How to make your weekly washes run like a dream. No more strands in your comb!

If you have curly or kinky hair type, you will be only too familiar with washing and detangling sessions which can sometimes run into hours! Breakage in curly manes will usually occur during combing, brushing, blow drying or any other activity that involves heavy manipulation on the strands.

Many would like to have their hair out majority of the time to show off the length, health or style. However, with weekly or more washes with detangling sessions, length retention becomes more of a challenge and many revert to braids or weaves to keep their length. Even more so if you are transitioning from relaxed or texturized to natural hair, the challenges are even more pronounced. You are told that you should avoid manipulating your relaxed hair while it’s wet as this is when it’s at it’s weakest but at the same time, you are told not to dare comb natural hair while it’s dry as it causes excessive breakage!

So how do you sidestep the detangling session but still have clean and straight locks? This solution outlined below will be suitable for ladies who would like to keep their hair straight most of the time but refuse to lose hair with every washing session! This can be described as an ultra low manipulation way of dealing with wash days for very easy to none-existent detangling.

First and foremost, you must start with a head of hair that is already relatively straight from the last time you flat ironed, pressed or blow dried your hair. If you are just coming out of a weave or braids then you are out of luck, a regular detangling session is definitely in the cards to get the hair free from knots before your usual straightening method. You can then use the method below for your next wash. This can be used for natural, relaxed, texlaxed or even in transitioning.

Assuming your hair is still relatively straight (you can get a wide tooth comb through it easily with no problems) but you hair is in need of a wash, here’s what you will need:

1. A wide tooth comb
2. About 16-20 rubber bands (ouchless if you prefer)
3. Some natural hair oil

Here’s what you do:

• Depending on the length of your mane, braid it in firm sections all over your head, making sure to pass the wide tooth comb through each section before braiding to release any shed hairs. Thicker natural hair should have more braid sections than relaxed hair, you will find that 16-20 braids will work best at keeping the hair free from tangles but providing enough of a surface area to get you hair squeaky clean! You can use a few drops of the natural hair oil for each section to prepare the hair for the wash and prevent the dryness that some shampoos can cause.
• If your tresses are very kinky or curly naturally, you can braid all the way to the ends as the texture will hold your braid even when wet. If you are relaxed, texlaxed, texturized or transitioning the braid will not hold when wet so apply a rubber band firmly about 1 inch from the end of the locks. Don’t worry; there will be no breakage if the rubber band is applied in this manner!
• Proceed to wash you hair in these braids with your usual shampoo then deep condition your mane as usual.
• Rinse your hair under plenty of running water in the shower to get all the conditioner out.
• It might be to your advantage to use a spray leave in and heat protectant here as it’s easier to apply to the wet braids but if you are careful, you can just as successfully use a creamy leave in and heat protectant serum concentrating on one braid at a time to get even coverage.
• Sit under a hooded dryer for 40 minutes to an hour to ensure your hair is thoroughly dry.
• Dealing with one section at a time, use a pair of scissors to snip one strand of the rubber band so it can come off easily. Don’t attempt to roll or pull the rubberband out of the hair as it will cause breakage. Undo the braid, it will be textured but quite tangle free and if your tresses are natural, your hair will already be ‘pre-stretched’.
• At this stage, you can apply a bit more heat protecting serum to you strands and comb it through carefully. No need to blow dry here as the hair is already stretched and the purpose of this method is to avoid excessive manipulation.
• Straightening your strands with your flat iron or pressing comb to get the desired results.

You will be glad to see the back of that usual ‘ball of hair’ that you get after each detangling session and with this method of washing, unnecessary hair breakage will be a thing of the past!