"Do" Moisturize Your Hair!

Kinky, coiled, or coarse African American hair needs to be moisturized on the regular. moisture provides the hair with more elasticity, it hydrates the hair shaft, helps prevent breakage & spilt ends, and of course combat the source of dryness! Whether your natural, relaxed, or have chemically processed hair, a lightweight moisturizer is needed to soften and replaced lost moisture. The amount of times you apply your water based moisturizer to your hair, strictly depends on how well your hair is able to retain moisture. It is best to moisturize the hair once or twice per day. For example, I apply my moisturizer (Wave Nouveau) 2x daily, once in the morning and once at night and then seal with an oil (Safflower oil). I find that my hair is a lot more moist overall when adding this to my daily maintenance.

A good moisturizer will not contain alcohol and protein. These ingredients tend to make the hair dry and hard. Also, look out for Mineral oil, petrolatum or lanolin! These products are not good because they don't penetrate the hair. The first ingredient must be WATER not an OIL. Some products might say Water, Purified Water or Aqua as the first ingredient and thats good! Water is natures best moisturizer.

Remember, oil is NOT A MOISTURIZER. It helps seals in the water based moisturizer. If no moisture is applied to the hair, the oil will just coat and sit on top of the hair.

Examples of water based moisturizers:
Lusters S-curl No drip, Care Free Curl Gold Instant Activator, Wave Nouveau Moistuizing Finshing Lotion, Organic Root Stimulator (ORS) olive oil & carrot oil etc.

Examples of the oils you can use to seal in the moisture:
Extra Virgin Coconut oil, Extra Virgin Olive oil, Castor oil, Jojoba oil etc.

A little oil goes a long way! apply a quarter size amount of oil to the ends of your hair and then work your way up. Your ends need the most moisture to be locked in, so start there that way you won't forget! You will also notice that your hair will have incredible shine =)