Tip of The Week: Wash Day Detangling

13 weeks post relaxer

To help reduce tangling on wash day, I wash my hair in braids. Normally, I do 8 braids total. However, during this long stretch (and with skipping wash day last week), I needed more control of my roots while detangling to minimize breakage.

Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave...

When we decide to skip wash day at 12 weeks post relaxer.

The past two weeks have been extra busy with the book tasks and my first riding show. So I decided to skip wash day last week in part because I was simply exhausted. My relaxer appointment is on Saturday, so I must wash my hair today.

I've been wearing my hair in a low bun (for riding) and haven't detangled my hair in far too long. The combination of loose shed hair and my thick roots are a formula for disaster. Fortunately, I've been able to avoid a setback by doing the following:

Relaxer Prep - The Night Before

If you follow me on Twitter (@kibibihair) then you already know that I am in DC to get my relaxer done.
To prep for my relaxer, I used the following products and techniques.

Shea, Oh Shea [Butter]!

I love shea butter for the wintertime. It is thick and heavy, which is perfect for sealing in my moisturizer. I completely forgot that I had some pure shea butter that I bought from coastalscents.com a couple of years ago. It occurred to me this week that it was still packed in a box. So I unpacked it and proceeded to slather it all over my hair and newgrowth.

Relaxer in T Minus 7 Days!

11 weeks of newgrowth, I will relax at 14 weeks

If you follow me on Twitter, then you already know that I got extremely sick this past week. I'm not back to 100% yet, but I am feeling much better.

My relaxer is next week Saturday and I'm beyond excited. I will find out whether I made waist length in 2011. Now I know this is 2012, but since I only do length checks after each relaxer I had to wait.

Lessons from this Relaxer Stretch

11 weeks of newgrowth

After each relaxer stretch, I learn something new about my hair and how best to retain length. The lesson I learned from my last stretch was that 14 weeks is my absolute max. Anything beyond 14 weeks and I run the risk of damaging my hair with excessive manipulation as I try to achieve a half-way attractive hairstyle. The last two weeks between week 14 and week 16 of my stretch made enough of a difference that I had to trim my hair at my last relaxer.

I Co-Washed!

Breakage and shedding after air-dry mishap

On Tuesday, I shared about my air-dry bantu knot malfunction. Well last night I sprayed my hair with aloe vera juice, gently detangled and twisted my hair to go to bed. I experienced more breakage than I'm comfortable with along with normal shedding.

So, I Had a Bad Hair Day

Yesterday, I washed my hair and then let it air dry in bantu knots. I had the best intentions to lightly blow dry and flat iron it in the morning before I went to the office. Well, I woke up and started working on the KibibiHair Twitter account (more details to come) and that took longer than I expected.

When I got around to styling my hair, this is how it turned out. Now I remember why I don't like to air dry in bantu knots, especially this far into my stretch. Sigh.

Back to the Future!

I moved last week and we didn't have internet until today. One week without internet felt like living in 1999 all over again. So now I'm "back to the future" and posting will resume as normal. 

Stretching Update: 12 Weeks Post

I'm 12 weeks into my 16 weeks stretch and it has been an uneventful process so far. Uneventful is a good thing, because eventful usually means I had a setback.

Tension Blow Dry Method (Video)

New Growth is Winning 2-0

Yesterday was game night at one of our friend's house and my hair put up quite a fight. Since I went riding on Thursday, my hair was not in an ideal state for styling. I planned to just throw on my go-to hat and wear a low ponytail. Well, that was a fail.

Follow Up: Embracing the New Growth

This is how my hair came out after I took down the twisted bantu knots. My hair felt soft and fluffy, but as soon as I stepped outside the heat made having my hair on my neck, and back simply insufferable.

Embracing the New Growth

In a recent post, I shared my attempt at taming my new growth without using direct heat. Since that didn't work, I decided to go back to my usual approach - embrace the new growth without using heat. Well sometimes I take it a step further and amplify the body by wearing "big" hair styles. Tonight I moisturized my hair and thoroughly detangled, then did 8 twisted bantu-knots.

Taming 10 Weeks of New Growth

10 weeks of new growth

With all of the birthday festivities this past weekend, including my sister's surprise visit, the last thing on my mind was washing my hair. I need to do something to make my hair presentable tomorrow, so I'm trying out the scarf method to smooth out my new-growth and some bantu knots for a quick style.