Mariia's curly blog part 3: Thorough washing day

Mariia blogs on Sumilayi's blog about curly hair methods, care, products and experiences, sharing her best tips.

During my two-year journey with curls, I've gone through quite a range of different washing days with different emotions.

There have been times when I felt like screaming (I could scream!) when I didn't understand what was happening to my hair and what I should do with it, and times when the washing routines from beginning to end have been full of joy and gratitude for how little effort I have gotten wonderful curls as a result of a washing day. And everything in between. In any case, even those times of screaming have been positive because they have taken me forward towards understanding and with it ease in the care of my curls.

I can also say with satisfaction that I got there with very little: with little effort and little pain. Partly it is due to the fact that my hair has been so long the whole way that I have caught it easily, so how successful my washing day has been, in the end, has meant very little. If it hasn't pleased the eye, I've just put the hair back and continued with my life until the next wash - a little thing! I've always learned something new, I think "fail forward to success" is a great quote. If you don't dare to fail, it's pretty much impossible to succeed.

"I can't go anywhere today, I have hair washing day." you hear women say in some movies, and the washing days at the beginning were sometimes long and challenging when the desire to do things "correctly" was tremendous, but there was very little skill and understanding. Have laughed at this a few times with a friend! The washing DAYS of movies took on a whole new meaning at that time.

At its easiest, my washing day these days (has been for a long time) is as follows:

• I brush my hair gently when dry (my own hair doesn't tangle, but I still find it more comfortable to start washing with brushed hair)
• I wash my scalp with conditioner
• I treat my hair with the same conditioner I used to wash it
• I rinse and apply a little leave-in conditioner
• I apply the gel
• I plop in a t-shirt for 10-15 minutes
• Air dry and/or dry with a diffuser

I do the above every five days, and it takes about an hour to dry with a dryer, which I think is incredibly little compared to my former hair care routine before my cg time, which was repeated every few days, included pain (quite real pain when I hated my frizzy hair) and anxiety and almost never led to nothing other than the same electric whirlwind from which I had started. Today, even the worst wash day results are at least 100% better than in the past. I can not complain! I'm quite a lazy person washing my hair because I enjoy it so much that even after a wash interval, my hair isn't flat and licked by a cow, and for the most part, it's also not carelessly frizzy. So I enjoy the few washing intervals and the ease of my care routine.

Many curly girls spend more or less time on the days in between curling their curls, i.e. reviving the shape of the curls and the overall volume of their hair, e.g. after a night out. I've probably permed my curls at most 10 times in two years, and that's what makes my long hair possible. If my hair were shorter and thus open for the most part, I would definitely be part of "team frees."

Sometimes it's time to do more magic on the hair, and among the quick washing days, these are nice indulgences that also bring an almost meditative moment to everyday life (or the weekend), because while I'm taking care of my hair, my head is wonderfully empty of everything else.

This time's longer washing and care routine started because I had been thinking for a long time to put the so-called pre-poon my hair. Pre-poo means treatment before washing, often with some oil. Its purpose is e.g. gives the curls extra moisture, helps the conditioner do its job, adds shine, accelerates hair growth, improves hair elasticity and balances the scalp. I decided to use Sumilay's argan oil, which is a moisturizing, vitamin-rich oil.

It so happened that at the same moment that I had rubbed the first handful into my hair (often I just put the oil on the scalp and spread it on the lengths from there, but now it was such a "let's do it big" moment!), I realized that we would not have water, the pump had broken. I knew it, but it just didn't occur to me at the point when I decided to do pre-poo. The water would be restored at some point the next morning. Oh my God!! Longer formula oil treatment is known, haha! Hair up tight and rock, rock!

The next morning stretched into a day when air had entered the pipes and restarting the cycle took some time. So my hair received a really effective treatment. In the end, I got to the wash, but of course at that point the hair had already absorbed the oil so much that I didn't even try to get through my washing operation without (sulfate-free) shampoo.

At this point, I want to correct a little bit what I wrote in the previous blog article. I talked about the fact that I will only talk about the procedures according to the method, BUT the truth is that the original method does NOT include shampooing, brushing, and probably all the other things I'm talking about. I think that, in the end, there are a smaller number of people who follow the method perfectly than those of us who have adopted certain techniques that are gentle and help curl formation, but which are not approved by Massey. So, if you're looking for a completely pure doctrinal method and tips for it, maybe I'm not the right guy for it. Otherwise, continue.

I washed my hair with Herbina sulfate-free shampoo and this time I also applied it to the lengths and not just to the scalp like I normally do if I use shampoo. I first applied the Sumilay conditioner by hand and then brushed it with the Sumilay brush, which helps the conditioner reach each hair. I like brushing my hair with conditioner in it. That feeling when the curls start to form uniform clumps, sections, is somehow just so nice.

I have three different brushes and I use them in different situations. When washing, I mostly use that Sumilay brush, while for dry hair I mostly use my pink "wet brush" (yep, illogical!) and the third "behairful brush" at any point. With all my brushes, I can help my curls form clumps and reduce frizz by smoothing the hair before it dries.

After the conditioner was applied and brushed, I started squeezing the hair, adding water a little at a time through the palms to the section to be squeezed (squishing). This further contributes to the formation of uniform curl sections. I continued squeezing for a few minutes. Sumilay's conditioner has the best "slip" (i.e. such a soft glide) for my hair among the conditioners I've tried. It makes the hair really easy to handle and the fingers slide through the curls without any resistance.

It may be that you want a different feeling from your product, which you know will lead to a good result after your hair dries. The most important thing is to recognize the needs of your own hair.

One important thing I've learned about my hair is that if I feel at any stage that the hair is not moving freely, feels lumpy or heavy or has some other unusual feeling, I wash my hair and do something different; the end result won't be any better than the feeling during the washing phase. In other words, a bad feeling does not change to a good one, but a good feeling can become much better. (So ​​I saw it in my own hair.)

After rinsing my hair well, I applied leave-in conditioner to my hair using the "raking" technique. Most of the time, I only need a pea-sized amount of leftovers, a larger amount leads to a flattened cake. Again, hair has different needs, so you may need a tablespoon or a handful of the same or similar product.

Raking is raking, i.e. the fingers are pushed into the base of the hair and pulled down from there. For me, it helps keep the clumps intact.

After leaving, the last product was the gel, which has been from Sumilayi's product family for several months now. Before that, I was without gel for a long time because none of the previous ones worked at all anymore, so I thought it best to be without.

However, the gel gives the curls a completely different tenacity and shape after it dries, which is why I was super happy when this new gel was launched.

Winter has changed my hair somewhat, and when we moved and the water changed completely, I noticed that the gel doesn't work the same way as before. My research with the topic is still in progress, so nothing more.

Often, after applying the gel, I put my hair in a package, i.e. inside my plopping shirt, for approx. 15 minutes, but now I decided to only microplop, that is, I squeezed out the excess water with a t-shirt, but did not wrap the shirt around my head. It's worth testing the difference between these two methods on your own hair.

Sometimes I notice myself that if the curl is a little lazier when wet, I can make it frizzy by plopping. When, what, there is no strict "every time I do this" rule.

When I wash and care for my hair, I almost always have my head down, but I always pay attention to the movement of the hair, i.e. I don't flatten it along my head, but I constantly turn my head from side to side so that the hair is free. I notice this success when I turn my head up. If the hair has flattened, the curl shape on the neck suffers and then I have to brush the neck hair straight, wet it with a shower bottle and squeeze it back into its curly shape. This is also something that didn't work at all in the beginning, i.e. when washing, a certain airiness that came after the condition of the hair improved and after finding working product combinations was missing and the hair was always tangled. Fixed it with the layout and that shower bottle, but required work in a different way than today.

Don't be discouraged if different tricks and tricks don't seem to work right away, hair takes time to balance.

For many, the steps taken with the head down are also a path to failure, so keep your head up in that case.

After plopping, or this time micro plopping, I waved the hair from side to side and arranged the front hair the way I wanted.

For many, the gel forms a hard crust on the curls when it dries, not much for me. The gel still keeps the drying hair in its shape, so the hair does not get away from the clumps, i.e. the hair sections that have been created with the conditioner and the brush. The gel also protects well against the formation of fluff.

I often let my hair dry freely for half an hour and then finish drying with a diffuser on low power, alternating between cool and slightly warm air. My diffuser is good, I use it a lot, but considering the amount and length of my hair, on my wish list is a nozzle that would be deeper than this current diffuser. I feel that I could get even better volume in my hair with such a nozzle if it had more space in the nozzle. Know him.
Sometimes, for the last 10-15 minutes, I put clips on the top of my head at the base of the curls, which gives me lifted root hair and thus volume. Now I didn't.

I often use a few drops of oil on dry hair at the end, smoothing and scrunching the oil into the curls. The oil helps retain moisture in the hair or moisturize it, depending on the oil. In addition, it is a great help in removing the cast, i.e. the gel shell, if it has formed on the surface of the curls. Sometimes I've had that Casta myself, and the pressing is always somehow a magical moment at the end of curling routines when wonderful, shiny and soft curls are revealed underneath.

When the hair is drying, the tension is great when you think about what kind of curls the washing routines will create at the end of the day. Quite a few times in my initial project I have been completely convinced, looking at the drying sad mouse tail, that something went wrong and have been pleasantly surprised when the end result is i-ha-na!!

When the down jacket comes out of the washing machine, it NEVER looks like it could still be used, and it always does.

So, of course, I've learned to trust the process and I'm not so goal-oriented anymore, even though I have the end result in mind. And as said, whatever the outcome, I can always learn more.

AND I can always start over. This is just hair washing and conditioning, nothing set in stone!

"Keep it simple sweetie" is also a good reminder to yourself and maybe to you as well, even though these long formula washing days are sometimes good. Simplicity usually applies to most things. If you're struggling, take a step back and get back to the basics, that's what I do.

Here are the curls of my washing day:

The long oil treatment gave the end result I could expect. The curls were really lovely, but the hair became too soft and would not have been able to withstand the amount of gel that should have been applied to achieve a more voluminous end result. BUT the curls were really soft, which means I got excellent moisture and care and shine for my hair, it's really good.

Products I use:

• Sumilayi organic argan oil
• Herbina hair care sulfate-free shampoo
• Sumilayi "ooh so soft curls" moisturizing conditioner
• Sumilayi nourishing shea butter & avocado oil leave-in conditioner
• Sumilayi anti-frizz gel with linseed (medium hold)

Next time, I will continue with a different washing and care routine, and the processing will focus on the ratio of protein and moisture in the hair. Stay tuned!

Have a nice day,

Maria