One Secret to Maintaining Healthy Natural Hair

Secrets to Maintaining Healthy Natural Hair

In my last blog titled, Is Natural Hair for Me?, I talked about the importance of understanding natural hair care for healthy natural hair.  This time I want to share what I believe is the foundation for healthy natural hair.  The two most important factors that influence our natural hair are nutrition and conditioning.  I will discuss nutrition in another blog; this blog will focus on some mild science behind conditioning natural hair.

A fellow You Tuber once asked me, “What are the best leave-in products to use on my natural hair?”  My reply was simple, “It really doesn’t matter as long as you listen to your hair and maintain a great balance of protein and moisture.”  Now this statement alone is not entirely true.  Most veteran naturals know it is important to stay away from products containing mineral oil and/or petroleum based ingredients.  These two culprits will coat our threads producing a stubborn film that refuses to let any conditioning ingredients enter our strands due to the fact that it will not rinse away.  They also understand that some leave-in products contain proteins.  The inevitable result is the victimization of unwanted breakage.  But for the most part, if your hair is well conditioned on a regular basis you don’t have to worry about how expensive your products are…..what name brand you use….etc.

When conditioning your natural hair, you must focus on two things:  (1) protein, and (2) moisture.  Healthy natural hair has a great balance of these two things.

Each individual strand of hair is roughly 90% protein.  Whether your hair is relaxed or natural you must replenish it with protein.  Where protein conditioning is important for achieving long relaxed hair, this same type of treatment helps achieve full, long, natural hair.  Protein conditioning restores and maintains the strength of each hair strand internally.  Conditioners that contain good quality amino acids (the building blocks of protein) penetrate into the strands to become a part of the strand’s protein structure.  This rebuilds weak areas along, and within the strand to help prevent opportunities for breakage.

Moisture is also very important in obtaining and maintaining thick, long, natural hair.  When I envision well-moisturized hair, I envision a beautiful leafy green twig.  Think about it, moist leafy green twigs do not break easily when manipulated.  These subtle sticks simply bend and go with the flow.  This is what you want your own natural tresses to do.  A great moisturizing conditioner (along with drinking 64 oz of water daily) will help you achieve this type of hair.

We all know that too much of anything can be bad, and protein/moisture is no different.  Too much protein can leave your threads stiff and brittle, like brown dry twigs; and too much moisture can leave your hair weak.  So the trick is to maintain a good balance of moisture and protein.  To do this you must listen to your hair.  Get to know it by learning its language.  When your hair is dry brittle and unruly, it is probably telling you, “moisture please”…..when you hair seems limp and weak it is more than likely telling you it needs protein.

When choosing a good moisturizing conditioner make sure it has little to no protein.  Natural hair does not need as much protein conditioning as relaxed hair does because its protein structure is not compromised by chemicals.  Another thing to consider is that many leave-in products like crèmes and gels contain proteins too.  These products add protein to your hair also, so watch out.  Having a moisturizing conditioner that does not contain protein allows you to condition your hair when needed without protein overload.  Natural hair should be protein-deep conditioned roughly once a month, but can be protein-deep conditioned as often as twice a month.  The rest of the time it should be moisture-deep conditioned as often as possibly (once a week or more).

Finally, let’s discuss deep conditioning.  Deep conditioning is much different from rinse conditioning.  Rinse conditioning usually work externally only.  Deep conditioning methods (for moisture or for protein) actually condition your hair internally.  The treatment moves from the surface of your hair to inside it.  These are the treatments that make the difference on a molecular level.  Here’s how they work…

The conditioners in deep conditioning treatments actually penetrate the hair strand.  When heat is applied to wet hair, the hair threads swell and expand.  This process creates micro-openings that allow certain ingredients to soak into each hair internally.  Once the hair is cooled it shrinks back, which in turn locks in those essential ingredients.  This is the reason why most hair stylists rinse your hair with cool to luke-warm water after deep conditioning it.

Here is the common method of (protein or moisture) deep conditioning natural hair:

Find a good quality protein conditioner.

1. Select a good quality essential oil.
2. Apply a bit of conditioner throughout your wet/damp hair; let it sit for a few minutes.  This is important to give the conditioner time to soften your coiled threads.
3. Carefully part your hair section-by-section, and then with your fingers apply a bit more conditioner while finger-combing to separate the threads of hair.  Since natural hair is coiled they tend to wrap around each other.  If you simply comb through your hair you will create tangles and rip through them which will cause unnecessary breakage. Next use a double wide tooth comb to comb through the section carefully.  After combing apply roughly a dime to quarter size amount of essential oil over the conditioned hair section to optimize nutrients and moisture.
4. Continue step 4 until your have combed through your entire head.  If you are struggling then you might want to decrease to size of each section of hair.  Be patient, it will be off in the end.
5. Apply a plastic bag or cap.
6. You may sit under a heat source for roughly 15-20 minutes or you may wear the bag/cap for 1-2 hours while working around the house or sitting in a hot bath.   Your body will produce heat which will provide the right environment to obtain deep conditioning.

So as you shop around for the best products to maintain healthy natural hair, remember to take extra time to avoid mineral oil and petroleum, as well as finding the conditioners that work best for you.  You want a good protein conditioner and a moisturizing conditioner that does not contain protein.  If you are interested in a product, please try things out regardless of negative reviews before ruling them out.   Everyone’s hair is different so what works well for me may not work well for you and vise versa.  In the meantime, work on listening to your hair to maintain a good balance of protein and moisture.

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