Hello Ladies,
If you missed it on my socials, I recently just celebrated my 1st year natural anniversary.
I will say dealing with my natural hair has been a learning curve but not as difficult as I envisaged. All I did was tweak my texlaxed hair regimen along the way and got some products to address my present hair issues, one of them being having low porosity hair.
Low porosity hair simply means that the cuticles of your hair (the protective outer layer) lay flatter than normal which makes moisture more difficult to penetrate to the hair cortex. The reverse is high porosity which means the cuticles are raised allowing moisture in and out of the hair cortex at will. Having low porosity hair is much less a problem than having high porosity hair which is considered to be damaged hair in all honesty.
However because most 4c naturals do not use the right products, leaving their hair perpetually dry causing breakage, low porosity hair has gotten a very bad name over time in our community.
So these are the tips I have been applying on my low porosity hair to ensure my hair does NOT stay feeling dry and crunchy and prone to breakage...
1. I clarify my hair once a month- because with low porosity hair, the hair is also prone to buildup since the cuticles are flat, so the moisture that manages to get in keeps building up. A clarifying shampoo session with WARM WATER to raise the cuticles will lift all that build up at least once every month to give you a clean slate to work with.
2. I always deep condition with heat...the difference is crystal clear with my hair when I just condition and when I deep condition with heat. It's like night and day. Deep conditioning hair masques are packed with ingredients that will nourish the hair shaft and cortex and the heat will help ensure that the masque gets infused deep into all those parts of the hair strand.
3. I use humectants...humectants will attract moisture to the hair and when you use them as your moisturizer(the first product you apply to your hair for moisture), you are setting the stage up for balancing out your porosity...look out for vegetable glycerin (avoid in the winter), aloe vera gel or juice, propylene glycol and silicones in your leave in conditioner, moisturizer or hair detangler.
4. Finally to seal, I avoid heavy oils...remember what was said about the buildup? Using an oil like coconut oil or castor oil as a daily sealant will be too much for low porosity hair and will cause even more dryness. Use light oils like grapeseed, almond, avocado to produce a nice oil blend for the ends of your hair as well as your scalp for nourishment without the build up.
So ladies with low porosity hair that feels dry all the time, all it takes is being deliberate about infusing moisture into your hair with these steps, I know since I started following them my hair has felt much better.
Thanks as always for stopping by,
Xxx
Dabs
Hiya,
How's everyone doing?!! I'm good and feeling much better about my hair than I have felt in the past weeks and its all thanks to one night when I was trolling the internet and stumbled on a hair blog, down in the comments section, a reader had commented about how great her hair felt after doing the 'MHM' as she put it, the owner of the blog then proceeded to tell her that she was yet to try that method...my curiosity was immediately heightened...'what were they on about? what's this new term?'. I got to work like a detective and stumbled on a website specially created for this method called THE MAX HYDRATION METHOD.- HERE
Like the LOC Method, a brilliant American who like most of us has been looking for ways to retain moisture in dry, porous prone strands came up with this method..basically its a 5 step method that can be spread over 5 days or can be done in a couple of days like I did and the aim is to bring your hair strands to maximum hydration. How would you know that the strands have reached maximum hydration? They will clump together from root to tips and the curls will be defined.
I noticed that though it was not specifically mentioned that this method is just for naturals, it has been put to the test by mostly naturals with remarkable results to show and being the nosy parker texlaxed diva that I am, I decided to put it to the test on my texlaxed hair...
So first I gathered all my ingredients;
Baking Soda, Honey, Apple Cider Vinegar, Bentonite clay, regular conditioner, leave in conditioner, coconut oil and Aloe vera gel(not pictured).
So STEP 1; CLARIFY; This step requires that you clarify your strands from build up (sweat, dust, products, oils) with a mix of baking soda, honey and in my case I added coconut oil mostly to incorporate a pre-poo as well;
This sat on my hair under a plastic bag overnight till the next morning. Use a towel over your pillow case as this mix tends to be watery and drips all over.
STEP 2;CO-WASH AND FINGER DETANGLE- So the next morning, when I woke up I rinsed the baking soda mix out and co-washed with the Garnier damage eraser conditioner-
The MHM website lists a bunch of stuff that should NOT be in the conditioner you use for this step and the leave in conditioner step, view it in detail here- HERE but seeing as I did not have much of an option, I used the conditioner I had at home even though it had some of the no-no ingredients.*shrugs*
STEP 3- THE CLAY RINSE.
I immediately proceeded to mix some bentonite clay with warm water and coconut oil (again, this time for the scent :), once it formed a paste, I rubbed it all over my hair, from root to tip and said heck, why not rub it all over my face, then my arms then my entire upper body *wide grin*
Waited 15 minutes (my skin itched me like crazy!!), when I rinsed out, I did an apple cider rinse( not part of this step) and I instantly felt my hair detangle and loosen up like all the build up was just being rinsed away, I towel dried my hair and this is how it looked;
 |
| CURLS POPPING!!! |
STEP 4/5; APPLY LEAVE IN CONDITIONER AND ALOE VERA GEL.
I did these steps together and braided my hair into six sections, took the braids out this morning... trust me when I say my braid out has never felt so defined without being gooey and oily;
My hair is movable and shakeable (if that's a word), I was even tempted to make a video just shaking my head from side to side but I thought how contrived!! LOL
I have NEVER had this much definition with out the crunch and hardness after doing a twist out or braid out, my hair feels soft to the touch and I just love how shiny it looks without me doing anything but loosening it from the braids this morning!!
So do I recommend the MAX HYDRATION METHOD? Even though I did not follow the rules to a T or stretch it out for five days, I can attest to how great following these steps made my hair feel and I recommend it to everyone especially naturalistas and those with low porosity hair...I'll be repeating this method from the clay rinse step during the week as I still have some mixed clay left over...
So that's that for this method, who else has heard about it, who has tried it, who is willing to try it after this post? Please feel free to drop comments below.
Xxx
Dabs
