The biggest issue I am often tasked with solving is how to keep natural hair moisturized.
Ironically, keeping natural hair moisturized is one of the most important parts of having healthy natural hair. Ease of detangling, style longevity and overall manageability of natural hair is directly tied to moisture.
So, I want to share a few basic steps to ensure your natural hair remains moisturized all year long.
How to Keep Natural Hair Moisturized
In order to have healthy hair, you must understand the basis for keeping the hair moisturized.
Your hair will naturally grab onto as much water is needed because the proteins in hair are water-loving.
This means that to keep the hair moisturized, you need a water repelling layer to seal in the water and keep that inner layer wet.
The oils on your scalp are an amazing mix of lipids and chemicals that do the best job of trapping in the moisture and preventing water loss.
Unfortunately, those oils do not travel all the way down the twists and turns of coily hair.
You may notice that low-porosity or normal hair repels water, and that happens because it is healthy. The covering that keeps the cuticle protected from the environment is doing a great job of trapping moisture in the hair.
Moisture Is Queen
#1 – Determine Your Porosity
Porosity directly affects how your hair absorbs product and how you care for the hair post washing.
Therefore, the first step in retaining moisture is learning the porosity of your strands.
#2 – Clarify Your Hair
Do you find that no product works on your natural hair? Build up is often the partial culprit.
To ensure optimal penetration of moisturizing ingredients, your best bet is clean hair. Go ahead, strip your hair strands of all product and start anew.
Caution: Do not strip the hair on a weekly basis without re-hydrating because it will become tangled and dehydrated, causing damage.
#3 – Use humectants and occlusive agents
To mimic the work that the natural oils in your scalp achieve on its own, we have to use humectants and occlusive agents.
Water moisturizes, the humectants and occlusive agents hold onto the moisture, reduces friction, and prevents breakage.
#4 – Condition your hair
Conditioners contain humectants, occlusive agents, and fatty alcohols to mimic the natural oils that work so well for healthy hair.
Plus, the slip and weight conditioners give the hair prevent frizz, help with gentle detangling, and reduces friction.
Products with these ingredients range from rinse out conditioner, leave-in conditioner, and various creams.
The use of heat or steam with conditioner is beneficial for low porosity hair to receive the maximum benefits of conditioner. Hydrolyzed proteins, applying conditioner before shampooing, and oil pre-washes are excellent for keeping porous hair hydrated.
#5 – Don’t skip the protein
Protein helps with moisture retention. Proteins are in fact conditioning agents.
They can soften the hair, reduce static, and act as hydrating ingredients for your strands.
Why?
Protein can bind to the hair and temporarily fill in any gaps. More importantly, protein hangs on to water and protects the hair from dehydration.
If your hair doesn’t ever seem to be moisturized, regardless of what you use, a dose of protein can help to solve that problem quickly.
This is especially important for high porosity hair as the proteins fill in gaps to help trap moisture into the strand.
5 Steps to Moisturized Natural Hair
These five steps make up the keys to keeping your natural hair moisturized. Notice, not one product was mentioned. Want to cure your product junky issues? Focus on healthy hair techniques and ingredients to choose a product, and you will have many options for products that work. Naturally, curly hair is inherently dryer but doesn’t have to stay that way.
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I was literally thinking that no product was mentioned when I read it. It really is about learning your hair and developing a consistent routine. Keeping the hair hydrated and moisturized even in the middle of a week (If you wash weekly) is beneficial as well; at least for me. The environment we live in can also hinder the retention of moisture but keeping these 5 steps in mind can and most definitely will combat that.