I’ve always wanted to pull off a good wash n go. After trying out many different hairstyles during my time in quarantine such as the flexi rods and the mini twists, I wanted to get more bold. The more I saw how bored I was and the more I binge watched on YouTube videos of wash and go tutorials, I just had to try to do so myself.
After all, I am officially four years natural. I should have the expertise to style more hair into a wash n’ go, right?
The Good
Minimum Time
I usually spend like 2-3 hours twisting up my hair after I wash it. It’s getting longer and it’s becoming more time consuming to do so. But, slapping gel on my curls turned out to be fun and surprisingly quick.
Beautiful Type 4 Curls
I always wanted to rock my actual curls. Although twist outs are my signature, I wanted to step away from creating different curl patterns and using the one I was born with. And when I saw the curls pop, I just fell in love. Plus, I loved how I felt more like me or more even more natural, no pun intended.
The Bad
1) Shrinkage
You guys should already know how I feel about shrinkage. I love how it’s a sign of healthy hair and frankly I love seeing my puffs curl up from time to time. But, shrinkage annoys the crap out of me especially when I am practicing new hairstyles. I want to be able to show off my true length from time to time. Sadly I couldn’t really do that with the wash and go.
And to be honest, that is expected considering you lock your wet curls up with some type of gel or custard. Hence it’s really all about preserving your curls in a defined state. But, I had to use some heat and my diffuser attachment to really stretch it out. And although adding heat is also recommended to get “bigger results” and to avoid tangling, I wasn’t in love with the results. Did the hairstyle set with heat, yes it did. But it wasn’t giving me the results I was looking for.
2) Some Tangling
The tangling wasn’t actually too big of an issue for me. But, my ends were….. annoying afterwards. I noticed some single strand knots meaning my hair at the end was tangling on itself. And although it wasn’t too bad, it was frustrating considering I trimmed my hair before the new year began.
Wash and gos aren’t known to be a protective hairstyle and they do leave your ends exposed so I was prepared to have these issues. I tried putting extra product on my ends which helped minimize the tangling, but not to a whole.
3) Too Much Product
I think what put me off from doing a wash and go for so long was the amount of product I would have to use to define each curl. And I wasn’t wrong. I have 4b hair and it takes a good amount of product to really define the curl. And amongst re-moisturizing my hair, I literally had gel puddles on my hand.
And for me, I have other hair types in my head. In other words, other sections of head has looser curls while others have kinkier curls. So at times, my hair didn’t blend well. It’s pretty hard to explain, but some sections looked more elongated than others therefore it kinda threw my style off a bit.
Verdict
Although I wasn’t a huge fan the first time around, I will definitely try them out again. Wash and gos look too beautiful to give up on. Besides I think spending more time on my curls and diffusing will give me a better look. Regardless, it’s important to keep in mind my results might look different from these Youtubers. Just because I have the same hair type doesn’t mean I have the same porosity, length, shape, etc.
I know this blog has a lot of “bads”. Do keep in mind that this was my first attempt so I need to practice more. Only God knows how long I perfected the twist out. But, I will tackle the wash n gos again and keep you guys updated. Spring is right around the corner and I want to lock another hairstyle down.