One conditioner that is really, really popular in the wavy hair community is the Not Your Mother’s Naturals Tahitian Gardenia Flower & Mango Butter Curl Defining Conditioner. It’s more commonly known as the “NYMN Pink” Conditioner. And a lot of people seem to love it, but wavy friends…I am not one of them. As a “normal” conditioner at least. You see, as a normal conditioner these were my biggest gripes with the NYMN Pink: way too heavy and not enough slip. If you’re new to natural hair, slip is typically in reference to detangling. If a conditioner has “good slip,” that means you’d be able to comb your fingers fairly easily through this. Good slip is really important for a good conditioner for my hair. Well, the NYMN Pink doesn’t have that. It quite frankly felt like glue when I tried to finger comb. It jsut stuck to my fingers and felt like I was jut pulling my hair out. Not pleasant. It is extremely rich, which is why seems to make it less slippery. For some people it might be great, but this richness also left my hair weighed down. My hair would lay visbly flatagainst my roots on wash day. By day three my hair needed to be washed. For reference, I typically wash my hair on day 4, but can squeeze to day 5 if needed. Yea, if you are new or earlier on in this process that probably sounds crazy. It isn’t! Promise! So to have my hair only last about half the time was not going to fly.
It was that richness that made me think, why not try NYMN Pink as deep conditioner? Instead of a normal conditioner, just use it as the extra moisture after detangling. Maybe this would be the way to save and use the conditioner instead of resorting to using it as shaving cream. (I was unable to return it at this point so that wasn’t an option).
So here’s how it went using NYMN Pink as deep conditioner
My normal “deep conditioner” routine is to clarify then deep condition. So that’s what I did here too! I clarified using my favorite clarifying low poo, the Shea Moisture Fruit Fusion Coconut Water Weightless Shampoo (this is not marketed as clarifying but it definitely does the job for me!). Then I detanlged with my normal conditioner. And then came time to use NYMN Pink as deep conditioner. I scrunched/squished the stuff in (“squish to condish“) and let it sit for a few minutes while I finished my other shower stuff. As weird as this sounds, even squishing my hair it felt more moisturized. My hair was feeling good in the shower. I went ahead and rinsed, flipped my head over, and scrunched in a bit more while it was rinsing out. I do this to avoid any tangles in my hair clumps. I let that almost compltely rinse out, then turned off the water and finished with my normal styling products. Then I got out of the shower and plopped overnight.
The morning after….I took my plop out and my hair looked pretty great! I used a teeny bit of this $3 mousse to combat any frizz from moving overnight. There was a lot more definition than with any prior usage of NYMN pink. My hair does not look weighed down, and it looks moisturized. Actually, this is the best hair day I’ve had in a LONG time. I’m definitely going to try this again. To me this makes perfect sense to use during the summer because it’s a “lighter” deep conditioner. If you have hair that gets weighed down easily, give a try using NYMN Pink as Deep Conditioner and let me know how it goes!
Let me know how you’ve made a once hated product work for you (even if it was just as shaving cream. No judgement here.)
Psssst, do me a wavy friend favor and share this on Pinterest? There’s just not enough content for natural wavies out there! Pin any of the following…
-Rachel
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