The Wash Day Series: 7 Essentials to Starting a Healthy Hair Journey

Wash days are what I would say are the backbone to a healthy hair care regimen.

Without wash days, you would not be able to keep your hair and scalp clean, hydrated and strengthened.

Before I share my detailed steps for wash days, I think it is important to share the essentials of a healthy hair care journey so that

A) You do not go on an unnecessary shopping spree
B) You appreciate that products can only take you so far. Your consistency and technique is far more important.

You really do not need to complicate your healthy hair journey. All you need are a few essentials to get started, and you can slowly build up on the rest.

You can have the best products in the market, and have unhealthy hair. But it is unlikely that you will have unhealthy hair when applying consistent good healthy hair practices, unless the products you are using are awful (e.g. have chemicals like parabens, a lot of sulfates, etc).

So here are my 7 Essentials list, let me know what yours are if you have already started your healthy hair journey:

1.) Wide tooth comb
2.) Shea Oil OR Avocado Oil
3.) A sulfate free shampoo
4.) Satin scarf
5.) A protein conditioner
6.) A moisturizing conditioner
7.) A spray bottle with water

• I would mix the oil, conditioner and water to make a moisturizer
• I use a satin scarf DAILY without fail. This is a very important part of my routine, as it keeps my hair moisturized when I am asleep (which is a good 6-8 hours a day)
• A wide tooth comb is necessary for detangling especially when deep into a relaxer stretch and you have lot of new growth that easily gets detangled.
• A shampoo is needed to keep your scalp clean on wash days
• Both Moisturizing and Protein conditioner are a a yes-yes to keep your hair balanced between moisturer and strength, depending on how your hair feels each wash day. If it feels dry, you probably need some moisture. If it feels too mushy and very elastic, you probably need some protein.

What are you 5 essentials?

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Guide to picking the right comb for your Healthy Hair

Starting my hair journey, I had never ever gone more than a day without combing my hair, unless it was in protective styles.

So going 2 or 3 days and even a week, just on finger detangling, was one of the hardest but also one of the best habits I learnt.

Ideally you should not comb your hair unless you need to straighten it or detangle it because it has a lot of knots or is matted. Our ancestors used their fingers to detangle their hair, and it worked for them... BUT, different hair types react differently to this approach.

If you are the type who gets a lot of single strand knots and matted hair, it might be better for you to keep your hair stretched and detangled as much as possible, while minimising the use of combs and brushes which also cause a lot of manipulation and damage to our hair strands.

Other tips for combing your hair:

• Never detangle dry hair. Apply oil or a detangler or spritz it with water so that it is easier to run your comb through your hair. Do not make it too wet, hair is generally at its weakest point when extremely dry or wet.
• Finger detangle first before you run a comb through your hair.
• Do it in sections. Depending on the length of your hair, 4 – 8 parts is a good idea. You can use butterfly clips to secure each section.
• Comb your hair through when you have the time and patience for it.
• After combing each section, twist, and pin before you move on to the next section. Do not try to comb a huge amount of hair at once. You will lose a lot of hair this way and cause split ends.

Here are a few types of combs and uses, which you obviously need to assess based on what your hair needs:

1) Tangle teezer: Works for thick hair types that tend to get knotted or matted in between washes. Brushes knots out easily. Useful for transitioners who get a lot of single strand knots during the transition from relaxed to natural hair.

2)  Seamless comb: Works for straightening the hair when blow drying.

3) Ceramic Bristle Brush: Achieves Faster blowouts, smoother hair and big curls when blowdrying.

4) Afro comb: Useful for undoing cornrows.

5) Wide tooth comb: Detangling during and in between wash days.

6) Denman brush: Smoothing hair after detangling with wide tooth comb.

7) Rattail comb: Parting hair and smoothing down hair when flat ironing.

I use my widetooth comb most of the time, and my Denman brush to smooth out my new growth.

Remember, combs cause manipulation = breakage.

The smaller the spaces in between the teeth of the comb, the more likely you are to damage your hair. So use rattail and afro combs sparingly and use only when necessary.

Personally, I comb my hair twice a week with a Wide tooth Comb and I smooth my new growth with my Denman brush on wash days.

Which is your most used comb?

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Olaplex Treatment: Review

So eeeveryone has been raving about this product of late. When I first came across it, I thought it was a new product, only to find that it has been in the market for a while. I think the hype is because more and more women of colour have realised that it can work for their hair too.

What is Olaplex?

It is a treatment that works to build the bonds that have been broken from chemical processes such as relaxers, bleaches, etc you name it. It also builds bonds that have been broken from thermal and mechanical processes such as flat ironing, blow drying, combing etc. Basically anything you do to your hair that increases the chances of breakage.

From Olaplex.com: Olaplex is a patented active ingredient that works on a molecular level to seek out broken bonds in the hair that are caused by chemical, thermal, and mechanical damage. You can use Olaplex to restore compromised hair, or add it to another service to provide the ultimate breakage insurance.

This is how a strand of your hair looks like under a microscope. The more split ends and breakage you have, the less smooth your strand looks.

Why I went on the Olaplex bandwagon?

Honestly, my hair was in ICU 2 months ago. I had been experiencing a lot of breakage caused by stress and a vegeterian diet that I went on without gradually allowing my body to adjust to the new diet.

I was in desparate need of getting a product that would control the breakage. I tried protein treatments, mixed protein and moisture, heavy protein treatments etc but none of them worked. My ends were always damaged. I trimmed a total of 6-8 inches over the last 6 months which was not necessary if I did not have the breakage that I was experiencing.

So when I heard about Olaplex from some of my favourite healthy hair bloggers, I thought it was worth trying...

How it works?

The initial Olaplex set consisted of  a 3-step treatment, of which the first 2 are meant for salon use only. After washing hair Step 1 is applied and is meant to stay on your hair for some 10 minutes. Step 2 is applied on top of Step 1 and I waited longer on Step 2 as the hairdresser (check my Instagram post for more detail on this salon visit) recommended so due to my excessive breakage.

Note: The entire range is not a protein conditioner, you would still need to continue with your usual wash day steps and incorporate this in between. I applied it after shampooing my hair and before my deep conditioner step.

Step 3 is an at home treatment, which I have been using the same way I use a moisturizing treatment, with a heat cap to just get an extra level of punch out of it. 

I applied very little of the Step 3 product to my hair (a little goes a long way and it has some slip to help with that), and 1 bottle will probably last me 3-4 applications.

Where to find it?

This one is a bit tricky because according to the Olaplex customer service agent that I chatted with on the website, they can only confirm the authenticity of products that are distributed through their approved salon network. Personally, I took the option of finding an approved salon and performing the treatment there.

I got the No 3 treatment, which is an at home treatment, from an approved distributor as well that is based in SA (ohmybeauty.co.za).

You can find the products on Amazon, but you would need to be really careful about the authenticity of the products that you are buying - maybe get them from a company where Amazon despatches the items or read the reviews before selecting the seller.

Price

No 1 and 2 treatment: Check Amazon for price details. 

No 3 at home treatment: USD 35 

The Verdict

It definitely did what it promises. to do Since my first application, my breakage has reduced significantly so I am very happy about that. My hair also feels very smooth after washing the No 3 treatment out. However, to be honest, the smooth feeling does not last long. The hairdresser had informed me that the product wears off after some time - I guess like any other product. 

It is expensive, so I do not intend using it every week as per recommendations. I will probably use it every other week and on my relaxer day. 

I am definitely incorporating this product into my regimen!

Have you used Olaplex? Did you like it, love it or naah?

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How to start a Healthy Hair Journey on a Budget!

Yes ladies, it is possible to start your healthy hair journey on a budget as low as USD50!!!

You do not need fancy OR expensive products that you would need to save up for months on end. All you need are basic items to help you get the most out of healthy hair techniques.

When I started this healthy hair journey, one of the biggest mistakes I made was experimenting far too soon on different products, which I ended up giving away. So instead of going this route, you are better off getting products that generally work and then with time, you could experiment and try other products (ONE AT A TIME).

You are actually far better off practicing good healthy hair techniques than having the best hair care product range.

So here are the bare minimums of what you need, based on my experience so far. All products are available at Super Cosmetics/ Best Lady Cosmetics.

Tools:

(1) Wide tooth comb: KSh 500/ USD 5
(2) Hair sectioning clips: KSh 700/ USD 7 for a pack of 8 clips

Products:

(1) Sulfate free shampoo: KSh 750/ USD 5 (Creme of Nature)
(2) Clarifying shampoo: KSh 550/ USD 5 (ORS Clarifying Shampoo)
(3) Deep conditioner: KSh 500/ USD 5 (Saru organics hair growth masque)
(4) Protein conditioner: KSh 550/ USD 5 (ORS Hair Mayonnaise)
(5) Oil from home Olive/ Coconut oil: KSh 450/ USD (Kentaste Coconut Oil)
(6) Detangler/Leave-in conditioner/ Moisturiser : Ksh 900/ USD 9 (Marini Naturals)

Total cost KSh 4,900/ USD 50

The cost above might seem too much, but you can easily save this up by reducing your salon trips and going only when you really need to.

Other things you could do that can help save more pennies:

- Try out DIY recipes for conditioners & detanglers (e.g. avocado and banana hair masques as a protein treatment). Please start by trying out on a small piece of your hair, you do not want a disaster experiment happenning on your beautiful locks! You could save an additional KSh 1,050/ USD 10 by using DIY conditioner recipes.

- Maximise on water! Drink it, and use it on your hair as a pre-moisturising step. Just don't soak your hair with water, as it might cause tangles and unnecessary breakage.

- You could rent a hairdryer from a salon in town - simply pay a small fee to use their dryer - that way, you do not have to spend a lot of cash on hair equipment.

- Little at a time: Experiment on new products ONE AT A TIME and only when you have gotten a working regimen. I spent too much time & money experimenting the latest product in town, and ended up giving a lot of these products away :-(

- ALWAYS prepare a budget before you go to the store and stick to it. The next product on the shelf is not thaaat much better than what you have, stick to what you have if it works for you.

I hope you found this post helpful! Please let me know what other topics or information on healthy hair you would be interested in, that I could share on this blog :-)

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5 Healthy Hair Methods that I ditched

The truth is, not ALL healthy hair methods and practices will work for you. The hard part is figuring out what works and what doesn't. I learned the hard way - after lots of breakage that I could not understand, but finally figured it out, and I am still learning.


So here are 5 Healthy Hair methods that I no longer practice, they simply did not work for me or my lifestyle:


*DISCLAIMER* - The list below may or may not work for your hair, this is what has not worked for mine.

(1) Long-term relaxer stretching: This is when you stay long periods of time between getting your hair relaxed/retouched. My new growth tends to be quite chaotic and I realised that keeping it for long was causing more breakage than relaxing it more often. I now try to keep to a 13-14 week relaxer stretch, down from 18-24 weeks.

(2) A selection of some protective styles, e.g. crochet braids, singles: These protective styles caused havoc on my hairline especially after having my baby. They were too heavy for my hairline, and the fact that the cost makes it difficult to keep these for anything less than a month meant that I was not able to care for my hair the way I would have wanted.

(3) Washing my hair twice a month: Now this may or may not work for you just like everything else on this post, but certainly did not work for me especially now that I exercise on average 2-3 times a week. I now wash my hair every week, and when plaited, I co-wash it.

(4) Combing my hair once a week: I now comb my hair 2-3 times a week to keep it detangled. I found that my hair fairs better when it is detangled than when it was those dreaded single stranded knots stuck in there somewhere. The hand detangling method just does not work when I have a lot of new growth...

(5) Moisturizing and sealing my hair daily: Although I try to keep up with this, sometimes it is just not possible. So at the very least, I moisturize and seal every other day and on the days when I do not do this, I spray my hair with water and followed my an oil mixture. It also does not do my hair any good, when I moisturize and seal daily when I am past 8-10 weeks post relaxer, because that would mean detangling my hair and my new growth, and that is also some manipulation so I found a way around it - using water and oil sprays so that I keep the manipulation at minimal levels.


What healthy hair methods have not worked for you?

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Hi, Welcome Back!

Hi everyone!

This is just a short post to say that I am back to blogging now! Had definitely missed it, and missed engaging with all of you through my blog, but being a new mama and having a demanding job left me with no time to blog... Kudos to all the mamas who have been able to do all these things and still keep up with their blogs, youtube channels etc!

I am looking forward to the remaining part of the year, and would like to change things a bit on the blog with some new content. My blog will focus on

-> Hair care (Off Course, this will remain the primary focus of my blog, so don't leave just yet if you are wondering whether the new topics below are relevant for you)
-> Skin care - with all the hormonal changes I have experienced over the last 2 years, I would definitely like to take you through my journey to a better looking face
-> Mom's corner - talking about all things motherhood. I am not an expert here so this content will focus on MY experience and learnings.

Stay tuned for new blog posts, every Tuesday!

Becca

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