Wash Day

Messy Banana Clip Side French Tuck

Protein Power!

My hair has been easy peasy all week. I've been alternating between buns and banana clip french tucks for simple and sweet styling. Last wash day, I noticed a little more breakage than I was comfy with, so I decided that a hard protein treatment would be in order this week. I usually like to give my hair a protein powered wash once a month to keep my line of demarcation strong and resilient. It's been hard for me to distinguish the difference between my virgin roots and my super underprocessed length, thanks to my last relaxer disaster. So it sort of seems like I'm in a super duper long stretch. Is that a bad thing? Nah---not really. I actually don't mind (thus far). I just know that I have to follow my hair's lead. I have to be sure to keep my roots super moisturized, beware of SSKs, and be extra careful while detangling. Keeping my roots stretched is a must. Here's how my last wash went:

Wash Day Products

1. Detangled- with my fingers and a little grapeseed oil. 
2. Clarifying Shampoo- with diluted KeraCare 1st Lather Shampoo. Of my two clarifying poos, this one does a better job of cleansing my hair but still makes my hair feel stripped. I hate that feeling. But a good clarifying gets rid of product residue and allows the protein treatment to really pentrate the hair.
3. Moisturizing Shampoo- with diluted Matrix Biolage Hydratherapie Hydrating Shampoo. This is my favorite shampoo.
4. Protein Treatment- with Nexxus Emergencee; the world's easiest to apply protein treatment. To speed of drying time, I blow dried my hair on low to harden the treatment. 
5. Extreme deep condition- Next, I stood under the spray of my shower for about 5 minutes to rinse the Emergencee completely. I deep conditioned with with JBCO on my scalp and Matrix Biolage Ultra-Hydrating Balm on the length of my hair. Then I massaged my stands with almond oil, covered with a plastic cap and sat under my heat cap for 3 hours. 
6. Leave ins- Herbal Essences Touchably Smooth Split End Protector + Argan Oil. My hair really responded well to this combo last week. 

Results- 
I love the way that my hair feels post protein treatment and extreme deep condition. Strong, strands refortified, and happy. I'm especially concerned with breakage with this stretch because the top half of my strands are far more textured than usual. I've never dealt with unintentional under-processing before so this will be a challenge for me. Before my protein treatment I had a decent amount of lost hairs--a little more than I prefer but, after the treatment, I only lost 5-10 hairs. If only everything in life worked this easily. I lost 2 strands in my post wash detangle, then I realized that I totally forgot to tea rinse this week! Gasps! Oh well, I'll add it into my mid-week co-wash. 

Word on the street is that I owe you guys a length check. Good! Ha-ha! I've been missing my flowy straight hair. I'm going to flat iron at the end of the month because I'm a host at my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary. Yep. FIFTY. They're awesome!

How was your latest wash day? Anyone else 8+ weeks into a stretch? How is your hair behaving for you?

Besitos!
KLP