How To Keep Relaxed Hair Moisturized And Healthy

Moisture. This seems to be something that everyone, whether their hair is relaxed or natural, can sometimes struggle with. It's also something that was never properly explained to me. I think this could be a key reason for some of the setbacks I experienced with my hair.

During times when my hair would feel rough and frizzy, I would be told my hair needed more moisture.  Because I didn't know any better, I thought that meant putting more and more products on my hair. So I would layer my hair with products with no understanding of whether they had moisturizing ingredients or not, and if my hair was feeling more moisturized or not.

Now that I'm a bit more knowledgeable, I want to share what tips and information about moisture that I'm applying to my relaxed hair regimen. These are tips I've found through my own internet research and learned from trial and error while taking care of my hair through the years.

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What moisture does for relaxed hair

Moisture is important to our hair strands. It's one of the things that keeps our hair healthy. It contributes to the overall look and feel of our hair.

Many things that we do can remove moisture from our hair. Things we put on our hair, such as relaxers or hair color. Even things we do to our hair, such as heat styling. Some people have naturally dry hair like I do, and doing those things can make the dryness worse.

When your hair is moisturized, you can tell. Moisturized hair maintains its elasticity and will stretch and then bounce back into place. 

Signs of unmoisturized hair are that it can feel rough and brittle. It can be frizzy and tangle easily because of the rougher texture; it looks dull and has no shine. The hair will also stretch to the point that it snaps and breaks because it has no elasticity.

Something to keep in mind, though, is that if your relaxed hair suddenly feels rough, tangles more easily, or breaks more than usual, moisture may not always be the answer. Those symptoms can have several causes. Such as protein imbalance, buildup, hard water, damage, and even relaxer over-processing.

Related read: How To Keep Relaxed Hair Moisturized In The Winter

What moisture is and isn't

Water provides moisture. Oils don't add water to the hair, so they can't moisturize the hair. Oils can help reduce moisture loss, improve lubrication, soften the feel of the hair, and reduce friction.

Moisturizing types of products include straight water, shampoos, and water-based rinse-out conditioners, deep conditioners, or leave-in conditioners. 

How to tell if your relaxed hair actually needs more moisture

Now that we know more about what moisture is and how it's important for relaxed hair, let's talk about how you can tell if your hair needs some moisture. There are a few things to look for, such as 

• Hair is feeling unusually dry or rough
• Hair is lacking flexibility or elasticity
• Hair tangles more often, and the tangles are harder to remove
• Hair feels stiff rather than pliable
• Increased breakage during normal handling
• Ends feel particularly dry

While these are all signs of dryness, they aren't exclusive to dry hair. Some could be signs of other things like lack of protein or too much protein. Also, dry hair doesn't always mean you need to immediately add more moisture. We'll touch on this a little later.

Tips for keeping your hair moisturized

1. Start with a moisturizing wash day

Having moisturized hair starts on your wash day. Not only does the water you use to rinse your hair help with providing hydration, but the shampoo and conditioner can also help too. The shampoo and conditioner you use on wash day can either add moisture to your hair or dry out your hair and make it worse.

I like to use a moisturizing shampoo like one of the ones mentioned in my video, Does Your Shampoo Dry Out Your Relaxed Hair? Try These Instead. For the conditioner, I'll use a hydrating or moisturizing hair mask or deep conditioner. My favorites at the moment are the TGIN RepaiRx Deep Hydrating Hair Mask and the Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair! Deep Conditioning Mask.

2. Deep condition regularly

As I mentioned in tip one, conditioning is helpful for providing moisture. My hair gets the best moisture when I use a deep conditioner or a hair mask, as those types of conditioners penetrate the hair strand and provide moisture from within.

I deep condition weekly. If I do a mid-week wash, I use a moisturizing rinse-out conditioner instead. 

3. Use a leave-in when your hair needs additional moisture

If your hair needs a little extra moisture to get it through the week, using a leave-in conditioner or moisturizer can help. I've found that if my wash day products did their thing, I only need to moisturize my hair once or twice between washes or not at all.

Whether your hair needs additional moisture or not, leave-in conditioners are also good to use on wash day before you dry and style your hair. They can help with detangling, some frizz control, and some even provide heat protection.

4. Seal or layer products if your hair responds well to it

A great way of keeping moisture in your hair is sealing it in. You can do this by applying a leave-in conditioner or moisturizer and then following it up with a heavier product. This heavier product can be a natural oil or shea butter. After I moisturize my hair, I follow up with a hair serum, which helps to seal in the moisture I just applied. I show how I moisturize and seal my hair in this video.

5. Be careful with heat

Heat applied directly to your hair can dry it out. Especially at high levels and with frequent use. I try to limit the use of heat on my relaxed hair to only wash day. 

I will dry my hair using a blow dryer or a hooded dryer. The heat settings I use vary between high and medium, with me spending most of the time on medium. Sometimes I use a flat iron. When I do, I use it on low heat and try to only do one pass.

Whenever I use heat on my hair, I use a heat protectant. I even layer my heat protectant on wash day. 

To dry my hair, I use a liquid heat protectant, and to flat iron my hair, I use a serum heat protectant. 

So if you have 

Related read: Signs Hard Water Is Damaging Your Relaxed Hair

6. Pay attention to buildup

A huge factor that many people don't think about is buildup on the hair and how it can keep the hair from getting moisture. Build-up can come from overuse and poor removal of products and oils from the hair, as well as minerals from hard water.

To remove build-up so your hair gets moisture again, you want to start with a deep cleansing or clarifying shampoo and then follow up with moisturizing products. I share more in How To Remove Product Build-up From Your Hair.

If a product leaves your hair coated, greasy, weighed down, or difficult to cleanse, you may be using too much or using it too often.