How To: Washing Braids (Updated Version)

Hey Beauts!

How is everyone doing? Happy April to you and you and you! This year does not seem to be lingering one bit.

So remember one of my first posts on here? I think it was probably my first post. It was about caring for your braids. That post was written a little over a year ago and it should come as no surprise that in the last month, I discovered an updated method to wash braids without having to create frizz prematurely. What do I mean? In the method described in the old post, I described how I washed my hair under running water from start to finish. This new method is pretty much the same, except with a tweak at the start of the process.

1. Shampoo

 

To do this. Fill a spray bottle with some water and pour in shampoo.

Shake the mixture. Spray the cleansing mixture onto your scalp, along the parts of your braids.

Scrub with your fingertips. This is very important because using your nails may cause your roots to frizz and get old very quickly.

2. Rinse

Now you can step into the shower and rinse out under running water. Smooth the braids from root to tip as you rinse the shampoo out.

3. Repeat 1.

Depending on how filthy your hair is, repeat the first step until you are convinced that you have a clean scalp.

4. Oil Rinse

I have added this to my routine just because I love the results I get, especially when my hair is protectively styled. I use olive oil because it is always available in the kitchen and I don’t have to have a heart attack about literally pouring it down the drain. Put some oil in an applicator bottle and run it along your scalp until your hair is saturated.

5. Deep Condition.

Yes, people, you can deep condition your hair when it is hidden in braids. You can either choose to dilute your conditioner/ deep conditioner a little bit such that it can be dispensed via a spray bottle or an applicator bottle head. My reason for saying this is that you do not just want to slap on thick conditioner all over the length of your braids and scalp. What might end up happening is that you will not saturate your head of hair with the product. Using a spray bottle or an applicator bottle helps to direct the product where you want it to go. So just as was done with the shampoo, apply the conditioner/ deep conditioner along the parts. Also apply it along the length of the braids to wherever your hair stops. Put hair in a bun or pony tail and hide it underneath a shower cap or a heated DC cap, if you have one of those. I am looking to invest in one of those pretty soon.

6. Final Rinse.

You can now return to the shower for the home stretch. Rinse your braids as before underneath running water. Remember to smooth your hair with your palm as your rinse. And fin!

Personally, I have found that I get a lot of product build up and itching within the first week of any protective style. However, after the first wash (which I usually end up doing in that first week), I can go two or even three weeks without feeling the need to wash the hair again. The oil rinse tends to keep the hair shiny for an elongated period of time, and the dryness I feel in that first week which makes me use more and more products, is usually absent in the subsequent weeks, post-wash.

Have you found a hack to wash-day when you have a protective style on? Please share!

P.S: All the pictures in this post are screenshots of a video tutorial by JourneyToWaistLength. See below for the full video:

– Mee Mee

:* :* 

Oil Rinsing

If you love protective styling let me hear you say “heeeey”

If you love twists let me hear you say “yoooo”

If you love twists so much that you leave them in so long until they look like you were born with them, make some noooiiissseee!!!

Yeah so it’s almost been three months since I’ve had these Marley twists in. Sigh. I admit, part of the reason is that I’m afraid to deal  with my hair what with everything that I have going on. At first the reason was that it was simply too early to take them out. I am still not used to having to pay so much just to get my hair done. So when I do get my hair done, I like to utilise my money. But now, winter is upon us and I just don’t see the point in taking out my twists and letting my hair out. I have redone the twists twice now just to refresh them. However, in recent weeks, I have noticed that my hair care habits have deteriorated. Heck, I cannot for the life of me figure out where my spray bottle is. So you know what that means. The most moisture my hair has been getting is stray drops from my overactive shower head and tiny showers from when it rains. Bad bad bad. So basically, I was tempted to take them out today. But I did not have time to deal with take-down plus post-take-down care. Not today, not this week, not ever. And then it came to me. Oil rinsing! (this has been a lengthy journey of words to get to the point of this post. Forgive me)

I have only known about oil rinsing for about a month and some now. I stumbled upon it when I fell into the dark unending vacuum that is youtube. Oil rinsing. I see those words and I think of oil just dripping down from weighed down hair and onto one’s face. Ugh. Some of that image might be true… especially in the process of doing oil rinsing.

What is Oil Rinsing?

It is basically saturating your hair with any oil(s) of your choosing before your condition your hair after a wash. It should not be confused with pre-pooing. Pre-pooing requires certain oils that need to be left in hair for an extended period of time before washing is done?

How do I oil rinse?

Simples. Get some oil that you like. For my first experience, I used Taliah Waajid African Healing Oyl. It smells divine, this oil (or oyl as the product prefers to be called. Fancay). After shampooing or first cowash, pour oil generously onto hair and scalp. Leave for about 5 minutes, as you would a conditioner while in the shower. I reckon that having warm water running in the shower may allow the process mimic a hot oil treatment for a little bit. Now there are two variants of the next step. Some people rinse off the oil and then condition as normal. Others add conditioner and then rinse both a while after. I did the latter (because, longer time for oil to be in hair). And that’s it really. Nothing elaborate.

What oils are best for oil rinsing?

So you read this post and it turns out today is washday for you and you want to try out oil rinsing. You’re good to go if you have an oil, said oil is liquid and will continue to be liquid at all temperatures while in your hair, and you like said oil. That’s really it. Even melted shea butter can be used as an oil for oil rinsing.

So what are the benefits of oil rinsing?

• It rescues dry hair. Especially after a protein treatment or henna.
• Increases hair moisture and softness
• Aids easy hair detangling because the extra oil you will get in your hair adds slip to hair.
• Can help reduce frizz
• Hair shine

Having said that, if you do not like shiny hair, if you never shampoo your hair and if you have a problem feeling the presence of oil in your hair, then mayhaps oil rinsing is not for you. With oil rinsing, you have to remember that because there is a tendency for the oil to attract dirt and what not, it is necessary for you to wash hair occasionally.

So as I started to blab about in the beginning, I tried oil rinsing on my twists and I have to say I’m ready to have these on for another year week. It completely rejuvenated the twists and the undergrowth.

While I have no before pictures of the dull, dry, brittle mess my hair was this is what it looked like after oil rinsing:

Ignore that bald patch. That’s the result of a bad decision to get ghana braids done.

I will definitely be doing this again and I am  interested in seeing the effects it will have on my beautiful fro when I decide to let it free.

I hope this was helpful to somebody. Has anyone else tried oil rinsing? Any advice? Testimonies?

Take all the positivity for the week. I wish you lots of good hair days!

– Mee Mee
xx

Currently: Twists

Twists done by me. ^_^

New Hair x Salon Review: K.L’s Natural Beauty Bar

New hair guys, new hair!! ^_^

This is old news if you follow thekinkandi on Instagram, but as always, I save the juice for here. 😉

On May Day, I got my hair did at K.L’s Natural Beauty Bar, a Natural Hair salon in Ikoyi, Lagos.

I got there at 12-ish, to meet a full salon. The owner Kemi was there, and two more stylists. I considered going home to return at opening time the next day (9am) but they worked very quickly so I maintained. I met my friend T there as well. She’s transitioning, and she got mini-twists done, twists later curled with perm rods.

Kemi and T

The salon was well ventilated and neat, and for the first time in my life, I actually engaged in general salon bants. You know how they talk about female bonding at the beauty shop, male bonding at the barber’s? I only go to salons when I have to, and all my life, it’s just something I never thought necessary, group chitchat at the salon. But I admit, it was nice. 🙂

While waiting, I watched them work. I like how they cleaned up after they finished with each customer. I HATE hair flying, or stepping on hair at the salon. Chances of that irritation are way less at a natural hair salon but, still. People got their hair washed, deep conditioned and dried, shuku with extensions, and a very pretty halo braid. Someone got twists and I loved how they looked, so I knew I had to do something with twists.

After like 2 hours, it was finally my turn to sit in the chair. Again, I went back to the style I saw on Ijeoma, a nice girl I met at the Kinky Apothecary’s Great Kinky Hair Christmas Affair. I tried to get it done in Calabar and that was a bit of a fail. Not everybody that can braid can do it creatively. You can see that attempt here.

My friend T: mini twists on transitioning hair, curled with perm rods. foundation for a bomb twistout!

I think twists get better with length (just a personal opinion) My hair is longer than it was the first time I tried to do twists all over, so I told the stylist I’d prefer to do single twists, as I have more hang-time now. She really wanted me to do Ijeoma’s style, and suggested she could use perm rods on the twists later to recreate her exact look, but we kind of decided that we’d do the intricate cornrowing on one side, and twist the remainder. My hair was treated with loving care. Mostly finger detangled, and twisted with leave-in conditioner. And we were done in 90 minutes.

view from the top

side. Bobby pins used to hold the point where the cornrows meet the twists

 

Maybe I should have let her do both sides cos I really love these cornrows! 🙂

I was quite happy with my hair and actually, I’m still feeling myself. Went to the market last week and the woman I buy potatoes from loved it so much, she called her friends to touch lol, and she also said she would stop relaxing her hair! When my hair grows a few more inches, I KNOW twists are going to become my staple. Supreme what? Noble WHO? Can’t wait to start wearing long twists with my own hair! 🙂

Oh. Oh. Oh. How much did my hair cost?

I know you really want to know! 4k guys, four thousand naira. It would’ve been 3 if I didn’t have the fancy braiding on the side.

Actually the most I’ve ever paid to get my hair done in my short life (yes oh, I’m a small girl!) but I do not regret it. Hair is 11 (12?) days now, I just need to focus on making it last at least 10 more days, making 3 weeks.

Maintenance

So far, my maintenance routine has been as follows:

I spritz with water when I feel like, and oil my scalp lightly with coconut oil.

I keep hair wrapped at night and I try my best to keep my hands off my head!

If you have any more tips for maintaining styles like this in this humidity, holler at a sister in the comments! Thanks and God bless! 😀

Hair Products Also Available

You can also get natural hair products at K.L’s Natural Beauty Bar. Brands they stock include Aphogee, Tropical Isle Living (JBCO), Shea Radiance and Carol’s Daughter. They’ve also got Ayurvedic herbs and various oils. To see the products they’ve got and how much they cost, go here.

butterflies 🙂

Find them!

K.L’s Natural Beauty Bar is located at 29C Ikorodu Crescent, Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos. Come in through the gate, turn left, and then take your 2nd right turn, and follow the Crescent till you see it 🙂

Opening hours: 9am to 6pm. Tuesday- Sunday.

Phone: 0806 365 0977

Email: k.lsnaturalbeauty@gmail.com

Website: www.klsnaturals.com

Kemi also blogs about hair at www.klsnaturals.blogspot.com

Have you been here before? What was your experience? Let’s talk in the comments!!

Love,

AB,

xx

–

For more Natural Hair Friendly salons in Nigeria, see our growing ‘Where To Find’ page.

#ThrowBackThursday!

It’s Thursday, my favourite day of the week!

And I’m not throwing back very far, just going back to two, or has it been three weeks ago?

In this post about the short-lived ombré braids, I mentioned that I would be getting my own hair styled, sans extensions.

Let me tell you about this Styling Adventure. I washed my hair on Friday, to let it dry well in advance of Sunday, intended hair making day. So on Sunday, I set out for the salon (the same one I did my braids at), but I got there and it was closed. So were the other salons on Akim road. So I started walking back towards Marian, down down down, and most of the salons were closed. It was like Ghost town, everywhere was deserted. Which was a little weird for me because well, Lagos is always on the move and since I was a kid, I’d always thought Sunday was hair making day. Saturday was wedding/party day, and Sunday was church then get your hair ready for school/work day. (If there was a party or something to go to, it just meant I’d wear my hair ‘Calabar’ that week, that is, big single braids, the only thing mom could do. I loved ‘Calabar’!) On Sundays, salons are very very busy (all the procrastinators I guess)

But I guess that’s just Lagos and Abuja and Kumasi. Not Calabar.

Anyway, I did find 3 open salons though, so I went in, showed them the style I wanted, and they said they couldn’t braid my hair. It was at the third salon that I was advised to go to Watt Market. The idea had already formed in my head before they suggested it sef, so off I went to Watt.

Watt was the opposite of Calabar Municipality though. It was aliveeeee, with many braiders jostling for business. And interestingly, quite a number of men in the business of doing nails. I settled in with the first girl I met there and showed her the picture. I thought we had an understanding, until I asked for a mirror and saw that she was giving me some very very basic patewo-shuku fusion. And we were almost halfway. So we had to loosen everything and start over.

She could braid alright, but she couldn’t appreciate the creativity in the picture.

the picture. [Ijeoma!]

After several do-overs, here are photos of the final outcome:

[My iPhone camera has deceived me oh. Because it is so much more awesome than a BB camera, I’ve been doing a lot with it, and pushing good old Simon to the side. Well, it’s nice but it really isn’t Simon. So I apologise for the picture quality. I applied the HDR Filter just so you could see the cornrows and stuff better.]

does this hair look fresh? just the morning after

What I got was not exactly what I wanted so I wasn’t crazy about it but after a while, I started warming up to it.

I only wore it Sunday-Thursday though. I was seeing NatMane that weekend so I had to get my hair ready for that. The hair frizzed pretty fast, and I strongly suspect(ed) that this was because I used the super-moisturising humectant-packed Jack 5ive Leave-In. I’ve done a bit of Googling and blog trolling and it seems I am right. So the next time I style my own hair, I think I’ll only use a butter or oil or pomade.

In other news, the HDR filter on Picasa is something of the devil. I applied it to one photo that will never be shown and it almost depressed me 😦 The thing magnified and amplified every single scar or spot I’ve ever had in my life! Bluddy acne be damned!!

Oh Protective styling. With God and Pinterest and Youtube and the general Internet on my side, I must not fail!

Till next post,

Love,

AB

Xx