Step 3 – Special Treatments
Oil Rinse – Optional
Oil rinsing is entirely optional, if you choose to do an oil rinse, make sure your hair is cleansed thoroughly before adding a handful of your favorite oil.
Add the oil liberally to your hair and rinse with warm water. Oil rinsing helps not only seal moisture in your hair, it also gives great slip making detangling a breeze.
Black Tea Rinse – Optional
We have not moved on to step 4 yet because it would be wrong to jump ahead without mentioning just one more treatment you could try especially if you find that your hair is shedding extraordinarily.
A tea rinse requires a bit of prep work before getting to the point of application. So if you know that you plan to do a rinse then you will need a few things. 5 tea bags, a pot and a spray bottle.
After boiling the tea bags allow them to steep for a few minutes then add the tea to a spray bottle. Having cleansed thoroughly spray the roots of your hair liberally with the tea. With your hair saturated with the tea cover with a plastic cap and let it sit for at least 30 minutes.
If you do a tea rinse a couple of times you should see a dramatic reduction in any true shedding issues you might have (it won’t do anything for breakage).
Step 4 – The Deep Condition And The Detangling Session
After treating and cleansing the next step is to condition your hair. This step sets the stage for detangling, styling and most importantly moisture retention. Before you add the conditioner to your hair make sure it isn’t sopping wet.
This might mean drying it a little with an old T-shirt or micro fiber towel. Sopping wet hair dilutes the conditioner and when your hair strands are full of water they are less able to absorb the good stuff from the conditioner.
A great wash day for relaxed or natural hair will almost always include a little time set aside for some deep conditioning* with heat. Your choice of deep conditioner* can either be protein based, moisture based or a combination of both,it just depends on what your hair needs at the time.
If your hair has been feeling a little dry lately then try a product that contains a ton of moisturizing ingredients. If you have color in your hair or you just had a relaxer then maybe a little protein is in order to patch up any chemical damage.
It’s really personal preference at which stage of the conditioning process that you decide to detangle your hair. Some ladies prefer to detangle straight after applying the conditioner while some will wait until right before rinsing.Try it both ways and see which one works best for you.
Detangle your hair in sections keeping the sections organized by twisting, braiding or pinning them in place. This prevents your hair from tangling again as you complete the rest of your wash routine.