Many naturalistas complain about their hair regularly feeling hard and dry. This could owe to a number of reasons and they aren’t all necessarily your fault. Here are a few tips to help you help your natural hair retain moisture better.
- Use water
People normally moisturize with leave-in conditioners and keep a sharp eye out to make sure that the conditioner has water as its first or second ingredient, but sometimes this still doesn’t get the job done. If the short story above is a rough description of you, then it’s in your best interest to use actual water. Fill a spray bottle with water and work into your hair. If you have low porosity hair, warm/lukewarm water works better as the water temperature opens up your hair shaft.
- Always seal it in
Adding water is a good idea, but depending on your hair porosity, it can evaporate and leave your hair even drier than it was. After applying water and/or a leave-in conditioner, it’s good practice to lock in moisture with oil, or heavy butter. This prevents your hard earned moisture from escaping. This is more or less the LOC method (you can read more about this here)
- Avoid regular direct heat
If your hair always feels dry and rigid, it would be a bright idea to steer clear of regular direct heat on your hair. Little things you could try are; letting your hair air dry after washes, applying heat protectants when it’s absolutely necessary to use direct heat, and always keeping your blow drier to minimal settings. You can find more about how to use heat on your natural hair right here.
- Sleep on satin
Invest in a satin bonnet or scarf. You should always sleep with this on, especially if you have cotton sheets and pillowcases. Satin is good for your hair because it does not absorb or retain moisture, and friction between your hair and satin is not as damaging as the friction it would have against cotton. If you get headaches from putting on bonnets overnight, you could just get a satin pillowcase. Easy as that you’re still keeping your hair out of harm’s way.
- Deep condition regularly
Try your best to deep condition as regularly as you can, it is recommended every week. While the deep conditioner is on, you could put on a plastic cap and wrap a warm towel around it, or get under a steam cap. The heat helps the deep conditioner penetrate your hair shaft easily. Deep conditioning improves the capacity of your natural hair to retain moisture over time. There are a ton more benefits to deep conditioning, and you can find them over here .
- Work with your hairs porosity
If you have low porosity hair, try to use protein treatments very sparingly as their main purpose is to strengthen the hair shaft, this means they can leave your hair harder to work with. On the other hand, if you have high porosity hair, you can benefit from protein treatments. Also, endeavor to use leave-ins and water regularly since your hair is the thirstiest of the three classes.
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[…] Natural hair depends rather heavily on moisture, and honestly the best moisturizer is plain old water. The reason this information is making rounds is because natural hair really does have issues retaining moisture, and a simple way to bypass this is using an oil to seal in moisture after it is applied to your hair. There are a lot of essential oils that are of great benefit to your hair in many different ways, but it’s always a good idea to be light handed with oils because they can very easily clog your pores and make it hard for your scalp to breathe, this in turn hinders hair growth. It’s a vicious circle, so if you’re the type to apply a lot of oil, try to wash your hair at least once a week. You can read up my article on keeping your hair moisturized here . […]
Whenever I think of a getting a satin pillow, because I turn like hell when I sleep, I imagine all the stuff on my hair getting on my face and giving me pimples, and the headgear gives me headache, so what else could I do?
This can actually happen. A little hack You could try is tying a scarf loosely around your hair, and securing it with a few bobby pins so it doesnt come off during the night. You might look a little weird, but it works for you. Also, about the pillow case issue, it all boils down to you washing your face more often with mild soaps. Soaps made with activated charcoal, and soaps that contain tea tree oil are great examples. Hope this helps.
‘A little weird’ she says, haha. Thank you so much, it does help.
[…] Conditioners are essentially formulated to deliver moisture to the hair shaft so co-washing can be of great benefit to naturals who often complain about dry, brittle hair. There are other things you can do to keep your hair moisturized for longer and you can check those out over here. […]
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[…] This is very dependent on your goal. Is a hot oil treatment something you’d like to permanently add to your natural hair regimen/routine? If so, there’s no harm in doing one before or during every wash (not more than twice a week though). This is especially beneficial to dry hair naturals who are looking for ways to get their hair to retain moisture for longer periods. Here are some more helpful tips on moisture retention. […]