My Latest Curly Hair Wash Day Routine

Are you struggling to make it through seven days before washing your curly hair? For a healthy scalp, it’s important to have at least one wash day per week.

A combination of curly girl method products that gives me beautiful, soft curls all week long with minimal refreshing. If you want to skip all the details to see my results, just scroll to the bottom!

(Full Disclosure: Some of the product links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission. This helps keep my blog running!)

1. Co-Wash

Co-washing works best for my 2c/3a curly hair. It means to wash with a conditioner. When getting my hair ready to co-wash, I do the following:

• Turn the shower water to a cool temperature.
• Flip your hair and let the water completely soak your curls.
• Choose a conditioner. This week mine was Camille Rose Naturals Coconut Naturals Leave-In Detangling Hair Treatment.
• Work the conditioner into your scalp for 5 to 10 minutes.
• Completely rinse out.

2. Deep Condition

To keep your natural curly hair hydrated and strong, deep condition once per week.  This treatment provides moisture and protein to your locks. When deep conditioning my hair, I do the following:

• Squeeze extra water out of your hair.
• Apply  Shea Moisture Manuka Honey & Mafura Oil Intensive Hydration Hair Masque from your scalp all the way to the ends of your hair. I apply the product right side up and hold it in a top knot for 10 to 15 minutes. This time can be used to complete your other “shower responsibilities” or shut the shower off, put a deep conditioning heat cap on and wait.
• Completely rinse out conditioner with cool water.
• UPDATE: I recently learned I have low porosity hair. This means protein is NOT a good thing for my curls. I have removed protein and added heat to the deep conditioning portion of my routine. I wrote a post explaining the change and my results here.

3. Detangle/Leave-In Conditioner

Now it’s time to work out those knots and tangles. When detangling my hair, I do the following:

• Flip hair over head and fully wet with cool water.
• Apply Camille Rose Naturals Coconut Naturals Leave-In Detangling Hair Treatment and finger comb through hair starting at ends.
• Finish with praying hands.

4. Apply styling products

It’s so much easier to apply your curly styling products in the shower when your hair is dripping everywhere! Here’s the curly girl products I used to finish off my routine.

• Apply Only Curls Curl Hydrating Creme by finger combing and finishing with praying hands.
•  Apply Kinky-Curly Curly Custard by finger combing and finishing with praying hands.
• Finish with a small amount of  Righteous Roots RX oil and scrunching hair.

5. Drying/Diffusing

Plop: I plopped my hair with one of my husband’s old, 100% cotton t-shirts. I’ve personally found that microfiber hair towels dry my hair out and leave me with frizz. Plopping leaves just the right amount of moisture in my hair.

February 4, 2022 update: I have since found a microfiber towel that works well for plopping. My old towels had loops which created frizz. This one is completely different!

I plopped for a good 30 to 40 minutes before diffusing my hair. Before I turned the hair dryer on, I used a small amount of Only Curls Hydrating Creme on my ends.

Diffuse: I diffuse my hair using the BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Portofino. I’ve used BaBylissPRO dryers for about seven years now. I absolutely love them! I suggest flipping your hair and switching from medium heat to cool as you diffuse.

Smasters Method: When your hair is about 50% to 60% dry, wet your hands and apply more product to your curls. In this scenario, I used praying hands and lightly scrunching with Kinky-Curly Curly Custard. I completely finished drying my hair.

SOTC: Apply a little oil to your hands, I suggest Righteous Roots, and scrunch out the crunch. This last step, my favorite, gives your hair body and fullness.

results: Day 1

This is right after styling my natural curly hair with the #smasters technique using Kinky Curly Curling Custard. My curls are defined with so much volume!

Results: Day 2

It was Monday morning and I was so happy when I took my curls out of their pineapple. Beautiful, soft ringlets cascaded down to my shoulders. My refresh styling consisted of using Righteous Roots RX oil to my scalp and a few out of hand curls. This photo was taken at the end of the day and you can see there is little to no frizz around the crown of my head.

I wish I had taken a full week of images to show you. The results were close to the images above with added length and a little frizz. I’m trying this curly girl wash day routine again this week. I’m hoping for the same results! I hope these curly hair wash day tips helped you out.

PS: I’ve had a few more wash day routines that I’d love to share with you! Check them out to learn more about curly girl products and styling tips that I’ve tried.