6 foot (up to 180cm) of string for each section and on some of them, I ran out.

But the stretch was pretty awesome. Instant hairnorexia cure.

 

Taking them out was ridiculously easy. Seconds per section. Really. However, it was only a couple of house (6 hours, I think?) so my hair wasn't completely dry, but it was on it's way there.

The roots were still a bit big, because I didn't secure them all very well, so I just threw my hair into a bun. But then I remembered buns don't always work for me, so I split it into two buns. Then each bun I split into two sections and fat-twisted each sections. 

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