First Wash Day Of 2015!

So!!! I was telling you all how I'd had my first wash day and in line with one of my goals to use more natural products this year, this is how the day went down :)

I'd taken off my crochet braids, pre poo'd with my Amla/Brahmi Oil, left it overnight and in the morning I shampooed - first with my clarifying shampoo in order to give my hair a fresh start. (because about a week before I got my crochet braids, I'd flat ironed my hair and so had used products with silicones to protect my strands from the thermal applicances).

I followed up with a moisturizing shampoo, then warmed up some Coconut, Olive, Avocado, Castor and Vitamin E oil, applied it to my hair and then just sat around for about 20 mins. I brought out my steamer and spent an additional 10 minutes under it.

Prior to going under the steamer I had brewed some Black Tea and some Nettle leaves for a tea rinse. I noticed my hair had shed a lot when I took out my crochet braids (more than normal I thought even though I'd had a protective style for about a month) and wanted to address that.

Black Tea and Nettle leaves brewing

Black tea when used in hair, helps to reduce shedding, adds shine and increases the highlights in your hair or darkens it. Nettle is rich in vitamins and minerals that help grow and condition hair (I'd stumbled on some in an health food store in London last month and bought it to try out)
So I poured the tea over my hair and scalp and proceeded to mix my deep conditioner. Now you all know ( or should know :) that I'm an Ayurvedic lover so decided I'd stick to an Ayurvedic mix today.

My  Ayurvedic Powders

So mixed up my regular Amla, Brahmi, Maka, Kapoor Kachli and Fenugreek (aka Methi) Now about the Fenugreek, I'd usually use the powder but I had some seeds I'd bought and decided to use that instead.

After blending

I soaked it for a while and then blended it till it was as smooth as I could get it. It ended up leaving serious residue in my hair even though I thought I'd rinsed as much as possible so had to stand with my head bent over and shake those particles away!

I had some Slippery Elm ( a mucilaginous herb that when used in hair, improves tensile strength, increases volume, detangles hair, making it soft and smooth) which was another herb that I'd found in the Health Food Store, and mixed this in.

To complete my mix, I added a few spoons of plain yoghurt ( yogurt helps to detangle hair, makes it soft and shiny, the protein found in it helps to add strength to hair while the acidic content helps with smoothing the hair's cuticles) some coconut oil, burdock root oil and essential oils of Ylang Ylang, Lavender, Rosemary and Peppermint.  (Someone said on my instagram page that on this hair journey we end up becoming chemists and evil geniuses lolllllllllll)

Final Mix

Anyway so I slathered this mix on my hair, and wrapped my hair with saran wrap for about an hour. Rinsed it out and then mixed my kimmaytube leave in but instead of using it directly after rinsing, I first sprayed my hair with rosewater, used an oil mix THEN applied the creamy leave in. My hair was super soft and detangled.

See how my curls became defined once the deep conditioning mix was in my hair

Later that evening when it was about 90% dry, I then applied my new moisturizer - Keracare Butter Creme (shall be doing a review on that soon) put it in plaits and went to bed.

My shedding is pretty much under control now and my hair feels nice and soft so hurray for my first wash day of 2015!

Will I be doing this every wash day? Errr nope!! I was giving myself a treat and don't think I will be spending as many hours as I did on this day every time I want to wash but definitely every now and again I shall be indulging in some leisurely, multi process wash days.

I shall be going back into protective styling next week and have bought the hair I shall be using for it - I am super excited about it and cant wait to see the results. Wish me luck!!!

Till my next post

xoxoxo