The Road to A Long Lasting Natural Hair Style Starts with Your Hydration System
Lack of hydration is a common problem for natural hair. Without it, our hair can quickly become dry and frizzy, leaving our styles looking unpolished and not lasting. Improving the hydration level of your hair can give it a smoothing effect and allow individual hairs to lay together easily. Dehydrated hair loses its flexibility, and individual strands of hair stand apart from one another leaving it looking frizzy and unpolished. Increasing your hydration level with the right ingredients can prevent this from happening, resulting in smoother strands of hair that are able to stand together nicely and stay defined.
You can see this best when you are styling your wet hair. Over the years, my team and I have noticed that even after applying wonderful products, hair strands do not maintain definition during the styling process. This is an indicator that your hair is dry and won't maintain defined curls in between wash days, resulting in more frequent wash days or more frequent curl refreshing. As a result, more of our time and money is spent on our hair.
Let's talk about how to remedy dry natural hair so that we can get our natural hairstyles to last longer.
Remedy:
- Cleanse your hair and scalp weekly. This is such a key part of transforming natural hair to the point that it can maintain hair styles in between wash-day. Exposing your hair to water weekly gives it the most basic level of hydration it needs for defined curls.
- Use a hydrating shampoo and conditioner: You want your cleanser to remove build-up and cleanse your scalp without leaving you with a dry, matted mess to detangle. Using both a Lathering Cleanser and a Non-Lathering Cleanser will help you accomplish this. Your conditioner needs to have enough oil to contribute to long-lasting hydration in your hair.
- Deep condition regularly: Deep conditioning treatments can help to infuse your hair with hydration boosting ingredients like Silk Amino Acids and Panthenol. These penetrate the hair shaft and build from the inside out helping to 10X your hydration and moisture. The benefits of these ingredients you notice for several weeks after one use.Â
- Use a leave-in conditioner: Leave-in conditioners can provide additional hydration and conditioning elements that help your strand stand together smoothly. Apply a small amount to your hair after washing and conditioning, and then style it as usual. Not all Leave-in conditioners are the same. Some are designed to make your hair softer with your styling products while others are designed to improve the hydration and moisture level of your hair like Silk Hydration Mist.
- Protect your hair while sleeping: Wear a satin or silk scarf or bonnet while sleeping to protect your hair from rubbing against your bedding, which can cause dryness and damage.
Let's Get Started
By incorporating these remedies into your natural hair care routine, you can help combat the lack of hydration and keep your hair healthy and looking great. I have found that by spending at least 3-4 weeks following the Urbanbella Weekly Routine for Natural Hair, you will see a transition in your moisture level and style longevity.
A great place to start is with our Hydration Trio, which you can find by clicking here!
Continue to follow us at Urbanbella here on our blog as well as live on our social media channels for community conversations and education on how to get your Wash-N-Go Style to last longer.
Stay tuned for all 3 Parts of the Urbanbella Natural Hair Ecosystem including The Moisturizing System and the Styling System. Each will guide you on what you need to do to reach your natural hair styling goals.