Wash And Go, To Grow And To Dazzle 2020 Challenge

[ThursdayGirl]

These two things plus heat drying AND consulting with a CIK stylist, were what I was missing in my routine.

Even after watching the videos, I still didn't recognize that my shampoos were too clarifying (despite being natural and sulfate free). It wasn't until I saw a CIK stylist who evaluated my hair and discussed my products, that I understood what I needed to change in my regimen.

Even though their delivery is harsh, the As deserve their respect and their knowledge is not only helpful but critical.

Thank you for this. I listened to their 30 day detox and was turned off by their tone and ridicule of people trying to work with their hair. Maybe I’ll give them a second listen.

 

[LavenderMint]

I really want to go to a CIK stylist for a cut, but I’m a bit scared. I had a completely failed experience with a Deva Cut specialist in the past. I guess it makes sense to check out their work before booking an appointment.

What made you choose your CIK stylist beyond being within driving range?

I’m not even sure if the woman who cut my hair is officially a CIK stylist but she was familiar with the As and their philosophy, chatting with me about it some more and agreed with them on several points and disagreed on others. This salon is the only one near me that even offered wash and go as an option for tightly coily hair & I went even though I never saw anyone with coils as tight as mine on their insta. (To be fair, they did show my hair afterwards but I’ve not seen anyone with coils since- and it’s been 5 years) They do have the Devacut & Ouidad training certifications, whatever those are worth. I think the closest CIK stylist to me was around 2 hours away; surprising that there isn’t a DC stylist, as usually DC has some more progressive things going on.

 

[oneastrocurlie]

I really want to go to a CIK stylist for a cut, but I’m a bit scared. I had a completely failed experience with a Deva Cut specialist in the past. I guess it makes sense to check out their work before booking an appointment.

What made you choose your CIK stylist beyond being within driving range?

Disclaimer: idk what CIK stands for. Another acronym that flew by me in here lol.

My stylist is just a stylist who just only does curly hair. No deva this or that. She just focuses on curls. That may be a way to broaden your search if you look for people who say they specialize in curly hair (and have the pics to prove they are good at it).

 

[toaster]

Tomorrow makes 3 months since my haircut. I’m happy with how much length I’ve retained since, and I’m looking forward to three more months of growth.

I think around June I’ll need a trim. I’ll either go to embrace natural beauty or do it at home. Either way I won’t be getting a “curly cut” until 2021.

 

[GettingKinky]

Can you elaborate on what you mean by the way you wear a buff? Is it different from the way Aisha wear hers? Just curious because your hair always looks great for multiple days!

Aisha puts her buff around her neck and then pulls it up over her hair so her hair is kind of standing up when she sleeps.

I pull my buff down from the top like a hat so my hair is laying down (pressed against my head) while I sleep. In fact now I just wear a slap cap instead of a buff.

I hope that makes sense. Both work for me but when my hair is up it doesn’t always want to come back down.

 

[GettingKinky]

I’m not even sure if the woman who cut my hair is officially a CIK stylist but she was familiar with the As and their philosophy, chatting with me about it some more and agreed with them on several points and disagreed on others. This salon is the only one near me that even offered wash and go as an option for tightly coily hair & I went even though I never saw anyone with coils as tight as mine on their insta. (To be fair, they did show my hair afterwards but I’ve not seen anyone with coils since- and it’s been 5 years) They do have the Devacut & Ouidad training certifications, whatever those are worth. I think the closest CIK stylist to me was around 2 hours away; surprising that there isn’t a DC stylist, as usually DC has some more progressive things going on.

What did she disagree with the As about?

 

[GettingKinky]

Disclaimer: idk what CIK stands for. Another acronym that flew by me in here lol.

My stylist is just a stylist who just only does curly hair. No deva this or that. She just focuses on curls. That may be a way to broaden your search if you look for people who say they specialize in curly hair (and have the pics to prove they are good at it).

CIK stands for cut it kinky. That’s the training that the As offer for stylists. If you take their class they will list you as a stylist in their directory on their website.

Cut It Kinky Alumni Stylist Directory — Black Curl Magic

Black Girl Curls' Cut It Kinky Alumni Stylist Directory consists of stylists across the U.S., even stylists abroad, who have taken tight curl education with our professional arm, Cut It Kinky.

www.blackcurlmagic.com

 

[faithVA]

Reset my hair today during my lunch break. Made sure to pay more attention to things.

Wet my hair thoroughly before getting started. This isn't new to me. When I start I go through my hair in sections and let it soak under water to get the gel residue off. I can literally feel the gel on my hair. This takes quite a while.

I used the diluted shampoo just once. With the shampoo still in I used my tangle buster to detangle and then my Tangle Teezer to smooth. I get more shed hair out when I detangle before the conditioner. With conditioner the brushes just sort of slide over my hair and I end up having a ton of shed hair when I apply gel.

I think the Tangle Teezer will work with smoothing because the bristles are short. If my hair was longer I would smooth in layer. But I just held my ends and glided the TT across the section. It definitely did smooth. I tried to get a lot of water into my hair in this part. I think I may have to use the high power nozzle here as well. It was definitely smooth. Just not sure how much water got into my hair.

This is the step where I have the most definition. I lose more definition as the steps go one.

Then I used the diluted conditioner. I think I need to dilute it some more. It is still sort of thick. I added a little more water and then smoothed before showering.

After showering, I smoothed my hair while under the shower. Then I used the concentrated setting on the shower head.

Then I immediately started applying the gel. I paid attention at this step. My hair is not soaking wet at this point and nothing that I do at this point puts more water into my strands. Just wanted to confirm I'm not crazy

I was so busy hurrying getting the gel in, I forgot I only wanted to use 2 pumps per section. I have no idea how many I used. Anyway after the initial application, I could tell my hair was not going to be heavy with water. So I added some water. And this is where I get all in a tizzy. Because I add water, then I'm not sure if I have enough gel. And then I keep going back and forth

Anyway I got it to hang as much as I could and then slapped some more gel on top because by now I'm irritated with the whole thing

I do my shake and then I use the end of a comb to pull down my reluctant sections.

I skipped the topper and letting it air dry. I remembered this morning that last year when I got longer wear time I was drying because it was warm. And I started diffusing when it got cooler. I can definitely tell my hair is dryer whether I use the hair dryer or the diffuser.

We shall see how this works.

For next CCS, I want to dilute my conditioner even more and then use the concentrated nozzle on my hair before I add the conditioner. I will know if I'm changing anything else after I've had this for a few days.

 

[DVAntDany]

Disclaimer: idk what CIK stands for. Another acronym that flew by me in here lol.

My stylist is just a stylist who just only does curly hair. No deva this or that. She just focuses on curls. That may be a way to broaden your search if you look for people who say they specialize in curly hair (and have the pics to prove they are good at it).

I think we might need to backtrack a little bit. So there are several various schools of thought regarding the wash and go styling of natural/textured hair. We have Black Girl Curls (Aishia and Aeleise), HydraBar (Rhonda) and Jennifer-Rose Nyc (Jennifer). There might be more, but those seem to be the main three I seen. There is LouLou of CiciLove Curls but her methods are a bit more hidden. https://www.cicilovecurlsstudio.com These wash and go techniques and philosophies differ from the premise of Deva Curl.

Black Girl Curls website is https://www.blackcurlmagic.com. Hydra Bar website is https://hydrabarsalon.com. I dont automatically see a website for Jennifer but she has twitter, instagram and facebook. She is easy to find. Most of the terms we are using like topper, base-gel and even CIK come from Black Girl Curls. Black Girl Curls provides a training for their wash and go method to cosmetologist called Cut It Kinky. There is an alumni listing for those who have attended that training. This is the directory for it https://www.blackcurlmagic.com/stylist-directory.

I hopes this helps you out a little bit. It can be confusing.

Also, the nearest person to me is roughly 2 hours in any direction. I'm not too impressed with their work. They seem to more so specialize is silk presses. I already know how to do that and don't need a stylist to help me with that. I wish someone was closer who did curly hair and made it obviously known.

 

[DVAntDany]

Thank you for this. I listened to their 30 day detox and was turned off by their tone and ridicule of people trying to work with their hair. Maybe I’ll give them a second listen.

I'm happy I missed most of their overtly snarky vids and can learn from a more mild mannered introduction to them.

 

[DVAntDany]

Reset my hair today during my lunch break. Made sure to pay more attention to things.

Wet my hair thoroughly before getting started. This isn't new to me. When I start I go through my hair in sections and let it soak under water to get the gel residue off. I can literally feel the gel on my hair. This takes quite a while.

I used the diluted shampoo just once. With the shampoo still in I used my tangle buster to detangle and then my Tangle Teezer to smooth. I get more shed hair out when I detangle before the conditioner. With conditioner the brushes just sort of slide over my hair and I end up having a ton of shed hair when I apply gel.

I think the Tangle Teezer will work with smoothing because the bristles are short. If my hair was longer I would smooth in layer. But I just held my ends and glided the TT across the section. It definitely did smooth. I tried to get a lot of water into my hair in this part. I think I may have to use the high power nozzle here as well. It was definitely smooth. Just not sure how much water got into my hair.

This is the step where I have the most definition. I lose more definition as the steps go one.

Then I used the diluted conditioner. I think I need to dilute it some more. It is still sort of thick. I added a little more water and then smoothed before showering.

After showering, I smoothed my hair while under the shower. Then I used the concentrated setting on the shower head.

Then I immediately started applying the gel. I paid attention at this step. My hair is not soaking wet at this point and nothing that I do at this point puts more water into my strands. Just wanted to confirm I'm not crazy

I was so busy hurrying getting the gel in, I forgot I only wanted to use 2 pumps per section. I have no idea how many I used. Anyway after the initial application, I could tell my hair was not going to be heavy with water. So I added some water. And this is where I get all in a tizzy. Because I add water, then I'm not sure if I have enough gel. And then I keep going back and forth

Anyway I got it to hang as much as I could and then slapped some more gel on top because by now I'm irritated with the whole thing

I do my shake and then I use the end of a comb to pull down my reluctant sections.

I skipped the topper and letting it air dry. I remembered this morning that last year when I got longer wear time I was drying because it was warm. And I started diffusing when it got cooler. I can definitely tell my hair is dryer whether I use the hair dryer or the diffuser.

We shall see how this works.

For next CCS, I want to dilute my conditioner even more and then use the concentrated nozzle on my hair before I add the conditioner. I will know if I'm changing anything else after I've had this for a few days.

I was inspired by your words yesterday to do the "base-gel" only wash and go this morning. Please let us know your final results.

Also what does CCS stand for? I'm behind on the terms too.

 

[EmmJaii]

Aisha puts her buff around her neck and then pulls it up over her hair so her hair is kind of standing up when she sleeps.

I pull my buff down from the top like a hat so my hair is laying down (pressed against my head) while I sleep. In fact now I just wear a slap cap instead of a buff.

I hope that makes sense. Both work for me but when my hair is up it doesn’t always want to come back down.

Wait a minute. I think you may have just done something here! I’m about to get braids, but after I take those out, I’m definitely going to try this.

 

[DVAntDany]

Aisha puts her buff around her neck and then pulls it up over her hair so her hair is kind of standing up when she sleeps.

I pull my buff down from the top like a hat so my hair is laying down (pressed against my head) while I sleep. In fact now I just wear a slap cap instead of a buff.

I hope that makes sense. Both work for me but when my hair is up it doesn’t always want to come back down.

How much length do you think one needs to use a buff and actually makes a difference to the hair?

 

[faithVA]

I was inspired by your words yesterday to do the "base-gel" only wash and go this morning. Please let us know your final results.

Also what does CCS stand for? I'm behind on the terms too.

CCS = Cleanse, Condition, Style. That's another term from the A's.

 

[faithVA]

I was inspired by your words yesterday to do the "base-gel" only wash and go this morning. Please let us know your final results.

Also what does CCS stand for? I'm behind on the terms too.

I probably need to do it for a few weeks to give any details on just a gel wash and go. Until I get my water/gel balance straight I don't know that my results will be reliable. I can tell right now due to the frizz, I didn't use enough gel with the water. Makes sense though. After applying the water, I just slapped some gel on top and didn't smooth it in.

 

[DVAntDany]

I probably need to do it for a few weeks to give any details on just a gel wash and go. Until I get my water/gel balance straight I don't know that my results will be reliable. I can tell right now due to the frizz, I didn't use enough gel with the water. Makes sense though. After applying the water, I just slapped some gel on top and didn't smooth it in.

I think I need a glossary for the A’s.

I see. I’ve been having trouble with saturating my hair once I put on the gel. Is your issue similar?

My hair starts sticking/slicking down to my head once I do the initial smooth on the ends and the perimeter. It feels like that takes out all the water even if I’m gingerly adding it to my hair. That then makes me not want to put on so much gel even if I need more. Like, where would I put all this extra gel?

 

[faithVA]

I think I need a glossary for the A’s.

I see. I’ve been having trouble with saturating my hair once I put on the gel. Is your issue similar?

My hair starts sticking/slicking down to my head once I do the initial smooth on the ends and the perimeter. It feels like that takes out all the water even if I’m gingerly adding it to my hair. That then makes me not want to put on so much gel even if I need more. Like, where would I put all this extra gel?

Yeah that seems to be my problem. I seem to have some water in my hair until I touch it I think my hair needs a little longer to absorb water and it doesn't have that time. That is one reason that I air dry.

 

[faithVA]

It's been air drying for a few hours. It's not super defined but I'm ok with it. Will see if I do it for a few weeks if it improves.

Left is today with just UFD. Right is UFD and ICH



I've been saying I'm not going to get a new cut but um, I'm starting to think I need a reshape I will hold out as long as I can.

 

[DVAntDany]

It's been air drying for a few hours. It's not super defined but I'm ok with it. Will see if I do it for a few weeks if it improves.

Left is today with just UFD. Right is UFD and ICH

View attachment 470103View attachment 470105

I've been saying I'm not going to get a new cut but um, I'm starting to think I need a reshape I will hold out as long as I can.

It looks fuller with the just UFD. Can you get a reshape that still allows you to grow it out just yet or do you need more length? Are you even trying to grow it out.

 

[DVAntDany]

Yeah that seems to be my problem. I seem to have some water in my hair until I touch it I think my hair needs a little longer to absorb water and it doesn't have that time. That is one reason that I air dry.

I’m glad I’m not the only one having this problem. Does that mean that there is enough product on it? Should we be adding more?

 

[GettingKinky]

Wait a minute. I think you may have just done something here! I’m about to get braids, but after I take those out, I’m definitely going to try this.

I didn’t come up with the idea. Cassandra in the digital salon mentioned it and I thought “I should try that”. I haven’t looked back since. And that allowed me to use a slap and I think the silk lining is better at reducing frizz than the buff material.

 

[GettingKinky]

How much length do you think one needs to use a buff and actually makes a difference to the hair?

Good question. I would think your hair has to be long enough to pineapple, but I don’t really know.

 

[GettingKinky]

Yeah that seems to be my problem. I seem to have some water in my hair until I touch it I think my hair needs a little longer to absorb water and it doesn't have that time. That is one reason that I air dry.

The As have suggested letting the UFD/water sit on your hair for 10 minutes after application and before styling to let you hair absorb more water.

 

[faithVA]

It's been air drying for a few hours. It's not super defined but I'm ok with it. Will see if I do it for a few weeks if it improves.

It looks fuller with the just UFD. Can you get a reshape that still allows you to grow it out just yet or do you need more length? Are you even trying to grow it out.

It does look fuller. The ICH gives it weight and holds the definition more.
My stylist knows I'm growing it out, so she will reshape it accordingly. But at this length it is still painful I may ask her to just reshape the sides and leave the rest.

I'm definitely trying to grow it out. At this length it is harder to style. It isn't short enough to be carefree, nor long enough to be able to really be able to work with the hair well.

 

[faithVA]

I’m glad I’m not the only one having this problem. Does that mean that there is enough product on it? Should we be adding more?

You are asking the wrong one. I don't know what I'm doing

 

[faithVA]

The As have suggested letting the UFD/water sit on your hair for 10 minutes after application and before styling to let you hair absorb more water.

I think what we are saying though is there isn't much water in our hair when we put the UFD on. So I'm getting stuck with the back and forth of trying to figure out more gel or more water.

I do know what you are saying about the 10 minutes though. I did that last year and stopped because I didn't notice any difference and it was just slowing me down in the morning. My stylist also doesn't wait which I found interesting.

This is just one of those areas I'm going to have to play around with. I think as I get more length it might help me out.

 

[faithVA]

How much length do you think one needs to use a buff and actually makes a difference to the hair?

I use a buff or that evolve pineapple cap that I mentioned over the weekend. My hair is super short as you know. Now that I part my hair, I use it to keep my bangs and sides going in the right direction. It squishes my hair a bit. If I don't wear it, because of the way I sleep my curls get squished going towards my face and my bang straight up. The buff or pineapple cap keeps them going straight down.

 

[DVAntDany]

I think my original texture is definitely growing back. My ends are different than my roots. I could initially feel it, but there is no more denying that I can see it.

Having my hair more hydrated is giving me more elongation. It’s also giving me softer hair while styled with product. This exposes my more spongy hair texture. The silkier curls are no longer rolling up on themselves and hiding my roots. That’s why I kept switching techniques for different stylers to give my hair a look of uniformity.

Regardless of the textures I have, the styling on wet hair looks like it requires heavier or maybe more curl clumping products. Does curl clumping even equal heaviness? This is why I like the mousse because it gives easy gliding curl clumping. I don’t find it heavy.

Days ago trying the shampoo brush for smoothing before raking. Omg, my hair started drying by the time I made it to the top. It looks frizzy, but the Aunt Jackie’s is on there.

7-E327-D00-0-F0-B-49-C0-AD90-970-D06-A7-D418 hosted at ImgBB

Image 7-E327-D00-0-F0-B-49-C0-AD90-970-D06-A7-D418 hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

Today just using the Mielle custard. I hopped out of the shower and added more to my hair. Trying to figure out a way to smooth and rake more on. My hair looks shiny but my roots are totally different. Barely any definition. I guess I do need something for more hold. My hair felt softer with the AJ flaxseed gel on top.

71093343-DAE9-41-B9-8456-4-D64013-F8-B64 hosted at ImgBB

Image 71093343-DAE9-41-B9-8456-4-D64013-F8-B64 hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

 

[DVAntDany]

The As have suggested letting the UFD/water sit on your hair for 10 minutes after application and before styling to let you hair absorb more water.

I’m going to have to try this. I haven’t seen this suggest before.

 

[DVAntDany]

I think what we are saying though is there isn't much water in our hair when we put the UFD on. So I'm getting stuck with the back and forth of trying to figure out more gel or more water.

I do know what you are saying about the 10 minutes though. I did that last year and stopped because I didn't notice any difference and it was just slowing me down in the morning. My stylist also doesn't wait which I found interesting.

This is just one of those areas I'm going to have to play around with. I think as I get more length it might help me out.

Im wondering if the gel will swell as it absorbs the water.