Wash Day

In the aftermath of four weeks no water and then 4 days no moisture, it suffices to say that this was always destined to be a bit of a long and complex one.

(L-R): Darjeeling tea, olive oil, rhassoul clay mix, aloe vera juice.

1). I pre-treated with Vatika Oil...4 days before hand because I had netball come up unexpectedly and life's so busy that it just gets put on hold until I can find the time again.

2). I decided to deep condition before hand with Aubreys Organics Glycogen Protein Balance Conditioner (AOGPB). As I was slicking it on my head, I realised that if I was also planning to do a mud wash, I'd have been better off using the AOGPB after rinsing the mud wash out.
But it was too late, my head was already half saturated and waste not want not, obviously. So I left that on my entire head for about 30 minutes.

3). I made up my mud wash with about 3 teaspoons of rhassoul clay, 3 tablespoons of water and 2 tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar. The mix foamed, which I didn't manage to capture. It does that every time, and I'm beginning to wonder if it's the Apple Cider Vinegar I every time. I put that on top of the AOGPB because I don't like ducking in and out of the shower.
Do you know what it smells like when you mix a creamy, milk protein containing conditioner with an acidic clay wash?
Like sour milk, mis amigos.
I tried, but I couldn't stand it and had to rinse out the grossness.


4). I did a black tea rinse in the shower. I put the tea in an applicator bottle and squirted it generously over the twisted sections of my hair and scalp. I then applied Herbal Essences Hello Hydration over the top, with a little bit of olive oil, and then left it on for about 5 minutes.

5). I rinsed out the conditioner, tea business and then spritzed on a generous amount of aloe vera juice to each section.

6). I wrapped my hair in a T-shirt, but after 10 minutes, it was already really dry O_o I don't know what happened, but I'd planned to Curlformer set, so I had to hurry up!

7). At first, I started applying Anita Grant's Cream Cafe Latte Leave in and Organix Anti-Breakage Serum to each section, but it was taking too long, so I just starting using my shea butter mix instead. I think I'm out of the habit, because it took me nearly two hours to put them all in! Not without some casualties, of course...

8). And the resulting Curlformer Set. Yummy, yummy, yummy.

Although the wash day was a big mishmash of everything one may want to do to their hair in their entire life, at the end my hair was deliciously soft and scrumptious. I had a little bit of half crescent moon breakage in the shower (from coils at the very ends of my hair) but I already know I'm way overdue for a trim, so I didn't stress too much.
I don't think the tea rinse did too much - my shedding was the same as normal, despite having de-tangled 4 days prior when  I took out my small twists - but maybe I used too little.
Hey, I've got tea to spare, so no worries about wasting any next time...

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Tea-mendous!

I have a quite a few friends moving about, in and out of the country.

You know what lovely, kind, panicking people do when they move from country to country with limited time?

They tend to give away their stuff.

And if you're a Chinese girl living in England, you know what you're going to have a lot of?

Tea. Specifically, black tea. Loose leaf black tea.

And you know who doesn't drink black tea, as in not at all?

Yep. You got that right. Yours truly.

I guess this means I'm going to take up tea rinsing for real and see if I can finally find a solution to stop me whining about my excessive shedding.

Unless anybody wants to come over to mine for a cuppa?

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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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My Dry Twist Month

As normally happens around this time of the year, I put in a set of twists. I conditioned with Aubrey's Organics Glycogen Conditioner (a long time candidate on the product wishlist), rinsed it out, followed up with Hello Hydration and then split my hair into sections. I made sure to thoroughly finger detangle each section (so much matting at the roots! Argh!), applied some aloe vera juice and water, and then some Anita Grants's Café Latte leave in to seal. On my ends, when I'd finished, I also added some Organix Coconut Anti Breakage Serum.

It took me about a week to do then, trying to do as much as I could each day when I had time and/or the energy.

But I've promised myself that I've got to change. Somethings got to give. I can't keep doing the same thing and expect different results - that's the very definition of sanity!

I always have a problem taking down my twists with shed hair getting stuck everywhere and matting and meshing and shrinkage. I know what the culprit is - my love of washing my twists.

Sometimes twice a week, sometimes thrice, sometimes daily, I'd stick my head under the shower faucet for some quick moisture. The result? Plump, moisturised, juicy twists - that were a complete and utter nightmare to take down.

So for the next four weeks, I've decided to have no more of that. I'm trying to minimise breakage, which means minimising shrinkage and tangling, which means minimising my exposure to water.

Instead, I'll be moisturising with coconut oil, and finding some new inventive way to clean my scalp. I'm thinking an astringent like apple cider vinegar or witch hazel. I'll let you know how it goes....

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Random Hair Thoughts

I need to make time for my hair. I have literally been going weeks without doing a cowash or a proper wash in the shower because I don't have the time to do all of that and then style. Or, if I do wash, I don't stretch my hair properly. Hellooo matted roots!

I exasperate myself

Finding time to do my hair is so hard! In between working 8 till 6, and then hanging out with the other half on Saturday and then visiting family, or hosting friends on a Sunday, the 3 hours or whatever I need to make sure my hair is in a decent state for a certain amount of time just never seems to come up.

The Wonder Thing has suggested I stop watching videos of other ladies flicking their waist length hair around if I'm suffering from dissatisfaction with my own situation. I know he's right but...how else will I learn their secrets?

Ehhh....

I'm thinking that a two week routine might work better for me if I manage to keep this job - one week in twists and then a week (or whatever) of twistouts. I'm currently in twists that I hope will hold for four weeks. But then it means I avoid the not-knowing-what-to-do-with-my-hair conundrum and also the having-no-time-to-style-my-hair issues.

Why do I seem unable to do medium sized twists?? Why do they always turn out small?? This must be why I fail at twistouts. Always too big (out of laziness) or too small (out of vanity). Goldilocks, I feel your pain!

I think having your hair in twists makes you look forward to playing with your hair. You watch videos and are excited for the possibilities with your own hair, rather than watching begrudgingly with something that used to be a bun on your head, wondering why your hair doesn't seem to be able to do that.

I was going to do a length check at the end of last year, but I'm assuming it's pretty much the same situation as here. No, wait, it's shorter. And it needs a cut. *Exhales deeply*

I don't know either, Doctor!

I do love messy hair but my main problem with it is that it's not practical for my daily life. Whee! My hair is huge on Sunday! Now...er, what do I do with it Monday till Friday? :/

Having a computer where all the keys work definitely makes blogging waaay easier and more likely to happen.

Just saying.

I've been eyeing up the Camille Rose products since heyfranhey and MissTenesha are such big fans of it. Finally, the products are available in the UK! Yaaay! But only in London! Booo.
Still considering a trip down for some product splurging....maybe later this summer....

Yzma Kitty has already been.

I wonder if living in a hard water area contributes to my shedding? It slowed down when I came back from Paris, but now I'm living in an area that's just as bad as Paris (think, calcified taps if the proper upkeep is not maintained).  I'm slowly transitioning my products back to the kind of things I was using when I was over there. I feel my hair care this year will reek of vinegar.

Every time I do twists, my favourite bit is washing them. But when I take them down, they are meshed and tangled beyond belief. So I'm trying something new and having a dry twist month.

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Technology and I

Yikes. Firstly my appointed amnesiac camera lost all the (hair) pictures I'd taken in the past month and now I've seemingly lost yet another laptop to the great, grizzly jaws of technological malfunction.

It's going to be a little quiet on this front till the new year methinks, as I try and get some semblance of order around here.

I'm keeping a close eye on my mobile, lest it also betray me...

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Wash Day

My wash days are, once again, falling into a routine and making a kind of sense to me. Because I dislike doing the hokey cokey in (out, in, out) the shower, I'm more likely to deep condition before I wash. So  guess I was wrong when I said I don't deep condition. I do, just not the same as everyone else. I have quite a few other personal rules when it comes to my hair routine, but this one only recently dawned on me, haha!

1. Pre-pooed with Vatika oil overnight.

2. I'd forgotten to section my hair in before leaping into the shower, so I roughly split it into five twisted sections before I shampooed. Shampooed with Schwarzkopf Gliss Hair Repair Ultimate Colour Shampoo with Liquid Keratin, focusing on my scalp. It had been a little itchy over the last week, in small,  annoying bouts so I made sure to massage my head tenderly.

3. I detangled each section with Herbal Essences Hello Hydration and my fingers under the running water, then I added some more conditioner and moved on to the next section. Since two of the twists was too big for themselves and kept unravelling, I had to separate them into two smaller twists. I left in the conditioner while I washed.

4. I rinsed out the conditioner and wrapped my head in an old T-shirt for about 35 minutes. It was mostly dry by the end of this time (about 80%?).

5. Then I applied the Cantu Shea Butter Leave In Conditioning Repair Cream as my leave in, along with some Macadamia Healing Oil Treatment to seal in moisture. 

And that was it for the wash day!


I left my hair in the 8 twists for a couple of days, and released it for twist out. I was a bit nervous at first, since at first, it started out looking like this....

Time to look for my hair band perhaps? Nope. It turned out pretty good (if I do say so myself :), haha! )

I only took one reasonable photo, because it was Sunday and I was laaate. As usual. Hope you all had lovely weekends! 

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