Final Wash Day of 2014 - Operation Cease The Shedding

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! This passed Sunday was my last wash day of 2014.  I notice that every wash day I start pondering about what I plan to do, which products I'm going to use, and finally, how I will style my hair.  My wash days are a lot more calculated; there's a method to the madness. Before my hair journey, I never put any thought into this. My how things change when you start to really focus on your hair goals and learning about your hair.

Lately, I have been experiencing more shedding than I care for.  I had not done a tea rinse in so long; in fact, I haven't done a tea rinse at all during 2014.  To be honest, when I was doing them I wasn't even really convinced that it was helping at all, but the main reason I omitted tea rinsing from my regimen was to save some time and steps on wash day. I really don't enjoy shower hopping.  Well, this wash day, I thought I'd bring tea rinsing back into the mix.

Green Tea|Marshmallow Root|Slippery Elm Bark|
Peppermint Essential Oil|Rosemary Essential Oil

My Wash Day Experience:

1.  I started off by massaging my scalp with a mixture of coconut oil and JBCO.  I then did a hot oil treatment with some Tea Tree Oil that I was trying to use up.

2. Next, I took a moment to prepare my Tea Rinse mixture which consisted of two bags of Green Tea, steeped with a little bit of marshmallow root and slippery elm bark. I also added a couple of drops each of peppermint and rosemary essential oils.  I was hoping that this mixture would help combat the drying effect of the green tea and help with detangling.

3.  I then shampooed my hair using ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo.

4. Next I applied the tea rinse using a color applicator bottle.  My hair still felt a little stiff despite my adding the marshmallow and slippery elm.  I may need to play around with the measurements a little more to get better results.

5. I deep conditioned using the last of my Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque which I mixed with a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil and JBCO.  I deep conditioned under my heating cap for about 45 minutes and allowed to cool before rinsing.

6.  I hopped back into the shower to rinse my DC and then applied It's A 10 Miracle Conditioner to help soften and detangle my hair because it still felt a little stiff after deep conditioning. It helped a little bit. I should have grabbed my Aussie Moist, but I was ready to get out of the shower and be done.

I then t-shirt dried my hair for a few minutes while I pondered back and forth on whether I wanted to blow dry my hair or go with curls. I decided on pulling out my CurlFormers.  My leave-ins were Jessicurl Too Shea Extra Moisturizing Conditioner, GVP Smoothing Serum, and Jessicurl Confident Coils Styling Solution(to help set my curls). It did take me a while to install the CurlFormers because I had to spend a good bit of time detangling each section.  I definitely think the Too Shea Extra Moisturizing Conditioner helped to soften my hair for easier detangling.

I left the Curlformers in overnight to allow my hair to air dry. It wasn't too bad sleeping in them this time around.  I think I had the CurlFormers too tight at the root last time so I tried to make sure they were more loose this time around. This definitely helped.

Tea rinsing was definitely the star of this wash day.  I can truly say that this time around I am 100% certain that tea rinsing definitely works for reducing shedding. For the past several weeks, whenever I would run my fingers through my hair I was constantly pulling out shed strands of hair.  After tea rinsing, this has not been happening.  Tea rinsing is definitely here to stay.


How was your wash day? Are you battling with constant shedding? How does tea rinsing work for you?

Wishing everyone a very safe and Happy New Year!

Thanks for reading,

First Wash Day Post in a Looooong While...(8 Months Post)

So this is my first wash day post since I don't even remember...some time last year.  I've not had a single post this year and it's almost 2015 *jaw dropping*.  This year has flown by so fast. Well for my hair's sake, I've got to get back to keeping up with what I'm doing with my hair and what is working.  I'm not where I had hoped to be in my journey, so maybe getting back to documenting what I'm doing will help.

I am currently around 8 months post relaxer.  For this wash day I decided to pull out my Curl Formers to help stretch my roots and give me nice smooth air dried curls.  I don't know why I have not used them since my very first post here, but Jeni's gorge results from her curl former dupes made me want to dust off these babies. I've yet to master any other form of curling my hair (i.e. flexi rods, roller sets, etc.) 

Here's how my wash day went:

1. Prepooed using Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque mixed with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  The olive oil definitely helped as I did not care much for this conditioner the first time I tried it. I left this in under my heat cap for maybe 45 minutes.

2. Next I shampooed with Mane and Tail shampoo only once.

3. I had planned to DC but it was getting late, so to cut my wash day short I applied KeraPro Restorative conditioner and let it sit for a few minutes while I showered, then rinsed.

4. Finally I applied my leave ins. This time I used Jessi Curl Too Shea Extra Moisturizing conditioner and I tried the Jessi Curl Confident Coils Styling Solution hoping it would help with setting my curls.

5. I then installed the curl formers starting from the back and thoroughly detangling each section (which seemed to take much longer than my first time since I did not detangle then).

stretched roots at 8 months post

Sleeping in those things was, of course, a night mare. Ugh I kept moving throughout the night trying to find a comfortable position (which did not exist) and I woke with a sore neck. :( :( :(

The curls were cute though. I even made them last through day 3 using the pineapple method to preserve my curls. My first time trying this and it works like a charm, let me tell you!

Day 2 Curls

Day 3 Curls

I guess this wash did kind of remind me why as to why I've not used my curl formers in over a year. They're cute and all, but I prefer getting a good nights sleep for sure! Maybe next time I can do them early enough so that I don't have to sleep in them,  I do love how smooth the curls come out and the fact that I don't have to use any heat. Major plus!

How did your wash day go? Are you a curl former fan? What methods have you mastered at getting that gorgeous curly do?

B-T-Double-U - If you have a wash day post, be sure to share your experience via the Wash Day Experience link-up hosted by Saving Our Strands and Just Grow Already. 

HHG!

Andrea

Curlformer Set at 9 Weeks Post

So yesterday I decided to cowash my hair and try out my new curlfomers. I ordered them online from Sally's while they were offering their 20% discount on online purchases.  I purchased the Curlformer kit in extra long and wide which includes 40 curlformers and two rods.  I also ordered 3 more packs of 6 to make sure I had enough, and it's a good thing because I ended up using 51.  I probably could have gone with the long and wide instead of extra long and wide, but I wanted to be able to grow into them...they are not cheap.

Tried to get a pic of the back;
two different colors spiral in different directions

I got the urge to try these out after watching Naptural85's youtube video tutorial.  After seeing the smooth results she got on her natural hair, I definitely had to give them a try.  Please check out her video below.

They were pretty easy to install and I did them while I was sitting on the couch watching TV. Lol!.Like in Whitney's video above I started from the back and worked my way up. It probably took me an hour and a half or so(probably because I was sitting on the couch watching TV...Ha ha!).  I kept my spray bottle(setting lotion diluted with distilled water) at my side to re-wet as I installed.  I ended up sleeping with the curlformers in my hair so they could air dry and so I could wake up with fresh curls in the a.m.  I will admit that they weren't the easiest to sleep in, but I've dealt with worse to wake up with cute hair. The things we go through...lol! My hair was completely dry by morning. Check out my results.

Smooth shiny air dried curls

Side view (Just woke up...lol)

Separated curls for fullness and threw on a headband
(got a weird flash on this pic...sorry)

I was very pleased with how my hair turned out.  Smooth, shiny curls with absolutely no heat.  I am currently about 9 weeks post.  The curlformers definitely helped a bit with stretching out my new growth. This will be a new option for me to go to during my stretches. I'm almost at 10 weeks post and squeaking with excitement! I was an every 6 week touch up girl before starting my HHJ so I'm pretty proud of me right now.  I was able to get up to 8 week stretches, now working on 10.  Woot woot!

Has anyone else tried using curlformers? How did you like them?

Thanks for reading,

   Andrea