Friday, September 13, 2019
Saturday, June 29, 2019
The lifecycle of a wash
My hair looks different throughout the wash cycle - So I took this time series to show how it changes.
My routine, currently, is to wash:
flip hair upside down (yes I spend 90% of my shower bent over scalp parallel to floor. my back does occasionally hurt, I've started trying to engage my abs and it seems to be ameliorating the subsequent soreness)
cleanse: no-poo original at the scalp - also it smells terrible. when I apply it to my hair I smell like wet dog. awful. but alas: I rub it in vigorously to all parts then scrunch my hair up towards the cream so it moves down the hair strand - cleaning and moisturizing to the end. (I would use low-poo to make cleansing easier on me but the original isn't vegan and they were out of the delight)
rinse - starting the detangle process near the scalp - yeah this seems bad to me but the top of my hair is less damaged and detangles easily during the cleanse stage - the rest waits.
condition: heaven in hair through the length. I have to unscrew the top then scoop this out because it's a tub. I think it debuted as a deep condition treatment and now they advertise it as a switch with regular conditioner. it was hella expensive but it does smell nice and have a pretty teal color so? Anyway - use start by working that into the last 10 inches first - squish to condish, working through, gently teasing apart the tangles and pulling out the stuck hair fall. (curly hair clumps and so as hairs fall out they don't necessarily fall -they get stuck in their hair clump and hang out until they are washed and detangled - so it looks like a lot more hairfall in the shower since much less during the dry days). then I work my way up with conditioner on my hands and get within 2 inches of the scalp. I'm trying to take more time with the back of the hair - in the upside down position it's more difficult to get to...actually even in the right-side up it's a PITA.
then I clip it all up on my head to wash my body and face (been experimenting with completing with clipping at different stages of detangle so that the conditioner sinks in before I finish the detangle or after.) I let it down - make sure no new tangles have appeared - it loves to grab itself and make new tangles.
so then I start squishing and scrunching the hair to get some water out. try to do it to every part of my scalp. Then I grab ultra defining gel with it's still wet but not dripping. (experimenting with watering the gel down right now - it's interesting so far) and I spread it over the back of my head down to the tips (remember, upside-down) then along the front in praying hands method. then I scrunch from the ends (okay fine sometimes I scrunch the ends first and last).
I then throw on my aquis turban - I haven't seen real different between this and any other microfiber towel except the elastic around the edges is so nice. It's also too short fo rmy hair by about 3 inches so I kinda tap my hair until it falls inside the elastic then twist it up. I brush my teeth and about 15 mins after tying it up I take our the turban in bed and let the hair sit in front of my face until I lie back on the (cotton) pillow when I flip it up in a fan above my head. I try to sleep on my back but it doesn't always work. oh well. when I wake up it's dry and in a bit of a gel cast and naturally hangs in front of my face, then starts to part on one side and the other as I do things in the morning.
My routine, currently, is to wash:
flip hair upside down (yes I spend 90% of my shower bent over scalp parallel to floor. my back does occasionally hurt, I've started trying to engage my abs and it seems to be ameliorating the subsequent soreness)
cleanse: no-poo original at the scalp - also it smells terrible. when I apply it to my hair I smell like wet dog. awful. but alas: I rub it in vigorously to all parts then scrunch my hair up towards the cream so it moves down the hair strand - cleaning and moisturizing to the end. (I would use low-poo to make cleansing easier on me but the original isn't vegan and they were out of the delight)
rinse - starting the detangle process near the scalp - yeah this seems bad to me but the top of my hair is less damaged and detangles easily during the cleanse stage - the rest waits.
condition: heaven in hair through the length. I have to unscrew the top then scoop this out because it's a tub. I think it debuted as a deep condition treatment and now they advertise it as a switch with regular conditioner. it was hella expensive but it does smell nice and have a pretty teal color so? Anyway - use start by working that into the last 10 inches first - squish to condish, working through, gently teasing apart the tangles and pulling out the stuck hair fall. (curly hair clumps and so as hairs fall out they don't necessarily fall -they get stuck in their hair clump and hang out until they are washed and detangled - so it looks like a lot more hairfall in the shower since much less during the dry days). then I work my way up with conditioner on my hands and get within 2 inches of the scalp. I'm trying to take more time with the back of the hair - in the upside down position it's more difficult to get to...actually even in the right-side up it's a PITA.
then I clip it all up on my head to wash my body and face (been experimenting with completing with clipping at different stages of detangle so that the conditioner sinks in before I finish the detangle or after.) I let it down - make sure no new tangles have appeared - it loves to grab itself and make new tangles.
so then I start squishing and scrunching the hair to get some water out. try to do it to every part of my scalp. Then I grab ultra defining gel with it's still wet but not dripping. (experimenting with watering the gel down right now - it's interesting so far) and I spread it over the back of my head down to the tips (remember, upside-down) then along the front in praying hands method. then I scrunch from the ends (okay fine sometimes I scrunch the ends first and last).
I then throw on my aquis turban - I haven't seen real different between this and any other microfiber towel except the elastic around the edges is so nice. It's also too short fo rmy hair by about 3 inches so I kinda tap my hair until it falls inside the elastic then twist it up. I brush my teeth and about 15 mins after tying it up I take our the turban in bed and let the hair sit in front of my face until I lie back on the (cotton) pillow when I flip it up in a fan above my head. I try to sleep on my back but it doesn't always work. oh well. when I wake up it's dry and in a bit of a gel cast and naturally hangs in front of my face, then starts to part on one side and the other as I do things in the morning.
It's been windy so I leave it in the cast on the subway/ walk to work and when I get there it looks fine.
and then I fluff (pick out the roots a bit while bent over from the front and the back with my fingers) and scrunch out the crunch (mechanically damage the gel cast by compressing with my hands so the hair is free but maintains the curl it was held in by the gel)
then later in the day (about 9 hours later) it looked like:
I put it in a pineapple with a satin scrunchie and sleep. I have to wrap the scrunchie around twice to get it to stay - else in my middle of the night it comes off and it gave me sleep anxiety about my hair. I also sleep on a satin pillowcase on dry nights. I wake up and take the scrunchie out as delicately as possible and get loads of pineapple volume...and many curls have decided to not conform. I'm not yet good at refreshing so I don't...I just deal.
appologies for not more pictures on day 2. but same routine for sleeping (sometimes I wash on day 2, other times I wait a third day.) and now it's started to get less lush - more friz, less definition, more sparse looking. the top 3-5 inches just look straight from the pineapple....been trying to make it looser but eh.
and then later that night right before I set off to do a treatment. Sunday luxuriating.
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