I took my weave down last week but was not able to clean as thoroughly as I would have liked. I know some ladies wash their hair in sections all the time but, because it is not a technique I use often, I found it quite difficult to shampoo adequately. I wasn’t concerned because last week was all about the take down process and not causing any breakage which was HUGELY successful. This week’s wash day was all about getting my hair extra clean, which is precisely what I did.
French Braid Protective Style
Starting from the beginning, I saw and felt quite a bit of residual buildup on my scalp, particularly in my front hairline from trying to slick down my unruly edges. My hair felt amazingly moisturized and soft (although it looked crazy) so I decided to skip the prepoo. I actually wanted to strip my hair ever so slightly and the prepoo step prevents that – which actually is one of its primary purposes. I grabbed two shampoos, mainly to get a really good comparison – Optimum Care Replenishing Shampoo and Kerapro Restorative Shampoo for Dry to Very Dry Hair. I washed my hair first with water extremely well then lathered up withthe Optimum Care. This shampoo is very comparable to Kerapro – it is similar in consistency and gives the same smoothing effects, which makes sense because they both contain sulfates and ceramides. My hair felt clean but I wanted it to be naked so I shampooed a second time with the Kerapro shampoo. I can say I prefer the Kerapro but the Optimum Care is a good alternative for a larger bottle and less money. My hair felt just shy of stripped even with two shampoos so although these contain sulfates, neither is overly drying for my hair – perfect for a wash day in which you don’t need to clarify but simply need to remove buildup or heavy products (gels, edge control pomades, silicones, etc).
I then went on to deep condition with Kerapro Restorative Treatment for Dry to Very Dry Hair, which is my staple go-to deep conditioner but I’ve been testing others for upcoming reviews. I slathered it on my new growth and then used my heating cap to deep condition (because I still haven’t replaced my broken hair steamer) for about 30 minutes. When I rinsed the conditioner from my hair, I was thinking holy crapola this stuff is freakin amazing! Of course, I already knew that…but revisiting it was HEAVEN!
After hopping out of the shower I did my normal “faux air dry” (which I finally recorded, will be edited and up this weekend at the latest), applied some Bee Mine Hair Milk and fashioned it into a french braid and tucked the end inspired by Sdestra – hers always look so fabulous! You can tell by the amount of “poof” above my headband that I have a bunch of new growth, which makes me happy!
So that was this week’s wash day, although I am posting belatedly. I really like the look of this french braid plus it is so simple and easy to do! I plan on co-washing and getting my hair braided for the installation of the Ten Minute Hollywood Sew In that I introduced a couple of weeks ago. Stay tuned!
