Moisture is Magic for your transitioning hair!!!!!!

Moisture Moisture Moisture.  Yea us transitioners really need moisture.  Moisture helps prevent breakage, moisture allows manageability, moisture promotes growth, moisture aids in elasticity, moisture helps with shine/sheen, and moisture feeds your curls.





Moisture is vital for your overall hair health.  So lets talk about what moisture is and what it is not.


Moisture is:

1. Water
2. The base of all styling
3. Conditioning
4. humectants such as: glycerin, honey, aloe vera, vitamin E, sorbitol, CoQ 10
5. most water based products

Moisture is not:

1. Oils
2. creams
3. heavy
4. waxes
5. alcohols     

Some of us confuse the needs of our hair.  We tend to cake our hair down with oils when it feels dry and brittle.  When in fact all we need to do is add water.  Now I know it may confusing, you may ask well "how do I add water onto my hair when I need to style it and have it not look "afro-y" or puffy?"  well the thing is you may need to increase your washes.  I know in the African American hair community we are used to washing any where from once a week to once a month because we've had to maintain that hairstyle, not wash that relaxer out so fast, or to prevent us from hours of styling to maintain controlling our tresses.  But now that we are tranistioning, part of this journey is to promote hair health so we have to change our way of dealing with our hair.  Increasing your wash days will definitely make a difference for your hair.  It is recommended that you wash your tresses anywhere from everyday to every 4-5 days if you are experiencing extreme dryness,  I am sure if you are a dry haired sufferer and you take heed and wash more often, you will notice your moisture retention increase. In fact I'm willing to bet the farm on it- if I had a farm!

In between washes a spray bottle filled with just water will do just fine or you can add one of the other moisture aids listed in (Moisture is).  All you have to do is allow the water to mist onto your hair if you are afraid that the direct spray will ruin your style (Spray the water into the air above your hair and allow the droplets to fall ever so lightly onto your hair). Do this when you feel your  is drying out too much.

Oil is a great sealant but it cannot and must not be substituted for a moisturizer.  This is because oil repeals water (remember that from chemistry class).  So any kind of moisture that your hair wants to contract, the oil will "push" it away.  So when the moisture that is beneath the oil is all absorbed into your scalp or hair fibers new moisture has no way of entering or penetrating them.  Which is why you may be oiling your hair over and over and the texture is not changing. Again use oil as a protectant.  As if its protecting the water from leaving your hair never use it as a replacement for water.

One last point, and I know we say it over and over and over and over again.  But you have to hydrate from within in order to aid all that you are doing to you hair on the outside. You want to maintain overall good hair health.  Yea moisturizing on the outside will definitely provide a great improvement for your hair but on those days when you forget to moisturize or are just too lazy to do so hydrating from the inside is your back up.  Drinking plenty of water is great for your physical health now you know its also great for your vanity!