My Routine

I figure the next step in my blogging should be to post my current routine. It's a work in progress, but I'm very happy with it overall so far. So here's my step by step in obnoxious detail:

1) Wet hair completely in the shower

2) Take a palm full of Suave Naturals (currently on coconut scent) Conditioner, spread about a quarter of it on my canopy, then use the rest of get in underneath and scrub. I scrub for about two-four minutes depending on how many days it's been since I've washed. After scrubbing my scalp, I scrub the length with the conditioner that I spread all over earlier. Basically, I go in order of my scalp, then my canopy, then my length, with decreasing amounts of conditioner.

3) I rinse all of my hair while still using a circular scrubbing motion all over.

4) I comb all of my hair at this point with a wide tooth comb. Sometimes the amount of hair that comes out is scary, but I've learned that it's normal. It's because my curl pattern is tighter now that I'm CG, so I'm not losing hair throughout the day. I'm only losing it when I comb it out. And I check to make sure most of the hairs have a little white bulb on one end, meaning that they did not come out unnaturally, but they reached the end of their life cycle. The hairs that have fallen out just get caught in the clumps of curl rather than shedding onto my clothes during the day.

5) I apply about a half dollar diameter glob of L'Oreal Vive Pro Nutri Gloss (baby pink bottle--if you're going to try this, be sure to check that it's the bottle without amodimethicone in the ingredients list) to all of my hair, outer layers and inner layers. I don't scrub it in, just finger rake it through.

6) Leave on the L'Oreal for about 3 mins (sometimes I shave during this interlude)

7) Rinse out L'Oreal until the hair feels clean but still silky. Then I turn the water to cold and rinse for a few seconds, then hop out of the shower

8) I use my hands to squeeze the length a couple of times just so I'm not making a mess on the dorm bathroom floor

9) I do not let my terrycloth towel touch my hair. Absolute no-no. Terry cloth = frizz. Fine for my body, not my hair!

10) Travel from the dorm bathroom to my room, put on a t-shirt, then turn my attention to my hair again

11) I finger comb out my hair until I can run my fingers through my hair with no real resistance.

12) I apply Kinky Curly Knot Today as my leave-in my raking about a quarter size glob into my hair and then gently flipping my hair upside and scrunching several times.

13) I apply Kinky Curly Curling Custard using mysterflavored's method on naturallycurly. Watch the video here

14) Then I apply about a nickle sized dab of Herbal Essence's Totally Twisted Gel by scrunching it in, just like the KCCC

15) At this point, I roll my head back upright and place curls to fix my part. I spray on a concoction of my own making that consists of 1 tablespoon of my Suave conditioner dissolved in a spray bottle of water all over.

16) Then, if I'm going to air dry or if I have time, I will plop in a long sleeve t-shirt for about an hour.

17) If I can't plop, I will diffuse it using my Conair Ionic Tournaline hair dryer with the diffuser attachment it comes with. I dry until it's about 80% dry, then air dry the rest of the way.

18) If I could plop, after an hour, I take it down, and let it air dry without touching it.

19) No matter how it got dry, either by diffusing or air, once it is dry, I gently flip my hair upside down one last time and scrunch out the crunch by just scrunching my hair all over. Roll my hair back to upright, and it's done!!