So today was supposed to be my much anticipated (as it is every week) “wash day”. And I don’t mean for clothes, either. It’s the day that I use a better part of my day focusing on washing, conditioning and styling my hair. It became a weekly tradition once I decided that I wouldn’t go to salons as much as I used to. My reasoning for not going to the salon? I didn’t have a steady stylist that I could see all of the time and I have certain products that I like to use in my own hair. Plus, I can take that money and put it to much better use–preferably leaving it in the bank.

With my wash day, I usually start in the early afternoon and I don’t finish until nighttime where I always wrap my hair up in my satin scarf to hold the style until the morning. Here are my steps:

• Pre-shampoo hair with a protein conditioner and extra virgin olive oil. I can do this the night before up until the morning of my wash day.
• Shampoo my hair in the shower with a gentle shampoo.
• Add conditioner while still in the shower and use my Denman brush to brush it through.
• Put my bonnet over my hair and sit with the conditioner on for about 30 minutes.
• Wash out the conditioner and use a leave-in conditioner.

And then the routine can change depending on whether I’m wearing my hair straight or curly.  I’m natural and I have been natural for about 5 years now (one day, I’ll write a post about my journey), so I love the ability to choose how to wear my hair depending on what I’m feeling.  If I wear it straight, I can opt for a roller set or a blow dry–as damaging as that can be.  If I wear it natural, then I can do twists and twists outs or braid outs.

Here are some of the tools/products that I use:

My Denman brush--picture from Folica.com

Devacurl Low Poo

Lacio Lacio Leave-In Conditioner