Wash and no? Finally got defined kinks and by coils on 4C hair!!
I decided to do my mom’s hair yesterday because I was bored lol + she said she had been struggling recently with making her twist outs look as good as they used to.
Y’all I cannot do hair AT ALL (I’ve never even done this on my own hair) but it was 15 days after Juneteenth so I felt like the ancestors were telling me to go for it and free her coils and kinks from 24/7 frizz.
IT TURNED OUT SO GOOD. We’ve never done wash and gos before (I (somewhat affectionately) call them “wash and nos” because if I simply washed my hair then left it alone it would be a dry, single strand knot mess after a while) but this semi (?) wash and confirmed our so so good. I’m so happy with it and she is too although she wishes it was a bit longer like how her stretched twist outs usually are but I think it’s so cute on her!
(TL;DR) Anyway enough yapping but here’s what I did:
✨ Aztec clay mask with apple cider vinegar (first time using this - was a bit nervous because she’s high porosity and I bought it for my build/ip prone low porosity hair but I think it helped a little with devotion. Make sure you don’t use a metal spoon like I did. Also mist your hair with water as needed when putting this in).
✨ Shampoo (I always do this 3 times, scratching or stimulating my scalp each time and detangling my hair on the last time)
✨ Conditioner
✨ Deep conditioner (with a plastic cap on and/or under the dryer (using a conditioner then deep conditioner is probably unnecessary and in the wrong order but whatever))
*If you are low porosity or just prone to flaky products in general, STOP here and mix the products on your hand to make sure they all work together and don’t clump up.*
✨ Leave in conditioner (Ors Olive Oil Rice Water and Electrolytes)
✨ Mousse (Design Essentials Almond and Avocado, but I’m gonna try this with The Doux Mousse since that works great for my hair as well)
✨ Comb (used a shower comb)
✨ Curling gel/cream (Aunt Jackie’s Don’t Shrink)
✨ Comb through again (I used the EZ Detangler Brush (my all time fav - I’ve had it for years. My mom doesn’t really like it that much on her hair but it helps with definition) vertically, under the hair as well as horizontally to really get that definition)
✨ Twist (small sections, I like to gently tug on the hair to make sure I’m twisting every inch as I go so I can make sure it’s as stretched as possible (kinda hard to explain, hope this made sense) then curl the ends around my finger)
✨Sit under dryer for 30mins (on high heat or if you’re high porosity) to 1hr (on low heat or if you’re low porosity)
✨ If you’re ready to go, skip to the last step, if not go to the next step
✨ If the “go” in wash in go is a no, go to bed bookie, let those twist sitttt
✨ Take out gently, fluff, and shake (if flat)
And viola! Hope this works for you 4C girlies, I’m so excited and can’t wait to try this on my own hair. We were doing this entire process from 3:30pm to 10:30pm 🥴 so definitely going to perfect this style and try to make it go quicker next time - the twisting took the most amount of time but I was also tired and twisting slowly so there’s that. If anyone has some tips for maintenance lmk. I’m hoping this will last at least 3 days in her hair (I will update the post later). 💜
ETA: I know this isn’t a “true” wash and go, but honestly I didn’t know what to call it 💀 I referred to it as a “semi (?) wash and go” but I also twisted it for sections/getting the hair out the way + a little bit of length + she was going to sleep. I’m going to try this on my own hair without twisting to see how it comes out. It did take 7 hours but that was because I was moving slowly, was winging it + we were playing around the whole time hahaha.