The Latest 'Do: Braid Out & Protein Treatments

I did my first protein treatment ever after work on Tuesday. I've been researching it for some time now and thought my constantly shedding hair would be an awesome candidate. Not all hair is perfect for protein. More course textures will actually have an adverse effect and will result in dry brittle hair.  My fine, curly strands love some assistance, and protein adds strength to my curly locks.

I found an awesome recipe here on Newly Natural's blog and thought it'd be wonderful to try.
My recipe was modified as follows:
1- 6 oz container of fat free peach yogurt (I would of used plain full fat yogurt, but this was all I had)
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup of mayonnaise
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp of coconut oil

After mixing this all up in a small bowl, I refrigerated it for a bit so it could thicken slightly, and then washed my hair.  On clean hair, I applied the soupy mixture over the sink (and made a mess
or until it dripped down my neck and back...lol), covered my hair with a plastic bag, and left it on for about 20 minutes .  The key point here is NO HEAT!!!! Heat could scramble the eggs in your protein treatment. I then rinsed my hair with cool water and applied a deep conditioner. This step is crucial because protein treatments are drying to the hair.


(BTW I got a hooded dryer for Christmas...Deep conditioning with heat is freakin' awesome! The effects are exponential when compared to my old method of deep conditioning overnight. My hair practically melted as it glided through my comb...awesome!)

Afterwards I must say I was quite impressed with the condition of my hair. It was soft, and the strands seemed to be a lot stronger. I had little to no shedding when I combed it, and the smoothing process was practically effortless.

I proceeded to do a braidout. Eight braids, no fuss (unlike my routine that night). In the morning I had soft and fluffy coils with great definition. That night (this was yesterday), I rebraided my hair in the 8 sections, not braiding too tight, but instead trying to follow the wave of the original braid-out. Its still braided as I type, but I will assume it will remain great. If I remember I will throw a pic up when I take it down Friday or Saturday (ahh tis life and I am lazy...lol).

Results
Front view (above), Side View (below):

A Curly Girl's: Doodling Method & Doodle Twist-Out

As aforementioned (I love that word but never get the chance to use it without feeling snobby lol), my hair tends to set in about a million different ways. Since this is the case, I decided to show what it looks like when I first set my hair, and what it looks like after I sleep on it for a few days.

I must say that 2nd, 3rd, and 4th day hair always looks the best to me, but certain sets tend to look very pretty on the first day and soften with time. Doodles, which are also called a coil- out, are one of my favorite FAVORITE hairstyles! This is one of the first methods of hairstyling I learned from tightlycurly.com when I first started my natural hair journey, and is a method I still use to style my tresses.

It is a tad time consuming, so I only tend to do this style on days where I have extra time to style my hair and let it dry before going to bed. I wouldn't suggest doing this style right before bed since it can tend to smoosh to your head while your sleeping. I like to do this when I have extra time before I get ready to go out for the day, so I can let it air-dry, and then twist it before bed.

For a more extensive tutorial, read where I learned this wonderful natural's method @ tightlycurly.com.

I tend to start most of my styles in the front of my head so when I get tired and lazy towards the back, noone will see it lol. Anyways, after washing and conditioning with a leave in, I part out a section of hair, and pin the rest back. Depending on how big of a curl I want, I section a small piece out and starting at the root, twirl the piece gently around my finger (don't pull too hard or you'll pull out your hair!). I then drop the curl gently and proceed to section off and curl the rest of the hair in that section. It can take awhile but it is so worth it! I usually wear the style for the day, and then at night, take each section, being careful not to break any of the curls, and gently twist them together. In the morning you will be able to gently undo the twists, and separate them with your fingers. Pictures are posted below!

The Doodling Method: the result is a very defined curl...

The Doodle twist-out: about 3 days later, the doodles or coils have all softened into pretty delicate waves...I love my hair like this! I get a lot of compliments :)

A Curly Girl's: Wash & Go/ Wash & Go Twist-out

Since these were the first photos I found, I decided to elaborate on this style first. Now I know what your thinking. A wash & go is a wash & go so what's up with the addition of the wash & go twist-out?

Well...

My hair is very soft and as someone pointed out to me yesterday: "your hair looks different every time I see you". That's because depending on how I wrap my hair up for the night, my curl pattern will be more or less defined, or will just be a wave. So as to deliniate between all these patterns, I've assigned them names to distinguish one from the next.

Now for my wash & go's, I use the method described on tightlycurly.com, and if I am using shelf products (ie. something that's not natural), her product reviews and ingredient guides are awesome tools for me to pick the safest products on the shelves. If natural products aren't as widely available to you, then that is a good place to start to find safe products for curly hair that are on the market and sold in drugstores.

Now for the wash & go:

After washing, I follow with a conditioner applied on sopping wet hair (the wetter, the easier it is to define your curls), and proceed to detangle with a comb or finger comb. Then I simply let it dry. For another lovely method for drying, you can google "plopping" and see my review on it in the blog with the same title. I like this style for when I'm in a rush and need to get going for the day. It dries to look like below. I think the Phanatic liked it...right? Lol anyway...

The wash & go with a twist out simply serves to preserve the style while taming some of the frizzy bits I couldn't get to the conditioner with. All I do is take medium to large parts and gently twist the hair and seal it with my fingertips (I just hold it a second). Then all I do is scarf it up. Then in the morning, I undo the twists, separate and massage the parts, and fluff. This just helps to preserve the style but also polishes it a little because all the curls that were not defined lay down a little bit and get with the curly program! This comes out as shown below, and was actually acheived from the wash & go from the first photo. See how my hair kinda stretched a little? I also oil the sections a little before twisting if needed because my ends tend to get dry.