Friday, February 11, 2011

BACK to BASICS: MOISTURIZE VS. SEAL

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When Regimen Building, it is important to know the difference between Moisturizing and Sealing. These are 2 different things that work together to give us beautiful, healthy Natural hair.

Hair is permeable, so it is critical that we use products that will lock in the moisture (Moisturizing) and keep it in (Sealing).

I consider it Moisturizing when you are using water-based products that go deep within your hair strand. The product actually penetrates the hair to nourish it and prevent breakage. These would be your conditioners/creams.

Note: Some conditioners/creams have significant amounts of protein, which is good for hair strenth, but protein based moisturizers do not have the moisturizing benefit that water-based moisturizers do, so READ THE LABEL!!

Now that you've added moisture to your hair, it needs to be held in by something. Sealing is what you do to hold the moisturizer on your hair. The key is to use oils that “lock in the moisture” ie. EVOO, Jojoba, or Coconut oil after you've applied the moisturizer. (See pic above - notice how the Oil is on top of the Water).

If you use oils without a moisturizer or before one, the oil will seal the moisture out of the hair and have a coated feel, but eventually you'll begin to feel the true dryness.

So now that we've gotten the Moisturizing and Sealing squared away, what are some of your fav Moisturizers or Sealers??

My personal favorite sealer is melted Shea Butter, still working on the Moisturizer part :/ Any suggestions??

1 comment:

MagnificentReign said...

Right now my fave moisturizer is Curls brand Curl Creme Brule from Target. Now, as I understand it the Curls products that are sold at Target are a different formulation than what they sell from their website (www.curls.biz). So if there's a Creme Brule on their website, I can't speak on that one. Anywho, the creme brule is within the pH range that helps to moisturize hair. It's not greasy and washes out easily. I usually only use that when I have my hair out. When I'm rocking my two-strands, which is 80% of the time, I use Kimmaytube's (from YT) leave-in conditioner recipe. That keeps my hair moisturized better than anything and I don't have to have a second step of "sealing" because the oil is already in it. BTW, great post and explanation!