Finding a great natural hair moisturizer is like finding a needle in a hay stack…unless you know what you’re looking for. The key to finding an effective hair moisturizer that will leave your tresses feeling super soft and conditioned is all in the ingredients. I’m sure you’ve probably used a few moisturizers where the main purchasing decision was either the price or the packaging design. Once you’ve used the product you were let down because either the product just sat on your hair without penetrating your tresses or overtime it caused your hair to become dry and brittle. When looking for a proper natural hair moisturizer you want your product to not only work when you apply it, but you want it to improve or maintain the condition of your hair’s health.
Contrary to popular belief, water is excellent in moisturizing your natural hair. The problem with using water by itself is that it enters and exit the hair quickly. You must combine water with other moisturizing ingredients in order to get the best results, which makes water-based hair products absolutely necessary when moisturizing.
Humectants are another important factor when choosing an effective natural hair moisturizer. Humectants attract water from the surrounding areas and absorbs and adsorbs them into and on the hair. Glycerin, one of the most popular humectants, improves elasticity, stimulates hair growth and is a great conditioning agent for dry brittle hair. Other humectants are agave nectar, honey, honeyquat, sorbitol, fructose, hydrolyzed silk protein, panthenol and sodium PCA. It’s important to note that just the opposite will happen if you use a humectant in a dry climate. Moisture will draw away from the hair causing it to become dry.
Lastly, make sure your natural hair moisturizer consists of natural emollients that are either in the form of an oil or butter. Most women make the mistake of using only emollients (oils-based and butter-based products) as moisturizers. Using an emollient alone will NOT moisturize your hair. They help seal in the moisture, such as the water and humectants and prevents any moisture from escaping into the atmosphere. Popular emollients are coconut oil, castor oil, jojoba oil, olive oil, argan oil, shea butter, sunflower oil, avocado oil, mango butter and jojoba butter.
Making sure that your moisturizer has water, humectants and emollients are 3 keys in finding an effective natural hair moisturizer. Pay close attention to how the order of ingredients are listed. The ingredients are listed in descending order of predominance by weight. This means that the ingredient that weighs the most is listed first and the ingredient that weighs the least is listed last. For a moisturizer, you want to find products that contains water being listed as the first or second ingredient. Make sure you implement these 3 key elements when searching for your ultimate natural hair moisturizer and you will never have dry hair again.
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