Is it normal to take 5-6+ hours to wash your hair?

Str8~Curly

New Member
In purple is how I do it when I do my occasional DC.

I agree with some of the other ladies. You should try to DC overnight or pre-poo overnight. I had a brief stint of pre-pooing but i think it had no effect on my hair whatsoever so I stopped. But if you need to prepoo, go on ahead, girl.

If you DC overnight before washing (combining the DC and prepoo!) and then do a quick condition (if you want) after shampooing itd cut a lot of time out.

My wash days take however much time I have. I can wash my hair, do a quick condition in the shower, and put my hair into two pigtail twists.. that takes like 30min. Or I can wash, really DC, and then style which takes from 2hours to all day if i'm not going anywhere.
 

amara11

Well-Known Member
-If you're trying a new regimen, or still figuring one out, in the beginning it does take time to adjust and get the swing of these. (Y'all need to stop frontin like you didn't need a few tries to figure it out :rolleyes:)

-My hair is really thick and I would get tired easily at first and I couldn't figure out the best way to detangle, nor had I found a good detangler, so the whole process for me was just a long mess. But I've eventually gotten the swing of things, found a detangler (that actually makes detangling easier), have good tools (denman brush, wide tooth comb) a great deep conditioner, etc. As you learn and piece together a regimen and staples, it'll all start to flow ;)

-I also believe in sectioning for control. Section your hair into 4, 6, 8, 12 whatever size sections you can handle.

-I knock out the pre poo and detangling step in one by using conditioner on my dry hair to detangle. I put conditioner all over, and then I section it. After I finish detangling a section, I add a little bit more conditioner, brush it through (at this point the denman just glides thru) and then braid it up. I do this for all sections.

-By the time I'm done with the detangling and braiding (1.5 hrs later or so) my hair has already been pre-pooed and I'm ready to wash.

-I wash my hair in braids to maintain the control (or you could take the braids out and wash one section at a time then use a small clip for each section). This way my hair stays detangled when I'm done washing.

-Then I'm done. I'm natural so I keep the hair in braids, let it dry and then rock the braid out. But you could then do your roller set (your hair will still be in sections, so this would make that part easier!)

-If your hair is thick, the hooded dryer thing may not be something you can change, so perhaps sleeping with the rollers, under a soft bonnet. I used to stay under the hooded dryer for 2 hrs+ at the salon when I had a perm and I was getting a roller-wrap :(

-In general I pre-poo but this is mostly instead of the normal post-poo. My hair doesn't take to conditioner when it's wet the same way it does when it's dry. For one the water dilutes the conditioner, and two, when something is already saturated with water, it does a poor job of picking up any more moisture (not a good thing for dryer haired ladies like moi) So I prefer to condition first, then use a moisturizing shampoo and it's worked immensely well for me. When I'm done I also have a great moisturizer to finish off with. My hair LOVES the extra moisture- but this may be wayy to much for other ppl.

-OP, I don't think you're too far off track, just a few tweeks to trim the fat in certain places and shave off a couple of hours.
 

Gigi-07

New Member
You are doing too much, love! I would cut down the amount of products in half, and start from there. You can then ditch the rollersetting (since they are practically a waste of time for you as you end up flat-ironing anyway), and rethink the long pre-poo session.
Do you really need to pre-poo? If so, it's possible it can be done in 30 min or less with a different technique. Even ditching the pre-poo part altogether might be best. I know of many ladies who have done this. Eventually, they find a more efficient, quicker way to prepare their hair for shampooing.
Air dry in large braids, that way, your hair won't go crazy, and you won't have to put in so much unneeded effort.
Have you tried wet-wrapping? I would try that and see how it goes. Wet-wrapping would cut out the whole air-drying and flatironing session, making your hair washing routine more simple: shampoo, DC, wet-wrap, dry under dryer, done. 3 hours tops.

I HTH
 
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