- Hi, Allure, my name is Alisha Wainwright,
I'm an actress on "Raising Dion"
among a couple of other things,
and this is my wash day.
[mid tempo bright music]
So, today for shampoo and conditioner,
I'm using It's A 10, their Blow Dry line.
When I shampoo my hair, I'm focusing mostly on the roots,
especially for a blowout
because I think clean roots is
what can get you your longevity in a blowout.
So I just focus the product mostly there,
and I find that when I do that,
my hair ends up feeling really clean
because the suds trickle all the way down to the ends.
The shampoo I use is a sulfate-free shampoo,
so it doesn't get super lathery.
Rinse that out with warm water
and then repeat the process with conditioner.
I love It's A 10 products, I've been using them for years,
and I specifically like using their Blow Dry shampoo
and conditioner for my blowouts
because, as the name alludes to, it's kind of perfect
for making sure your hair is clean and moisturized.
At this point, I'm usually just finger de-tangling,
seeing how bad it is.
When my hair is curly,
I don't know if anyone else can relate to this,
but everything starts to just mold
into one thing in the back of my head
because my curls are rubbing against my sweaters,
it's wintertime, and at that point, I'm just making sure
I'm getting product in, keep it light,
'cause I'm gonna do most of the conditioning
with my deep conditioner.
[gentle music]
Now, I wish I could say I had brand loyalty
for deep conditioners, but I just don't.
I oscillate all the time [laughs],
and right now I'm using this Dae brand deep conditioner,
and I really, really like it 'cause it smells really good.
I use it because it's nice and thick,
and I feel like after about 30 minutes on my hair,
it smells good, it feels moisturized,
and when you rinse it out,
it doesn't leave any kind of residue.
I rinse my deep conditioner with warm water,
and then I turn the water cold
and then let the cold water run through my hair.
I'm not sure if it works,
but I feel like it seals in the moisture,
so it can't hurt to do it.
[cheerful music]
My hair's feeling conditioned,
it's a little damp,
and perfect to get into this blow dry.
But before I do that,
I'm gonna spray a couple things in here.
This leave-in's called Juices and Botanics.
It's this amazing hair stylist in Dallas.
Has a whole line of stuff that I highly recommend.
It's incredibly light, and leaves my hair bouncy,
and it can have its volume
but it still gives it a little bit of moisture,
so that's why I like it specifically for blowouts.
[mid tempo cheerful music]
I use the heat protecting spray
for when I am blow drying my hair straight,
again because it's really light.
My hair's really thin, I just have a lot of it,
so anything that can weigh down my hair
doesn't look as good in a blowout,
so I like this 'cause it's very light.
I have used so many different kinds of blow dryers,
and expensive, affordable.
Branding is completely rubbed off of it,
but it's a Rusk blow dryer.
It's the best one for the price.
I use a round brush that's about two inches.
I think I got this brush at a CVS.
It's a John Frieda brush and it's just great
'cause it has a lot of aeration holes in it,
so you get a nice even blow dry.
So I've been standing here for a second actually,
and it's dried a little bit,
so I'm gonna run some water over it again,
just because I think it needs to be a little bit more wet
than dry so that you have a nice frizz-free blowout.
And I, with small sections about the size of the hairbrush,
I just kind of go out.
I should probably brush it out
before I actually start blow drying.
Yeah, there we go.
[blow dryer whirs]
So this is the first pass,
and I go under and over
to make sure I focus getting that heat at the roots.
I work out, and so when I do,
my hair gets super sweaty at the scalp,
so I try and make sure I make it as straight as possible
from the get go.
I've blow dried my hair when it's been completely soaked,
and it just takes forever
and it doesn't have the nice sleek look that I like,
and when it's too dry, I feel like it's damaging your hair,
so you wanna find that sweet spot
where it's wet but not frizzing out,
and I think it's just a feel, you just feel it.
I mean, I've been blow drying my hair since I was like 12.
I think something that a lot of curly girls can relate to
when they do blowouts is
that their hair is typically cut for a curly look.
You have to come up with some fun styling techniques
to make sure that you can blend out some things
that inherently look better when your hair is curly.
So once I get up to this much left,
I try and, instead of parting the sections side to side,
I try and part the sections
in one horizontal strip going that way,
working forward, and then I'll split it.
I think in that way,
I get a little bit more volume in the back,
and less so much stuck to my head.
I've never gotten heat damage from my blowouts,
but I've gotten heat damage from excessive heat styling.
So I was on a TV show for a couple years
and I wore my hair curly,
but they would re-curl frizzy curls with a hot tool,
and nine months of doing that,
my hair was falling out,
and just I would run my fingers through
and it would just break out and all fall down.
He was using heat protected and whatnot,
but five days a week of going through and doing that,
especially in this part of my head where I sleep,
I was never gonna win [laughs] in that situation.
Now in almost all of my contracts, I have final say on hair,
which I think gives me some sense of control.
I've tried different things, I've worn wigs,
I have done no heat styling at all,
so we'll use Flexi Rods,
but now I've really perfected my wash and go.
Lessons you learn along the way,
and also things you learn from other actresses
with similar hair types.
You know, I've been on a set before,
and they hired someone and he was like,
"You're the first person
with curly hair I've ever worked on."
And I was like, what? [laughs]
It was so wild.
And like, you get paid to experiment on my head,
and that didn't really feel very good,
but now I'm in a much better place to advocate for myself.
And also I've been forced to learn my own hair,
so I think that's made all the difference too.
I've got one section left,
and this is when I lay out my curling iron and turn it on.
That way, by the time I finish this bang,
the hot iron's ready to go.
[bright music]
I feel like it's tried and true,
I think I've had iterations of Chi flat irons
my whole hot tool styling career.
I'm gonna put one product in my hair
before we start the iron.
It's the Chi Iron Guard,
and I spray a little bit in my hands
and then focus it primarily on the ends.
So over the years, I've used all kinds of flat irons,
and I think the best ones have different heat settings.
And you really shouldn't need
to do more than one pass over your hair,
as long as the sections you're doing are pretty thin.
When I was growing up, I didn't have products
to wear my hair curly and have it look good,
so I would blow dry my hair straight all the time,
and to me, that's how I identified with my beauty,
was by having my hair straight.
And I think over the years, as we've developed techniques
and products to cater to women with curly hair,
I look at straightening my hair more now as a luxury,
'cause I just don't have to do it as much to feel beautiful.
One of the great things about having curly hair is
that you can wear your hair a lot of different ways
and you have a lot of options,
and I do think growing up, maybe it felt like a burden,
but now it feels like,
I don't know, like a superpower or something.
And I sleep with a bonnet,
and then I use my silk pillowcase too,
so it's kind of a double effort
to keep everything nice and sleek.
And I do that also when my hair is curly too,
this is kind of a non-negotiable.
And it's a funny feature that I've been adding
on the shows and movies that I do,
if ever my character's sleeping, I always make sure
my character's wearing either a silk scarf or a bonnet,
because I just feel like
it's a nice little piece of reality.
So at the front, there are a couple different options.
I typically just do a swoop to the side as the initial,
let's just see what's happening look,
especially because I'm making sure
that my hair looks good with the haircut that I have
that's specifically for my curly hair.
As my hair goes through the week,
I might put some oil in the ends,
but they feel so moisturized right now,
I don't even need it, but what I do is some finishing spray.
I'm using It's A 10 Miracle Finishing Spray,
and I kind of [spray can hisses]
keep it light.
I feel really good about this.
Considering how my hair looked a couple hours ago [laughs],
I'm really happy with how it looks.
I love the color, I think it worked out really well,
it feels super moisturized,
and it's just a nice, sleek, simple look
to start the many styles that I'll be able
to get out of this blowout.
I'm gonna try to get two weeks out of this.
I'll maintain the look by essentially avoiding any water,
you know, showering with a shower cap,
and when I work out,
and I get a little bit sweaty at the roots,
I will try and just maybe run the cool shot
over my scalp to try and dry it out.
Wash day to me means a labor of love
that has a beautiful end result,
and usually my biggest smile is on a day
when my hair is looking really good,
and it's usually on wash day.