Lesson 1: The best way to detangle my hair
As I mentioned yesterday, leaving the palm coils in for so long and getting them wet created a lot of knots, snags, tangles and matting in my hair. But I managed to get them out without much of a problem. Since I see this question posted a lot on various hair boards, I'm going to post my answer here.
Step 1: I generously apply conditioner to my hair from ends to root while the twists/braids/coils are still in. I don't think that it is possible to add too much conditioner, I just keep putting it on until my hair is completely saturated. I do not try to untwist or comb my hair in any way.
Step 2: I put on a shower cap and wrap a towel around the shower cap. My microfiber turban is my favorite for this because it stays put.
Step 3: Wait 15-30 minutes. I don't really time it, I just go do stuff until I am ready to proceed to....
Step 4: I begin to untwist/uncoil my hair. As I undo each twist, I gently comb. Once I undo an entire section, I gently brush it with my wooden brush.
Step 5: I rinse my hair. Sometimes, this is a pre shampoo treatment and sometimes I rinse and style.
The other lesson: there is a reason why I am not a fulltime no pooer.
Last night, I just rinsed the conditioner out and styled, forgetting that it had been a while since I clarified. I have been paying the price all day - my hair seems dull, my scalp feel dry and itchy and my products just aren't working right. So I will shampoo and style tonight.
Note to self: do not leave palm coils in for more than a week. Especially if they have gotten wet.
I am just getting around to taking out these coils. They are starting to look like cute little starter locs and thanks to getting rained on, they are well on their way to being permanent. I thought about just leaving them in forever, but I am not ready yet. So, I am about to soak them with conditioner, comb them out, wash and braid for tomorrow's puff.
Last weekend, I decided to change it up a little bit and go back to palm coils. I haven't worn them since my hair was 3-5 inches long. So I no pooed and twisted my hair while wet with some Oyin Shine and Define. When I looked at them that night, I didn't really like them and redid a few sections where the coils were too big and as a result, puffy in the middle and unraveling at the ends. I tied my hair up and went to bed thinking they would look better in the morning.
They didn't. But, I put a lot of time into the style, so I threw in some hair clips and went about my day.
By Wednesday, they looked pretty good. The steam of the shower helped bring back some life (along with some Greg Juice) and they have held a lot of moisture during the week. My scalp feels good, so I think that I will leave them in for at least one more week and then try something else.
I would like to grow out my hair, but I can't stand the feel of my hair on my neck. So every month I have to stop myself from cutting my hair. Whenever I trim my hair (not monthly), I always have this urge to keep cutting until I have a cute 1-2 inch TWA.
Yesterday, I gave into that urge a little bit and took off an inch or two. My hair looks ok, I think. Now I just have to hide the scissors away for another 2-3 months.
I tried the Honey Moisturizing Conditioner about two weeks ago. It was very much like the Oyin Honey Hemp Conditioner, just a little thicker and a little less natural feeling, if that makes any sense. Considering the cost, I will stick with Oyin.
I also tried Trader Joe's Essential Herbal Conditioner (a cheapie at $1.99). I've only used it once for no pooing, but I think that I am in love. I also have a bottle of Trader Joe's Citrus conditioner that I have not used yet. I doubt that either will replace my tried and true Suave Milk and Honey simply because of availability - no Trader Joe's where I live, they don't have an online store and I don't go to Atlanta enough to make it worthwhile (although I am sure that my mom would mail it to me if I asked). But it could certainly be an option in my routine since it is very high quality and did I mention CHEAP!
I did a pretty major trim/ borderline cut last night. Wearing a puff and pressing my hair really hurt my ends so I gave in to me need to cut my hair and took about an inch or so of fraying, knotted, nasty feeling ends off. I'm leaving my hair in twists for a while (the twists have been in for about a week - I am shooting for three weeks). I'm hunting around for head wraps - I think they will be a nice change for the winter.
My routine hasn't changed much for the winter, except that I wash my hair less. I've been going along with whatever my scalp wants and right now my scalp wants to be left alone, with the occasional application of Greg Juice twice a week and shower steam daily.
I decided to go somewhere I haven't gone in a while. I put the flat iron on low heat and pressed my hair. Not to make it bone straight but to loosen the curl a little bit. The result was easier to comb hair, a bigger puff and a lot of breakage. I look cute, but it is going to take some serious deep conditioning to recover.
I picked up some Honey Moisturizing Conditioner at The Body Shop today. I haven't tried it yet, so we will see.
I lasted two weeks, took the twists down, wore a puff for a day and put the twists back in.
My fear of tangles got to me. And I really needed to deep condition my hair. But after a night of Oyin love and a lovely change in the weather, my hair seems to be in better shape.
I'm trying to leave this set of twists in for a month. Partially as a challenge to myself and partially because I did these twists so small that I don't even want to think about trying to take them out yet. I've had them in for a little over a week now.
To keep them from locing, I am conditioner washing at least once a week and retwisting at least a 1/3 of the twists after each wash. So far, they seem to be holding up nicely. I don't know if that will last until October 29th.
No new products lately. I'm trying to use up the products that I have right now. I owe myself a deep conditioning since that hasn't happened in a few weeks. Maybe this weekend I will try to DC with the twists in. That should be an interesting experiment.
In other news, my hair is pretty healthy and getting longer. I've decided to postpone a major cut until July of next year, since I want to have really big hair for my college and high school reunions. Or at least a really big puff.
I decided to take a break from the twists and wore a puff all last week. I won't do that again anytime soon.
The puff looked cute, but I have got to come up with a better way to hold it. The doubled up "ouchless" headband holds it fine, but always leaves me with a headache around midday. I tried loosening it some, but that just make my hair look messy. On top of that, I ran into the usual moisturizing problem after a couple of days, but I didn't really have the time to put the twists back in. But they are in now and the way that I am feeling, they will be in for at least a month. Well, after I take them down tonight and wash the smell of grease and charcoal out of my hair.
No new products, but I did keep using the Aveda Rosemary Mint shampoo last week. I think it may have contributed to the dryness - or the fact that I haven't deep conditioned my hair in about 3 weeks may have done that. I think that I will at least finish the tiny bottle tonight (and deep condition) and go from there. I did crack open my new jar of Whipped Pudding that has been sitting in the fridge for a few weeks. Yum.
A few weeks ago, I was given some hotel sized samples of Aveda Rosemary Mint Shampoo and Conditioner. I didn't get around to using them until this morning. I really liked the Rosemary Mint Shampoo. It has a great smell, I didn't need to use a lot and it left my hair feeling cleansed but not rough or dry.
The jury is out on the Rosemary Mint conditioner. It smelled good and it went on fine, but there wasn't nearly enough in that little bottle to get a good idea of how well it worked. I couldn't even get enough slip to do a proper detangle with the brush, so I just used the shower comb and hoped for the best. I should have just rinsed and used the Suave, but oh well.
This was the bad idea part. I know by now that if I have had my hair in a protective style for more than a week, I need to detangle with the brush or there will be hell to pay in dealing with all of the shed hair that doesn't get picked up by a comb. I need a trim anyway, so my hair is not in a good place. In the interests of time, I threw in some twists and called it a day. I will trim and restyle tonight. I might co-wash and detangle with the brush as well.
I also noticed a lot more growth since last time. I'm out of my desperate need to cut and thinking more about color and highlights. I've heard that you can use honey and lemon juice as a natural lightener, but I need to get more information.
