Race in everyday life

[resonant]

For some reason, this spring I am kind of obsessed with finding a way not to have to wash my hair every day.

My hair is about chin length, and I have waves on some parts of my head and big co'cola-can curls on other parts. When I wake up in the morning it looks like a wheat field after a tornado. Styling it on the second day actually takes more time than shampooing it again. And yet somehow I feel that this is something I ought to be able to do.

So I read an article that suggested that a wrap or nightcap made of satin might improve second-day curls, and I went off to a beauty-supply store to buy one.

There was a nice rack of possibilities for kids and adults. The color palette was earth tones, and all the models on the packaging were African-American, but that didn't seem too odd, because, you know, who has the curliest hair? So I put a nice dark brown wrap in my basket and walked around the corner ...

... and there was another rack of pretty much exactly the same products, in a pastel palette, with all white models.

If I had wanted the same wrap in pink, with a blonde woman's face on it, I would have had to pay an extra $3.



(in case you're wondering, what a satin wrap does for curly hair is slide off of it in the middle of the night.)

Comments

[sapote]

I've been looking into similar wraps, and as far as I can tell my best option would be to sew what is charmingly called a ninja-style hijab cap, because yeah - under no circumstances will a simple hat stay on my head during the night. Have you also looked into changing your pillowcase? People with more textured hair than mine say that cotton can be really rough on curly hair, and you might do better with something with some slip, like a silk or satin.

[resonant]

I've recently bought satin pillowcases. I'm still getting used to them -- it seems like my head wants to slide off of them -- but they do help somewhat.

The wraps (there are two of them in the package) have velcro and can be fastened pretty tightly around the sides of the head, but nothing seems to keep them on. I actually have a hard time imagining anything that would stay on my head all night long unless it also covered my face, which obviously is not optimal.

The ideal thing would be to be able to remove my hair at night and put it back on in the morning.

[wrabbit]

This is probably an obvious comment, but have you tried just rinsing it without shampooing it in the morning or is the main issue that you don't want to get it wet?

[aerianya]

We have all manner of wavy, curly, straight, and overproccessed hair in my house. We have started using a cleansing conditioner instead of shampooing. Started with Wen (omg expensive) but have since changed to Renpure . Found it on Amazon as an add-on to Wen but then on sale at Walgreen 2/$10.00. Still pretty much cleanse my hair everyday or two but it can go without feeling icky and flyaway. My daughters with the hair that curls everywhere just use it a couple days a week but their hair is long so maybe pulls the curl down. Just had to experiment a little to find the right combination. Most of them smell pretty good too, very important to me.g
No wrap,scarves,combs, pins,barrettes stay in my hair they just snake their way on out and fall by the wayside. lol
Been trying to grow my hair out a little,so tired of trying to find a short style I like, but it was such a mess! Straightish but wavy in some places and very flyaway and so much static I could power a house! I just had to try something else, I was spending a small fortune trying to find the right combo of product for my hair. You may have already gone this way and found out it didn't work for you, but hey I haven't posted or commented in so long thought I'd use this as an excuse...*G*

[devon]

I have a nightcap that is like a satin showercap - with elastic all around the edge. It came from the beauty aisle of a drug store, and it stays on fine. (I've had my hair from chin length to above my ears, and it works both ways.)

I also bought a spray-pump mister to add water to, and it does a pretty good job of dampening my hair enough to bring back the waves without having to wet it completely.

Good luck!

[resonant]

Rinsing works OK, and so does conditioning-without-shampooing, but I'm imagining the utopian day when I didn't even have to get my hair all the way wet, saving me at least seven minutes in the morning.

[resonant]

I'll look for that -- maybe I can find a sample size or something. I have issues with a lot of conditioners because I need something quite heavy if I don't want my hair to frizz all out like a dandelion.

See, that's another reason I thought not washing every day might be a good option, because supposedly second-day hair is heavier and less frizzy.

[resonant]

They had those styles of nightcaps, but I assumed because they were looser that they wouldn't stay on as well. Hm.

The other recommendation this article had was a spray bottle with half water and half leave-in conditioner. When I tried this, it looked quite nice, but it felt like my hair was made of slightly sticky plastic -- but I'm going to try a lower percentage of leave-in conditioner and see how that goes.

It's amazing the number of ways that hair can fail to do what you want it to do.

[devon]

If you mix conditioner w water, just make sure your conditioner has some kind of preservative in it. Otherwise, you'll end up with horrible black mold in your spray bottle. I did that with glycerine, which worked perfectly, but it apparently doesn't grow mold at full strength - only when diluted a lot. So check the spray bottle every couple of weeks for grossness, just in case.

[isis]

I have long, thick, curly hair, and I do the baking soda/apple cider vinegar thing once a week. Then I can rinse my hair and use a little conditioner or vinegar (I alternate) every other day. I can't really leave it for three days in a row unrinsed, though, or it looks flat.

[resonant]

Oh, wow, thank you for this.

[resonant]

I went hunting for the baking soda and vinegar thing, but I still don't quite get how you can "rinse" hair with baking soda -- do you just dissolve it in water?

Post-menopause, my hair is not oily at all, and I don't know if it would flatten out if I didn't rinse it. I'm sure it would pick up smells from the air, though, or get sweaty if I ever did anything to raise a sweat.

I have a co-worker who only washes her (long, straight) hair once a week. You can tell, though, because by the end of the week it's pretty visibly oily at the roots.

[isis]

Well, you wash it with baking soda: you put it on your wet scalp and massage it around with your fingers, then rinse it off while using your hands to direct it across the hair. Then you put a little vinegar into a container, add warm water, and rinse with it.

I rinse every day if I'm running, though I've been injured and/or sick lately so I haven't been, and that's how I discovered I can easily go every other day. My hair is very not-oily since probably my thirties. It doesn't pick up smells, or at least my husband doesn't complain. I don't think you can tell it hasn't been washed (only rinsed). I can't even tell right now feeling my roots - today was a rinse with conditioner day, and I last used baking soda last Saturday (I would have yesterday but I was out of it in the container I keep in the shower).

[lexin]

I use a microfibre towel wrap which stays on nicely. You put it on, twist the back round and then button it into place. There's one here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Magic-Microfiber-Hair-drying-Towel-Bath/dp/B0092JG6ZI/ref=sr_1_2?s=drugstore&ie=UTF8&qid=1428183988&sr=1-2&keywords=hair+drying+towel

And another here in bamboo and cotton:

http://www.highlandsoaps.com/bamboo-hair-drying-towel-wrap-401?gclid=Cj0KEQjwl_6oBRDHxNGz6ueJufMBEiQAvm_k_rxYfwAqMhSXMay3rHxl7H51wyA7xKkKqmy76qW_BGkaAv8t8P8HAQ

The microfibre one is so cheap (if they have a version on the US website) that it's worth experimenting with.

[resonant]

I've got one of those! I use it to dry my hair. I can't imagine it would stay on at night. Maybe other people don't thrash around as much in their sleep as I do??

[monanotlisa]

Race in the US = weird, definitely, but I feel mostly it's brown folks that pay the price. So to speak.

I use a product for Black (& mixed) hair: http://curlsunleashed.com/ (the blue shampoo, the blue conditioner, and the blue leave-in) It's expensive but by far the best I've found so far -- my hairstylist's stuff cannot compete, and generally I'm happy with how it makes my hair look: http://iconosquare.com/p/782850641430602416_17237583

As for the towel -- my hair is too different from yours, I think. I usually just put down a towel on my pillow if I go to bed with my hair wet. My sides do get a little smushed, but did I mention I use plenty of that leave-in conditioner? That usually gets it back into a more moisturized and non-frizzy state.

[grammarwoman]

I've gotten my hair (which sounds a lot like yours) washings down to 2-3 times a week. What I've read, and it's true for me, is that you train your scalp to not produce as much oil/gunk when you don't stress it out by washing as much. You might have to go through some oiliness to get there, though.

After I shower, I sleep on it wet with a towel. Otherwise, I put it up in a loose bun on the top of my head with a scrunchy, which seems to help keep the oiliness down, too. Loose is important so it doesn't pull at the hairline and cause lots of breakages, which could lead to traction alopecia.

The issue is compounded for me because I sleep with a CPAP full-face mask, so if I don't put my hair up, it's trapped under the straps in back, flattening it out and making it look gross the next day.

[saraht]

Why do you need to wash your hair every day? My old hairdresser used to chide me for doing that. Most people most places in the world don't.

[lexin]

I go to bed in it, and it stays on for me. Usually, anyway.

[twistedchick]

I also use baking soda on my hair, which is a bit below shoulder length, thick, wavy in places and curly in other places. I have a small squirt bottle that I half-fill with soda and half with water; shake it up, squirt it on through the thickest part of the hair. Put on dry baking soda with my hands on the wet hair also, work it into the scalp. Rinse it off. Final rinse is with a quart of water diluting a tablespoon of white vinegar (or, alternately, rosemary vinegar from last year but I'm trying to make that last a bit.) My scalp does not get as oily as fast as it did, and the waves tend to loosen a little but not flatten out. FWIW.

[jamjar]

I've never had to wash my hair every day-- depending on what I've been doing, it's usually between 3-6 days. I don't tend to use a lot of products, which I think helps, but also:

1) When I shampoo, I get a minibottle, squeeze some shampoo in it, add water, shake, then wash with that. Needs less shampoo, foams better, rinses more.
2) Conditioner/hair mask. On for 20 minutes, wrapped in clingfilm, before rinsing off.

DIY hair masks are half an avocado, olive oil, honey, egg yolk, all blitzed together.

But mostly in the week, if it needs a bit more control, I have an argan oil shine serum (rub on your hands, then rub over your hair).

The more often I wash my hair, the more it needs it. I have heard that if your hair is very curly, washing it just with conditioner can work well-- brightestbulbinthebox has a pretty good explanation of why this can work over here: http://www.brightestbulbinthebox.com/2014/04/what-is-no-poo-and-does-it-work.html (gets into the science), and her basic conclusion is, it can work but it's not for everyone.

(I'm very fond of that blog).

[blueraccoon]

Not washing every day works better if you have fine hair or frizzy hair, because the second-day oils weigh your hair down a bit and smooth out the frizz and the flyaway. My hair is baby fine and on the thin side, so if I wash it every day it poufs out and looks terrible. Second-day hair is usually my best day.

However, I just chopped all mine off and now it requires a bit of styling every day and washing a bit more frequently because by day three it's sticking straight up or mashed to the sides of my head and the only way to fix it is to wash it and dry it again. So I'm learning.

When my hair was longer I found dry shampoo helped a lot on non-washed hair, because it toned down the oiliness and gave me a bit of texture for styling with. The Drybar dry shampoo is the best product I've used but the scent is really strong and not to everyone's taste. It actually gives me a headache, so I don't use it anymore.

[abbylee]

I also use a spray bottle. Depending on how my hair looks before I wet it, I add some moisturizing cream too, but the water is all I need to reshape my curls. Doing them in separate steps adds a tiny bit of time, but means I don't have to worry about either going bad.

I need enough water to make it listen and for it to get beyond the top layer of my thick hair, which for me means I use a plant-type spray bottle and not a hair-type spray bottle. But I only need a few pumps so it's not very wet. (And my bottle's a little tiny one that holds about a cup of water, so it's easier to manage than what I normally picture for a plant spray bottle.)

If you have dry hair like I do, you might also get some benefit by putting a little moisturizing cream in it before bed. For me, this is basically just mixed oils (grapeseed oil, coconut butter, cocoa butter, etc, depending on my mood and season), but commercial stuff might work for you too! My hair looks best when I can get that sweet spot where it's moist enough it listens but just before it looks oily.

I keep meaning to buy a wrap for my hair too, but more for breakage and frizz. It's good to know it might tame the look, as well.

Good luck! Figuring out systems is such a pain.

[yarngeek]

Maybe (cider) vinegar instead of water? Good for hair, and inhibits mold.

Downside: you smell like salad dressing for a few minutes.