Written by Jeanette Nkwate
Thinking about how to make your ‘wash day’ a ‘wash hour’? Then you’ve come to the right place. At Afrocenchix, we’re all about making natural hair simple and we believe that wash day shouldn’t take you the whole day.
Yes, that’s right: no more shingling each strand of hair or sitting with treatments for hours. The key is creating a solid simple routine and amazing hair products that are safe and effective, so your styles last long after wash day.
We know that some of you are thinking that it’s not possible, but we’re here to tell you that with our tips your wash day could be transformed. So read on for our practical tips and advice.
1. Detangle Your Hair Before Washing
Detangling is probably everyone’s number one pet hate but if you’re not doing it before you start your wash day then you’re missing a trick. Detangling will help minimise breakage and get rid of any trapped tangled hairs that will make your head of hair a massive knot. Just remember you need a lot of slip to make it an easier job, so grab your bottle of Smooth before you start.
2. Get The Right Tools
We also want to add that if you’re detangling your hair, then you need to use the right tools. So that means no fine tooth combs (those are for partings only!) and if you’re using your fingers make sure that you’ve removed your jewellery and don’t have any chipped nails. Your hair can get caught in your chipped nails or hanging-on-by-a-thread extensions. You can make life easier by gently using a detangling brush or wide tooth comb.
3. Pre-poo
Adding a pre-poo to your wash day regime can help retain moisture during the cleansing process and also prevent hygral fatigue. Just gently divide your hair into sections, add Soothe from root to tip and let that sit on your hair for at least 10 mins before washing.
4. Make Wash Day Regular
I know you’re probably thinking how this will make life any easier, but trust us it will. Cleansing your scalp and hair regularly will help you remove any debris, dead skin and product.
At Afrocenchix, we always like to think of our scalp as an extension of our faces, so keep it clean, keep it moisturised and remember to gently massage the scalp in circular motions to dislodge any dirt and stimulate blood flow.
We recommend washing your hair every 7-10 days (you can do slightly more or slightly less depending on how active you are). This also includes if you’re wearing a wig or long term protective style like braids or twists. Not sure how to cleanse while protective styling? Head over to our how to wash your box braids guide.
5. Dry your hair with a microfibre towel
It’s time to ditch the cotton towel, which can cause friction, frizz and breakage. Drying your hair with a microfibre towel will help limit friction and as a result limit tangles and make styling your hair post wash much easier. By the way, if you don’t have a microfibre towel, an old T-shirt is also a great option.
6. Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate!
We can’t stress this enough, hydration and moisture is the key to an easy wash day. So make sure that you don’t do anything without it. This means adding slip to your hair before detangling and lock in moisture post washing.
The turns and twists in curly and afro hair make it harder for natural oils (AKA sebum) to travel down the hair strand. This means that it’s more prone to dryness than other hair types.
So fight dryness by using the LOC and LCO methods, which involve the layering of products.
L = liquid O = oil and C = cream
The order of the letters guides the order in which the products should be applied to the hair.
Our Moisture Surge Set contains products for all three steps — Sheen natural moisturising spray (liquid), Seal (hair oil) and Smooth (moisturising cream) and stops hair breaking.
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