Post-Op Hair Care for fine, curly hair

I'm talking 3B/C, very fine, highly porous, medium volume hair that has always been too fragile to grow much past my shoulders. I've been in the Natural Hair Care movement since the very beginning (all the way back in 2014...), I grew out my grey hair four years ago, I do not heat style, only steam treat, and I started a caffeinated scalp cleanse & oiling growth journey and chebe length retention journey in August 2025... right before my hip went bed. I'm also a research & FAFO kind of AuDHDist in the Nina Pool kind of way, so I do know what I'm talking about when it comes to fragile hair like mine.

After night 2 of sweating out gallons of water, anesthesia leftovers, and extra white blood cells before I could sleep, my hair and sleep bonnets were pretty bad this morning. And I'm still not quite up to a full shower, so here's how I've been tackling retaining my hair health while my body health goes temporarily to shit.

1. I spoke a bit about the prep during the pre-op shower already, but here's the details: I did my normal scalp and hair cleanse with my Kojic acid soap before the Great Safeguard Scrubdown, I did not oil my scalp (better to let the follicles breathe if I'm not attending to my proper cleansing & exfoliating routine), I did apply my usual leave-in conditioner on the strands, but I "slugged" it in with 100% pure vegetable glycerine instead of chebe butter. I'll get back to the chebe in a week or two, when I have the strength to get into my full hair routine again.

2. After that dried, I braided it into medium-tight dutch braid pigtails - tight enough to stay intact through a lot of jostling around, not so tight it causes hair loss. I also secured the ends with small rip-proof hair-tyes, something I don't always do, but again, we're going for longevity and end protection.

3. My silk bonnet went on about the minute I got up to my room for the night and was cognizant of the fact, and it stayed on until I sweat it off Wednesday night. I wore a silk-lined beanie to PT over the braids yesterday, and another bonnet until I ripped it off my sweat-soaked head at around 3am today.

So, I finally sat on the end of my bed and addressed my hair today. Here's how I tackled that:

1. The braids were eased out very gently, and I worked out any obvious tangles or shed hairs with my fingers.

2. I sectioned my hair off to give my scalp and roots a healthy spray with HOCL. Once my scalp was damp with the HOCL, I got my fingers under my hair to massage it in and make sure it's well-distributed on my head. That helps get rid of any bacterial growth from the sweat.

3. I then used a detangler/leave-in conditioner to dampen my hair with the product pretty well. Once it was wet through, I combed the product through with a Tangle Teezer brush to remove any leftover snarls or shed hairs (which it does really well, btw).

I love this SoCozy Kids detangler (not paid, I just do), but use whichever is your favorite.

4. After the product dried, I used a silk hair-tye to pull my hair into a loose "pineapple" ponytail at the top of my head, and put a clean bonnet over my freshly detangled hair.

And when it comes to the internal part of hair care:

1. Electrolytes again ftw. The brand I use is a combo of deep sea minerals, and liquid B vitamin complex, and I have been POUNDING them.

2. I've had two regular doses back on my VitronC (considering my post-op labs showed me as real fucking anemic in favor of the White Blood Cell blast, I wanted to get that corrected ASAP), Buffered Vitamin C, Omega 3-6-9 oils, and Magnesium glycinate. My morning coffee has changed while I'm recovering and doesn't lend well to my usual collagen dosing, but I'm drinking bone broth to keep up there.

3. And just managing my pain and maintaining my caloric intake. My body wants SUGAR, not surprising, I can't take Naltrexone while I'm on the Oxy. I'm glad I stocked up on healthier sweet calorie sources, rather than just binging on any sweets, especially when we still have Christmas cookies in the freezer. And that I did all that meal planning!

Moment of truth time, then! Did I lose any length or volume to stress shed during 4.5 days of healing major surgical trauma?

Nope. That's half a week of shed. Zero breakage.

In other post-op news, the pain is starting to kick in where the muscles were cut and stitched, and just general suture pain. All to be expected, all controlled well enough, all will be gone in a week, I know... but it's not super fun accidentally touching the leg and my body is like "what kind of pain signal are we even supposed to go for here??"

The bruising, though, is healing really fast, it's gone from bright red to almost green in just a few days. I'm not complaining! And walking is getting easier, I'm even starting to get some baby follow-through with my steps if I'm on a straight course!