wash day | straight comb chaser

well, friends...

... my 2-month stint with the water only method came to an end with my last wash day.
the humidity absolutely demolished my product-free hair. not only did it get super frizzy, but it felt horrendous, and i looked a HAM. my hair looked like a lunch lady's net. no, not the hair UNDER the net. like the actual net.

so, i decided to go in the total opposite direction for some straight sleekness. contrary to the beginning of my journey, my hair has done exceptionally well being straight in warmer temperatures and humidity for the past 2-3 years -- maybe texas trained it? otherwise, i have no idea why that is.
it was in the mid-70s and i thought to myself: "my product-free regimen is not working in this heat and humidity. let's go for straight and smooth!"
and literally the next morning, the temperature was well below freezing.

le sigh.
only in southwest virginia.
#global
warming















i will keep this hair straight for as long as humanly possible because it has gotten longer (the tip of my V is nearly waist-length) and straightening took much longer. i still can't believe i committed to keep growing for the next 2.5 years. i'm going to look like cousin it's black baby.

i will absolutely be going back to the method when it gets colder, so i will be a 6-month product user (march - august) and 6-month water only child (september - february). i am thinking of trying out a modified version of sistawithrealhair's regimen during my product phase but i haven't yet decided.

the deets:
washed with tresemme nourishing moisture shampoo (um... no one told me this stuff was amazing!)
conditioned with tresemme 7-day smooth conditioner (also amazing!)
blow dried and flat ironed using the comb chase method with tresemme 7-day smooth treatment (again, amazing!)
*** no, i am not a spokesperson for/affiliated with tresemme, but i'm used to spending nothing on hair products, so i went the cheap route. i have to say that i forgot how effective tresemme products are! i'm very pleased.
i smoothed in a little argan oil and set my hair on 8 teal perm rods overnight

i would be perfectly happy with using only these 3 products during my 6-month phase. my hair feels absolutely fantastic -- this cheapo stuff is LEGIT. i may or may not try to find a deep conditioner. my hair doesn't seem to behave much differently with a DC versus a regular con since 'the change.'

how was your wash day?

in pursuit of:

treating my hair as my crown and glory

linking up with klp, nicole, and amanda

wash day & product reviews 1.0 | oyin handmade & bulk apothecary

whoo hooooo! wash day!
i did some research into techniques low porosity ladies utilize, and went on a product junkie binge (haven't done this in a LOOOONG time) to try to identify a line i wanted to use.

what i was looking for:
an all-inclusive product line to reduce number of shipments/waste (on ground = bonus!)
run by a natural-haired small business-owner
impeccable customer service

step 1: steamy hot oil treatment and finger detangle session

bulk apothecary 100% argan oil
1 lb for $28 | arrived in 4 days from ohio | not sure about the owner's info (update: i have located a natural-haired business owner that i will use after this oil has run out)

this argan oil is amazing! i expected it to be of a lesser quality than the organic argan oil i had been buying from amazon but i was mistaken. i applied a little less than 2 oz over my hair and used my q-redew (aka my savior) to open up my cuticles. the steam let it sink right in and i was able to finger detangle very, very easily. just like with my other argan oil, my hair was extremely soft and smooth. when i rinsed, my hair felt like it had transformed - it actually felt like "normal!"

step 2: wash, condition, and plop

oyin handmade honey wash and honey hemp conditioner
$4 each for 2oz mini | arrived in 2 days from baltimore | cool natural family!

the honey wash felt like liquid velvet. i LOVED the texture and it left my hair nice and clean and still very soft. i did feel like i had to use a lot though, because it didn't spread as easily as i thought it would considering the thin consistency.
honey hemp smelled like a mix between an orange creamsicle and bubble gum. i used almost the whole bottle to condition because i usually use quite a bit of conditioner, but i don't think i needed to. it sunk right in and left but didn't leave my hair as hydrated as i would've liked. i will have to look into more effective conditioning for lo-po ladies!
i plopped with a T-shirt for an hour.

step 3: leave-in and style

oyin handmade juices & berries, boing, and burnt sugar pomade
j&b - $14 for 8.4oz | boing - $5 for 1oz mini | burnt sugar pomade - $4 for 1oz mini

after plopping, i moisturized with j&b, sealed with the pomade, and tried to style with boing.

although all of these smelled good, i could take or leave them. juices & berries was pretty good, but the pomade was hard to spread, and boing basically gave me -1000 hold. i will admit that i didn't use it as instructed, but i definitely need a styler i can apply to air-dried hair so it won't take 400 years to dry. it ended up in a sad little bun that i eventually cowashed and defined with another product (more on that later!).

i am definitely a super fan of the argan oil steam and pre-poo and will continue that for every wash day. and though oyin handmade definitely makes quality products, this will not be my all-inclusive line.
back to the drawing board next week!

upcoming length check: december 26

in pursuit of:

treating my hair as my crown and glory