henna gloss & tea rinse (wash day)

I did quite a few things my last wash day.

1. If you follow me on Instagram, you know I suddenly decided to try bangs. 
2. It was protein wash day, so I continued my protein layering regimen.
3. And lastly, I did a tea rinse (with garlic) to decrease shedding.  

With my current schedule my wash days have been on Thursday, so this'll be a recap. It's been about three weeks since the start of my Protein Layering challenge, and accordingly, I did a protein treatment on the bottom half of my hair last wash. The protein layering method I've been doing is applying protein by gradually working up the hair length every protein wash day (visit here for an illustration).

Aside from protein layering, I've also been focusing on reducing shedding my last few wash days. I've been having an increase in hair loss lately (nothing big, but noticeable) and from analyzing the loss strands I see the majority is shedding. Not sure if it's a seasonal thing or change in my diet, but I've been doing tea rinses to try and combat it (that and trying to remember to take garlic supplements).


Here is what I used on my wash day

• Tea Rinse/ Prepoo - Created a tea rinse made of fennel tea, hibiscus tea, nettle tea, peppermint tea, and juiced garlic and poured it over my head, focusing on my scalp. That sat for about an hour. 
• Cleanse - Shampooed with Creme of Nature's Argan oil Shampoo
• Oil Rinse - Poured some grape seed oil over my hair while still in the shower, wanting it to be damp and a little oily before applying my henna gloss. 
• Protein - Did a henna gloss and allowed it to sit for about an hour
• Condition - Deep conditioned with Aubrey Organic's Honeysuckle Rose Conditioner for about two hours
• Moist - Finished of with my diluted Kimmaytube leave-in and Vatika Frosting

BLACK HENNA GLOSS

If you follow the henna gloss link above, you'll see I use Aveda's Black Malva Conditioner in it in attempt to get darker undertones. I have never updated how this idea worked for me because, well, I still don't know if it works. I've been having a dilemma of trying to take before and after pictures of my hair's undertones. From what I can tell from the before and after pictures I attempted to take this wash, there isn't much of a difference. Maybe next time I attempt it I'll do it more like a two step henna treatment, using the black malva instead of indigo. 

TEA RINSE

The hair care knowledgeable might have noticed I didn't use black tea in my mix, when it's the most known tea to help combat shedding. Black tea rinses have helped me in the past when I noticed an increase in shedding, but recently, not so much. When I first started doing tea rinses to combat this period of increase shedding, I was only using black tea. I wasn't noticing any improvement this time, not sure why. With the fennel, nettle, and garlic juice mixture I have now, however, I have noticed slight improvement. I plan on continuing to change it up though, until I find the tea rinse recipe that works best for me.