
Struggling to achieve defined curls on your natural hair? Don’t worry. Let me show your my personal experience and also, with my clients. Below are steps and videos that could help you get your natural hair in a cute wash and go hairstyle. You will also learn how to maintain your wash and go style at least for 2 weeks. I hope you enjoy.
Clarify Hair
Over time, styling products like gels, creams, and oils accumulate on the hair, making it harder for products to penetrate and perform as effectively. Our Black Soap Clarifying Shampoo is designed to remove buildup from hair and scalp without stripping moisture. Clarifying ensures that excess oils, product buildup, and impurities are properly removed from hair and scalp so hair is clean, ready to effectively absorb the next products for a wash-and-go, helping curls look more defined, bouncy, and frizz-free. I clarify not more than once a week.
Note:
According to professional sources, If you use heavy styling products (like gels, creams, or oils), you might need to clarify once a week or once every two weeks to remove buildup while, If you use lighter products (like leave-ins or lightweight serums), you may only need to clarify once a month.
Your hair’s inability to absorb product and react well to them could be as a result of product build up. So starting on clean hair is paramount using a clarifying shampoo. Clarifying is meant to thoroughly remove all product buildup, excess sebum, and debris from hair. Our Clarifying shampoo is designed to remove buildup from hair and scalp without stripping excess moisture and can be used once or twice a week.
If you’re in the habit of cleansing hair every day or more than twice a week, then a conditioning shampoo would apply in this case and a clarifying shampoo would just be once in a while.
On cleansed wet hair, apply conditioner
I follow up with a our Multi-Purpose Leave In Conditioner conditioner. I may deep condition or do regular conditioning depending on how my hair feels. Conditioner helps improve the feel, appearance and manageability of hair. Hair should be totally free of knots and tangles. It’s vital to detangle hair thoroughly in order to get the best definition. The conditioner helps reduce friction between strands to allow smoother brushing or combing, among other benefits like repair. I work the conditioner into the hair as I detangle. For a wash and go, I rinse off the conditioner to allow enough room for the gel to do it’s thing and avoid unnecessary flaking. Otherwise you may apply leave-in if you see fit.
Start styling on close to dry hair
This may sound ridiculous but actually with wet hair, research shows that hair can absorb up to 30% of its own weight in water, which makes it weaker and more susceptible to damage from brushing and styling. So we want to take back the hair’s molecular structure close to where it is stronger and this will also allow room for more product to be absorbed. Just after cleansing, hair has absorbed a lot of water and will therefore find it hard to absorb anything else. By absorbing some of the water with a towel or allowing hair dry and let go some of the water, it will be able to absorb more product. Use a Microfiber Hair Towel or T-shirt to wrap hair so you can reduce the amount of water in your hair.
Use a curling cream or gel
A curling cream is basically a mixture of cream and gel. The curling cream or gel is oriented to define your style (curls) and give it hold for some good number of days. Curling creams don’t usually give as much hold as gel does on Afro hair. It would serve you better to use a botanical gel for maximum benefits. I use CutAfrik Afro Curling Gel to curl my hair in small sections. It helps curls clump together and form defined spirals, coils, or waves. I coat each strand liberally with product and rake through my hair gently, to encourage curls to form.
I Work in smaller sections for maximum product penetration! Smaller sections are another secret to definition. It gives better room for product to deeply penetrate into hair strands giving better results.
Let hair dry quickly and completely. How?
Study shows leaving hair to dry naturally can be more damaging than intense heat. As we have already seen, hair can absorb up to 30% of its own weight in water, which makes it weaker. Natural drying takes time, so the longer hair stays wet, the more the cortex swells and cracks, permanently damaging hair. To be specific, causing the cell membrane (The cell membrane complex is the material that glues hair cells together) to crack, permanently damaging the hair. Although using a hair dryer causes more surface damage than natural drying, using a hair dryer or diffuser with continuous motion causes less damage than drying hair naturally. So heat drying the right way seems to be a better option since its quicker and will gives a more voluminous and shiny curls.
Stretch and fluff for length and volume.
Using oily hands (fingers) I gently smooth out the curls to loosen them for bigger fluffier hair. I lightly lift roots with a pick being careful not to pull all the way through, and style as I please. Pick the roots if you must. If you naturally have bigger hair, then you may not tamper with the roots as your hair will gradually get itself together as the day, the week goes. Add gel to sleek down the edges if you like. The result is a super defined wash and go that will retain moisture and definition for more than a week.
Note that the more you touch your hair, the more likely it is that you’ll get frizz.
Maintenance
The banding method

Its more likely that when you wake up the next day, your may realize extreme shrinkage. if that is of concern, and you hate constant heat, try the banding method. The banding method is simply tying bands around our hair, starting from roots to mid-length, without reaching the ends to keep the definition. After about 5 to 15 minutes, I remove the ties and follow with fingers and a pick to put everything right. The result is fluffy hair with definition. There you are ready to go.
Note: Use satin or silk scrunchies or ribbons. I have had bad experiences with regular elastics. Regular elastics suck moisture out of your hair, gets your hair tangled up in the elastic and you will spend forever trying to untangle.

Heat method (Hand dryer)
This is the quickest way to stretch your hair and achieve length and volume. After this step follow with a pick and fingers if you see fit.

Sleep on a satin pillow case or use a satin bonnet or wrap to keep hair moisturized.
To maintain the style, I sleep on a comfortable pillow covered with a satin or silk pillow cover. Wearing a satin bonnet could be another option but I personally don’t, any longer, because I just want my hair to breadth.
Fluff
In the morning I simply fluff with fingers and add a lifter to tease the roots if necessary. You can gently lift roots with a pick and re-gel edges.
Freshen
If hair is dry I could spritz some water oil mix for refresh and shine. This usually happens towards the end of the send week.
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