Post Protein Overload: Re-introducing Proteins To My Relaxed Hair Regimen

During the course of my healthy relaxed hair journey, I’ve learned a lot about taking care of my hair. I’ve learned about my hair type and what that means when it comes to picking products. I’ve learned how to create and maintain a hair regimen.

I’ve learned that hair needs to have a moisture and protein balance and how easily that balance can get out of whack. When our hair loses that balance it is either because of moisture overload where the hair has too much moisture or protein overload which is too much protein on the hair. 

 

Depending on how bad the protein overload is determined by how extensive the damage it causes to our hair. Not too long ago I experienced a bad, in my opinion really bad, case of protein overload. It took me several months to help my hair get over it.

I documented most of my protein overload journey on my blog and YouTube channel in case you’re curious

• The Hair Products I’m Using To Reverse Protein Overload In My Relaxed Hair

• What Protein Overload Is And How To Fix It

• Helping Relaxed Hair Recover From Protein Overload Damage

Once protein overload was in my rearview window I finalized my new hair regimen. When it came to the products I selected I was very cautious and careful. I wanted to make sure I focused on moisture and stayed away from giving my hair too much protein.

That being said, I still needed to make sure that I didn’t solely focus on moisture because hair needs some protein. It’s all about maintaining a balance of moisture and protein because our hair is made up mostly of protein which keeps our hair healthy and strong. So using products with protein ingredients isn’t a bad thing. It’s just not good when we use too many of them. That’s why I’m working on adding proteins slowly back into my hair regimen. Here’s how I’m doing this.

Using a small number of products with protein ingredients

After dealing with protein overload I pay a lot more attention to the ingredient list of the products I use on my hair than I did previously.

The majority of the products I’m using on my hair and using on a consistent basis don’t have any protein ingredients. For the ones that do I’ve tried to make sure that protein is further down the ingredient list. Like out of the top 10 so that the protein is there but less potent and less likely to cause protein overload again. You can see all of the products I'm using by visiting my hair regimen page.

Using products with moisturizing proteins

Yes, some proteins can help with adding or retaining moisture in our hair. Some of the proteins that fall on this list are Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein and Hydrolyzed Soy Protein. So the few products that I’m using with protein in the ingredient list more than not have one of these types of proteins.
 

Staying away from protein treatments

I have nothing against protein treatments. I used to use them and had great results. But since my prior overuse of protein, I’m now wary of them and don’t think they’re currently necessary for my hair unless my hair has some major damage or moisture overload. I feel that using products with protein ingredients on a set schedule should be enough for now.