On deep conditioning issues.

I deep condition my hair every week for roughly an hour if time is on my side. This frequency is what I personally set from when I was transitioning and hair seemed to be crying out for pampering.

Lately, I have been suffering with the curse of the frizz again. This could be from any number of given reasons, including the dastardly weather we have in the UK recently. Damn you storm Ciara and Dennis, with you torrential downpours and otherworldly winds. OK first world issues and all that, when trampolines have left their gardens to find new lives and fences uprooted from their boundaries. It could also be down to the virus I caught two weeks ago. Corona virus’ lesser known ugly half sister. Since being ill again, I have noticed my skin is dry and nails weak. So safe to say hair hasn’t behaved as well as I would have liked.

Just because I really couldn’t be bothered to wet my hair to deep condition, I began to research into dry deep conditioning. I know from various groups online many have a preferred way of doing but why? Is one better than the other?

So, if you have natural hair, it’s likely that your hair cuticles are closed; water and some oils are able to get in, but that’s all. Certain oils are able to penetrate the cuticle, including coconut oil and olive oil according to the International Journal of Trichology.

Now that you understand these facts, you might be wondering what’s the point of deep conditioning natural hair. Let’s discuss in detail.

Most ordinary conditioners work on the outside of the hair shaft by softening the hair, smoothing the cuticles, minimizing static, and in some cases helping water stay in the cortex. When conditioners are rinsed away, some conditioning agents are left behind which keeps hair soft.

When using olive oil or coconut oil as a conditioner, it is important to apply the treatment to dry hair. It’s important to understand that water repels oil. So if you apply an oil-based treatment to wet hair, it won’t be as effective.


Taken from Curlcentric

Dry deep conditioning it is. Let’s do an experiment!

Advantages.

• My drying time seemed decreased.
• Less mess
• Marginally less time
• Curls seemed more moisturised. Possibly.

Disadvantages.

• More conditioner was needed to coat the hair
• I got tangled in naturally shed hairs, that usually was out when I’d wet hair

So, to conclude, my deep conditioning experiment. I didn’t see an awful lot lot of difference, but dry seemed to encourage my spiral curls more and it caused less mess.

In future, I’m going dirty dry deep condition and see how it goes! Will update if I see changes.

🌀M🌀