Pre-Poo!

"Pre-poo" is probably one of my favorite natural hair terms... because I'm emotionally an 8-year-old. But seriously, pre-pooing, or pre-shampooing, is definitely unique to kinky, curly, coily hair and it's a great method to retain moisture in your hair for wash day. Pre-pooing your hair involves spraying the hair with water and sealing with a generous amount of coconut oil (or other oil of your choosing). I prefer to use coconut oil because it is one of the only oils that penetrates your strands, making them moisturized and more resilient to the drying effects that some shampoos can have.

I usually only pre-poo my hair for about an hour before shampooing, but I wanted to see what would happen if I left the coconut oil in my hair all night. Section by section, I sprayed my hair with water and applied a generous amount of coconut oil from root to tip. I removed any shed hair and twisted each section when complete. I ended up with 7 sections. You might end up with more or less depending on how long and/or dense your hair is. Once I finished my whole head, I put a plastic bag (yes, literally a plastic grocery bag) over my hair, and then covered the bag with my satin cap. Why the plastic bag? It generates heat, keeps the moisture in, and quickens the process of moisture absorption and retention. Below is what my hair looked like the next morning.

Not as shiny as I expected, but SO soft.

I did my usual shampoo routine, focusing on cleansing my scalp. One thing I noticed after I shampooed was that my hair wasn't SOAKING wet like usual, though it was still soft and very easy to work conditioner through. Here's a pic of my freshly washed hair with no product.

Super soft, freshly shampooed hair.

I deep conditioned my hair using a mix of two conditioners: a protein deep conditioner and a moisturizing deep conditioner. Afterwards, I thoroughly rinsed the conditioner out with cool water, and applied a moisturizing cream and a bit of Jamaican black castor oil. I twisted my hair in sections, pinned it across to stretch the hair, and let my hair air dry.

Talk about moisturized! My hair feels and looks amazing. I will definitely continue to do overnight pre-poos using the baggy method from now on. My hair is still pinned up, but I anticipate it will be very easy to style once I take these twists down.