Hi, all! 
I have a few wonderful and very useful updates regarding the “de-bulking my wash and go” series.
Aside: I do realize that I have TWO blog series going on at once: (1) the “de-bulking my wash and go” series and (2) the “reclaiming my time, reducing my split ends” series. Lol! My apologies!
Update #1: DevaCurl Is Releasing a Product That Is Supposed To Actually Elongate Our Wash and Go’s
This news deserves its own post, but I will include it in this post first. DevaCurl has created a product that supposedly TRULY elongates and defines Type 4 hair. I know what you’re thinking: “I’ve heard it all before, Yvette! These products keep promising all this stuff, but none of these products actually help reduce shrinkage!!!” I feel ya!
The product is supposed to be available around August 8th or 9th, I believe. Here is a video demo of the product by a mom and daughter team who received the product early. What do you think? Worth a trial?
Update #2: I Have Figured Out How To De-bulk My Wash and Go!
I did it, you guys! I have figured out how to de-bulk my wash and go, and I have repeated the results several times. Here’s what I do:
- STEP ONE: Wash, deep condition, and detangle my hair.
- STEP TWO: Apply a tiny amount of leave-in under a good amount of strong-hold gel.
First, I apply a slight amount of leave-in to a soaking wet, small section of hair. On my hair, it is important that I use a very small amount of leave-in so that it does not interfere with the gel that I’ll soon be applying. For my leave-in, I typically use Shea Moisture’s Manuka Honey Leave-in. Then I apply a very strong hold gel to the section of hair, remembering NOT TO NEGLECT THE ROOTS. I typically use Bronner Brothers Firm Hold Curling Gel because I need a super duper hold to make this process work and to get multi-day hair. This gel is like cement. So far I’ve seen nothing stronger. I repeat application of leave-in and gel section by section until all of my hair contains leave-in and gel. - STEP THREE: Style still-damp hair in a high ponytail.
Because my hair is very coily, high-shrinkage, and cottony, the high ponytail I create actually tends to look like a high ponytail puff. The fantastic thing is that it’s a cute, wearable style, . . . meaning I can actually wash and go. When I create this style, I typically pull out a few side tendrils/wisps of hair on both the left and right, just for styling’s sake. - STEP FOUR: Wear the high ponytail (puff) until it dries.
This might take a few days, which is fine. To preserve the style over night, I wear a hair sock over it. - STEP FIVE: Once (near) dry, take down the ponytail and elongate the hair.
Once 80-100% dry, I pull the hair down out of the high ponytail and tension blow dry it section by section. At this point, my coils are pretty much set/captured, and so blow drying it while gently tugging down on my hair — section by section — does not disturb the curls/coils.
This results in a beautiful, elongated “wash and go.” I am LOVING how simple and time-saving and peace-ushering-in this whole process is. I feel like my natural hair is “easy” with this sequence of steps. THAT IS SAYING A LOT.
There are several YouTubers who do something similar but slightly different. I share one such YouTuber’s method below.
Update #3: YouTuber “A Love 4 Me” Has Another Method for Elongating Our Wash and Go’s
I have yet to try this, but it looks VERY promising. One possible concern: Some of the YouTube commentors feel like this method might stretch out their curls too much. I’m thinking that if I used a very strong hold gel and then practiced a bit with the method to figure out how to NOT stretch out my curls too much that this method would work well.
What are your thoughts?
Update #4: DevaCurl’s Super Stretch Coconut Curl Elongator and Soultanicals Supa Hold Gel
I will soon be comparing DevaCurl’s Super Stretch Coconut Curl Elongator with Soultanicals Supa Hold Gel to ascertain their “elongate-ability.” I’ll let you know how each product performs on my hair.
Update #5: My DIY “Elongators”
So . . . before I figured out how to stretch my wash and go and before DevaCurl and Soultanicals made their new products available, I decided to try to fashion my own DIY “elongators.”
It seems like the company CWK that used to produce the “elongators” is no longer selling them. On the product page here and here, the product has been listed as “sold out” for months and months, if not a year or more. I’ve tried emailing, calling, texting (as they advise), and instagram-ming the company. I have gotten not one reply in over 6 months. In addition, there are many complaints about their customer service, including complaints of the company charging customers and never sending products and not returning customers’ money. Eek!
All of this led me to try to figure out a way to devise my own DIY “elongators.” I decided that I wanted to create my “elongators” to look like barrettes so that I could wash and go, i.e. wear my DIY “elongators” in public, undetected, while my hair was drying.
I’ve ordered the materials I think I can use to devise my DIY elongator barrettes. Some of the materials are coming from overseas, and so shipping will take awhile. Once I get the barrettes made and then get a chance to trial them out, I’ll create a blog post to discuss whether they work or not. Should be interesting!!! 😀
Phew! That was a bit of content for just one blog post. 😀 I think I might repost some of this content into separate, individual posts so that readers don’t miss it.
As always, thanks so much for visiting the blog. I’d love to hear how you’re doing, so please feel free to share in the comments. How is your wash-and-going faring? How are you feeling about your hair in general? Have you discovered any new products or techniques that are really working for you? Let me know! 😀
Until next time . . .
Yvette ❤
The Blossoming, Fit Natural 