Healthy hair is beautiful hair. And for Black women, wash day is often a sacred act of self-care, since our kinks, coils, and curls require a little more TLC. In our new series Wash Day Diaries, we’re asking influential women to break down exactly what goes into their routines so you can learn their tips, tricks, and products that work for your texture and style.
Phoebe Robinson is one incredibly busy woman. After wrapping up her hit podcast and HBO show 2 Dope Queens in 2019, the comedian has kept her hands full with a truly dizzying array of projects. These days she’s writing her third book, hosting her third podcast, helming her own production company, launching a book imprint, and preparing to star in her own show on Comedy Central. Somehow, in between all of that, she finds time every weekend to sit down and do her hair.
For Robinson, wash day is a time when she can focus on herself, not her career or her loved ones. “It’s really just me spending this quality time with myself,” she says. “It takes me back to my childhood, when my mom would do my hair while watching Martin and Living Single. To do that with myself now in my 30s, I just feel like it’s really special.” She and her mom still bond over hair too. In addition to wash day, another weekly ritual is her weekly FaceTime call with her parents, during which she and her mom trade tips and product recommendations for their 4C hair. “My dad is like, ‘How much can you guys talk about hair?!’”
During the “quar-quar,” as Robinson calls it, hair care has become an even more important form of self-care. When everything feels like chaos, she says, it makes all the difference to take 10 minutes to put on a cute headwrap, pick out her ’fro, or put her hair into an updo: “It’s nice to have those moments of normalcy.”
If anything, the star is taking much better care of her hair now than she was in the days when she could rely on her hairstylist, Sabrina Rowe. She says: “Every time I do my hair, I’m like, Just do it good enough so that you won’t get cussed out when she starts doing your hair again.”
Here's what that looks like these days.
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Pre-poo
Normally, I try to do a wash routine every seven to eight days. It’s actually a two-day process, because the day before I wash my hair, I have to do my pre-poo, which means pre-shampoo.
I’ll oil my hair using Melanin Haircare's Multi-Use Pure Oil Blend and then put it into two-strand twists. I have 4C hair, so really, it’s impossible for my hair to not be dry. So I leave this oil on overnight, with a little disposable shower cap underneath my regular sleeping cap.
Shampoo
The next morning I wash my hair. I’m using Pattern Beauty products right now, so once a month I’ll use the Clarifying Shampoo, and every other time I wash my hair, I’ll use the Hydrating Shampoo. I love Pattern Beauty because, first of all, the packaging is bomb. I also like the way my hair smells afterward—it’s a nice scent, not overly fragrant. And its products are just thick in a way that I know they’re really going to do something to my hair, as opposed to when you use some brands, and you’re like, Eh, this is really for white-people hair, but thank you so much for trying!
Deep condition
After rinsing the shampoo out, I use the Pattern Intensive Conditioner. Then I put on this deep-conditioning heat cap that you can heat up in the microwave. It’s from a Black-owned business called Glow by Daye. It’s truly shocking how dry my hair will get, so I really need to do this. I do it every week for about 30 to 35 minutes.
Then I’ll undo my twists, rinse the conditioner out of my hair, and twist my hair back up. Then I’ll do a little bit of towel drying. If I’m in a hurry, I’ll blow-dry my hair, but if I just wanna chill, I’ll let it air-dry for a while and then finish off with some blow-drying on low heat.
Styling
I spray on a mixture of leave-in conditioner and water—it’s mostly water and really just like two pumps of Pattern Beauty’s Leave-In Conditioner. Then I add its Styling Cream as I start to do my two-strand twists, and finish it off with a little bit more of the Melanin oil.
Because my hair does get so dry, using the leave-in conditioner spray really helps it retain moisture longer. With Pattern Beauty, I feel like my hair gets that nice condition and my coils are respected.
This routine takes a while, so I can get in a couple of rom-coms or documentaries throughout the whole process!
Kim Wong-Shing is a New Orleans–based writer and editor with bylines in Bitch Media, Autostraddle, Bustle, and more. Visit her website at kimwongshing.com.
