You're a Life-Saver - Wash Day in Braids

Wash days up to this point (11+ weeks) have been a joy. And I attribute that to my somewhat new modus operandi of washing my hair in braids. And by that I mean executing the ENTIRE wash day that way. Before I discovered this technique, I would braid my hair in the four sections and loosen and re-braid the sections multiple times during the wash session for the various processes. Not only was that extremely time-consuming, tangles abounded. Of course at that time I viewed the amount of tangling as normal, but now I know better and I want to spread the word so that your wash days can be just as glorious.

braids after a wash day

How to:

• 'Moisturize' your hair with a detangler, moisturizer or conditioner
• make sections (number can vary based on your hair's specs) and detangle
• Pre-poo each section then braid it

Do not remove braids during the following processes:

• Shampoo
• deep condition
• + or - these and other processes
• Tea rinse
• reconstructor
• condition (with instant conditioner)

After adding your final conditioner, unravel a section and detangle. Add more conditioner if more slip is desired. Rinse with cool water and rebraid. (I tried to skip the loosen and detangle step here, but the results are much better when included.)

This has been working for me for weeks now and I'm sure it will work right up until the end of my stretch (whenever that is...).

Why it gets an A+

1. less time - you save time by eliminating the unraveling and rebraiding steps during the wash process.
2. less tangles - the hair is not free to move about as it likes as it is constrained in the braids, thus preventing tangles.
3. less product needed - I used a fraction of the amount of conditioners I normally use when hair isn't braided. It takes much less product to cover my hair in the braided sections than when my hair is loose, and my hair is indeed thoroughly saturated.
4. even not-so-great products (shampoos in particular) yield desirable results. My first incident of washing in braids occurred on an occasion during which I unintentionally used I shampoo which I didn't like too much and my hair behaved well nonetheless.
5. new growth is stretched if the hair is properly air-dried using this method.

Do you wash in braids or nah?