HOW TO DEEP CONDITION BRAIDS

As I told you in my previous post, I would tell you how I took care of my braids while I was in them.

To be honest, I love simplicity, every now and then I get cravings to be flamboyant, and do silly updos but most of the time I prefer simplicity, and the good thing is that actually for healthy natural hair, simplicity is important!

So for the 4 ½ weeks I had my braids in there is only 3 procedures I did, daily spritz, shampooing  and deep conditioning.  The shampooing and deep conditioning I did only once as my hair was very fragile and could not take more than that. 

As I noted before I braided my hair when it was only about an inch and a half or less, I did not blow dry my hair before braiding as was usually the case and thus my braids had some fuzzy ends where my hair ended in the braid and thus if I washed my hair more than once, I trust it would have been a disaster, or I would have walked around looking like I had a mop on my head.

So for my daily spritz I did a mix of water, coconut oil, olive oil and castor oil. I would always spritz in the morning or before I went to bed depending on the feel of my hair if it was dry. I would only spritz from the roots to the ends of my hair as the spritz was mainly to moist my hair. Braids suck a lot of moisture from your hair so it’s always important that you do a daily spritz if nothing else.

As for the deep conditioning, here is how I did it:

First I split my hair into 8 sections. Then I braided each section loosely from my hair roots to end then tightly from there.

I then shampooed gently through the sections. I concentrated only where my hair was as using products on the rest if the braid is as good as wasting it.  Of course water is bound to pour to the rest of your braids, but focus only on your hair. After shampooing I did a thorough rinse and then I went on to deep condition.

For the deep conditioning I did a simple deep condition. The ingredient:

Sufficient amounts of coconut oil!!!

Yep, that’s it! Lol! I applied my coconut oil from the roots to tips of my hair. Note: not through the braid, just from roots to ends of my hair. The reason for using coconut oil only was because coconut oil is an amazing conditioner, it has high absorption rate into the hair shafts, strengthens, thickens and softens hair.

 If I mixed too much ingredients and/or if I used my regular conditioner it was bound to be too heavy and would only lead to build up on my scalp and the braids which would create an unsightly look.

So I applied the coconut oil on my hair, wrapped the braids into a bun then I wrapped with a shower cap and head wrap and stayed with it for about 2 and a half hours and then I washed out the oil using warm water and finished with a cold rinse.

And voila! That’s it.

That’s how I took care of my braids while I had them in.

I also avoided pulling the edges to hard as we know the edges are very sensitive and none of us want a receding hair line. I also didn’t do many updos with the hair, I just had it in a pony tail or bun. Maybe when I do braid next time I will try to experiment more.

I will follow this post with how I removed my braids.

So how do you take care of your hair in braids? I would love to get some tips.

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