Dry Hair 101 - Everything You Need To Know About Combating Dry Hair
Contents
- Understand How Moisture Works
- Seal In The Moisture
- Replenish The Moisture As Needed
- Make A Refresher spritz
- Do The Green House Effect (GHE)
- Make An Ayurvedic Hair Mask
- Bonus: Hydration Recipe
As pleased as some of you may be with your progress so far, I can bet you still want to know what you can do about the chronic dryness you seem to have. You try the products, you do the layering, but regardless of what you try, you don’t get the lasting results you crave. Am I right?
Years ago, I was almost ready to revert to relaxers until I did a bit of research and realized that I wasn’t the only one who was having this issue and set out to find a solution.
No matter what your race or hair pattern is, if you have curly hair, it can be prone to dryness. Thankfully, I found that there are steps that you can take to combat the dryness, and get you between wash days without your hair looking dull and dry. All it takes is a bit of tweaking to your normal routine.
Understand How Moisture Works
Like I mentioned above, as soon as I would get done washing my hair – hair still soaked with water – it would quickly absorb the water and still look dry.
Washing your hair is important, but our hair naturally trades (or evaporates off) water into the air to keep a balance of wet and dry. Because of the evaporation that takes place while our hair is drying, our hair goes from soft, plump and supple to dry and crunchy.
When you wash your hair, water penetrates the hair shaft, going deep into the hair cuticle. With washing comes a sort of hair strand “expansion.” this “expansion” helps to keep your hair plump and supple.
Understanding exactly how water works on your hair is easier when comparing it to how it works on other parts of your body.
Think back to a moment when you had dry skin; after swimming in a chlorinated pool or a salty ocean on a hot day, for example.
Right after you get out of the water, your skin is fine, but as you sit out in the sun and the water evaporates you’re left with tight, dry skin.
When it’s in need of water, skin is dry and flaky or what we often call “ashy”, but when it’s introduced to water it’s soft and plump….. So back to getting out of the shower, if all you are doing is putting water on your hair, the water will dry up and absorb into your hair, and in turn your hair will become frizzy and puffy if you are not doing anything to seal in the moisture, which leads me to the second point …
Seal In The Moisture
When I think back to the times when my hair was relaxed, I notice that my hair would seemingly always get very oily quickly after a fresh blowout.
This is because our bodies naturally create oils which coat the hair strand; however, with curly or kinky* hair, the oil has a difficult time rolling down the hair shaft and typically stays put at the root. This is unlike straight hair, where the oils* can easily slide down the hair shaft.
Washing your hair with a moisturizing shampoo and conditioner is the first step before sealing. I like to use Shea Moisture’s Raw Shea butter shampoo and conditioner. It leaves my hair feeling extremely moisturized, and soft. So, after I get done washing and conditioning with those products, I seal in that moisture.
I like to seal with coconut oil* because it smells really yummy, and gets the job done. My go-to is Trader Joe’s coconut oil*, because it’s inexpensive, and lasts me a long time. Sealing is important because the oils* create a barrier around the hair cuticle by preventing the water from evaporating from your hair strand.
You can also look more into sealing techniques like the LOC or LCO method.
Contents
- Understand How Moisture Works
- Seal In The Moisture
- Replenish The Moisture As Needed
- Make A Refresher spritz
- Do The Green House Effect (GHE)
- Make An Ayurvedic Hair Mask
- Bonus: Hydration Recipe
Replenish The Moisture As Needed
This was something that I learned when I was perfecting my wash n go. I thought that all I had to do was wake up, fluff and go. Wrong.
Even though you sealed your hair after washing, that won’t be enough to last you until your next wash day. I like to do it daily, but some do it every other day or every 3 days at the most.
Moisturizing simply means both adding and sealing in moisture. Meaning, if you seal your dry hair – it’s just oiled dry hair and nothing more (and this is never a good idea).
Moisturizing means water must always be involved, so to moisturize your hair water has to be incorporated on some level – like a watery leave-in spray conditioner or water is the first ingredient in your leave-in conditioner*.
You cannot seal with a watery moisturizing product (it will evaporate too quickly) and you cannot effectively moisturize with a sealing product (it will keep your hair dry). You need two separate products to do the job.
Though olive oil and coconut oil do penetrate the hair shaft and “moisturize”, they are not effective moisturizers alone. They work best with water. My favorite combination is Camille Rose Revitalizing Hair Smoother + water + coconut oil*.
I typically spray my hair with a spray bottle to get it damp, not soaked, then rub the smoother and coconut oil* in my hands and then coat my hair with it. It leaves my hair super soft, and visibly moisturized too. I also my then throw in a bit of argon oil to combat frizz, but that’s just a preference.
Make A Refresher Spritz
I promise this isn’t hard. Using water, aloe vera juice*, peppermint or rosemary oil*, one tablespoon of honey, one tablespoon of creamy Leave-in conditioner*, shake vigorously and spritz at least once daily.
For me, I like to soak the natural aloe vera – after I cut off the skin – in water and use that instead of the plain water but either way works. Be sure to use LOC or LCO method to seal. I like to use Castor oil and organic shea butter*, when I’m fresh out I use Blue Magic Castor Oil hair grease ( don’t judge me).
NB: the water used should preferably be distilled water or at least something that has been filtered especially if you live in hard water area.
Contents
- Understand How Moisture Works
- Seal In The Moisture
- Replenish The Moisture As Needed
- Make A Refresher spritz
- Do The Green House Effect (GHE)
- Make An Ayurvedic Hair Mask
- Bonus: Hydration Recipe
Do The Green House Effect (GHE)
When I first heard about this I was like ‘Really? What I look like, a vegetable garden?’ Very soon after I had to eat my words. I promise this works its magic. For newbies, just moisturize your hair, seal then cover with a plastic cap and sleep in it overnight. It’s that simple. You can find out more about GHE here. Do this at least once a week and see your dry hair turn soft and fluffy and you may also enjoy increased hair growth too.
Make An Ayurvedic Hair Mask
Use amla* and cassia* as a hair mask to strengthen your hair. I use it to address my high porosity issues. In my experience, this mask works on the first use. It is evidenced in how soft your hair feels after you DC and the enhanced curl definition (This from someone who doesn’t have a defined or distinct curl pattern which should tell you how potent this is).
Bonus: Hydration Recipe
Ingredients:
- Cornstarch
- Water
- Honey*
- Add water to a saucepan set on lit stove top
- Immediately spoon in and dissolve cornstarch into the water. As the water evaporates and the warmer it gets, the thicker the substance becomes so keep stirring. You can make it as liquid as you want or thick enough to have some body to it… Turn off flame at the desired thickness.
- Stir in honey* when the mixture is just warm.
- Apply the warm (NOT HOT) mixture to hair concentrating on the ends.
- Cover with a plastic cap for at least 30 minutes.
- Rinse with cool water to seal cuticles.
I trust that in no time you will be able to testify that you’ve kicked chronic dryness to the curb. If you’ve already done so, tell us how you did it in the comments below.
Updated by Marsha Buchannan
