The Curly Hair Guide To Protein Moisture Balance
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One of the biggest struggles faced by curly girls is learning how to maintain a healthy protein moisture balance. This is a common problem for curly girls, especially when they’re just starting out on their curly hair journey.
If you get the balance between protein and moisture right, it gives you a mane of healthy, vibrant curls. But too much protein will leave your hair brittle and fragile, while too much moisture will give you limp, heavy strands.
In this guide, we’ll explain how to check your hair’s protein and moisture balance and how to identify whether your hair has too much protein or moisture. We’ll also share tips on how to restore a healthy balance so you can enjoy glossy, bouncy, soft hair once again.
What Is Protein Moisture Balance?
Natural hair types often tend to be dry because the bends and curves in your curly or wavy hair make it difficult for your scalp’s natural oils to travel down the strands. Good hydration is an important factor in maintaining healthy, shiny curls, which makes moisture treatments a vital step on your healthy hair journey.
However, over 90% of every hair strand is made up of a protein called keratin, which gives your hair its strength. And this is why all hair needs protein, it’s just a different amount for everyone.
This protein can easily be damaged by heat styling, chemical processes, and daily wear and tear. If your hair doesn’t receive enough protein to repair the damage, the strands will become fragile and prone to breakage.
Just like a healthy diet needs to include plenty of water and enough protein-rich foods, good hair care must have the right balance of protein and moisture. Maintaining this delicate balance will result in a soft, shiny mane of bouncy curls that are strong and free from frizz.
Does My Hair Need Protein Or Moisture?
Identifying your hair’s needs is the first step to achieving the perfect balance between protein and moisture. Your hair is unique, so the protein-moisture balance that works for your curls will be different from the formula that works for any other curly girl.
Remember, all hair needs some protein. Yours may need very little or a lot.
Here are two simple checks you can carry out to identify your hair’s needs.
How To Check Elasticity
Hair elasticity is determined by how much moisture and protein each strand has. Healthy hair is elastic, which allows it to stretch easily and bounce back to its original length.
The stretch test is an easy way to check your hair’s elasticity, as a healthy strand will only break when you put it under quite a lot of pressure. On the other hand, hair with low elasticity will either break quickly or stretch out a long way without bouncing back quickly.
If your hair breaks quickly when you stretch a single strand between your fingers, it has too much protein and not enough moisture.
If you can stretch a strand without it bouncing back, your hair has too much moisture and not enough protein.
How To Check Porosity
Hair porosity determines how well your hair absorbs and retains moisture. This is more difficult to pin down but can help with determining how much protein and moisture your hair needs.
Low porosity hair has tight cuticles that prevent too much moisture from moving in and out of the shaft. It tends to be generally healthy but might need extra moisture treatments.
High porosity hair has an open cuticle layer that can absorb a lot of moisture but also make it hard for the hair strands to retain moisture. You might naturally have high porosity hair, or your strands might have been damaged by heat styling or chemical processes.
High porosity hair needs protein treatments to help repair damage to your hair’s cuticles and moisture treatments to replace lost hydration.
The water test is an easy way to check your hair’s porosity at home. Cut a few clean, dry strands of hair and put them in a glass of water. If the hair floats, it has low porosity, but if the strand quickly absorbs water and sinks, you have high porosity hair.
Porosity can vary from roots to ends and across different parts of your head. For the best results, check hairs from different areas of your head and snip long hairs in half to test separately.
Another easy check for porosity is the spray test, which simply means spraying your dry hair with a little water. If you have low porosity hair, you’ll see visible beads of water on your hair’s surface. If you have high porosity hair, your strands will become saturated more quickly.
Hair With Too Much Moisture
Over-moisturized hair tends to occur when you frequently use heavy hair masks and leave-in products, or don’t have enough protein-enriched products in your hair care routine.
Sleeping on wet hair, leaving deep conditioners on too long, or leaving your hair too wet for too long can also cause your protein-moisture balance to be heavy on the moisture side.
Symptoms Of Moisture Overload
The signs of hair with too much moisture and a protein deficiency include:
- Fluffy hair
- Limp, heavy, and elongated curls
- Soft, mushy strands that stretch then snap
- Wet frizz that feels dry straight out of the shower
In extreme cases, too much moisture can lead to a condition called hygral fatigue, an extreme form of moisture overload that occurs when the hair’s cuticle layer allows too much moisture to penetrate the hair shaft. This causes the hair shaft to swell and then shrink again when the hair dries, damaging the hair shaft.
Hair suffering from hygral fatigue is similar to hair with moisture overload, but the symptoms are more extreme. The hair feels mushy, stretches easily, and takes a long time to dry.
You can read more about this condition and how to manage it in our guide to hygral fatigue.
How To Re-Balance Over Moisturized Hair
To correct over-moisturized hair, you will need to introduce more protein into the strands.
First, clarify your hair to remove any product buildup or mineral buildup from hard water.
Product buildup will prevent treatments from penetrating the hair shaft, so using a good clarifying shampoo will prepare your hair for protein-rich treatments. Bumble + Bumble Sunday Shampoo is a great clarifying shampoo for curly hair.
This is my top pick for clarifying all hair types. It removes buildup the best and is still gentle on curly hair.
If you live in a hard water area, your hair strands might also have a buildup of minerals like calcium. A chelating shampoo like Ion Hard Water Shampoo will help clear mineral buildup from your strands.
Change your wash day routine
If your hair has too much moisture, you probably find it only looks good on wash day. This might make you want to shampoo it every day, but washing your hair too often introduces more water and more moisturizers, which just makes your problem even worse!
Leaving longer between washes will help restore a healthy moisture and protein balance. Our hair texture guides will help you work out the right shampooing frequency for your hair type.
Not sure which hair type you have? Check out our quick Curly Hair Type Quiz.
When you wash your hair, avoid super-hydrating techniques like wet plopping, the bowl method, or ‘squish to condish’. Your hair doesn’t need any extra hydration at the moment, so these techniques will just make your problem worse.
Don’t over-hydrate
If your hair is over-moisturized, it’s also best to skip leave-in conditioners until you’ve corrected the moisture protein imbalance.
Remove excess water from your hair with a microfiber before applying styling products. Diffuse dry your hair until 100% dry to avoid keeping it wet for too long.
Check your products
If your hair has too much moisture, it’s probably also in need of protein. There’s a good chance that most of the hair care products you’re currently using are protein-free or only contain a small amount of protein ingredients like collagen, keratin, or amino acids.
Now is the time to switch up your routine and add some protein-enriched products.
Protein-rich conditioners like Hairfinity Strengthening Amino Treatment Masque will help infuse your hair with protein and restore the health of your hair.
Depending on how your hair feels, you could try using intense protein treatments like Olaplex No. 3 Hair Perfector, a pre-shampoo treatment designed to repair damaged hair.
You can also try styling products infused with proteins, such as SheaMoisture Curl Mousse, which contains silk amino acids, or Botanic Hearth Hair Gel, which is enriched with keratin.
It might help to take a break from using too many moisturizing products while you reset your protein-moisture balance. You don’t need to skip all styling products, but keep extra styling products to a minimum for a few weeks and reintroduce them slowly, watching for any changes in your hair.
Hair With Too Much Protein
Protein overload tends to occur when your hair care routine is packed with too many protein products and not enough moisturizing products.
If you’ve been using protein-enriched deep conditioners and hair masks too often, this can easily lead to protein overload and a lack of moisture.
Symptoms Of Protein Overload
The signs of hair with too much protein include:
- Hair that feels stiff, dry, and rough to the touch
- Hair that is brittle and prone to breakage
- Hair that looks dull and frizzy
How To Re-Balance Protein Overload
Hair suffering from protein overload will be dry, and needs a boost of additional moisture.
As above, your first step should be a clarifying or chelating shampoo to remove any buildup from your hair strands. This will leave your hair ready to soak up the moisture you’re going to add in the next step.
Add moisture
Regular use of a deep conditioning mask will make a big difference to your hair’s moisture levels. Be sure to pick a protein-free deep conditioner or hair mask like Briogeo Superfoods Avocado + Kiwi Mega Moisture Mask or Jessicurl Deep Conditioning Treatment to avoid adding even more protein to your overloaded hair strands.
Adding heat can boost the moisturizing properties of your deep conditioning treatments even further. Simply popping a shower cap over your hair and wrapping it in a towel will help, but you could also consider sitting under a hair steamer or wearing a heated cap to boost the effects of your moisture treatment.
Change your shampoo
Avoid shampoos containing harsh sulfates and parabens, as these can strip your hair’s natural oils and make it feel even drier. A sulfate-free shampoo like SheaMoisture Curl and Shine Coconut Shampoo will be gentler on your damaged locks.
You could also try using a co-wash like Curlsmith Curl Quenching Conditioning Wash to keep your curls soft and bouncy.
Incorporating hydration techniques like squish to condish or the bowl method into your wash day routine will add much-needed moisture to your tresses.
Choose Protein-free Products
Take a look at the ingredients of the products you use in your hair care routine. You’ll probably find many of them include protein ingredients like keratin, amino acids, and anything hydrolyzed.
Switch to protein-free products for a while to see if your hair improves. Choosing products containing nourishing moisturizers like aloe vera, shea butter, and coconut oil will hydrate your tresses without weighing them down.
You’ll find more information on identifying protein-rich products and choosing alternatives in our guide to protein-free hair products.
When you add protein products back into your wash day routine, introduce one at a time and check for any changes in your hair’s condition.
FAQ
If you’re still confused about the protein-moisture balance in your hair, the answers to these frequently asked questions can help.
Is Moisture Or Protein Better For Curly Hair?
Both moisture and protein are essential for curly hair. Moisture keeps your strands soft, shiny, and manageable, while protein gives them more strength and resilience.
Does Frizzy Hair Lack Moisture Or Protein?
Dry, frizzy, and inelastic hair is more likely to need additional moisture. Providing extra hydration will help keep your tresses feeling soft and manageable.
What Does Protein Overload Look Like On Curly Hair?
Hair that’s suffering from protein overload will look dull and wiry, and feel dry and brittle. You may also notice more shedding than usual, which is caused by hairs breaking when they are brushed.
The Bottom Line
Healthy curls have a delicate balance of protein and moisture, which can easily be disrupted by overuse of products, hot styling tools, chemical treatments like color treatments, or everyday wear and tear.
Too much moisture makes your hair limp and heavy, but too much protein makes it stiff, straw-like, and prone to breaking. So, how can a curly girl achieve a good balance of protein and moisture?
Fixing a protein or moisture overload will take trial and error. You’ll need to try out different products and make changes to your hair care routine.
These changes won’t take effect overnight, and your hair will need time to repair itself. But once you’ve found the right protein moisture balance, your reward will be a mane of beautiful, healthy curls.
