How To Wash-And-Go On 4c Hair

April 15, 2018 Uloaku Enyingwa 0 Comments

Curls, Curls...more curls

Wash-and-Go is one of the cool ways to get extra curl definition on your natural hair. This is my second attempt at a wash-and-go, the first attempt was over 2 years ago(Epic failure). It came out right this time. I’m wondering if I should call this a wash-and-go though, maybe a define-and-go has a better ring to it, as my curls didn’t get defined immediately after my wash process. My hair was already a week old after washday.
Wash-and-Gos are mostly achieved during wash days, immediately hair has been cleansed and is free from build up. Mine, however, was achieved a week after washday.

What you’ll need:

1. Water in a spray bottle
2. Leave in conditioner
3. Detangling comb/brush
4. Gel

1. Section a small part of your hair and thoroughly dampen the section with water.
2. Apply leave-in conditioner, smooth it through and detangle your hair.
3. Apply gel and smoothen through in a raking motion.
4. Shingling: Take each individual curl in the section and smoothening it down to separate it from the rest of the section. i.e separating the curls strand by strand.
5. Do this for your whole hair, then gently shake your head for a while(like you’re saying ‘no’). This helps to separate the coils and to remove excess water.
6. Style your hair in the direction that you want it to go and let it dry. 
7. You can add some oil after it dries.

It took about 2.30 hours to get this done because of the shingling, the good thing here is that it wasn’t my arm doing all the work. A friend of mine actually got this done on my hair. 😆

1. This style is best achieved on hair that is cleansed, without any build up. It will last longer this way.
2. Get ready to keep your hair wet throughout the entire process. This allows you to capture the curls you have in your wet state. Water and conditioner bring out your curl pattern, and the gel captures your curl pattern.
3. Don’t add too much gel, I did this and my hair didn’t completely get dried until the next day. I also had a few white flakes on my hair. Don’t be like me.

Mornings:

• For the first 5 days: Added oil, lightly rake my hands through my hair, shake and go.
• On the 6th day, I finally spritz with water, applied oil then little gel and let it dry 

Night:

• Pineapple up.
• If I want a stretched hair, I twist more than half of each section, then secure with rubber bands

I’ve been loving the wash-and-go. Apart from being time-consuming, getting matted after a few days,  and as usual the shrinkage, it falls under my fave hairstyles.

Looking forward to trying it again!