Does Your Hair Need Protein Or Moisture Conditioning?

Damaged hair can be caused by a number of reasons from poor hair care or diet, over or improper use of brushing or heated styling instruments, chemical processing, sun overexposure or hair accessories. With the many different ways hair can become damaged, there are two common damaged conditions that can be helped if the correct treatment is applied regularly: dry, brittle, rough damage or weak, mushy damage.

There are different damaged conditions that require varying treatment and determining the kind of damage your hair has can help you can choose the best treatment. 

Your hair texture/thickness of the strand and porosity also contribute to how well your hair responds to treatment. Hair that is dry, brittle, or rough needs softening and moisturizing through fatty acid-rich ingredients found in plant, nut, and seed oils and aloe vera gel.  

Hair that is ultra-fine or chemically damaged to the point of having a mushy, cotton candy-like feel, needs protein. 

Hair textures and conditions that respond well to most of the protein added to shampoos and conditioners are fine and weak to mushy damaged - which can include straight, wavy, curly and extra curly hair types with any density - low to high - which is how much hair you have on your head. The right hydrolyzed protein will help temporarily strengthen, fine, mushy, weak hair through reconstruction. It will not repair the hair permanently though. 

All hair Protein conditioning treatments and moisturizing hair conditioning treatments must be applied regularly to continually experience the benefits, as they gradually rinse off. Depending on the molecular weight and the shampoo used, some hydrolyzed proteins can hang out longer in hair, create a film over the hair strand and might not rinse off as quickly. This can cause a slight build-up on the hair and may contribute to breakage for certain hair textures and conditions. 

Many shampoos and conditioners contain hydrolyzed protein. Hydrolyzed protein is protein broken down into its component amino acids to make it water-soluble in the formula and able to penetrate the hair strand.

NOT SURE WHAT KIND OF DAMAGE YOU HAVE?

The elasticity test.

How your hair reacts to being stretched will help determine if you need protein or moisture treatment. 

Take an inch of your hair and stretch it, if it doesn’t stretch or breaks, feels dry and rough, it is brittle/damaged and needs moisture treatment. 

If the hair stretches far and does not return and/or breaks, feels mushy, gummy or cotton candy-like, your hair needs protein. 

If your hair stretches a bit, then returns to its normal state, your protein and moisture are balanced. 

Enrich Hair Mask is our moisture conditioning treatment for dry, brittle, rough hair damage.