Hair Tip: The Importance of Moisture

Fresh after a Co-wash

 Keeping your hair moisturized is a big part of maintaining happy healthy hair.  Natural hair, especially, can become very dry and brittle.  Dry hair, is more susceptible to breakage and breakage leads to low length retention (keep in mind that keeping your hair hydrated does not mean your hair will begin to grow at a faster rate, it only helps to retain length).

Everyone's hair is different, so what may work to moisturize one head of hair may not work for another.  However the #1 universal moisturizer is water.  Some say that the water should be distilled, but I've found that just plain water works fine.  There are many products that claim to provide moisture for hair, but beware, if the ingredients say mineral oil or petroleum (or anything that resembles the word petroleum) think again.  Although mineral oil and petroleum might make your hair appear shiny and soft, both do a terrible job of penetrating the hair.  Instead, they build up on the scalp.  Using products with these ingredients won't kill you, but try to find products that have aqua (water) as a main ingredient.

So what should you use, and how often?  Again, that all depends on your hair type.  For me, I co-wash daily.  When I first started my natural hair journey, I would seal my ends with grape seed oil everyday to retain moisture.  However, I felt that it made my hair too greasy.  So I stopped sealing with oil and just applied a leave in conditioner.  That worked okay, but it didn't keep my hair hydrated for long.  So I finally began a routine of spraying my hair daily with Aloe Vera juice.  The combination of co-washing, using a leave in, and the Aloe Vera juice works well for my hair.  I recently added Beautiful Texture's Moisture Butter to my nightly routine just to add extra moisture (I love it!).

Whether you co-wash, moisturize, or seal with oil, it is very important to maintain your moisture.  Healthy hair is happy hair, and happy hair is hydrated hair.  Find what works for you! :)