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View Full Version : Prep for hair typing?



Applegirl84
July 18th, 2014, 09:50 PM
Is this what I do? Wash, no conditioner, lightly towel dry, no combing, no product?

What should I use to wash? I usually co wash or shampoo bar roots only with a citric acid rinse. Do I have to use a SLS/sles shampoo? Can I use my shampoo bar?

Lately I've been thinking I'm wavier than 2a and want to do a true hair typing.

Panth
July 19th, 2014, 03:01 AM
See this thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=116252).

There used to be a recommendation to wash with something fairly stripping and then not use any conditioner or other potentially coating products. However, I think it's shifted in favour of doing your regular washing routine as:
a) it's more important to know your hairtype as it relates to your everyday hair, not some never-again-achieved state, and
b) the idea behind using strong shampoo and no conditioner/leave-ins was to revert the hair back to a "natural", non-coated, non-treated state, but super-stripped hair is actually not "natural", as natural hair has sebum as its conditioning agent.

Applegirl84
July 19th, 2014, 08:06 AM
Thank you! Glad I don't have to totally strip my hair to type it.

Firefox7275
July 19th, 2014, 10:19 AM
If you are a weaker wavy skip the lightly towel part and drip dry, a loose turban stretches out even my 2c sections. Some might see it as 'cheating' but I'd recommend hand squeezing out excess water by scrunching up to the scalp: to me that is just balancing out the straightening effect of soaking your hair in the shower. Water (temporarily) breaks some of the structural bonds that create wave/ curl pattern.

You can wash with whatever, just aim not to have residues of conditioners or stylers weighing your hair down. My wave pattern is clearer with co-washing than shampoo which just gives me 'straight' pouf/ frizz.