Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Cheyenne Parker-Tyus
WNBA champion and Las Vegas Aces player Cheyenne Parker-Tyus is making wash day work for her. Balancing motherhood and her basketball career, she keeps her hair-care routine for her type-3 curls easy and manageable. “I have loose curls. At any given moment they have a mind of their own and choose if they want to cooperate,” she says. While her current hair-care routine isn’t as in depth as it used to be when she opted for multiple steps, she still tries to incorporate products that keep her hair healthy.
She would focus on her hair in sections, defining with a curl brush, scrunching the curls, or twisting her hair to further define the curls. “It’s time consuming and expensive because it takes a lot of products to maintain.” Her main focus now is maintaining her hair between workouts and maintaining her daughter’s hair as well. Here’s her wash-day routine.
From left: Photo: Cheyenne Parker-TyusPhoto: Cheyenne Parker-Tyus
From left: Photo: Cheyenne Parker-TyusPhoto: Cheyenne Parker-Tyus
Prewash: I don’t think sweating helps, but I don’t really have a dry scalp. Every once in a while, I’ll use castor oil, rosemary oil, or argon oil before I wash my hair. I’ll put it on my scalp.
5 p.m.: I wash it with a good shampoo from Innersense or Rizos Curls. If I don’t have access to something that doesn’t have all the excess parabens and alcohol, I’ll wait because those things really dry out my hair and scalp. I scrub the heck out of my scalp, all the way to my ends, and get it sudsy. If it’s been more than two weeks, I’ll wash it two or three times, but if it’s not dirty like that, I’ll wash it once. I like Pattern, too. I had a couple of samples from Pattern in China, and I didn’t have my usual products, but the pattern was really good.
5:10 p.m.: I’ll put in conditioner from Rizos Curls or Innersense and leave it in for three to five minutes while I’m in the shower. I’ll shave my legs, wash my body — leave it in a bun and then wash it out. If I’m in the mood, I’ll comb it out in the shower while the conditioner is still in it. Or I’ll wait until I get out of the shower and instead of using a towel I’ll wring out my hair, kind of like how you wring out a rag, then I’ll use a Denman curl brush to detangle and not a comb. I always lose a lot of hair, and that’s hair I assume I’m supposed to be losing, like dead weight. That’s how I look at it.
I love the Rizos Curls. I found them back in the day when I was trying to get my curls to pop. I never paid attention to my curls until 2019, that’s when I was really trying to nurse them, and their products really helped that process, and I never wavered. I use that the most. I recently tried the Cécred deep conditioner, too.
From left: Photo: Cheyenne Parker-TyusPhoto: Cheyenne Parker-Tyus
From top: Photo: Cheyenne Parker-TyusPhoto: Cheyenne Parker-Tyus
5:20 p.m.: I like the Innersense leave-in conditioner. I got a curly cut in 2024, and the stylist suggested this brand, so I picked up the whole line from Ulta. It’s very good but very expensive. When I was really into doing my hair, I would diffuse my curls, but being a mom, I don’t have time to do that anymore, so I’ve been air-drying for the past couple of years.
Photo: Cheyenne Parker-Tyus
9 p.m.: At night, I’ll use a silk bonnet with a tie because the other ones always slide off. My hair retains water for a while. Once I wash it and let it air-dry, it stays wet, so I’ll double up and put on two bonnets. And by the morning, my hair is still pretty damp, so I’ll let it air-dry. I don’t put it up at night because I feel like my hair is always up since I play basketball. So I always take my hair out of the ponytail when I go to bed. My mom taught me that to help maintain my edges, because the pulling makes your edges thinner.
The next day: Usually, I’ll refresh my hair in the morning with a spray bottle of water and leave-in conditioner. I’ll spray it just a little to refresh the curls, and I’ll add a curl cream to remoisturize it. If it’s been a couple of days, at that point, I have enough product in my hair so I’ll use water and let it do its thing.
On hair maintenance and motherhood:
Now that it’s grown out a little more, I’m maintaining. I had a moment in China while playing, and I was so busy that I let my hair get super matted and tangled. I had a big ball of knots in the middle of my head from not doing anything to it. It took me two hours to comb it out. I was so frustrated and in tears that I thought about cutting it off. That was the first time I genuinely thought about doing that; I even brought it up to my husband. I already have to worry about my daughter’s hair and taking care of my son and all that comes with being a mom. It was overwhelming. I ended up talking myself off the ledge because I did not go through with that.
On her game-day style:
I’ll wear a headband sometimes, but I really like slicking back with a nice, strong edge control so my hair can stay slick. I do sweat a lot, so it’s rare that it stays that way. My hair has to be out of my face, and most of the time I’m rushing. I rarely let the curls rock out. I like the slick back. I feel like I’m ready for war. I’ll use any edge control that’s in front of me; thankfully, the team always has one available.
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