Travel Wash Routine (….making do with minimal products)

So, I had to make an impromptu trip to Lagos (I was in Ibadan) on a Sunday, which happened to be my wash-day. I hate baggage so I simply packed only my spray bottle (a mix of conditioner, some glycerin and good ole’ water) and my trusty shea butter. 😉 Now, the trip dragged on longer than I thought it would and I was beginning to feel very uncomfortable with my hair. 😦 Although no one else but me could tell, I knew it was dirty, needed cleaning and conditioning.

Lucky for me, my brother stays in Lagos too and he has locs. So, I was fairly optimistic that I could steal 😉 some products from him to get at least a wash and some form of conditioning done. I set about scrounging up what products I could find. Here’s what I came up with;

• A teeny bit of V05 conditioner
• A sample satchet of shea moisture shampoo
• A sample satchet of shea moisture renewal hair masque
• Olive oil and honey (from the kitchen)

the shampoo satchet and the conditioner – for the wash

the satchet of hair masque, olive oil and honey – for conditioning

My plan was to mix the shampoo with the conditioner (which I did) and wash my hair with it. It worked just fine since my focus was mostly on my scalp anyway. Would have loved to do a tea rinse as well but, there wasn’t any at home at the moment. I guess that would have to wait till my next wash. 😦

Washing the hair;

• First, I had my hair sectioned into four parts. I usually do this as it makes my washday infinitely easier. And it cuts down on detangling time too! 🙂

hair in four sections, held in place with bobby pins

• Next, I spritzed a section with warm water – to loosen up the dirt, plus this also cuts down the amount of conditioner used. 😉
• Then applied the shampoo/conditioner combo, focusing on my scalp. Massaged the roots properly to work out the dirt. Smoothed the suds down my hair (which was adequate to get it cleaned).

massaging the roots…

• Did the same to all four sections, detangled with a wide-tooth comb

detangled hair still with conditioner and shampoo in

…..and rinsed out. I must say, although the shampoo was very little, I liked how my hair felt after. It was so soft and fluffy. Felt clean but not stripped. So, here’s a shampoo I am pretty satisified with. 🙂

Deep conditioning the hair;

• Prepped the mix;

  

  2 tablespoons of olive oil

  

  2 tablespoons of honey

  

  added the satchet of shea moisture hair masque…

  I decided the warm up the mix just a teeny bit to aid penetration.

Applied it to my freshly washed hair (still in the sections)

deep conditioner in hair

Wore a double baggy over it to trap the heat in, also wore a wool hat and a scarf over that. Talk about multi-layering. Lol. 🙂 I rinsed out the mix after a couple of hours. And did the LOC method while my hair was still damp. Here’s a close-up of what my hair looked like after I did that.

I simply fall in love with my coils everytime I get to see them up close like this 🙂

I was watching a movie series in-between all this and I was really in the mood to play in my hair. So, I decided to do twists. I used a teeny bit of Curls Creme Brule (whipped curl cream). My first time using this. I got the sample bottle from my brother who had no need for it. 😉 I used a pea-size amount and worked it into each of the four main sections I made. It applies very well and only very little is needed. My twists came out not frizzy and deliciously bouncy. It felt super moisturized even after it had dried some. Here’s another product I’ll recommend. 🙂 Safe ingredients too. Sadly, I checked online and couldn’t find it being sold here in Nigeria. 😦 I plan to look further into this. I’d be grateful for any leads as well (thanks in advance). Here are my twists when I was done. I plan to untwist them for a nice twist-out in 2 days.

Lol. There’s my friend snoozing in the background. He did get weirded out about appearing in the pictures in his sleep. 😀

There you have it, loves. Hair can be groomed with very minimal products with great results. I’d love to hear about how your washday usually goes when you are in a pinch as well. 🙂 Plus, questions are also always welcome.

Also, happy new month. Wish you all a swell month filled with great happenings. 🙂

PS. Here are pictures of how the twists turned out when I unraveled them. They were scalpy – travails of a low density natural 😦  – so I had to separate the curls more and fluff them some to hide my scalp.

More pictures…

clipped up the sides a bit

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