Wash day: 9 weeks post relaxer

I am becoming so much more efficient on my wash days. This week's wash day took 2.5 hours to do everything, I have found some tricks to shorten my wash days if I am short of time: using my steamer in my pre-poo step, and using my blow dryer on cool air setting to dry my hair in less than 15 minutes. 

Here is how this week's wash day went:

0.) Pre-poo'd with extra virgin coconut oil and then detangled (it is so much easier to detangle when the hair has some oil to help loosen it all up). I then decided to try Aunt Jackie's oh so moisturizing conditioner as a pre-poo on top of the coconut oil, and it was ok made my hair soft and I did not have to deal with the heavy scent of it for too long. Sat under my steamer for 10 minutes.

1.) Waited for my hair to cool down and applied Nothing but Cleansing Conditioner to my hair and scalp.
2.) Hopped into the shower and rinsed out the co-wash. Whatever happenned on this wash day I do not know but there was a white film of product on my scalp!!! I suspect that it's the co-wash that was just so difficult to wash out, it has never given me this problem before, or maybe I applied too much. Anyway, at this point I reached for my Creme of Nature Sulphate-free moisture & shine shampoo and applied to my scalp to remove the product buildup. Lathered once, and rinsed it out.
3.) Applied Tressemme Moisturizing Conditioner to my hair for 2 minutes and rinsed it out. By the way this conditioner is really good, it always softens my hair after a wash but I would not use it as a deep conditioner.

4.) Applied my new conditioner: Kurlee Belle (KB) Banana Avocado & Nut treatment. My order came in on Friday (with the Thirsty Kurls Leave-in Conditioner as well) , and I was really excited to try it out. This conditioner sank right into my hair to the point that some of my hair strands started clamping next to each other so I just applied more until that feeling went away. If it was not for my hair strands sticking together, I would say this is the most efficient conditioner I have used, a little does go a long way.
5.) Sat under the dryer for 30 minutes on medium heat.
6.) Waited for my hair to cool and then rinsed out the deep conditioner
7.) T-shirt dried for 15 minutes and then separated my hair into 4 parts. My hair felt really soft at this point, so I was pleased with the initial results of the KB treatment. 
8.) I then applied KB Thirsty Kurls Leave-in  and detangled my hair, as the instructions indicate that it can be used to detangle. 
9.) Sealed with my usual OGX Anti-Breakage Serum.
10.) Blow dried each section with cool air and did my tuck and roll which lasted two days.


First thoughts on KB Avocado, Banana & Nut Treatment: I like how my hair felt and it also made the coils from my new growth to pop out, but I feel that this product needs help as the softness and moisture I felt on wash day did not last longer than a day. The softness came back when I moisturized the next day and sealed with shea butter - and my hair is still soft three days later. Also I didn't like that my hair clamped together after applying the treatment at first, but I think this is not a problem that natural-hair ladies will have.

First thoughts on KB Thirsty Kurls Leave-in Conditioner: It smells like baby powder (nice) with a sharp after scent of aloe (not so nice). It made my hair soft and fuller than usual which is awesome.

Hope you had a good wash day! Did you try any new products? Join the wash day experience by adding your washday link to savingourstrands.com!

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New Products April & May 2015

........Kurlee Belle Avocado, Banana & Nut Treatment, Kurlee Belle Thirsty Kurls Leave-in Conditioner, Keracare Humecto, Curlformers (the dupes), Perm rods (medium and small size), JBCO Sulfate-free clarifying shampoo, Beautiful Textures curl defining pudding, Beautiful Textures alcohol-free wrap mousse.

I haven't had time to use my curlformers or perm rods, but I am looking forward to using them to help me in stretching my new growth!

Have you tried any of these products, and were they a YES or a NO for you?

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Why a mid-week co-wash is a good idea

Hello there

I have been struggling with protein overload since my fallout with avocado masque, so I have been upping my DC sessions with moisturizing conditioners & mid-week co-washes to bring things back to normal!

My new growth feels like it's been ages since I relaxed and its only been 8 weeks lol, so I have been co-washing during the week, with the hope that "oohh child things are gonna get easier, oohh child things'll get brighter" *singing*. So far, co-washing has definitely helped me to retain more moisture, although I was sceptical of co-washing at first, and now I have a few reasons to support anyone who is thinking of adding a wash day during their week:

1 You don't have to break any hair rules to do a co-wash. I went through my entire co-wash without using a comb, I have realized that my hands do quite a good job in detangling and styling my hair.

2. You will not necessarily lose a lot of hair from manipulation, if you are gentle with your hair, a mid-week co-wash is only going to do good for it.

3. An extra boost of moisture from a mid-week co-wash goes a long way when one is on a long stretch.

4. Using a conditioner to wash your hair can leave it clean without the 'harsh' and drying effects of a shampoo - this is true from my experience, although I think that its important to use a conditioner that is specifically made for washing the hair, so that your scalp is also cleansed. I used nothing but cleansing co-wash, it was the only co-wash I could find where I live.

5. You can continue styling like you would on a normal week without a mid-week wash. If you are worried about the frizziness that comes with washing your hair, you can do a saran wrap around your hair once its dry for a few minutes to help it straighten out. My hair was back to normal on the second day after my co-wash.

6. The feeling of a clean scalp is one to love! Especially if you do a lot of oil massages, a mid-week co-wash can help remove the icky feeling from the oils and products that have accumulated in your hair.

7. For the keen at heart, its a good excuse to re-do a flexi rod or curly do, and have banging curls for a whole week!

Do you do any mid-week co-washes?

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Wash day with aPhogee 2-step & Avo Masque

Because of exam preps, I have only been washing my hair every 10 days, but thanks to great moisturizers + moisturizing Deep Conditioners i.e. Hairveda Sitrinillah, Keracare Humecto, Kenra, Silk Dreams I have not experienced any (eye-raising) breakage. My wash days have been pretty much the same since I relaxed my hair, except for the latest one where I tried something new:

0.) Pre-poo'd with Coconut Oil and Cantu Shea Butter Leave-in (yayy I have found a use for this product, the scent was too overbearing for me to use as a leave-in).
1.) Shampoo'd with my new sulfate-free clarifying shampoo, JBCO Shea Moisture Shampoo. I like it more than ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo (which is what I have been using as a clarifying shampoo), so I will be using this shampoo to clarify once a month.
2.) Towel dried for 5 minutes and quickly applied aPhogee 2-step protein on my hair and combed it out to make sure there were no tangles before the treatment dried out. After this I left my hair, no touching, no nothing for 15 minutes under my hooded dryer until it completely dried out.
3.) Stood under my shower for a few minutes as the treatment washed out, and applied aPhogee Balancing Moisturizer and Aussie Moist Conditioner to restore some moisture to my hair.
4.) Rinsed out the conditioners after 5 minutes and towel dried for 5 minutes.
5.) Deep Conditioned in dry heat for 15 minutes and without heat for 45 minutes with my homemade Avo Masque, see more info in this post.

6.) Rinsed the masque with warm water. Unfortunately this deep conditioning session went horribly bad. My hair was kind of locked and very hard after rinsing it out and I was not going to let Avocado give me a setback, so I accepted the situation and did everything I could to fix it, starting with another deep conditioning session.
7.) Overnight deep conditioned with a concoction of all the super moisturizing DC's I could find in my house: Hairveda Sitrinillah, Keracare Humecto, Kenra Moisturizing DC + 1 tbsp Castor Oil.

8.) Rinsed the DC thoroughly and t-shirt dried for 15 minutes before applying my leave-ins: L-Kinky Curly Knot Today (Great detangler!!) & O-OGX Anti-Breakage Serum.
9.) Carefully detangled my hair in 4 sections, and I was soo relieved that did not lose to much hair after that experience with the Avo.

9.) I have been blow drying my hair with the cool air setting (my blow dryer is so old that only the cool air setting works anyway lol). I have found that my hair looks better with less frizz when I blow dry, as compared to when I leave it to air dry.
10.) Plaited my hair into four plaits and flung on my wig, scalp massaged the next day with castor oil.

Other hairstyles that I have been trying in between my wash days:

Hope you had a great wash day!

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My Avo Masque Scare

So it is known that avocado is a moisturizing ingredient used in many hair products. It is also known that quite a number of healthy hair sojourners use avocado in its pure form as a deep conditioner.

I had been reading about Avo and its advantages, and why it it makes such a good moisturizing deep conditioning masque. I cringed at the thought of putting raw food on my hair, but I thought why not give this a try, it seems that it works on many people....

I blended the following ingredients:
- 1 Ripe Avocado
- 1 tbsp castor oil
- 1 tbsp ORS Replenishing conditioner (mixed this in afterwards, no way I would put hair stuff in the blender I use for food lol)
- 1 tbsp molasses (a humectant that is known to have similar moisturizing effects as honey)

This is how it looked in my hair:

Sooooo it did not quite have the expected results on my hair. As a matter of fact, it did the opposite of what I was hoping it would do, after rinsing it out with warm water. My hair was locked into 10 locks lol and it was harder than when I rinse out a hard protein treatment!

My saving grace was a concoction of all the moisturizing deep conditioners I could find in my house. Mixed abit of each and slapped it on to my hair, when I smoothed the deep conditioner in, my hair unlocked. I did an overnight deep condition, and my hair was soft when I rinsed and dried it, but not as soft and definitely not as moisturized as it could be when I use these deep conditioners on their own so I am blaming it on the AVOCADO.

Maybe its the species of the avocado, maybe I was just unlucky with this one avocado, or maybe I shouldn't have gone under the hooded dryer... But for whatever reason I got these results, I am quite sure that this is the last time I am putting natural food in my hair as it is...not taking no chances again lol.

I was soo disappointed that this masque did not give me the results that everyone else raves about, but anyway at least I can say that I have tried!

Have you ever done a natural Avocado treatment and how did it go?

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