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The truth about afro textured hair and dryness is that you will never find one without the other. I know that sounds gloomy but that is the reality of the structure of our hair strand. Every strand of afro textured hair has a bend or a curve in it which means that moisture cannot travel down the strand to naturally moisturize them.
Armed with this knowledge women and men with kinky curly hair have come up with a ton of methods and products that are designed to combat dryness and keep our hair moisturized and healthy.
When your hair is very dry and brittle that is often a sign of distress and it requires that you do something immediately to fix it. In this post, we decided to take a look at a variety of methods you can use to combat
dryness forever in your hair regimen.
Deep Conditioning
With all that said let’s get the main solution out of the way first! If your hair is dry and you are confused on just what to do we will always tell you to start with a deep conditioning* session.
Deep conditioning* will remediate dry hair immediately and it is important to figure out that one treatment you can do to sort your hair out immediately. Once you determine the best one for your hair you can always resort to it when your hair is feeling distressed.
The Caramel Treatment
We have published this recipe before here and here; it had such an amazing response that we wanted to re-introduce it as a very viable solution to distressed dry hair.
The caramel treatment is a product in the E’tae product line which is an all-natural line that utilizes honey, bananas to olive oil, that not only will soften your hair but it will effectively hydrate your strands for a long period of time.
Here are the ingredients:
Honey – 6 tablespoons
Olive Oil – 6 tablespoons
Bananas – 2-3 overripe and very soft
Molasses (Treacle) – 3 tablespoons
Water – 4-6 tablespoons
Apple Cider Vinegar* – 1 tablespoon
Cornstarch – 1-2 tablespoons depending on how thick you want the mixture to be
Wheat germ oil* – 1 teaspoon – This can be substituted for any other natural ceramide containing oil of your choice
Method:
Place all the ingredients except for the water into a blender and process until smooth. Add the water bit by bit if it looks too dry and to control your mixture. If you use a blender your will essentially get a smooth mixture and you will find that there will be no need to strain. If you find that you still have lumps of banana till in your mix definitely strain the mix. (Some women use banana baby food instead of actual bananas)
Pour the mixture into a saucepan and put it on a medium heat while stirring constantly. You don’t want to ‘cook’ the mixture but you want the cornstarch to cause it to thicken and this will take just moments.
You may need to add more water to thin it down if it gets too thick or add a bit more cornstarch if it is still too runny. You want to end up with a caramel colored mixture that is the consistency of a thick batter. If the mixture is too thin it will start dripping from your hair as soon as you apply it.
Application
Divide the hair into 3-4 sections and clip the sections away that you are not working with. Generously apply the mixture from root to tip of your hair using your hands. Work section by section to ensure that you have full coverage.
Cover your hair with a plastic cap and allow the mixture to sit in your hair for 1-2 hours or you can leave it in overnight for really dry hair.
Wash out the mix using a sulfate free shampoo*, recondition your hair and style as usual. If you did not use all of your mix you can always freeze the excess for another treatment when you need it. The caramel treatment is suitable for both natural and relaxed hair.
The LOC Method
It is pretty difficult to talk about moisturizing kinky curly hair without mentioning the LOC method. This method was coined by YouTuber BlackOnyx years ago before she became the CEO of the product line Alikay Naturals.
The acronym stands for [L]iquid – [O]il – [C]ream and she used it to help her to remember how to effectively layer her products for maximum moisture retention.
It is important for all of us with kinky natural hair to not only know our go to deep conditioner* but to also know how to apply moisture to our hair quickly especially during those times we do not have access to bananas and cornstarch.
Products
To do the LOC method you will need to use certain products for it to work so you need to know which is which. Liquid or water based products will have “water” listed as the first ingredient.
A water based product is what moisturizes the hair. Oils and creams that do not have water listed as the first ingredient serve as sealants trapping the moisture you add to your hair. Now that you have that down you can effectively do the LOC method without any problems.
The LOC method
Section your hair into workable sections, add your favorite leave in conditioner* which will be water based. This represents the “L” in the acronym.
On the same section add an oil over the liquid, this oil can be any oil you choose but we would suggest using a pure oil or an oil mix that includes pure oils.
Finally, add a cream to the section, and this cream can be any creamy product that you have in your arsenal. Thick butters or thick creams from your favorite product line will work just fine. Now that you know how to do the LOC method you can develop a dry hair routine for yourself that you can also use anytime your hair needs it.
Titilola Odubanjo says
Can you do a special on extremely dry scalp. Thanks
Marquisha Turner says
I came to this page specifically for this information! I’m so glad it was one of the first posts that I found! I can’t wait to see what else I learn!