As you all know, I am an avid reader of several natural hair blogs and websites. One of my favorites is The Natural Haven Bloom, because Jc breaks everything down to a science...literally. In the post below, she summarizes the findings from her series on deep conditioning hair -- a process near and dear to every natural's heart. Take a gander and see if you really need to sit under a dryer with your DC for hours, or leave it on overnight...from a scientific perspective.
Enjoy!
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Courtesy of Jc at The Natural Haven Bloom
1. Adsorption
Most ingredients in hair conditioner attach to the surface of hair - aDsorb - more details here
-surfactants eg behentrimonium chloride/methosulfate
-emollients e.g cetyl alcohol
-some oils e.g mineral oil, sunflower oil, dimethicone, aminosilicones e.g bisaminopropyldimethicone, amodimethicone
2. Penetration into Hair
Some ingredients in hair conditioner can penetrate into natural hair:
-water
-hydrolysed wheat protein
-coconut oil
-cetrimonium bromide
-caffeine
-panthenol
Hair that is damaged or bleached allows more into hair- more details here
3. Do you need deep conditioning? Is your natural hair considered as damaged?
You should consider your hair as damaged (even if it is not bleached or colour treated) if it has a high potential to be damaged . For example, it breaks easily, requires very gentle handling, has mid shaft splits or split ends regularly.
4. Deep condition on dry hair, wet hair, before or after shampoo?
Some people like to use a water based deep conditioner before shampooing while others prefer using the shampoo first before deep conditioning. Scientifically, a water based conditioner will work better after a shampoo and rinse. More details here
5. Deep conditioning time and temperature
For maximum effect, 20-30 minutes at 35°C is ideal for a water based conditioner. More details here
6. How to heat up your conditioner before using it.
The Natural Haven water bath method - More details here
7. Over conditioned hair: Do you like leaving conditioner on for hours at a time/ overnight?
Some naturals like the feeling of over conditioned hair - More details here
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