Takedown!

So the kinky twists made it to week eight yay! I took them down halfway through the eighth week it took me all of three and a half hours to undo them with plenty of breaks in between of course; my neck and arms cannot handle three straight hours of undoing braids it’s a good thing I had an entire day free from other activities to indulge myself. I divided my hair into four big braided sections and timed how long it took to get each section done. After takedown I did a henna treatment for strength, my henna was mixed with one cup strong black tea, ¼ cup natural plain yoghurt and a few drops eucalyptus oil. I let the henna sit for about three hours while I finished undoing my twists before application. It turned out I had made way too much henna; I usually use 100g for the current length of my hair but had mixed around 150g this time round so I put the remaining henna in a freezer bag, labelled it and put it in the freezer to use for my next henna treatment.

My henna mix; this was before I added the yoghurt, lumpy consistency left for three hours for the dye to release while I finished undoing my kinky twists. This is the longest I have let henna sit usually I just mix and use immediately since I use it more for its strengthening and conditioning purposes than for colour and it still gives me colour even then.

I hennaed before shampooing I just wasn’t feeling the hop in hop out of the shower life I was way too tired from the takedown process. So I sprayed my hair with some water applied the henna, wrapped cling film around it, tied a scarf over that and let it sit for an hour and 15 minutes, rinsed it out and then shampooed and conditioned with regular conditioner. Since I was already tired from all the hair related activities I postponed the second deep conditioning treatment to the next day (the henna treatment was the first) I always deep condition a second time after a henna treatment because henna tends to dry out hair and also because I mixed it with black tea I was expecting some stiffness in my hair due to the tea, I add the yoghurt for much needed extra protein and also to counteract the drying effects of henna and the stiffness that may result from the black tea and I must admit it does a pretty good job. Once I was all rinsed out I t-shirt dried, applied some olive oil and then air dried first loose and then did two plaits just before bedtime my hair was around 80% dry by this time and called it a day or night rather in this case.

Smooth consistency after adding yoghurt about five minutes before application. The end results are reddish brown highlights which are more visible in sunlight sorry ladies forgot to take a photo of my hennaed hair under the sun:(

The next day I took down the two plaits, sprayed my hair with some water, applied deep conditioner and deep conditioned for 30 minutes, rinsed that out, t-shirt dried till damp and then air dried and moisturised later. Since starting my hair journey I have been giving my hair anything between a week and two weeks break before installing another long term protective style with extensions. This time round however I am  only giving it two and a half days break before installing another protective style, I am off to the braiding salon after I publish this post. I just wasn’t feeling like dealing with almost 15 weeks post new growth for a whole week before getting something else done got too much going on at the moment; I have scheduled my next touch up for sometime in September. Thankfully I am not tender headed so my scalp is just fine with the short break and my hair has rested from all the tugging that comes with the take down process. In other hair related news brought about by recent events, the need for a wig is becoming very real you guys I may just cave in and get myself one!