In today’s post, I’ll be talking about my recent experience with moisture overload.
Not only did I get moisture overload, but my hair regimen took a turn for the worst (2020 won’t let me live lol). I’ll talk about that in another post, but today we’re going to talk about moisture overload.
They say too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
Moisture is no different! Protein-moisture balance is a concept that helps keep natural hair strong and moisturized. Having a balance of protein and moisture in our hair prevents both protein and moisture overload. If you’ve experienced either, you know that they both can cause breakage and many other effects.
You know you have moisture overload if:
• Your hair is limp, soggy, and takes forever to dry
• Your hair is soft, but almost too soft, and is very weak (lots of breakage and shed hair)
• Your hair has no volume, less shrinkage, and your ends won’t curl
(Note: The photo for this post was taken while I had moisture overload!)
Causes:
The most common cause of moisture overload is leaving your deep conditioner in for too long (I know, I didn’t think that was a thing either lol).
My hair is protein-sensitive, so I wasn’t using protein on my hair at all really. Also, since discovering more ways to retain moisture (see my last post for more info!), my moisture levels became too much for my hair.
From now on, I only leave my deep conditioners on as long as the directions say.
So how do we fix it?
STEP 1: Clarify
First, clarify your hair to get rid of any buildup from your hair. Protein works best on shampooed hair. It also gives you a clean slate. Your best bet is a sulfate shampoo.
My favorite clarifying shampoo right now is: VO5 Kiwi Shampoo $1 (Dollar Tree, supermarkets, Walmart, drugstores)
STEP 2: Protein treatment
Moisture overloaded hair will benefit the most from a protein treatment. This will help to start to tip the protein-moisture scale back to balance.
My favorite protein treatment is: ORS Hair Mayonnaise Protein Treatment $10 (Walmart, supermarkets, beauty supply stores)
STEP 2.5: Moisture treatment
It is best to use a protein-rich treatment, rinse it out, and then use a moisture-rich treatment to keep your hair balanced so you do not take STEP 2 too far and get protein overload.
If your moisture overload is severe and you’ve been moisture overloaded for a long period of time (this was my case), you can skip the moisture treatment until you get closer to balance.
My current favorite moisture treatment is: Novex Mystic Black Hair Masque $7.19 (Target)
STEP 3: Use protein-rich products (temporarily)
Look for products with these ingredients:
- Anything with the word “protein”
- Anything with the words “amino acids”
- Sea kelp extract
My favorite protein-rich leave-in conditioner is: Not Your Mother's Curl Talk 3-in-1 Conditioner $7.99 (Target)
STEP 4: Repeat
Repeat steps 1-2 or 1-2.5 (lol) weekly until your hair is back to balance. It took me about 4 repeats to get my hair back to balance, but I actually kept going because I wasn’t sure & got protein overload (oops lol). You live and you learn lol!
Ok that’s how I treated my moisture overload!
This experience taught me that all hair needs protein. I still consider myself protein-sensitive, but my hair still needs some protein.
Hopefully, this can teach us all the importance of continuously learning new things about natural hair and trying our best to not get discouraged when things aren’t going our way. We got this!
Be sure to subscribe to my blog for more posts!
Take care!
♡ Gwen