My original hope for this post was to make one condense lesson on the importance of moisture and protein balance, but as I sat down to write I realized that there was just too much information that I didn’t want to leave out. Therefore I decided to write it in two parts, a part for moisture and a part for protein.
First I want to address why moisture is important, and how to recognize overly moisturized hair. The reason being is that if there is one thing I can stress to you, it would be always always always lean towards the moisture side of the scale. It is easier to come back from a moisture overload than it is to come back from a protein overload. Also black hair is very porous by nature so it is harder for us to retain moisture. If you have a lot of breakage and shedding going on it is probably because you are lacking moisture. Once again I will repeat I DO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT HEALTHLY HAIR! I never claimed to be an expert, I’m just learning and sharing my information as I do so. To me once you’ve got your regiment, products and a protective style down then next step is learning about the delicate balance between moisture and protein.
Our hair is basically made up of water, lipids and keratin. Keratin is a strong, fibrous and insoluble protein that is also a major component on our nails. It is important for all women to maintain an equal balance of both protein and moisture, in order to maintain healthy hair.
Moisture alone isn’t enough for our pours hair, we also need to lock in the moisture with oil, or else the moisture will leave just as soon as you put it in. Oil DOES NOT MOISTUIZE HAIR. It simply helps seal in the moisture from your daily moisturizer. A key to a good moisturizer is water. Water based moisturizers are the only ones you should be using. This means water must be at the top of the ingredient list, and remember NO MINERAL OIL and NO PETROLERUM.
If you have been going along with my steps to starting a healthy hair journey, then you should already have a great moisturizer and sealing oil in your regiment. The next step is learning to listen to your hair. If your hair has too much protein then it will result in it being dry and brittle and it will break like crazy. Similarly, if your hair is over moisturized it will feel soft and mushy and it will stretch and stretch and stretch until it reaches its breaking point!
The best way to diagnose over moisturized hair is to do the wet test. After a wash or a deep condition examine your hair, gently comb thru it starting at the bottom and working your way up. If it breaks off just during normal combing then you know you’ve got a problem. The next step is figuring out if it’s a moisture problem or a protein problem.
Over moisturized hair as I said before is mushy and gummy feeling. Hair naturally has a certain amount of elasticity to it. Healthy hair will stretch to a certain point and then go back to its normal state. Over moisturized hair will stretch until it breaks off. To remedy this you must simply do a hard protein treatment. Usually one will work just fine, the key is know what proteins do what for your hair. My hair is slightly protein sensitive so all I do is a quick ORS mayo treatment, where as some ladies have to do a full on Aphogee two step treatment. Knowing what proteins work in you hair and which ones don’t takes time, but listen to your hair, because it will tell you what it wants. I tried to keep it as short and concise as possible, but incase you need some more info HERE is a great article to learn more about the moisture protein balance, I hope this helps! Stay tuned for my protein talk.
Peace
So much love
Erika
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