The Accidental (Hair) Minimalist

November 13, 2010

If you were following me yesterday on twitter, then you might have seen my tweet declaring my love for "the pineapple method" and the subsequent twitpic showing the best "second-day" hair I could have every hoped for.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, basically, the "pineapple" is simply a way to maintain your natural hair style overnight so that, when you take your hair down, your do still looks fresh and put together. I first learned about "the pineapple" from Youtuber African Export, in this demonstration video:While I was pleasantly surprised by the pineapple's effectiveness in giving my loose twist out the chance to live another day, I was more intrigued by how well this "less is more" concept is playing out even in my hair care.As you may remember from my post Oil and Water: Sometimes Hair and Life Just Don't Mix, I lamented (via 972 words, no less) about how sick I was of incessantly coddling my hair just to get it to do what I wanted. So far, all has been good on the "keep it simple" front as the style that my "pineapple" preserved so well only took 4 products to create from start to finish. What started as a haphazard substitutions ended as a lovely routine that I think I'll keep for the long-term. I created the look as follows:

  1. I washed my hair with Whole Foods Brand Almond Liquid Castile Soap (Product #1)
  2. I conditioned with V05 Strawberries and Cream Conditioner (Product #2)
  3. I barely rinse out the conditioner as to leave most of it left in my hair. The residue doubled as my leave in conditioner.
  4. I took some coconut oil and liberally applied it to my scalp and ends (Product #3)
  5. I took my Eco Styler Gel and applied it as I twisted my hair in medium-large twists (Product #4)
  6. I left the ends of my twists undone and secured them with medium sized flexi-rods.
  7. Once my hair dried, I took the rods out and unraveled the twists. What you see is what I got!

Not only did my hair have great hold, but it was so amazingly soft! I couldn't believe it because I was just sure I was ruining the set by leaving my conditioner in. All of the above products are inexpensive and long lasting, so I was definitely a happy camper.Because of the nice yet unexpected results I got yesterday, I have been inspired to really try to run with this "hair minimalist" concept. As it stands now, I am officially declaring "minimalism" as my running philosophy for my hair care. My goal is not only to have bangin', extra long natural hair, but to achieve it by as uncomplicated a means as possible. What do you all think? Am I setting myself up for failure? Share your comments below.

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