Preparing for the Big Day - (Pre-relaxer) Washday - 3/20

As I previously mentioned, I will be relaxing sometime next week and so on Thursday, the last day of work, I went ahead and washed my hair and also prepped it for the relaxer process. Here's how:

wash day - mild protein treatment

• Sprayed Mane N' Tail detangler on hair and finger detangled. Then proceeded to detangle with a wide tooth comb and braid hair in the usual four sections.

• Applied protein treatment (pictured above) - the treatment consisted of my Queen Helene cholesterol cream and a mix of Olive oil and grapeseed oil (it's actually sold like this) and for the protein I added two egg yolks (I don't eat all my egg yolks because they are full of fat, so instead of throwing them all out, I saved a few for this protein treatment). I loved how they mixed well together, the consistency was super creamy and rich. I kept in my hair for about 10 minutes.

• Rinsed and proceeded to shampoo with ORS Creamy Aloe shampoo. I actually didn't plan on clarifying because I don't want my hair to be too processed by the relaxer, but after the protein treatment, my hair really felt coated.

• Next I tea rinsed with a mix of garlic, ginger and mint tea. The smell is to die for from! But hey, anything to reduce shedding over the next few days, and garlic is known to work wonders.

garlic, ginger & mint tea rinse

• After that, I went ahead and did another round of DCing using Queen Helene, oil and honey. I left this on for about 1/2 hour while I wasted away in my tub.

• The next step was to seal this in with Tresseme Moisture rich, rinse and detangle under the shower stream with my wide tooth comb, removing each braid and rebraiding subsequent to detangling.

• Finally, I did an ACV (apple cider vinegar) rinse to seal my cuticles and correct the PH. I squeezed this from my hair (did not rinse out) and proceeded to t-shirt dry.

So as usual, my pre-relaxer wash centers around strength, moisture, and balancing the PH of my hair. It was a pretty straightforward wash and I am extremely grateful that up to the last wash day before my relaxer I have had no traumatic episodes. They have been really easy, and I think I can thank my new M.O. of washing in braids for that.

Check out more wash day posts over at Saving Our Strands.

How bout you, how have your wash days been this stretch?