Wash-n-Go Season

Every spring naturals celebrate freedom from winter protective styles and the fear of going outside with wet hair in cold weather by unleashing their natural texture and curl pattern causing the 'oooos' and 'ahhhs' of co-workers, family members, friends and the occasional stranger. They marvel at how much longer or bigger their hair is after the ultimate hair hibernation. Nothing like a good wash-n-go, right? 

I also celebrated this moment as anyone should celebrate anything these days, with a Tiktok. Showing my dry stretched hair transformed into fully hydrated tresses, highlighting my natural curl pattern along with a few more gray hairs. However, a few days later I came across a social media post from a young lady proclaiming that the beloved wash-n-gos were actually causing damage and nothing to celebrate at all. 

Blasphemy! How dare she try to ruin our unrecognized holiday before we even got into the swing of things. But is she wrong? Washing your hair every two days, morning refreshes, unraveling twists that seem to need to be ripped apart at the ends. Paula, owner of Paula’s Chic on La Brea in Los Angeles, once told me while silk pressing (flat-ironing) my hair, that she could tell I was wetting my edges - hairline for those wondering what edges are - because they looked damaged to her. That was exactly what I had been doing, wetting and smoothing my hair line, edges, for years. Is all of that water and use of water based products to revive a good wash-n-go actually doing more harm than good? 

Did the woman from the social media post have a point? What do you think? Sound off below.