Evolution of a very Coily Wash and Go (Pt. 2)

We’re now in present date and if you haven’t read Part 1 of this tale of the Wash and Go, head here to read.

I had just freed my hair again from it’s protective style and of course was ready to rock it out for the entire Spring/Summer. While desperately taking down my hair, I knew I needed to give my fine strands some TLC and some Respect by not having any tension put on it. Wash and Go season part deux. Here we go.

This time around, I had learned more about my hair and was armed with that information to tackle this problem. First up, Definition and Technique. I knew that raking my products in would define my coils (Good!) but I also knew that it would pull my hair out (Bad!). I needed a new approach. I studied my behind off by watching hundreds of WNG videos and methods. Enter ‘The Praying hands method.’

I’ve watched this technique before and said to myself, ‘That is going to do nothing for my coils.’ End of story. If I could slap the past me, I would. I tried it. Of course, it’s a bit difficult because my hair is short and when it’s wet, it’s even shorter but it worked. I mostly smoosh my fingers together instead of my palms and I get even, defined coils, and great product distribution. Best part, my hair doesn’t get pulled out. Looks like we found a winner for technique.

Next up is my ends. With tiny coils and high shrinkage, my ends loves to hug itself until its all tied up in knots. If I’m going to preserve my end and gain length, I can’t have them knotting up and tangling. Going back to my first WNG, I remembered using Jamaican Mango & Lime locking creme wax underneath my gel and while I can’t remember the detangling process, I do remember that my ends did not tangle very badly.

But I’m not putting that wax on my hair. Instead, a pomade would do and that’s the second thing I learned. During this application, I applied Oyin Handmade Sugar Berries Pomade on my hair and concentrated it even more so on my ends. Not only did it help with coil definition, it helped with detangling. Keeper!

Lastly, and this is not a given, but wet hair will give you amazing definition from root to tip but if you don’t lock it up from root to tip, you will get defined ends and puff ball roots. What does this mean? Product application at the roots is key to keeping that definition for poofing out too early.

I have to admit, with me being a heavy sweater (not clothing wise, I sweat heavily), I don’t like anything on my scalp and quite frankly, I was afraid to put any product directly on my scalp. My thinking was, ‘Product will just build up and I’ll end up having to wash my hair again in 2 days after the sweat feast has taken place and that’s something I’m just not down with (washing more than once a week).’ Take a step back and let’s try this out!

This go around, I applied both my styler and gel directly on my root and scalp. Results: Coiled from root to tip for days! I just have to make sure to dry the product on my scalp as soon as possible because when my scalp is wet, it gets really itchy!

While I don’t have everything wrapped up in a pretty Purple bow, I have to admit, the evolution of my WNG has been quite a learning task and a feat to tackle. There’s still more to learn but I think what I have right now is just enough to take me through many successful WNGs.