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The Beauty Brains on Moisturizing Hair
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Amarilles
Well-Known Member
I love the BB...but I'm not on board with this entry. I think using the word "moisturize" when it's not about raising the water content is a bit misleading.
I feel like it's why some people experiencing dryness will claim that they moisturize daily with shea butter, coconut oil, EVOO and a slew of other sealants. Sealants will give the hair flexibility/pliability for a bit (so one can style nicely using them) but provide moisture? Moisture = liquid = waterbased product. Sealants can't replace that.
I feel like it's why some people experiencing dryness will claim that they moisturize daily with shea butter, coconut oil, EVOO and a slew of other sealants. Sealants will give the hair flexibility/pliability for a bit (so one can style nicely using them) but provide moisture? Moisture = liquid = waterbased product. Sealants can't replace that.
right?! That picture grossed me out so much, I couldn't even read the article.
trinity8mod8
New Member
Amarilles The Natural Haven had a few posts on this topic a while back:
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2010/02/part-1-water-is-perhaps-not-moisturiser.html
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2010/02/part-2-necessity-of-oils.html
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2009/04/moisturing-hair-oils.html
Basically, the summary is that water by itself is not a good moisturizer. Because it leaves your hair just as easily as it went in. Moisturizing doesn't necessarily just mean raising the water content of your hair. Otherwise just wetting your hair in the shower should stop people from having extremely dry hair or keep your ends moisturized enough so that they stay healthy.
But actually moisturizing can also mean helping your hair have the proper oil and water balance. Because sometimes you need to replenish the oil content inside of your hair strands, with penetrating oils like avocado, olive and coconut oils, which help keep the proper water ratios inside of your hair when you do add water.
Oils, waxes and butters are the ingredients that make water-based products possible. Otherwise conditioners would just be water, and we all know that water is not as effective a moisturizer as conditioner is. Water plus oils and waxes is the only way to properly moisturize hair. And we use conditioner to mimic our natural oil/wax sebum
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2010/02/part-1-water-is-perhaps-not-moisturiser.html
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2010/02/part-2-necessity-of-oils.html
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2009/04/moisturing-hair-oils.html
Basically, the summary is that water by itself is not a good moisturizer. Because it leaves your hair just as easily as it went in. Moisturizing doesn't necessarily just mean raising the water content of your hair. Otherwise just wetting your hair in the shower should stop people from having extremely dry hair or keep your ends moisturized enough so that they stay healthy.
But actually moisturizing can also mean helping your hair have the proper oil and water balance. Because sometimes you need to replenish the oil content inside of your hair strands, with penetrating oils like avocado, olive and coconut oils, which help keep the proper water ratios inside of your hair when you do add water.
Oils, waxes and butters are the ingredients that make water-based products possible. Otherwise conditioners would just be water, and we all know that water is not as effective a moisturizer as conditioner is. Water plus oils and waxes is the only way to properly moisturize hair. And we use conditioner to mimic our natural oil/wax sebum
Angelinhell
New Member
That picture scared the hayle out of me
Amarilles
Well-Known Member
Oooh I love JC (Natural Haven) and her posts! I read 'em all 
I'm not sure the links above agree though...I mean I do agree that (depending on porosity) water evaporates too fast to be moisturizing, above I was mentioning a waterbased product though. And then a sealant to lock it in (as per your 2nd link). The Natural Haven actually distinguishes the fact that "moisturize" is a word that is used very loosely nowadays and it depends on the person really. I personally find that people apply any product to their heads and call it moisturizing. But the very definition of moisture is liquid, and oils/sealants repel liquids. Some can indeed penetrate but those are better used to prevent hygral fatigue instead of giving moisture, imo.
Check these:
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2011/01/do-you-really-need-to-moisturise-every.html
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2009/07/reader-questions-coconut-oil-and.html
I'm not sure the links above agree though...I mean I do agree that (depending on porosity) water evaporates too fast to be moisturizing, above I was mentioning a waterbased product though. And then a sealant to lock it in (as per your 2nd link). The Natural Haven actually distinguishes the fact that "moisturize" is a word that is used very loosely nowadays and it depends on the person really. I personally find that people apply any product to their heads and call it moisturizing. But the very definition of moisture is liquid, and oils/sealants repel liquids. Some can indeed penetrate but those are better used to prevent hygral fatigue instead of giving moisture, imo.
Check these:
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2011/01/do-you-really-need-to-moisturise-every.html
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2009/07/reader-questions-coconut-oil-and.html
trinity8mod8
New Member
Amarilles I understand that you where just referring to moisturizing and sealing, and I agree that water is important for moisture. I just thought that I would add the part about penetrating oils because for the longest time I only co-washed or left in conditioner trying to increase the moisture in my hair.
Finally after battling with dry hair this winter, I did some research and found out about hot oil treatments. That completely turned my hair around to where it was able to except all of the moisture that I was putting into it. I could tell because my hair felt heavier and didn't have as much shrinkage. It was easier to detangle when wet and my ends where completely rejuvenated. So I just thought to post that for others that oils can be just as important as water when you are trying to battle dry hair but conditioner isn't working.
I also agree that some people use moisturize loosely. From my research moisturizing seems to mean using any compound that can penetrate the hair shaft and raise the internal levels of moisture in the hair on a short term basis such as small molecules like water, amino acids, alpha-hydroxy acids and certain oils. All other forms of substances which cannot penetrate the hair shaft would be considered sealants if they only trapped the extra moisture inside such as mineral oil or butters.
Conditioner is a mixture of moisturizers and sealants because it affects the hair internally and deposits a layer externally.
The relationship between water and oils is very complicated. It is not just as simple as oils repel moisture. For instance our hair is made of water repelling regions and oil repelling regions, which cause the protein units to fold a certain way. And the outer layer of our hair should be covered in sebum which repels water, but our hair manages to attract water anyway despite these forces. So it really just depends on having the proper oil and water balance to moisturize because oil doesn't always mean the opposite of moisture.
HTH
Finally after battling with dry hair this winter, I did some research and found out about hot oil treatments. That completely turned my hair around to where it was able to except all of the moisture that I was putting into it. I could tell because my hair felt heavier and didn't have as much shrinkage. It was easier to detangle when wet and my ends where completely rejuvenated. So I just thought to post that for others that oils can be just as important as water when you are trying to battle dry hair but conditioner isn't working.
I also agree that some people use moisturize loosely. From my research moisturizing seems to mean using any compound that can penetrate the hair shaft and raise the internal levels of moisture in the hair on a short term basis such as small molecules like water, amino acids, alpha-hydroxy acids and certain oils. All other forms of substances which cannot penetrate the hair shaft would be considered sealants if they only trapped the extra moisture inside such as mineral oil or butters.
Conditioner is a mixture of moisturizers and sealants because it affects the hair internally and deposits a layer externally.
The relationship between water and oils is very complicated. It is not just as simple as oils repel moisture. For instance our hair is made of water repelling regions and oil repelling regions, which cause the protein units to fold a certain way. And the outer layer of our hair should be covered in sebum which repels water, but our hair manages to attract water anyway despite these forces. So it really just depends on having the proper oil and water balance to moisturize because oil doesn't always mean the opposite of moisture.
HTH
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