Imagine my surprise when I saw that The Terressentials Team commented on my THW Cult – Day 4 post!

I’m not sure how they located me, but I’m glad their comment was very informative and didn’t bash me for calling them a cult (out of love, of course!) LOL.

The comment read as follows:

The Terressentials team says:

March 23, 2012 at 1:05 pm

Hi! Hope you all don’t mind the Terressentials team jumping in here with some quick advice? If you don’t mind, please note that our Hair Wash instructions do suggest using any of our USDA certified organic Anointing Oils, Cremes and/or butters at any time to assist with moisturizing hair and/or scalp that suffers from dryness due to previous damage from foaming detergent/surfactant products, and/or styling or coloring or perming chemicals. (see numbers 1 & 2 in the Hair Wash instructions)

Here’s a tip from our instructions that outlines a special pre-wash deep cleanse (see numbers 5 & 6 in the instructions) that can be very helpful for most people in making a smoother and usually quicker detox/transition. Note that this deep cleanse treatment is highly recommend as a monthly deep cleanse for everyone. For your convenience, here’s a link to our Hair Wash instructions:

http://www.terressentials.com/hairhelp.html

Also, to clarify our washing instructions, one does not need to wash one’s hair every day to complete the detox. The instructions are actually intended to describe how to wash your hair if you are a person who normally washes every day — ! Otherwise, for folks who wash only ever few days or once per week, the washing guidelines would apply to each time one washes their hair. Naturally, though, the longer the period between washes (and the longer one’s hair and the thicker one’s hair), the longer the time period is to complete the detox.

Marsha is correct when she says that “maybe you only needed to detox only 2 or maybe for 3 days.” The detox period is different for everyone depending on the specific natural nature of their inherited genetic hair type and the extent of damage from previously using conventional synthetic hair care products or heat treatments.

BTW, we’d like to share that we have a useful Hair Help Q & A blog (actual customer questions and our detailed responses collected over the years) that provides extensive guidance on transitioning to using truly natural hair care products and that many folks have found to be very valuable — here’s the link:

http://www.te-helpmyhair.blogspot.com/

Thanks for letting us jump in here! Have fun and enjoy!

I sure wish I knew some of that information before I did the detox… especially the section I put in bold! The main reason why I leaned towards doing a longer detox was because I had recently straightened my hair and used a lot of serum in it. I know that’s a chemical that is hard to get out of hair. In addition, I use Selsun Blue Shampoo, which contains sulfates.

If I had to do it over again, I would not have washed my hair everyday for 5 days. I would have done the detox over 5 weeks as the comment suggested, since I wash my hair weekly. In any case, nothing was lost by me doing it this way. My hair isn’t damaged or dry beyond repair or anything, so all is well.

It’s straightened and holding up nicely. Pictures to come.

XOXO,
Rece

I ended up doing the 5th day wash, which will be my last as far as detoxing goes. The main reason I wanted to wash my hair for the last time was because I wanted my hair to air dry overnight in 4 braids. This was a part of my experiment.

I also didn’t want to go back to my old conditioners. I wanted to try something natural, so I conditioned my hair with plain Greek Yogurt. I got the idea from Naptural85’s DIY Homemade Greek Yogurt Deep Conditioner. It stinks and I’m not sure if it was that beneficial to my hair, but it’s always hard to tell after using a protein conditioner.

As far as the Terressentials Hair Wash, I will definitely continue to use it (less often, obviously). I also plan to order one of the oils from their site.

The Experiment:

I’ve straightened my hair with the InStyler a few times since being natural. One of these times, I let it air dry before straightening it, rather than blow drying my hair. The ONE time I tried it this way, my hair came out really nice and it stayed straight longer. Why haven’t I done it this way every time I straighten my hair? Who knows! Maybe I forgot.

So my experiment was to wash my hair, let it air dry overnight and straighten it today. The experiment was successful! My hair did come out straighter and silkier. I must admit, I didn’t use a heat protector this time. *gasp* Mainly because I didn’t want to add any chemicals to my hair after all I’ve been through this past week. I’m pretty certain I didn’t burn my hair though. Come onnnnn… mom didn’t use serums to straighten my hair back in the days and my hair was perfectly fine. It’ll survive.

In addition, I trimmed my ends (again). You would think that by now, I trimmed all of my hair off, but nope! My ends seem to get bad so quick, mainly the right side, so I have to stay on top of it. By “bad,” I mean tons of ssk’s. I can’t say I’ve seen a split end though.

I’ve decided that I need a break from my hair. Clearly I’m doing THE MOST right now and it’s time for it to come to an end. I will attempt to go two full weeks without washing my hair (since my scalp is in great condition and I think it will allow me to). I will also try to keep my hair straight for a month, just so I can keep an eye on my ends. I think I’ve planned this before and never stuck with the plan. We’ll see.

No more bad hair days in 2012, whether my hair is curly or straight!

XOXO,
Rece