@shortdub78
When the Balance Tips, You Must Wet Assess
Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Hair is not exempt from this old adage. Growing out your hair is a constant battle between maintaining an even protein and moisture balance. Breakage is the result of the hair chemistry being thrown off balance.
The Importance of Wet Assessment
Though health assessments can be performed on dry hair, determining your cause of breakage is often easiest on wet hair. Hair in its wet state exudes the basic properties of hair---elasticity and strength, excellently. In fact, these qualities are often exaggerated on wet hair. Thorough and frequent wet assessments will help you maintain your hair's health and condition.
Hair in its optimal condition will not break when wet unless undue stress is placed upon it through aggressive combing or detangling. A balanced and healthy hair strand will stretch and break only under undue, or unusual types of pulling stress. Balanced hair will feel soft and supple, yet strong while wet. When you comb through it when wet, it should resist excess stretching and will hardly break if you are careful. Over time, and with trial and error, you will be able to tell what is normal stress for your hair.
If your hair does indeed break when wet, the way the hair breaks under these conditions will give you a sure indication of whether more moisture or protein is required to regain the proper balance.
How Do I Perform a Proper Wet Assessment?
It will be difficult for you to wet assess your hair by holding a single strand and pulling on both ends. That type of stress would be considered "undue" stress, because no single hair is ever really subjected to that sort of tension at one time. Any strand of hair (healthy or not) that you pull on by both ends has the potential to snap depending on the pressure you apply to it. Hair should be wet assessed by the normal act of combing though it or touching-testing it.
Wet Assessment Break Down
If your hair:
(Wet or Dry) Stretches slighty/returns to original length /no breaking= you are balanced just stick with maintaining!
(Wet ot Dry) Stretching a little more than normal then breaks= more protein
(Wet or Dry)Stretching, stretching, stretching/no breakage yet= more protein
(Wet)- Weak, gummy, mushy, limp hair= more protein
(Wet or Dry) Very little/no stretching then breakage= more moisture
(Dry) Rough/tough/hard/tangly/brittle hair= more moisture
Unsure= err on the side of moisture
For those of you just starting out on your journey to healthier head of hair, I recommend you begin with a more moisture friendly regimen before you incorporate the protein aspect. The reason being, many of us (before our
hair care awakening) have naturally moisture deficient
hair care routines and regimens- especially those with no regimen at all. Rarely have I seen a woman have hair problems that are a result of over-conditioning her hair and too much moisture. I can guarantee you that almost 99% of the time, poor moisturizing and conditioning are the issues that spawn our hair care interventions.
. I'm really tempted but trying hard to stay away from the scissors.
