How Much Time Is Too Much To Spend On Your Hair?

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I saw a thread the other day discussing how long women spend doing their natural hair every week. Some people were like 20-30 minutes (how??) while most said 1 or 2 hours. One poor honest sod said it takes her a day and a half and she got straight clowned! I was actually surprised by how many women were like 'Oh, it takes me hardly any time to do my hair start to finish' because, while I consider my hair low maintenance majority of the time, when it comes to wash day, #forgetaboutit. I have to stop for meals and everything. So I decided to run through my most frequent hair processes to see how many hours of my life I spend on my hair.

Wash Day: Cowash: 100 minutes once a week

Process: 

Cowash in twists - 10 minutes

Deep Condition in twists - 45 minutes

Undo twists, LOC and retwist - 45 minutes

My hair stays in the twists the entire week which I pin up and leave up. I rarely cowash more than once a week but I do remoisturise my twists midweek.

Remoisturising: 10 minutes once a week

Process: 

Spray twists with my homemade leave-in

Apply a light sealing oil over

Re-pin twists

Because I use heavy products for the LOC Method, I only need to apply a light sealant when I remoisturise a few days later, which makes things quick and easy.

Wash Day: Shampoo: 14 hours 20 minutes once every 4-6 weeks

Process:

Prepoo - overnight (12+ hours)

Shampoo - 15 minutes

Condition - 20 minutes

Deep Condition - 45 minutes

Oil Rinse - 20 minutes

LOC and Twist - 40 minutes

Clearly the culprit here is the prepooing. I prepoo overnight with coconut oil; Natural Haven quotes a study which suggests using it overnight (14+ hours) to give it time to absorb. Plus it's much easier to sleep on it then walk around all day with oil running down my neck. 

Henna Gloss: 12 hours once every 4-6 weeks

Process:

(*Mixing Henna: 5 hours)

Application: 60 minutes

'Baking' time: overnight (8+ hours)

Rinse: 95 minutes

Deep Condition: 45 minutes

Oil Rinse: 20 minutes

LOC and Twist: 40 minutes

*I haven't included mixing time because I usually pre-mix my henna in batches and freeze to save time. 

I love henna, but I hate Henna day. There's no two ways about it; it is super time-consuming. Again, I like to do this as an overnight treatment so I can leave it on nice and long to get maximum benefits plus so I don't have to endure henna drippies. Rinsing is probably the part I dislike the most and which I find most tedious. 

Combined Wash and Henna Day: 25 hours

Process: 

Prepoo overnight: 12 hours

Shampoo & Condition in the morning: 35 minutes

Apply Henna and 'bake' all day: 9 hours

Rinse & Deep Condition in the evening: 140 minutes

Oil Rinse, LOC & Twist: 60 minutes

Although this is THE longest day, I like to do this combination when I can so I can get it over and done with for another 4-6 weeks.

Detangling: 

Finger: 2 hours once every 4-6 weeks 

or 

Comb: 30 minutes once every 4-6 weeks

Process: 

If I finger detangle, I do it during my oil prepoo and if I comb detangle I do it while conditioning after a shampoo. I dread finger detangling but it is much gentler on hair than using a comb. I don't need to detangle often because my hair stays in twists 95% of the time, which really helps keep it tangle free. If I wear my hair out then I need to do a mini detangle while I am remoisturising, to stay on top of the knots.

Styling: 30 minutes once in a blue moon

My hair stays in twists. It's boring, yes, but I'm lazy and my hair does much better if I just leave it alone. If I do wear it out, I will usually pin-curl the ends while it's damp then wear it out in an easy twist-out or bun once it dries. That's it.

So, there you have it. On average I spend under 2 hours a week on my hair which I'm quite pleased with. Wash days are the longest but that's really no surprise. Naturally, the longer your hair is, the more time you will likely spend on it. You can reduce this by reducing the number of processes but at the end of the day, how much time you chose to spend on your hair is up to you. (And your family. And your water and electricity bills. And your social life..)

How much time do you ladies spend on your hair?