For those who've had dry hair

Well between here, long hair care forums and naturallycurly.com, it didn't take me too long to figure out what my problem was. It did take a lot of research and analyzing before I found out my problem. I would suggest you do these steps before thinking about trying more products.

First things first:
- Clarify your hair. I found that most of the time when my hair starts to feel dry no matter what I'm throwing at it, it's usually because I've got product buildup on my strands. Since then, I've started to mostly avoid products containing cones and it's helped a lot.

If clarifying doesn't work, then maybe it's time for a protein treatment. Everybody's hair needs a little protein sometimes and it helps to bind moisture to your strands. I would start off with a light protein treatment like the Cherry Lola Treatment (full fat yogurt, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, 2 teaspoons of braggs amino acids) and add a few squirts of a moisturizing conditioner (HE HH in my case).

If that doesn't work, then it might be time to analyze your hair a bit. When I had a huge issue with stuff not working for me anymore, I did a strand in the water test. Basically, you have to clarify your hair to make sure it's really clean and free from any type of build up. Then you pluck a strand from a few different places from your head (for me it was the nape and temples) and float them in a bowl or clear glass of water. If your hair takes a very long time to sink (more than 5 mins) or it never sinks, it has low porosity and you'll need to find water based moisturizers that'll work with  your hair. If your strands take a decent time to sink, then you have normal porosity and you'll have to continue the search for products that your hair will agree with. If your strands sink in like 1-2 mins, then you have high porosity hair and that means that your hair will tend to dry out rather quickly. That will be when you'll need to use porosity control products so that way your cuticles will close properly.

In the end of all my research and experimentation, I found that I had low porosity hair and I had to learn how to moisturize in a completely new way. It's called the LOC technique (or Chicoro's method). L for liquid, O for oil and C for cream. Water is, hands down, the best moisturizer. I cannot get anything to moisturize my hair without dampening it first. For the oil part, I generally swap between argan oil or grapeseed oil. Both are really great light oils and you'll need only a teensy bit to cover your whole head. For cream, depending on how my hair feels, I'll generally use Giovanni Direct Leave In (contains proteins) or my staple V05 moisture milk conditioner - even though it's meant to be a wash out conditioner, I also find that it works great as a leave in since it doesn't contain silicones. HTHs.


Edited by Kocoa - Jan 31 2012 at 6:16pm

I never really had a "dry hair" issue, but I did notice that when I switched to only natural HONEY as my conditioner (mixed with some oils) my hair has significantly felt amazing, refreshed, and moisturized. It laughts at Aussie Moist now and I thought AM was the ish for a few years I've been using honey for a few months now and hands down I would recommend if you are experiencing thirsty hair

What are you using to wash your hair?

I would recommend a diluted shampoo with sulfates (about 1 part shampoo to 5 parts water) OR the shea moisure shampoo (brown bottle).

Your hair has to actually be CLEAN. As another poster stated, product build up and kill moisture retention.

I also agree on the protein. If the structure of your hair is compromised than your hair will always lose moisture.

If that doesn't work, try smoothing on some Roux Porosity Control after you condition, then rinse out.

I'm a 4b natural and my  hair used  to be so dry and my ends even dryer. No commercial moisturisers ever worked for me.

I usually use glycerine but I will have to try out honey since so many ppl swear by it.