How do you get wax out of curly African hair?

Answer 1

with wax removal theres 3 schools of thought none of which are 100% effective

1st, possibly the best method for removing the bulk of the wax, but requires extreme care as it can be dangerous., melt the wax out.. the melting temp of wax is 45 c or 140 f which is hot enough to cause a burn.

additionally the wax must be heated above that temp long enough to melt, so most people use near boiling water. dip 1 dread in let it soak a minute or so, then with thick rubber gloves squeeze out the waxy slime from root to tip (if your tips were forced to be rounded instead of left to be whispy, this decreases the effectiveness since whispy tips easily draw liquids out while rounded tips hold liquids in)

do 1 dread at a time then repeat, you will have to reheat the water and change it often

method 2 emulsification in soap..just normal washings isn't enough, you need a ton of soap, along with lots of intense scrubbing, i hear dawn dish soap works best you will want a few bottles. saturate the dreads scrubbing like crazy then rinse with as hot of water as you can stand.. repeat over and over.. a friend whos done many wax cleanups this way says she typically keeps on soaking scrubbing and rinsing for 8-10 hours

each time it will only remove a small amount

method 3.. dissolving if your able to find dissolve it it might be worth experimenting with. its an all natural citrus based solvent that dissolves tars glues caulks adhesives and more

i have never used it on hair (only a homemade4 weakened version) so by all means test it on a lil hair 1st to make sure your not gonna dissolve a dread too..

theoreticallyit should be safe though.

but if ya arent gonna get that you can make your own weaker dissolving solution

i have seen the deep cleanse formula used with citrus added and it worked well for some but not all

this is experimental so try varying strengths and ingredients to find what works for you

basic formula 1/3-3/4 cup baking soda in a gallon of water..add to that any of the following orange essential oil lemon oil grapefruit oil..or..you can use the juices, but be sure its only pure juice no sugar added no extra crap, if u can squeeze em yourself that's best

let soak a good long time (even an hour) then rinse very thoroughly

each method will only do so much so should be repeated many times..in fact many times past when you think you got it all

the very nature of wax makes it resistant to removal and many times ive seen people claim they got it all only to find wax caked in the center 3 years later when they cut em off