I am often asked to clarify the difference between Hydration and Moisture.  I have recapped the difference and how you can improve both by following the Urbanbella Curl Care Steps.

I have included a video below for you to review along with this article.  Let’s dive into the main points.

Are Moisture and Hydration the Same Thing?

The short answer is no, but they work together to achieve your goals of soft hair that holds beautifully defined natural curls with low maintenance care.  Think of hydration as drinking water to quench your thirst and moisture as putting on lip balm to prevent your lips from drying out.   Let’s dive into details to help you implement the steps and products into your Urbanbella Curly Hair Care routine.

Part 1: What is Hydration? 

Hydration increases the amount of water in your hair or skin to maintain proper function.

What Does Hydrating Your Hair Do?

Hydration is the foundation of strong, healthy hair. Incorporating moisture-rich products into every step of your hair care routine helps your hair stay soft, smooth, and flexible. This prevents dryness and breakage and promotes longer, healthier growth while enhancing your hair's overall look and feel.

Here are the Key Benefits of Proper Hair Hydration:

1. Prevents Dryness and Breakage: Moisturized hair is more resilient, reducing the risk of split ends, brittleness, and breakage.

2. Encourages Hair Growth: Hydrated strands are less prone to damage, supporting healthier, longer hair over time.

3. Smooths the Cuticle and Helps Repair Damage: Proper hydration smooths the cuticle layer, minimizing frizz and aiding in the repair of dry, damaged areas.

4. Helps Styles Last Longer: Well-hydrated hair holds styles better, maintaining a polished, fresh look with less effort.

Water levels in the hair and skin have to be replenished. Waiting too long between wash days increases the chances of breakage and dull, dry hair that does not hold your style.  Dehydrated hair also requires more products to maintain.

How do curly hair products deliver hydration?

Hair and skin care products are usually water-based. There are additional ingredients in your hair and skincare products that increase hydration in one of a few ways. Here are the most common ones:

1. Drawing water from the environment to your hair and skin is why I love formulating with Panthenol. Panthenol is a wonder humectant that helps increase and maintain the hydration of curly hair.

2. Pulling water from underlying layers of hair and skin to the surface is another way to increase hydration.  We use a collection of humectants to accomplish this, including hyaluronic acid.

3. Glycerin helps retain water on and below the surface. For example, if included in hair products, it helps bind water to your hair and skin and prevents it from evaporating.

4. Barrier support is key in helping prevent water loss; this is also one of the great benefits of panthenol, honey and honey extracts. 

These ingredients are commonly used in the Urbanbella Classic Collections of hair and skin care and our Signature Series Collections.  They are a vital part of formulating our products because we understand that by first getting your hydration level right, the rest of your hair care routine is much easier and requires less time and money with better results.

How do I Hydrate my Curly Hair?

Our primary source of hydration comes from water.  There are many ways to get water to your hair and lose it.  The most common is washing your hair; you also get water for hair from the environment.  Think about being in a humid climate and how difficult it can be to get your curls to dry quickly. It’s because your hair is pulling in extra hydration from the water in the air. There is water in most hair and skin care products, which also adds water to your hair and helps keep it hydrated.

What are the Urbanbella Curly Hair Hydrating Products?

Use products from the Urbanbella Collections that help with hydration. From the Classic Series, here are some popular items that deliver performance and results you can see:

• Cleansing and Conditioning Duo
• Neat Nourishing Conditioner
• Organic Coconut Cream Repair Mask

From our Signature Series Collections, our popular hydration builders can be found here!  Urbanbella Tribe members subscribe to these items the most:

• Honey + Bamboo Cleanser
• Honey + Bamboo Conditioner
• HydraBoost Conditioner
• HydraBoost Hair Serum

Part 2: What is Moisture?

While hydration focuses on adding water, moisturizing your hair helps to retain water, preventing evaporation and dryness. 

What Does Moisturizing Your Hair Do?

Achieving optimal moisture levels for curly hair starts with choosing products rich in fatty oils, butter, and water. These ingredients work together to lubricate the hair shaft and seal in hydration, promoting long-lasting softness, shine, and manageability.

Products with concentrated oils and butter help smooth the hair cuticle and minimize water loss, offering continuous moisture benefits. If your hair feels dry shortly after using a product, it’s often because it’s primarily water-based and lacks the necessary concentration of fatty oils and butter to effectively lock in hydration.

When you moisturize correctly, you’ll notice these key benefits:

1. Locks in Hydration:
   Oils and butter create a protective barrier that seals moisture into the hair, preventing it from evaporating and keeping your curls hydrated for longer periods.

2. Increases Elasticity:
   Well-moisturized hair becomes softer, more flexible, and resilient, which helps reduce breakage, split ends, and brittleness.

3. Smooths the Cuticle:
   Proper hydration smooths the hair’s outer layer (the cuticle), leading to shinier, frizz-free strands that are easier to style and maintain.

4. Enhances Hair Suppleness:
   The nourishing properties of oils and butter relax the hair fibers, making them feel softer, more pliable, and less prone to damage.

Consistently moisturizing your hair with products formulated with generous amounts of oil and butter is the foundation for maintaining healthy, vibrant curls.

How Do Curly Hair Products Moisturize My Hair?

Curly hair moisturizing products deliver hydration through specific ingredients that coat and protect the hair shaft. While many products claim to be rich in oils and butter, they often lack the necessary concentration of these ingredients to be truly effective. Here are some common ways these products work to moisturize curly hair:

1. Strengthens and Lubricates the Hair Shaft:
   Ingredients like mango butter, coconut oil, and babassu oil are rich in essential fatty acids that penetrate the hair shaft. These fatty acids help strengthen the hair from within while providing lubrication that reduces friction and breakage.

2. Locks in Hydration and Protects Against Dryness:
   Occlusive agents, such as natural oils and butter, form a protective barrier on the hair’s surface. This barrier helps seal in moisture and shields the hair from environmental factors that cause dryness, like heat and low humidity.

3. Smooths the Cuticle, Making Styling Easier:
   Emollients like sunflower and olive oil soften the hair and smooth the outer cuticle layer. This enhances shine and reduces frizz, making the hair more manageable and easier to style.

4. Makes the Hair Shaft More Supple:
   Moisturizing ingredients improve the hair’s elasticity, making it more flexible and less prone to breakage. This suppleness helps curls maintain natural shape and bounce while feeling soft and healthy.

How Do I Moisturize My Curly Hair?

Moisture is essential for locking in hydration with oils, butter, and emollients, ensuring long-lasting hydration for your hair and skin. To achieve and maintain moisture in your curly hair, follow these steps:

1. Hydrate First: Start with products that hydrate your hair by adding water, such as the Urbanbella Collection of Conditioners.

2. Layer Moisture-Rich Products: Use creams and butter like Urbanbella No.23 Hydrating Moisturizing Cream to seal hydration into the hair.

3. Avoid Overwashing: Washing your hair too frequently can strip it of natural oils, leading to dryness.

4. Protect Against Environmental Factors: Use moisturizing products as a barrier against harsh weather conditions, such as dry air or humidity.

5. Deep Condition Regularly: Incorporate deep conditioners with oils and butter to boost moisture.

What are the Urbanbella Curly Hair Moisturizing Products?

Use products from the Urbanbella Collections that help infuse healthy levels of moisture. From the Classic Series, here are some popular items that deliver performance and results you can see:

• No.9 Hair Shine Butter
• No.23 Hydrating Moisturizing Cream - our famous curl hydrating cream
• Neat Hydrating Moisturizing Cream

Signature Series Curly Hair Moisturing Products can be found here!  Some of the most popular items are:

• Babassu Curly Hair Moisturizer
• 5 Vitamin Curly Hair Moisturizer
• Keratin + Babassu Hair Lotion
• HydraBoost Hair Lotion
  
  

Part 3: Which One do I need?

The answer is both! 

Your routine needs to include curly hair products that work together to keep your hair healthy, soft, and strong. Products that improve hydration, like the Urbanbella Classic Series Conditioners, replenish water levels in your hair. Moisture-rich products, such as Urbanbella No.23 Hydrating Moisturizing Cream, increase and seal in hydration, ensuring long-lasting benefits.

Use a hair care system that delivers hydration and moisture for the best results to create a balanced hair care routine. Combining these elements will make your curls softer, shinier, and easier to maintain with less time, effort, and product.

Take our Quiz to see which step you need to add to your Urbanbella Routine!

But I am using Natural Hair Products ...Why is My Hair Still Dry?

It might be time to upgrade your products to achieve your goals. Does your collection of products contain concentrated amounts of healthy curl hair oil and butter, and ingredients that boost hydration? It can be hard to tell, but the price is a good place to start. Less expensive products typically contain little or no healthy hair oil and butter to transform dry and brittle hair. Wetting the hair and adding more watery products will lead to disappointing results. In short, you should level up your products first.  

The second aspect to review is your process. We recommend starting with weekly washing and deep treatments using Steps 1  and 2 of the Urbanbella Curl Care Steps.

Part 4: A Guide to the Urbanbella Experience

Our Products

At Urbanbella, we offer two distinct series of products designed to meet your natural hair care needs: the Classic Series Collections and the Signature Series Collections. Our Classic Collections are always available for regular purchase and deliver consistent, outstanding results, making them the foundation of many curl care routines. The Signature Series Collections offer an elevated hair care experience with products formulated for targeted results, providing luxurious blends that address specific hair goals. Mix and match products from both collections to create a personalized regimen that suits your unique curls. While the Classic Series is readily accessible, the Signature Series is available exclusively through subscription or during special seasonal events when our Hair Care Vault is open, allowing for one-time purchases.

The Urbanbella Essential Curl Care Steps

The foundation of the Urbanbella Experience is our Essential Curl Care Steps, a simple yet effective routine designed to support healthy, hydrated, and defined curls. It begins with Step 1: Cleansing, where gentle cleansers remove buildup without stripping your hair of its natural moisture. This is followed by Step 2: Conditioning, which not only continues the hydration process but also starts to build moisture, improving your hair's softness and elasticity.

Next is Step 3: Curl Defining, where our Urbanbella styling gels and creams enhance your natural curl pattern, providing long-lasting definition, hold, and shine without the crunch. Finally, Step 4: Moisturizing ensures your curls stay soft and supple. Our hair butters, lotions, and creams deliver deep moisture while offering an extra boost of hydration when needed. Together, these steps create a balanced routine that makes it easy to achieve beautifully defined, healthy, and manageable curls daily.

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