The Art of Pre-pooing.
What is Pre-pooing?
Pre-pooing refers to a Pre- shampooing treatment. This is done either the night before or an hour before washing your hair. The treatment helps combat Excessive breakage, tangling and dryness in curly hair especially that which occurs while/after washing your hair.
Benefits of Pre-pooing
The benefits of Pre-pooing include better definition, less breakage and tangling, shinier and softer hair after a wash as well as added moisture.
Image from wix, olive oil works great too, though I used water and coconut oil on my mom's hair.
How to Pre-poo
The term ‘treatment’ can create the impression that it is a long process, but it’s actually relatively short. You simply require oil or an oil and a rinse out conditioner (the same one you would use after shampooing) for this. I would recommend you use a ‘lighter’ oil such as Olive oil, Coconut, Argan or Jojoba oil. As for conditioner, you can use any as long as it’s Sulfate and Paraben free, when I Pre-poo I use my personal favorite, Shea Moisture’s Jamaican black castor oil conditioner. (and nope, this article is not sponsored lol)
1. Wet your hair; as is standard whenever you’re applying a product to your hair, wet it first. Water is the only ‘product’ that can penetrate the very core of your strands, hydrating the hair from the inside out. Products applied onto the hair serve as sealants, ‘trapping’ the water, and consequently the moisture, in your hair.
2. If you intend to use conditioner for this treatment, add a dime sized amount (you don’t need as much as you often use after shampooing at this stage) once again when added to wet hair, the conditioner will be absorbed deeply into the strands courtesy of them being wet (imagine the water combining with, then ‘sucking in’ the conditioner into your hair strands), the conditioner will also soften your hair and ensure less breakage and tangles when you shampoo.
3. Apply an excess of oil; this is where pre-pooing differs from regular hair oiling, as you plan on washing your hair you can get away with applying more than usual. This has two purposes- ensuring you hair is super moisturized and ensuring it gets clean; everything tends to ‘stick’ to oil, including dirt. When you shampoo your hair with warm water, all the oil comes off, with the dirt combined to it. A usual amount of hair oil would not bind to most of the dirt in your hair compared to when you apply excess oil. Once again being that the oil is in excess, very little will be left in your hair; this is what stops you from getting super dry and brittle hair.
4. Twist or braid; Depending on the length of your hair, you can make between 2 and 6 twists/braids. Twists and braids ‘lock’ the moisture in your hair while it’s still wet, allowing your hair to soak up the oil and the conditioner before you wash it.
The benefits of preepooing; Aids in defining the curls. Shot by Alex Njeri.
5. You can allow the products to soak in overnight, but if you don’t fancy drenching your pillows in oil (which you can avoid by covering your hair while you sleep) an hour before washing your hair is long enough for the Pre-poo treatment to soak in.
When washing your hair, go about the regular steps, Shampoo, rinse, condition, rinse, deep condition, rinse. But, as you have just added more than the usual amount of oil, you may want to shampoo twice (esp. if you wash your hair once every two weeks), this is done right after rinsing the first round of shampoo out, before you move on to conditioner.
Remember to rinse out your hair thoroughly and try to carry out your final rinse (after deep conditioning) with cold water (closes the hair cuticle, sealing in moisture, taming frizz and leaves it shiny.)
That is all for this post! Thank you for getting this far, lol. I sure hope you found this article helpful.
xo- Alex
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