Co-washing and Scalp Update

Good morning!

My wash days have been more scattered than usual, but I have just been focusing on paying attention to what my hair needs and low manipulation styling. A few post ago, I mentioned that I chose to pare down my regimen due to time constraints, seems I made that choice at the appropriate time. I have less time, and I am now in a different environment with fewer hair products than usual. In my next post I will detail my abbreviated hair regimen.

Now to update about changing my routine from shampooing twice a week to shampooing once and co-washing at least once, but usually twice. The first week didn't go so well, with a lot of flaking and some itchiness. I used coconut oil on my scalp and prior to co-washing I either add some coconut or grapeseed oil to the length. The coconut oil seemed to contribute to the flaking, so I stopped that and remembered that since I'm going to be using surfactants less often that I will need to do fewer moisturizing things for my scalp. I swapped the coconut oil for aloe vera juice (which is an astringent for skin, and it also curbs shedding #winning) mixed with water and spray it on my scalp prior to co-washing. Success! So my scalp stays clean, my hair gets to smell like Aussie Moist (mmm) and I don't have to spend most of my week in the shower lol. So far adding the aloe vera juice has made shampooing only once weekly bearable, but in cases where I have far more time, I will probably go back to shampooing and deep conditioning twice weekly.


As for my scalp, it's been temperamental, but the aloe vera juice has been helping. I've had a bit of flaking, but it hasn't been too bad. I've also used sulfate shampoo two weeks in a row and I'm sure that hasn't helped my scalp's condition. I will be shampooing this weekend, so hopefully that will reduce the flaking and stop the itch. In terms of tenderness, my scalp has been a champ. It was protectively styled for much of the last week (buns and updos) with minimal tenderness and no excessive shedding. I even mastered my first high bun for today (!!!!) after last night's co-wash. I haven't had the patience or time for too much styling, so I'm glad that bunning hasn't caused any problems yet, but I am sure to vary the position of my buns, make sure that they aren't too tight and I still try not to bun more than 3-4 days a week.

It seems that the changes I've made to my regimen haven't affected the condition of my hair, and I seem to still be retaining length. I am almost 11 weeks post, and around now I usually start to get a lot of demarcation line breakage. So far, that seems to be minimal and I am willing to chalk this up to the increase in co-washing and decreasing manipulation. I will be relaxing in a week or so, and I hope that this next relaxer goes well, so that I won't have to focus on my hair too much for about a month or so.

Thanks for reading :),