River Washed Hair by Helen Dillard

    So you just got off the river. You crushed some rapids, maybe got tumbled in Phil’s, and maybe even swam. You’re soaking wet and freezing cold and on top of that your hair is absolutely wrecked. What was once smooth, shiny, and neat is now a tangled, matted, river blasted mess.

So how do you fix this? And how do you do it within the 30mins you have to get ready for dinner. Here’s the best way to save your hair while kayaking and the path I took to find this out.

At first I tried to put it in braids and just brush it after. This worked, but not well. When you spend the whole day on the water the braids tend to crunch up and curl and become full on dread locks. This takes a lot of time to brush out so you have to finish it on the bus to dinner. But it kinda works.

The next thing I tried was a low rise bun. And surprisingly this worked much better. The bun has to be tight and against the back of your neck. And it does a great job of keeping your hair where it’s supposed to be, ish. But, it still got messy and tangled and it was a pain to brush out.

This is when I started discovering different strategies to brush your hair. You start by wetting your hair in the sink and lathering on so much conditioner. From here you can sit on the porch and brush it normally while getting your foot bath done at the same time. Or you can do my favourite tried and true method. 

For this method you lay your soap filled hair across the counter and begin brushing out the bottom of your hair. Keep brushing it out against the counter until it's mostly untangled. You then flip your hair back in the sink and brush out any remaining tangles and conditioner. All done <3.