Braids Take Down! and Wash Day!

After and during braids

Hello,

I could not wait to write this post though its almost a week since I took the braids off. I hope you are having a blessed week and wish you an even more blessed weekend.

I am so proud of myself with the way I handled my braids this time around! I shared some of the things I was doing to take care of them on my protective style post here>>>! 

I had the braids on my head for 6 weeks. I could not go any longer because I noticed the roots having build up(white stuff) and you want to avoid that at all costs. No matter how much you keep your hair clean it is inevitable with the length of time you keep them in. That is why I was using water and oil only to moisturise my hair to avoid the build up too soon. I also missed my hair and thought that it needed to get some real air.

Why do you want to avoid build up? It causes your hair to matt at the roots(making it look like dreads) and detangling that can pull out hair from your roots if you're not careful enough, it also makes the whole process longer.

taking down
of braids

So yeah, the night came it was long, tedious and exhausting. I might just get this outsourced next time,  I mean the way my arms were so sore from just taking the braids off, I felt like a wrestler. After taking them off, I did some light detangling with my fingers to take off shed hair and fibre tangled to my hair, then I applied some olive oil and growth oil to the hair as a prepoo. I covered with plastic and left it all night!
Before I forget, I told you I am so proud of myself hau! And here's why, as I was faithfully(to the best of my ability) keeping my hair moisturised while it was braided, when I was taking off the braids it was soft , and moisturised still, the joy in my heart that night. Finally I am doing something right! I have always suffered from dry hair when taking braids off and the mistake was that I was not moisturising correctly/completely. I would spray my roots and oil my scalp and that would be it poof I am gone. This time around I had done some hectic YouTube research lol, and I found out that I was not spraying along the length of the hair in the braid, *light bulb*! One extra step is all I needed, so ladies if you got braids on please include this in your routine you will see a big difference.

There's nothing new about wash day as it was my first post, so I am just gonna run you through the things that I did. Woke up early because LO was still sleeping and I can get to do this quicker before she wakes up, besides I get to have the rest of the day to do other stuff than waiting for my hair to DC.

Since my hair was already saturated with oil, I divided it in 4 sections. I did not dilute my shampoo this time because I needed its maximum strength, after all my hair had not been touched by shampoo for 6 weeks! 
I rinsed out the shampoo and then did a black tea rinse(reduce breakage and shedding), this girl explains how it works here. I did that because I was avoiding breakage more than shedding.
I did not rinse it out I went ahead and started to deep condition my hair. I mixed my AfroBotanics protein treatment with hair masque and added some bentonite clay (testing). I liked this mixture,it was very thick though will have to thin out the clay next time, I kept it in for an hour wrapped with a plastic bag and some hot towel action.This is when I thoroughly detangle my hair with a wide toothed comb.

Keeping the
ends tucked away!

I rinsed out and then did a light oil rinse, followed by an ACV rinse. I did not notice immediate results with these added things. So with prolonged use I expect to notice a change, however I do know that tea rinse aids my hair a lot with breakage and shedding.👍

Did I shed? Yes a lot, because it was hair shed for 6 weeks trapped inside, but I think I shed a little more hair besides that. I am sure it will grown back, it's hair! 
After all that I collected my hair into a protective style without extensions, to protect the fragile ends. I do not  have time to style every morning, I fall more on to the lazy side of things.

What do you to avoid that shedding and breakage after braids? And how do you maintain your hair while in braids?

Until next post, God bless...