Vacation Wash-and-Go: Virginia Beach Edition

Good morning YAIS readers!

I'm back in NYC after relaxing for a bit in VA Beach for my birthday. Even though I'm a little sunburned and sore from attempting to ride strong waves, I had a great time. It was quite an adventure and I have to say, every time I go South I'm reminded how much of a "Northerner" I am. I'm actually a very polite person but whenever I talk to people down south they are so surprised to learn I'm from New York City because of how "polite" and "talkative" I can be to strangers which is always hilarious.

Now for hair: I did wash-and-gos which I figured was the easiest way to handle my hair in heat and humidity. I packed TreSemme Naturals Conditioner, Ouidad Climate Control Shampoo and Conditioner, and bummed Coconut Oil and Eco Styler gel off my sister.

I washed my hair and used TreSemme as my leave-in and then shook my head to get definition of my coils/curls, a trick SP showed me a while ago that works pretty well. It's funny to describe - I just shook my head like a dog to get definition lol.

Defined curls after shaking my hair

At the beach, I kept my hat on unless I was going into the water. Of course my hair shrunk like crazy (you could never tell I'm like a quarter-inch from bra-strap length) but after I was done in the water I would braid my hair down and put my hat on. I used gel in the evenings when going out because I wore my hair slicked back.

Also, I loved seeing naturals at the beach!  It was so freeing to just hop in the water and not worry about hair and I saw it on their faces too - pure enjoyment of shaking their TWAs or wringing out their curls. I will say my hair was really tangled after 4 days of wash and gos and I had some knots - it took me half-an-hour just to detangle when I got home, and the salt water was starting to dull and dry out my hair but I see myself rocking freely shrunken hair maybe once a week this summer. I know I probably won't get to the beach again until next month after my wedding but at least I know what works for my hair now!