Today marked the fifth installment of my L'Oreal Hair Fixer experiment. This week was a bit different then past wash and sets. This time I decided to air dry instead of my usual rollerset. As part of my commitment to continuous improvement, I chose to tweak my routine. Instead of using a cheap conditioner before the wash I opted to use my regular conditioner as a pre-poo. I figured that since I haven't deep conditioned in so long my hair would really appreciate it if I used a quality product. I was right. I used my Silicon Mix with Pearl Extract prior to washing. After shampooing, I combed the hair into a ponytail. I leveraged the running water to help me comb the hair back without adding too much stress on hair. Once the hair was detangled, I proceeded to saturate the hair with my leave-in, L'Oreal Hair Fixer, and shea oil. After securing my hair into a nice ponytail, I pulled the loose hair up to the top of my head and secured the hair in place with a bobby pin. That's when I tied my hair down with a silk scarf to dry.
After a few hours when my hair was around 75% dry, I took down my hair and used my Super Salono dryer on a cool setting to speed up the drying process. (I also took a moment to rub some more shea oil in) Once the hair was dry, I combed through with the largest tooth comb I have to remove any remaining tangles. Because I took the time to detangle under running water, I had very little tangles to deal with when my hair was finally dry. Next I decided to flat iron the hair to add some smoothness. I did not use the flat iron to create silky straight hair, I only lightly passed the iron through my hair as quickly as I could. As you can see from the picture below, my hair was not flat ironed to the point where it was bone straight.
I decided to air dry and flat iron today because I wanted to assess the health of my hair. Needless to say that I am extremely pleased with how my hair has evolved while using the Hair Fixer. Before, I was plagued with fly aways and tons of breakage. Today my hair looks and feels smooth and moisturized. I need to reiterate that I have not deep conditioned (other than pre-poo) in nearly six weeks. The amount of breakage I experience is manageable compared to what I was dealing with before my experiment.
This week's wash and set was extremely successful. Before today, I nearly swore off airdrying but now that I am assessing my results, I think that I may once again put my back into faith into air drying now my hair has been given a second chance.
Thanks L'Oreal Hair Fixer!