Natural Haircare 101: Wash Day Routine Pre-poo Treatment

Aug 22

What is Pre-poo?

A treatment applied to your hair before shampooing. It usually consists of oils and/or conditioners applied the night before the shampoo or immediately prior, with a heat source to help penetrate. The treatment provides your hair with a protective layer. This is usually performed to help the hair maintain necessary moisture during the drying shampoo process.

Shampooing can strip your hair of its natural oils and cause dryness and brittleness in your strands. Pre-pooing is a way to combat the drying effects of shampoo by locking in moisture before you shampoo your hair. If you’re finding that you’re not retaining length and your hair is especially dry, hard to manage, and a pain to detangle, then give pre-pooing a try!

Whether you’re trying to repair dry hair, overprocessed hair, or brittle and broken hair, applying a protective treatment before shampooing can result in stronger, softer strands.

What are the benefits of Pre-pooing?

Pre-pooing Adds Moisture: By using a pre-poo treatment you can help restore oils and protect your hair follicles. And in turn, provide you with the shiny, soft, and healthy curls you’ve been craving.

Pre-pooing Helps with Detangling: Not only does this extra step help make your cleansing process that much easier, but it makes your detangling process much easier as well by providing you the slip you need to gently remove any tangles and knots before dipping your head under the water for your shampoo.

Pre-pooing Improves Manageability: Pre-pooing makes your hair softer than before, which adds to it being easier to manage. When your hair is easier to manage, it decreases the amount of breakage and when there’s little breakage, the health of your hair flourishes!

Types of Pre-poos

Oils and Butters: Some people use olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, argan oil, shea butter, mango butter, or any of your favorite oils or butters. You can use these oils individually or combine them. You can even combine the oils with a conditioner for an easy and hydrating pre-poo treatment.

DIY recipes: There are also so many awesome food products you can add into your pre-poo recipe, like honey, banana, yogurt, avocado, eggs, mayo, and more. Mixing these food ingredients with the oils above can give you a luscious treat for your hair.

Retail Pre-poos: Don’t feel like being experimenting with a DIY recipe or short on time? Companies like Burt’s Bees, African Pride, Mane Choice, and Mielle Organics all have ready-made Pre-poo treatments that will help you retain the benefits of the pre-poo without all of the additional work on your wash day.

How to apply your Pre-poo?

The best way to do your pre-poo is to really saturate your hair with the pre-poo mix not forgetting the roots of your hair which sometimes get neglected. Once you have finished applying, leave it on for at least 30 minutes. Longer is better and some naturalistas even leave it on overnight. You may want to apply heat (sitting under a hooded dryer) to really help the mix melt into your curls.

Pre-poo DIY Recipes

My Pinterest is full of great DIY pre-poo recipes. You can check out the board here. In a future post, I will absolutely share some of my favorite pre-poo recipes so stay tuned. Until then, have fun mixing it up yourself and drop your favorite pre-poo mix in the comments.

Check out this quick and easy Olive oil Prepoo tutorial below.