Hair and Technology Rambling: Wash Day #2 of Week of May 25

EXXTREME MOIZTURE CHALLUNGE

Because making letters different makes it more extreme, right?

You may have noticed my posts are longer. I've decided to make this more informative by describing each important product / word every time I write a post. I'm doing this so that you can see how things change over time. I means I can write a review of a product several times, and see how it changes. It also means you don't have to find my older posts to learn what, for example, an anti-humectant is. Feel free to skip anything you know ^_^.

So I did my second wash yesterday and I actually used a soft bonnet hair drier for thirty minutes. New products! I just got these two days ago because my Walgreens had a *huge* sale on Shea Moisture, As I Am and a bunch of other stuff. I figured that I'd get them because I'm probably never going to see any of these products on such a large sale again, and I wanted to try them.

The night before I twisted my hair up, as you've seen below. I did that using the Shea Moisture Coconut and Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie. I think this product may be an antihumectant. Basically, it's a finisher. It isn't supposed to moisturize, condition or anything else like that. Don't get confused! It is supposed to add shine, close the cuticle and work to prevent frizz by blocking excess moisture penetration and loss. Some of the ingredients, however, are moisturizing, including glycerin, so I don't know how well it will work for preventing frizz because of that. Since I only used it overnight, I don't have much experience with it other than it was my best twists and twistout yet.
I do know that this product is the best thing I've ever used to separate curls and twists; it causes virtually no frizz. I also know that it took a very long time to dry and a larger amount of water than normal for my hair to revert to its natural state. As it was just a twist out on an old Curlformer set, I know it's not heat damage. The only new product is this smoothie, so this smoothie is probably a very good antihumectant. That's amazing, and I really hope that this will continue to remain true and allow my sets to last through this Chicago Summer.

Anti-humectant: By this point you should know that a humectant is a thing that absorbs water into itself. Like if you leave a strong humectant on a table, you will get that humectant + water after a few hours. Literally collected right out of the air. An anti-humectant, on the other hand, is a thing that prevents water from penetrating it.

Humectants are good for deep conditioning, and are good to seal into your hair so that you can hold onto the moisture you have. If you are okay with frizz you do not need to seal them and they will continue to attract moisture to your hair as long as they are in your hair, all day. The problem is if they do not penetrate, you will lose more moisture as the humectant balances itself and the air around you.
Anti-humectants are good for when you have a style that you really don't want to revert. A lot of natural things act as anti-humectants, including most oils and shea butter, however they are not very strong. Cones work even better, and are the main ingredient in most anti-humectant products like the acclaimed Sabino products [Moisture Block, and Lok and Block, I believe they are called.] and the newer Aveda Brilliant Anti-Humectant Pomade. I've not used any of those products so I can't comment on them. Basically, if you flat iron and apply them, your style should not revert even in humid conditions. In fact, last I checked, Sabino had a girl enter a sauna and she left a few hours later with still straight hair. Crazy, right? I want to try these so badly, I just don't have the money.

Process:

I'm thinking of dating pictures during the process if I ever get a better camera.

Cleanse:
I used Shea Moisture African Black Soap Purification Masque. I applied it very thickly, probably much more than I should have but on first use I like to make sure I know exactly how the product works. I did make a dent in the container, but only a small one. I sectioned my hair into 10 bantu knots again [this means I don't need to use clips. They're useful, but I feel like they're unnecessary for washing.] and quickly dampened my hair by simply smoothing water over it until it reverted. As mentioned before, this took quite a bit more water than I'm used to due to the Curl Enhancing Smoothie, but I'm glad.
I then applied the mask on my ends, and then directly onto my scalp thickly, a lot like a relaxer. I then smoothed some onto the length of the hair and knotted back up. After doing that in each section, I worked out for 25 minutes and allowed the heat to let the masque penetrate. I then rinsed my hair in the shower in sections.

The Shea Moisture African Black Soap Purification Masque smells...weird. I didn't like it when I opened it originally, and I thought it was too jelly. When I actually used it last night, however, the smell wasn't bad anymore, just kind of clay like. The texture was also much creamier than I originally thought and it smoothed on extremely well. You could tell where it was in your hair, and it had a nice, cooling sensation. My scalp itching does seem to have decreased a bit, but I'll have to keep using this to see the long term effects. It rinsed easily and seemed to take all the extra stuff off while cleansing my scalp. It did a much better job than the shampoos I use, and was on par with the As I Am Coconut Cowash in terms of scalp cleaning, yet not as strong on my hair. I really like this product and will use it whenever I need a good scalp cleansing and to rinse off my homemade products [which don't contain products that stick to the hair and need sulfates.] The As I Am will now be for more harsh things, like if I use a company's conditioner(s).

Condition:
After rinsing 2 sections at a time, I'd apply my homemade deep conditioner. When I finished all the sections I reapplied it out of the shower [I do this in case the water washes some of the conditioner off.] I twisted the hair back into bantu knots and let my body heat work for a while. While I was twisting the hair, it felt so incredibly smooth I wasn't sure what was going on. I don't know exactly how to describe it, but the texture actually felt different. I liked it a ton, but it was definitely different.

I applied my homemade conditioner a lot more sparingly than last time. It was still a lot of product, but I figured I didn't need as much since I'd just DCed a few days ago. It felt great going on and gave me a little curl definition as well.

Style:
I took each section down, combed the hair and applied the Shea Moisture Coconut and Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie, then roller set. Then I actually dried using a soft bonnet, [and then worked out with the Curlformers! Crazy.] but I decided at the end that I wanted to just leave them in until Friday [the day I'm writing this] in case I randomly decided to go out.

The Shea Moisture Coconut and Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie is one of those products where a little goes a long way. I applied a finger tip portion to two to each two roller sections. It smoothed on nicely, and I could feel that my cuticles were nice and closed. I got a ton of shine from this product even just from the application.

Rollers out and Pictures:
For some reason, my hair doesn't seem to respond when I take it out of the curler and recurl it later, because they weren't curled this morning....it didn't work!? Well, my hair is so smooth and shiny due to the smoothie that I think my moisture will stay even longer than it already has been this week! It is a tad firmer than I expected, but I'm actually okay with that because it feels like my curls will stay nicely defined all day. It's not hard, in fact it's soft, it's just very firm. Pictures abound!