First advice we get at the start of our natural hair journey, keep your curls moisturized, keep them hairs hydrated! but what do these terms really mean? If you are like me, then you probably thought they were interchangeable and meant the same thing, right? Well, you thought wrong!
Hair Hydration and Hair moisturizing actually serve two different, yet complementary purposes for healthy, bouncy curls, and understanding this distinction is quite important, especially as we head into the drier, colder months.
Buckle up and let's get into the details of avoiding ashy allegations to keep our curls shiny, looking its best.
Differences Between Hair Hydration and Hair Moisture
Hydration is simply the act of water penetrating the inner layer of your hair structure (Medulla & Cortex).
- Medulla - The innermost layer of the hair structure
- Cortex- Middle layer containing the Keratin and melanin cells. This layer makes up for 75% of each hair strand weight.
While Moisturization is the haircare step that keeps moisture in the outer cuticle thus protecting and keeping the water in the medulla and cortex layers intact.
- Cuticle - The outermost tough layer of the hair structure made up of smaller cuticle cells that overlap each other like the shingles of a roof.
This means that Hydration comes first in your hair routine and it should be followed up with moisturization.
Visualize, soaking your hair in a in a bath-tup of water. take your head out and let your hair dry. Visibly, your hair might look like all the water is gone but that would be wrong. Your hair has locked up the perfect quantity it needs in its innermost layer, invisible to the naked eyes.
Now you follow-up with moisturization, adding moisture in form of nourishing emollients to the protective layer to keep the water in the inner layer intact for as long as possible.
How to Properly Hydrate Your Curls
Dry, brittle curls prone to breakage are some of the symptoms of dehydrated curls. And our curls loss water every day from environmental stresses and so much more. Here are some steps to take for well-hydrated hair;
1. Hydrate in Shower: -
- On your washdays, before any hair shampoo step, take a few minutes to drench your curls properly with water under the shower. Especially low porosity hair types (slower hair absorption rate).
- Use a gentle shampoo such as our Ayurvedic Moisturizing Shampoo Bar. To ensure that the layer of your hair structure are not stripped of its natural oils, but instead adds hydrating ingredients such as Aloe Vera Juice.
2. Add Extra Hydration:-
- Use our Happy Hair Water Infuser is designed to deeply hydrate the inner layers of your hair, delivering an extra boost with rosemary and lavender infusions, essential for nourishing the keratin cells in the cortex.
On Washdays, use as part of the hydration step before you shampoo and as a final rinse after your deep conditioner wash-off.
- Midweek hydration is an important part of your hair routine. especially if there is a lot of days in-between your washdays.
Apply the Happy Hair Water Infuse as a leave-in hydration step, follow up with moisturization, seal and style as desired.
3. Protect Curls from Dehydrating Agents:-
Such as Uv rays, rough and water absorbent materials by using hats at the beach, Satin Pillowcases and Satin Hair Accessories (Hair scrunchies, Scarfs, & Bonnets).
How to Get Your Curls Healthy and Moisturized
Now you ask if hydration can take care of dry and brittle hair, what purpose does hair moisturizing serve?
Well, apart from helping your curls hold on to all that hard-earned hydration, hair moisturizing smoothes hair cuticles for shinier and sleeker hair strands. So are you ready to wave goobye to frizzy hair? Moisturizing is the way to go.
And here are some perfect ways to properly moisturize your curls;
1. Leave-in Conditioner: - A long-lasting moisturizing agent infused with nutrient-rich emollients and herbs like Moringa, Alfalfa to strengthen the hair cuticle, and butters to maintain the perfect protective layer.
With Curls Revived Leave-in conditioner you can deep condition your curls, and control frizz.
2. Styling Custard: - Define and hold with a moisturizing haircare product infused with hair strengthening ingredients such as Hibiscus Tea. Control frizz with conditioning agency of flaxseed and more herbs in the Curls Unleashed Styler.
3. Hair Serum: - The most important part of moisturizing hair, is keeping your hydration intact with protective agents such as Jamaican Castor oil and Olive oil, forming a protective barrier on the hair cuticle.
Why You Need to Both Hydrate and Moisturize Your Hair
Hair Hydration and Moisture Walk hand-in-hand, complementing each other for the best haircare results.
- First you Hydrate to introduce water in hair layers
- Then You Moisturize to keep the water in.
Why do we need both steps you might ask? This is because the individual layers of the hair structures have different needs;