Healthy Hair Habits – T-shirt Drying

In my last healthy habits post, I talked about how the practice of wrapping up one’s hair at night is like second nature to me.  Today’s practice is like that as well – drying my hair with a t-shirt.

This is not new information – everybody and their mama will say that t-shirt drying is the way to go.  I went from using towels to dry my hair (because that’s how I was doing it my WHOLE life) to microfiber towels (because I was told they are better than regular towels) to t-shirts.  The t-shirt dry is one of the best wash day practices I’ve adopted for my hair.  Hands down.

I remember the few hairs that would get tangled in the fibers of regular cotton towels.  And honestly, I remember it occasionally happening with microfiber towels as well… not on the same scale, of course, but still.  T-shirts, though?  Not a single strand caught.  Like ever.  And I definitely don’t feel that my hair is parched after t-shirt drying like I do with towels.  It seems to be JUST the right amount of damp to apply leave-in.   How does it do that?   #tshirtsaremagic

I will NOT use a towel to dry my hair ever again.  For realsies.  I TRAVEL with my drying t-shirts* if necessary because that’s how for real I am about it.

So yeah.  I’m not one of those curlies that claims to be disciplined in all things healthy hair.  I definitely have some bad practices that I am not proud about.  But t-shirt drying is one of those things that I’m a card-carrying fanatic about.  Like… I can’t remember the last time I was in a salon.  And I can’t say I have any plan to go to one any time soon, but if they tried to dry my hair with a towel… pssssh.  I don’t know what would happen.  (Watch me take my drying t-shirts to a salon though.)

 

*my favorite one (pictured above) is an old, long-sleeved, Ecko t-shirt.  lol.  Hey, 2001.

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Healthy Hair Habits – Night-time Wrap-up

Sooo… I’m always kind of amazed when I read that protecting one’s hair at night is a practice that is not widely adopted.

Maaaan, look.  I can’t remember the last time I ever slept with uncovered or unprotected hair.  Seriously.  I’m talking a 10+ year streak.  Even back when I was regularly straightening my hair.  I can’t even imagine sleeping without a scarf or bonnet or something.

I will say that I’m not a satin pillowcase girl.  I sleep on a regular pillowcase.   I don’t know… satin pillowcases just seem too fancy for my bed.  lol.  But my hair is always wrapped up in a scarf or a bonnet.  And sometimes even both.

I don’t mean to downgrade its importance or anything like that… it’s a COMMANDMENT for goodness’ sake.   It’s just one of those things that I do regularly without much thought.  For me, it helps to keep my hair from re-tangling overnight which saves me time in the morning.  That’s really all it’s about.  Like I said about buns being a “protective style,” the fact that wrapping my hair up at night is considered good practice in hair health is really just a bonus.

Regimen Staple: Hair Therapy Wrap

I bought the Hair Therapy Wrap for the first time in May 2011 during the Kim Coles Grow Out Challenge.  It has been part of my wash day regimen ever since.  I feel like it has been the most constant and unchanged step in my regimen for that entire time.

Initially, at the original time of purchase, I remember I was trying to deep condition with heat for as long as I possibly could… sometimes even sleeping overnight with a conditioning treatment in my hair (which… I might still do if I start the wash regimen too late at night).  But then, I read this post and was like… yeah.  Maybe not.

So now, I usually deep condition with heat for about an hour… and that’s a lot better anyway because that overnight stuff would be turning wash day into wash WEEKEND sometimes.  Ain’t nobody got time for all that.