Are you struggling to moisturize your natural hair effectively? Once you know what to look for in your products and how to prep your hair to allow the moisture into your strands, you’ll be going days without having dry parched hair. Don’t go any further without learning what to look for in your hair products and how to moisturize and hydrate your natural hair to its fullest potential!
How To Moisturize Natural Hair
Moisturizing natural hair is something that we have all struggled with at some point in our natural hair journey, but there is a simple solution. Focus on removing product build up on the hair using a gentle yet effective clarifying shampoo, deep condition regularly and add water based products before styling the hair such as leave in conditioners.
Whether you are wearing a protective style or your hair is loose, throughout the week you will want to use your favorite refresher spray/or water mister to keep things from getting too parched. Try to aim for every other day or every 3 days depending on how your hair feels for a quick refresh.
Why Is My Natural Hair So Dry And Brittle?
When trying to figure out how to moisturize natural hair, there might be quite a few culprits. First, take into consideration the texture of naturally curly and coily textures. When compared to straight hair, the shape of textured hair can be a combination of zig zags, loops, coils and spirals. This can make it quite difficult for the natural oils produced by the scalp to travel down the hair shaft.
If the oils have a hard time traveling down the hair strand, it will not have the opportunity to lubricate the hair as easily as it would on straight hair, which only has one direction for the oil to go in (and that’s down). This could leave your textured hair feeling dryer much faster over time, mainly mid shaft and along the ends.
The next reason why your hair is feeling dry, could be due to a moisture and protein imbalance. If you are using too many products that contain protein, it can result in protein overload. Once you have too much protein and not enough moisture in the hair, your hair will begin to feel dry, brittle and eventually break off.
Another culprit to dry hair, is excessive heat tool styling. The use of blow dryers on high heat forces the moisture to evaporate out of the hair strand faster, especially when used for long periods of time. Using flat irons consistently can make it harder for the hair to retain moisture once it becomes subjected to heat damage.
Excessive bleaching and coloring can make it way more difficult to moisturize natural hair. The chemicals in har dyes strip away at the protein bonds that make up the hair (hair is made of protein), making it weak and porous. If the hair is porous it becomes harder for it to retain moisture… which leads us to our next segment below!
This post is all about how to moisturize natural hair.
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Why Is My Hair Not Retaining Moisture?
If your hair is not retaining moisture, you might want to look at the products you are using and how you are removing them from your hair. A pattern with using heavy butters, oils and creams can result in product buildup if you do not cleanse your hair effectively and on a regular basis.
You will want to use a clarifying shampoo that can gently cleanse the hair of all the impurities that have built up throughout the week(s). A great clarifying shampoo that gently cleanses while keeping the hair feeling moisturized, is the Alodia Organic Black Soap Wash. It has amazing slip and lathers like a dream!
Another culprit could be due to extreme temperatures, Are you in a very dry climate? Are you in direct sun for most of the day? Are you in cold weather? All of these factors can make it seem impossible to retain moisture, as they can drive moisture out of the hair a lot quicker as opposed to someone that lives in a humid climate.
Can You Fix Extremely Dry Hair?
In order to fix extremely dry hair (that isn’t the result of heat damage), try to examine what could be causing it first. Once you make some changes to your regimen, you will want to focus on using hair masks and deep conditioning treatments in order to get that moisture back into the strand.
It is recommended to create a natural hair regimen that focuses on weekly shampooing using a gentle clarifying shampoo, skipping the rinse out conditioner step and going straight into deep conditioning. And yes, you read that correctly… skip the rinse out conditioner step.
Rinse out conditioners coat the hair and help to make the strands feel smooth and detangled, but they leave behind some of that glorious coating. Although it may seem harmless, the molecules in a rinse out conditioner are a lot larger than the ones that are in a deep conditioner at a microscopic level. It will block your deep conditioner from successfully penetrating into the strand, making it harder to moisturize natural hair.
What Actually Moisturizes Hair?
Water! Water is moisture and without it, it can be harder to moisturize natural hair effectively. Although there are many natural hair products that contain humectants like honey, glycerin and aloe vera, water is typically the starting point in an ingredients list to help better hydrate the hair.
Having said that, humectants are next in line and are great ingredients to learn to identify when choosing a moisturizer for natural hair. Their main purpose is to draw in moisture from the environment to keep the hair hydrated.
Other humectants include:
- Propylene Glycol
- Agave
- Hydrolyzed Quinoa
- Panthenol
You will also want to keep in mind how you are applying your hair products. For instance, try not to apply your hair oil or butter before you spritz your hair with water and apply your moisturizer of choice. If you do, the hair will already be sealed making it harder to moisturize from within.
How Often Should You Moisturize Natural Hair?
If your hair is feeling dry, go ahead and mist it with some water using the Continuous Ultra Fine Mist, spray bottle by Flairosol. It delivers just the right amount of water, without overly wetting the hair so that you can quickly hydrate and still maintain your hair style.
You can also mist your hair with a refresher spray! Refresher sprays are great because they are predominately made up of water but with added super ingredients like essential oils and botanical herbs to give the hair a real boost! Try the Camille Rose Lavender Shaken Hair Spritzer for a great hair “wake me up” that smells like a dream and leaves the hair feeling extra soft!
How Do I Hydrate And Moisturize My Hair?
1. Use a clarifying shampoo on wash day to remove any product buildup
2. Follow up with a moisturizing deep conditioner or nourishing hair mask while under a hooded hair dryer or hair steamer
3. Apply your moisturizing leave-in conditioner
4. Seal your hair with an oil, butter or styler of your choice
5. Use a refresher spray throughout the week when the hair starts to feel dry
I hope this post helps you with keeping your natural hair moisturized! Let me know in the comments which products you use to keep your hair healthy and hydrated!
This post was all about how to moisturize natural hair.
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