@faithVA Are you still wearing your twists? How does your hair like this routine?
I don't even remember posting the March update. It seems like ages ago!
My conundrum: Detangling my hair under water is where it's at. Ideally, to keep my roots from matting I'd do this twice a week. BUT how do I style my hair after? Two strand twists are great, but I also like threading my twists and have now discovered that simple plaits work just as well. Taking down threads or braids every three or four days feels like a lot of manipulation -- 1. it's something we're "not" supposed to do and 2. do I really have time for that?
Braids are keeping my length sheeny. I'm not sure how to get the same look at my roots.
My morning thoughts...
I haven't worn mini twists in a while, but here I am. I plan to keep them in for all of November. We'll see.
I feel like over the past 12 months I've really gotten to appreciate how much my hair likes water. During wash day, my hair gets an obscene amount, but it seems to like it. Also, I think that it has been helping with sebum distribution which in turn is causing my hair to stick to itself as much. I still get matted sections, but they're much easier to (finger) detangle now vs. before. I find that detangling under water is the best way for me to manage my hair. Spraying my hair with a bit of water works, but it's much faster under a stream of water AND I don't need to add any product to it to create "slip".
When I first started my natural hair journey I quickly came to the realization that my hair preferred not to be washed to a squeaky clean state. It was only years later that I realized that clay washing allows my hair to retain some of its natural oils and this allowed my hair not to break as easily. Washing and detangling under water I think has allowed me to distribute sebum more evenly through my strands and my hair clumps really nicely if I'm consistent with it. Plus, I do believe that all of the raking helps to train my strands to clump better. The techniques works even better if I apply my clay/ayurvedic masks in micro sections, similar to the way that I would detangle my hair. I feel like I've gotten the best of the WaterOnlyHairWash lady's technique ("scritch and preeing" in two strand twists under running water) combined with Green Beauty's "scoop and spread"... but on loose hair).
I still haven't figured out how to get my roots to be as sheeny as the length. My roots in my crown area dry out faster -- pehaps due to more exposure to the sun and wind? -- and if I pull my hair back, the perimiter of my hair faces the same fate.