Moisture is arguably the most important part of a healthy hair regimen. Without moisture you end up with dry, frizzy hair that splits and breaks off. Water is the only form of moisture that exists. However, water alone isn’t effective in keeping moisture in your hair due to evaporation. Here are a few things you need to know about effectively moisturizing your natural hair.
Sealing
Our scalp naturally produce sebum (oil) that is designed to coat the hair strand. But those of us with curls and kinks, have a hard time with sebum naturally running down the path of the hair strands, to coat and moisturize the hair. So we must moisturize and oil our strands manually.
After adding moisture (water) to your hair, you should seal in that moisture with naturally penetrating oil such as olive oil or coconut oil. You can seal with oil alone and/or with a leave-in that has these oils listed in the first five ingredients. These oils help by creating a barrier at the cuticle, preventing the water from evaporating off of your strands at an accelerated rate.
Effective Sealing
With all parts of a hair regimen, you have to find out what works best for your hair. Sealing can vary from person to person. For some, sealing with oil may not be enough. Those with thicker hair may need to add either a watery leave-in conditioner, before sealing, and/or a oil-based, creamy leave-in conditioner, after sealing, for their hair to remain properly moisturized after it is completely dry.
After washing and sealing with oil, ask yourself, “Does my hair still feel soft and moisturized after it is fully dry?” If the answer is no, you may need to tweak your regimen to effective seal your strands. You can test by applying different sealing methods to each side of your hair after washing.
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