Lockdown Hair Routine

Since being in lockdown I decided to devote some additional time and attention to my hair. I did a pretty big cut a year ago and honestly was surprised to see how much it’s grown since then.

By now, I’ve worked out a pretty good weekend hair routine and where I’d clean it and then do some sort of protective style during the week. And so far, my hair seems to be responding to this quite well. I also discovered some new products and tried new things and it’s safe to say it’s been a fun and interesting experience.

My Go-To Protective Styles (that aren’t a bun)

• Mini twists
• Flat twists
• Box braids

My Weekend Routine

First I pull my hair out of whatever protective style it’s in, and then slather the Cream of Nature Clay & Charcoal Mask all throughout the hair while finger combing. I’ll leave it in for anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, but I find the longer it’s been in, the better my hair feels after.

After that, I rinse my hair out thoroughly and shampoo with either a black soap shampoo I make or Zimii Neutralising Shampoo. While I’ve long been obsessed with the Zimii Intense Curls Gel, I just started trying the shampoo to get rid of any excessive product build up, and to make sure that the mask rinses out completely and it’s been really good for that, my hair feels clean without feeling stripped.

Then I’ll condition and detangle using Herbal Essences Bio Renew Argan Oil Repair Conditioner. I just bought the big pump bottle and I usually use it as a conditioner and a leave-in conditioner. I’m generally not picky about conditioners as long as they have a decent amount of slip.

Rinse the conditioner out with rice water. This is a somewhat new addition to the routine, but after seeing so many people swearing by it, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. I usually make about a cup of this about an hour before I start my hair routine and add a couple drops peppermint oil so it doesn’t just smell like rice. Then I strain it into a spray bottle and spray my hair until the conditioner has mostly been rinsed out. Now this seems like it would take a lot of time and rice water, but it actually doesn’t. Because it’s being sprayed throughout I think you get better distribution as opposed to if you just poured a cup of water on your head. Then I shower/shave/wash my face and do whatever else I need to before rinsing the rice water out.

Freshly washed and rinsed but still pretty defined considering it’s pre-product

Then while my hair is still damp (but not soaked) I’ll add a leave-in conditioner and oil of choice (currently trying out Wild Growth Hair Oil to see if that actually works) then detangle half my hair and work in whatever curl cream/pudding I’m using (currently it’s Texture My Way Keep It Curly Ultra Defining Curl Pudding) and some curl defining gel and then style.

My two flat twists are pretty much a universal style for me. Forever flattering, protective, easy to do and can be worn around the house and outside. If I’m doing mini twists, then I don’t even bother to do any fancy parting (I invariably leave random hair strands when I try to part properly), I just use my fingers to section the hair and then twist as I go along. Not so quick, but definitely easy and they hold up for the week.

Now it’s just to see if I can keep this up post lockdown.

The current product line-up

Braids Gang

“I stared at her black hair. It was shiny like the promises in magazines. ”
― Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones

Jumping on the braids bandwagon about a million years later, I’ve only just tried braids out for the first time. As a kid, when my best friends got theirs done for summer, Putus said no, and then, like most things, after the initial disappointment of being told “no” passed, I got over it and moved on. After all, she still combed my hair so it’s not like I had to deal with it myself or anything like that.

Fast forward to 2017 and I’ve been craving a change for my hair. I’m too cowardly for a cut (and also my hair needs to be able to go in a bun at all time because dance), I don’t like my hair straight and I think my hair is too thin/fragile for colouring. So from last year I decided that I wanted to try braids, it’s protective, low maintenance, versatile and, most importantly, very different from my everyday bun. But with my school and dance schedule last year there was never really a good time to try it out.

A whole year later, summer 2018 arrives and I’ve done my ballet exam, I’m on a break from dancing and I decide it’s gonna be now or never. I reach out to someone about doing it and the one Saturday I’m free she isn’t available. I then got the number for someone else, but I’m very wary about strangers so I was pretty reluctant to try them out.

Now, if you know me, you know that before I get into anything I’m going to do my research so I did some googling, watched some YouTube videos and all I could think was that I’ve made friendship bracelets more complicated that some of these braids. Which of course got me thinking that maybe I could do this myself… now I just needed to figure out how to know which hair to buy. The next day I got to talking with someone who had just done her hair in braids and she had quite a bit of hair left and she offered it to me so I could try and see if I could really do it myself.

Well, Friday after work came and I armed myself with moisturiser, edge control, a spray bottle of water and a metal tail comb. Four hours and 20 braids later (I don’t have that much hair on my head) I was more than satisfied. It wasn’t perfect, but I think the imperfections gave it a more natural look because a lot of people kept asking me if it was my actual hair, which I thought was crazy. But forget perfection, I was more obsessed with the fact that I’d just done my own hair!