Thursday, December 4, 2014

My Sew-In Story, Part 2

Washing My Hair After The Sew-In

Last week I started this story; this week it gets a little juicier!!

As the week went on, I got more and more curious about what my hair looked like. I'd done my research on YouTube and convinced myself that I could wash my hair on my own, I didn't need to go to the salon! This was mistake number one!

When I say I did my research on YouTube, that means I found one video tutorial, that's right, only one...this one. I thought it was done so well I just knew I could easily do this myself. I spent a good couple of days running around town trying to make sure I had the products used in the video. I bought Kinky Curly's Knot Today Natural Leave-In Detangler and Shea Moisture's Raw Shea Butter Moisture Retention Shampoo.


Natural hair after taking out a full sew-inI knew having a good conditioner was a very important part of the equation. In the video, she uses Aubrey's GPB Balancing Protein Conditioner. She said her tangles just "fell out" after using this product. I googled reviews on this conditioner and everyone else spoke very highly of it, so I knew I needed to get it. I went to 4 stores (2 beauty supply stores, a CVS, and a Walgreens) looking for this dern conditioner with no luck. I came to the conclusion that I'd have to order this conditioner and we all know how I feel about getting things from the internet, so I settled on another conditioner. The point was to get a conditioner that would put protein back into the hair because you want to strengthen the hair. After all, it's been braided and hidden for weeks, you don't want your hair to fall out while detangling it! I ended up buying Queen Helene's Cholesterol Hair Conditioning Cream. It was the best choice I could make at the last store I visited.

Tuesday night I got set to wash my hair. I wanted to go on and get it out of the way, so I wouldn't be up all night messing with it. I wanted it to be dry by the next morning, so the earlier the better. I was so anxious to see how long my hair was. I unbraided my hair...so far, so good!

Hairball of shed hair after taking out a full sew-inThe next step was pre-detangling the hair. The video instructed me to use the Knot Today along with the praying hands method to grab hairs that would've shed if my hair hadn't been braided. So, I went through my hair and softly pulled until there was no more shedding. I feel I pulled a reasonable amount of hair out for a 10 week period. I was very pleased with the hair ball.

After pre-detangling, it was time for the shampoo. I followed my normal wash routine using the Shea Moisture shampoo. While shampooing my hair, I made sure to cleanse my scalp well. Although I was focusing on my scalp, I made sure not to wash vigorously because I didn't want the hair to tangle....BUT as I was rinsing the shampoo out my dilemma begins.

I washed out the shampoo and it was time for the conditioner. I condition and detangle in front of my bathroom mirror. I need the space, I need to take my time, and I need to make sure I can see what I'm doing. As I was washing out the shampoo, I could feel a huge chunk of my hair tangled up in the back part of my head. I'm thinking to myself, why is that there?! I did everything the YouTube video told me to do!! I told myself that the tangle would "fall out" once I got the conditioner in and started detangling.

Once I started wringing some of the extra water out of my hair, I realized these tangles were ALL OVER MY HEAD! Everywhere there was a cornrow before was now matted hair! What happened?!? I still had hopes that I could detangle my hair. I stuck my hand into the Queen Helene's conditioner and knew immediately that this conditioner was NOT going to get the detangling job done! It was too thick and had absolutely no slip at ALL. I low key began to panic, but I managed to calm myself down. I knew I had some conditioner with better slip so I ran to get my Aunt Jackie's conditioner. I remember talking about how this conditioner would work well as a detangler here, so this was my test!

I took a deep breath, grabbed the first row of hair and began to detangle....

Lesson learned:
1. If I'm going to go to YouTube University, I should at least watch several videos...not just one! In hindsight, the girl and I have different curl patterns. The type of detangling she did, didn't exactly work for me, and I guess I should've know better, but I really didn't! YouTube set me up for the okie doke, AGAIN! YouTube will have you feeling like you can do anything. It's okay for some things, but I've definitely learned what I'm capable of doing on my own and what I need to go to a salon for.

So, was I able to detangle multiple rows of matted hair? You'll have to stay tuned for Part 3!! :-)

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2 comments

  1. Ahhhhh Hair! Our love & hate romance with it never ends lol. Love the short look too sweets :)!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, there is for sure a love & hate with hair!! Can't wait to see your part 3

    ReplyDelete

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