Wash day: One day as a Redhead

12:41 Naija girl next door 27 Comments

Hello everybody!
     Notice the more frequent posts lately? I'm done with housemanship; the mandatory one-year programme that cements the bombardment of book work and clinical exposure of Medical school; and sharpens your skill as a Doctor.
   Yes I'm happy to have reached another milestone but some days I miss work, other days I'm pondering the serious crash in income that service year will bring. I'll be an Otondo serving my country by the end of October. My pocket weeps.
   Of course I'm taking full advantage. Im doing the expected eating, sleeping, expermental cooking/baking and other aspects of the good life, as well as running and blogging frequently.

   Right, wash day! The reason for this post. Before I get into the actual wash day, let's talk about the day I spent as a redhead.

I used Hair Chalk I got from Nappyhaired.

The red has been through a lot

Look at all these colours, you can be a chameleon.

    I decided to start with red. You're supposed to wet the chalk and use on damp or dry hair. I used wet chalk on lightly misted hair (misted with water).
  My hair was really stretched from threading, a good base for the braidout I wanted next. I'd take a section, mist and seal with two drops coconut oil; then run the moistened chalk along the length of it, going from the top to the bottom so as not to raise my hair cuticles and roughen up my hair. Next, I'd braid it and use a little more chalk on the ends.

Next morning:


It was exciting having red hair for the first time; in fact any kind of colour in my hair.

   I pinned up the sides and let the front fall forward.

After taking this picture I realized I can do better with creating parts.

Many people thought I had dyed my hair.
     Why did I keep it for only a day? Hair chalk transfers like a...!
It stained my hands which I easily washed off with soap and water, but all day at work I had to consciously avoid raising my hand to my head for whatever reason.
It stained my blue shirt, my WHITE ward coat; my sports bra went from grey to red, and my car headrest used to be cream-coloured fabric. Tears.
Even though I wore a bonnet to bed and put orange sheets over the white one that was already there, I still managed to stain the white patterned pillowcase.
By the end of the day I had had enough.

Wash Day
    No pre-poo because I couldn't stand packing oil or conditioner or anything else on top of that red powdery hair.
  Washed with Nubian Heritage bar soap first, then abandoned it in favour of African Naturalistas shampoo. The red came out easily and stained the tub. Sigh.
   I didn't even deep condition *face palm*
It was late, I was tired, and my hair just felt much better without the drying powdery chalk in it.
   Wrapped in a towel for about five minutes to catch drips.
   Leave-ins: Shea Moisture Replenishing conditioner, sealed with raw unwhipped shea butter - it's like a putty so it helps stretch out my kinks for styling; then I topped with a little of my coconut+jojoba oil mix for shine.
   Styling: I remembered an old favourite from my transitioning days: big bantu knots. They're lightening fast to do. If your hair is long enough you get waves; if like mine it's not, you get it stretched without the trouble of twisting, braiding or threading.
     I wish I had gotten a clear picture but my phone camera is fantastic in daylight, hopeless in the darkness. I had no more than seven bantu knots. When my hair is much longer, four will be enough to get a good stretch minus the curl.
    By morning my hair was stretched and shiny and very easy to put in this up-do for my last day of work.

Bobby pins are magic. Just pin pin pin and a hairstyle appears.

I started working on my edges after this

I pulled my tail comb out of retirement to get a neat part

 As for the hair chalk, The box is going to the deepest corner of my closet until I figure out what to do with them. Gift them to an artist maybe? If you're in Lagos or Abuja and you still want it after reading this, hit me up in the comments ASAP.
    How was your wash day? You can join the #Washdayexperience here

Xx,
NGND