Protein and Moisture Balancing in Black Hair Care: When to Say No to Moisture

A Look at Overconditioning and Over-moisturization

In articles past, I've given my take on the protein/moisture balance for black hair care and focused my work on teaching mostly hair care newbies how to understand the balance. However, today I am writing about overconditioning via overzealous moisturization-- a phenomenon that I've seen play out over and over again in the hair forum world. Interestingly, overconditioning is not so much a problem among newbies, but rather among those who've been around hair care much longer. Now before I get into the meat of the discussion, let me preface my statements by giving the mandatory "what works for some, may not work for all" speech. Obviously overconditioning, and the product usage patterns that tend to encourage it, vary from person to person. There are no official normative standards here, and as with all things hair-- the only hard fast rule is that there are no hard fast rules. "Too much" for one head may be "too little" for another, etc. Therefore, all suggestions and advice, including this article, should be taken with a grain of salt and weighed and evaluated against your unique situation. With that said, let's talk overconditioning!

Out in the "real world" overconditioning, or "tipping too far" on the moisture side of the protein/moisture balance, is virtually rare. Most ladies who aren't particularly into hair care rarely use true moisturizing hair products, and when they do—it's often sparingly. When hair breakage problems arise, this group tends to reach for heavy protein reconstructors that clearly state that they are formulated to prevent breakage. Because most moisturizing products do not tout their breakage reduction or strengthening capabilities on their bottles and packaging, these ladies tend to skip them over when breakage problems arise. Later, when these ladies find their way onto hair forums around the web, they are typically instructed to reduce their use of proteins and increase their moisture levels. 99.9% of the time, this infusion of moisture and increase in washing and deep conditioning frequency stops the breakage and gets their hair growing and healthy.