Cut down time on wash day with natural hair
Newbie naturals and even some experienced naturals find wash day a chore.
When you decide to take care of your natural hair you also make the conscious decision to learn about an entire new part of your body so it needs not to be a frustrating experience every wash-day.
I also understand that there are different hair types as well as lifestyle constraints so there is no ultimate rule or formula for washing natural hair but the following can be used as a guide.
- Before washing your hair, try do detangle out of the shower first. You can choose to detangle with products or with an oil. Finger detangling is best as tools can rip your hair and cause breakage.
- After fully detangling, apply shampoo directly to your scalp. (Don’t rinse with water yet!) This easily helps to loosen the dirt and product build up on your scalp so that after one rinse, most of the dirt comes off.
- Next, twist or braid your hair loosely. If your hair is short, you can simply divide your hair in sections with sectioning clips. Adding this step to your natural hair regimen will reduce how much tangles and knots you get when your hair shrinks.
- After rinsing out the shampoo, apply your deep conditioner and leave it in for 15-30 minutes under a shower cap. If you choose to use a steamer you cut the time to 10 minutes. The whole point of deep conditioning every wash day is to make sure you hair is fully strengthened, hydrated, moisturized and well nourished.
- Following that, you rinse off the deep conditioner with apple cider vinegar. 2-3 tablespoons of ACV to a glass of water is good enough. This step helps to restore the pH balance of your hair. Then squeeze out the excess water with a t-shirt and apply your leave-in conditioner, hair butter and oil to seal.
This is a general guide. You can always cut down the steps and adjust it to your lifestyle.
You can find more tips on how to keep and grow your natural hair in This is Why Your Natural Hair is Breaking and 25 Tips & Tricks for Growing & Maintaining Natural Hair.
If you are not a fan of reading, you can keep up with my tutorials on YouTube below.
18 comments
great post wash day is always a struggle for me but im getting there
Hopefully, it gets better. To be honest, its all a mental thing. Once you tell yourself something is stressful, it will continue to be even if its not.
your hair is beautiful just like mine, i think we ‘re hair twining lol i’ll like to see more vid’s, what you hair porosity & how do u take care of tht.
Hair twins!! Your hair is certainly beautiful too. I’ll try to work on more videos but my problem isn’t shooting, its editing. I just take forever to edit. lol!
Thanks for the tips I must practice #3 to stop tangles.
You’re welcome! Hopefully it works for you. 🙂
i needed this thank you so much
You’re welcome!
is it better to co-wash or shampoo?
It depends on you and your lifestyle. Co-washing has its advantages and can be used very often especially if you workout a lot and moisturizing shampoos are also good for regular use. It really boils down to preference.
and which would be better for color treated hair?
For colour treated hair, co-washing is better if you want the colour to last longer. Regular shampoos lift the pigments of colour from the hair shaft.
hi… do you twist out first before shampooing or right after shampooing??
I looooove your hair. I just stumbled upon your site last night!! where have I been?
Hi, Grace!
Thank you for being here! Do you have my App yet? I have an update coming soon and yes I twist before Shampooing.
It’s quite inspiring seeing another type 4 natural with such beautiful hair! It’s been such a struggle growing mine, mainly cos of a few bad/lazy habits here and there, but I plan to do this properly going forward.
I just wanted to know what you do between wash days? Do you moisturize daily and how?
Wash days is a struggle for me cos I don’t have a shower so I have to wash in a different way by bending my head and washing a bowl. This is a struggle. I went through your app and is ok. I hope I can manage.
I wash the same way you do. Bending over my bath tub. It’s not a struggle if you wash your hair in twists.