Why Water is good for your Hair

Our parents taught us to keep our hair away from water. That water would shrink, dry and break it. But boy were they wrong!

Now think about it like this: Your hair is a plant, and you've been diligent to water it, now when you run your hands over its leaves, you make contact with succulent healthy shoots.  Imagine that same plant going for a period of time without water at all or with the barest quantity, when you run your hands over it, chances are they'll crumble and break off .

Get the picture? Relate it to your hair.

Contrary to the age long fear that water will destroy your hair, it is the atmosphere that saps moisture from your hair and leaves it vulnerable.Our hair shaft actually holds in moisture but lack of regular re-moisturising and use of direct heat like hair dryers, straighteners or flat irons, curling wands and such like allows this moisture to evaporate and until water is reapplied to our hair it’s never replaced, leaving us with dry hair.

In order to prevent dry hair we must not only deep condition but also regularly moisturise our hair using water, aloe vera juice, rose water or water based products such as leave-in conditioners and moisturisers where water is the first and majority ingredient (confirm this by reading the ingredients on the back of the label).

As water and moisture evaporates from our hair shaft, we need to apply oils, creams and butters that will serve as sealants. As water and oil don’t mix,the hair oils and heavy butters will make it difficult for water and moisture to evaporate from your hair all too quickly. 

If you apply oils to your hair when it's  dry, you’ll be sealing dryness into an already dry hair. This is why depending on Oil Moisturisers are not the best for you. Because to successfully moisturise your hair, moisture in form of water needs to be applied first.

There are quite a number of methods to moisturise your hair; the most popular and practical being  the L.O.C method. This means  Liquid, Oil and Cream. An example of this method would be:

Step 1 L – Spray hair with water in a spray bottle and then apply a leave in conditioner (You'll find that spritzing your hair first helps you to use less quantity of products which will save you coins)

Step 2 O – Apply a natural oil. For instance, Natural_Nyota Growth Oil or Natural_Nyota Coconut&Monoi Oil.

Step 3 C– Apply a creamy product to double seal. For instance, Natural_Nyota Aloe Leavein Conditioner.

(Note that Step 2 and 3 are dependent on what works best for your hair but water is ALWAYS applied first as a moisturiser.)

On wash days,try the L.O.C method in sections  to ensure  that every strand is moisturised and sealed. 

On days when you plan to re-style your hair, for instance tying it up; try spritzing your hair with water in a spray bottle then apply some leave-in conditioner or cream before manipulating your hair. If on the other hand you're  wearing a wash and go, braid out or twist out;  just apply a little oil to your hair and shake your head to awaken the curl pattern. You wouldn't need to do the L.O.C method in sections again until wash day except you're preparing for a braid out or twist out in-between washes. 

If your hair feels dry, which should be about a week later,then wash, deep condition and do the whole L.O.C process again. Your hair will bounce back to a healthy moisture.

A few tips:

Never comb, brush, style or manipulate dry hair as this will lead to breakage and split ends. Always moisturise first as this will create  lubrication and give you supple hair strands making styling easier.

When detangling, make sure that your hair is damp and saturated in conditioner to give lubrication or slip and prevent you from breaking your hair.

As good a thing as moisture is to your hair, it can be over done. This will leave your hair limp and your strands mushy. To prevent this do a protein treatment every 4-6 weeks to keep your moisture/protein balance in check. However, don’t go over board on the protein treatments as there can be protein overload (this will lead to dry straw-like hair) which is harder to correct than a moisture overload.

Avoid moisturisers that have oil or petroleum as the first or major ingredient. Such products will seal dryness into your hair.

Lastly, rejoice when you have  figured out how to moisturise your hair properly and what product combinations work best for you. You are on your way to healthier, stronger, and  easier- to -manage strands!

Note that even after you relax your hair, your hair still needs moisture in order to be healthy. As you’ll be trying to maintain straight hair then, we recommend that you skip the pure water in a spray bottle part and just use leave in conditioners and creams. Then also deep condition every 1 to 2 weeks and protein treatments every 4 weeks to strengthen your hair shafts.

We hope you found this post helpful?

Place your order for our LEAVE-IN CONDITIONER which has water as a principal ingredient and our SHEA BUTTER CREAM that contains rose water.