Sealing Hair While Maintaining a Lower PH?

[pwemom]

Hello. I am relatively new to the forum and this is my first official posting. I have a 5 five year old daughter whose hair turned very dry over the past two years. Through this forum and some youtube ladies, I have learned a lot. (My hair is relaxed so I had to learn how to properly care for her natural hair.) Primarily, my daughter's hair responds best to a lower ph balance of 4.5 to 5. My question is how do you properly seal in moisture after a wash/condition or a co-wash with products that have a lower ph balance? The oils that I use to seal like castor or jojoba have a higher ph of 7. These oils can be drying to her hair, especially in these warmer summer months. Her hair has turned back to feeling and looking dry over the past month or so. I don't want to go back to the breakage that we experienced a few years ago.

I appreciate any and all comments.

 

[ms-gg]

Maybe it is not the ph that is causing her hair to be dry, maybe her hair just does not like oils. If you have found products that work for her hair and moisturizes it well, why do you need to seal? How long is the moisture lasting for her?

Maybe you have to moisturize her hair daily or 3 times a week. I never seal my hair with any oils or anything else and my hair does just fine. I moisturize it with World of Curls curl activator gel and once a week I might refresh with the World of Curls comb out spray. The only time I use oils is with a pre poo or for detangling to help lubricate my hair strands as I remove the shed hair.

 

[ToSelahWithLove]

I have the same question that ms-gg does: perhaps her hair just doesn't like oil... My hair has never liked oil, and no matter what kind I would use to seal, it would always end up just being dry.

Once I stopped trying to seal with oil things got better. (Well, after I realized that shea butter was ALSO the devil for my hair lol) Now I use Mizani h20 Nighttime treatment to seal my moisturizer in. Just a very little bit, and my hair stays soft and supple. HTH.

 

[Myjourney2009]

oil does not have ph, its possible its the product

 

[Nonie]

pH 7 is neither acidic nor alkaline so shouldn't have any effect on hair, because it's neutral.

@Myjourney2009 I was also wondering how one would measure the pH of oil when it's not water soluble...so not sure how the concentration of hydrogen ions could be measured. I wonder if there's a solvent that could break it down...and release hydrogen ions... :scratchch Any chemists wanna enlighten us please?

I do agree with other PPs, that it could just be that your hair doesn't like oils.

 

[sapphire18]

pwemom Most oils are acidic. How did you check the ph? Do you use leave in conditioner in her hair before sealing? Castor oil has a ph between 4.0 - 5.0. A lighter oil might ease application.

source:
http://www.worthington-biochem.com/introBiochem/effectspH.html

 

[pwemom]

Thank you for the replies. I sincerely appreciate them. I tested the ph of the oils by using the ph test strips. Her hair feels good for about 1 to 2 days after the co-wash. As an example, I did a deep condition this past Sunday and this morning her hair felt and looked dry. I have not added any products to her hair since Sunday evening. In the winter, the shea butter mix that I use seems to work better. It may be too heavy for the summer months. Sometimes I might use Oyin Juices and Berries during the week but it seems to cause a build up on her hair so I have slowed down on using this product.

And I always thought that sealing with an oil was the way to go but I will try to use use a light moisturizer on her hair and see how her hair responds. I do know that her hair hates cocounut oil and olive oil but responds better to castor oil and jojoba oil.

 

[ms-gg]

Nonie may agree with me: have you tried a curl activator? They are the bomb forreals

 

[ChristmasCarol]

pwemom

Have you considered co-washing her 2/3x each week - at least during the summer? Her hair won't have a chance to dry-out with frequent conditioning, and you won't have to worry about extra products. I condition my DDs' hair 3x/wk and they all have long natural hair. I shampoo them 1x/month or before any flatironing.

 

[beloved1bx]

I've always had issues with my hair being eternally dry (i'm relaxed tho). About a month ago I bought some aloe vera juice, and mixed with my mosturizer (the kimmaytube leave-in basically), and i've noticed a pretty big difference in my hair retaining some moisture for longer periods of time. I've read of ladies using aloe vera juice as a final rinse when washing their hair, to help close the cuticles.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread tho. My sis has a 3 yr old whose hair recently turned from that soft baby hair to kinky 4b type hair and she recently told me that she's at her wits end because it's always dry. At the suggestion of someone at the BSS she bought some Hawaiian Silky moisturizer, and she says it's the only thing that's given my niece's hair any life recently.