Top 5 Tips to Master Curl Moisture

Hello, Jordan here! While in quarantine I feel like my hair has been deprived of moisture and it has been feeling very dry lately. I currently have my hair in not so mini twists and my ends need some hydration. Throughout my years of transitioning and big chopping, I've come to the realization that moisture plays a huge part in hair growth and length retention. Deep conditioning is vital for hydration and moisture and it is important to understand how to properly moisturize and maintain moisture as a curly natural. Here are five tips and tricks I have picked up on how to master your curl's moisture. I will also be making sure to get my hair's hydration level up by using these all time favorite tips as well!

#1 Know Your Hair Porosity!

The best thing I could learn about maintaining moisture is learning my hair's porosity. Your hair porosity is your hair's ability to retain and lose moisture. It's a really simple test. All you have to do is fill a glass with distilled water, get a clean hair strand and drop it in the glass. If it floats, you have a low hair porosity which means moisture has a hard time getting in and out of your hair. If it sinks to the middle of the glass and stays there, you have a normal hair porosity and if it sinks straight to the bottom that means you have a high porosity. A high porosity means your hair can easily gain and lose moisture. I have a low hair porosity so I am more knowledgeable about that than the rest. Us low porosity naturals when adding moisture need to open our hair cuticles before adding oils or conditioner because they are so tightly closed. Open them up with steam or warm water! They will close on their own or after conditioning use cold water to rinse to close them and seal in the moisture. This doesn't need to be done for high porosity hair. Another thing I learned is low porosity hair loves lighter oils while high porosity hair loves heavier oils.

#2 Satin, Satin and more SATIN!

Yes, satin is apparently the best material out there for your hair. It's soft and prevents your hair from losing moisture. Satin scarves, satin bonnets, satin scrunchies and satin pillows are all gamechangers. When you sleep you don't want all that newly added moisture to just be soaked away by those cotton pillows, do you? You won't regret switching to this material as it is slippery and soft enough for your moisturized curls to stay in place and not get tangled! Grab that satin!

#3 Deep Condition When You NEED TO

I stress "when you need to" because i have watched countless curly hair videos and everyone says to deep condition every week or so but honestly if I wait until that long to deep condition my hair, it will likely break off due to dryness. I don't know if there's something wrong with my hair but I just cannot go that long without deep conditioning. So I have been deep condioning my hair whenever it tells me to. The key is to listen to your hair. It knows what it needs and sometimes it needs moisture more than once a week. Don't wait until your hair is snapping off at the ends to deep condion either. For low porosity curly naturals like me, deep condition with a plastic shower cap to lift your cuticles so the moisture can get in and rinse with cool water to close them so the moisture is locked in. If you plan on adding products afterwards, however, rinse with warm water, this keeps your hair cuticles open so it can absorb the additional moisture.

#4 Use T-shirts Instead of Towels!

So over the years Ii have discovered that using towels on my hair strips it of the moisture that I had JUST put in while snagging and ripping out my hair. Towels are rough on your hair and it would be in your curls' best interest to switch to using t-shirts or microfibre towel which is much better than a regular towel. T-shirts soak up the water from your hair while leaving the moisture in your hair alone. It's great! Just grab a t-shirt that you no longer wear and use it as your new hair dryer. Since t-shirts do such a great job at soaking up the wetness from your hair, no need for blow dryers, right? Get rid of that heat! Thank me later.

#5 Please Tuck Away Those Ends

Protective styles are great and all but when you wear your hair down, it rubs against your clothes and you know what your clothes do? That's right, soak up the moisture from your ends, the part of your hair that needs the most moisture and care. Then it leads to breakage then you wonder why you aren't seeing any growth. I have always stuck to what I call double protective styling. I have my mini twists then I put my mini twists in a bun. Super protected. There are plenty of styles to rock without having your hair down. Of course there are instances where I'd like to have my hair down but majority of the time I need my hair out of my face and off my neck. Just do your best to protect your ends, they are important!

That's it! 5 easy ways to master hair moisture! Let me know which ones you follow!

HAIR UPDATE

For the past few days I have felt my hair losing moisture so I will definitely deep condition tomorrow. I still have my mini twists in and I'm super eager to take them down. Why I've had them in for so long, you ask? I'll tell you about it in another post. For now, follow my daily journey on Instagram @ivoryhairdiary

Until next time, love your curls!

-J