by DHA's DIY | Sep 13, 2022 | Product Reviews, Deep Conditioners, Porosity, Protein Treatment
So you think you need a protein treatment, but you’re not quite sure which one would work best on your hair type.
There’s a simple way to figure it out.
Take this quiz to see the type of protein you really need.
Different protein treatments work differently on different hair types. But it’s not just your curl or lack thereof that counts. This quiz takes key aspects of your hair’s behaviour and its traits to find your hair’s ideal protein partner.
And if you have hair that fits into any of these categories, check the sections below to get more details on the best protein treatments for:
- Natural hair (naturally curly hair, types 2-4)
- Relaxed hair
- Bleached hair
- Locked hair
- 4c hair
- Protein sensitive hair
- Low porosity hair
What’s the best protein treatment for curly hair?
For naturally curly hair, we typically recommend these protein treatments:
- La Aplanadora Treatment
- Halka Baba de Caracol Moisturizing Hair Mask,
- BPT Wheat Germ Treatment
- MayOliva Treatment
- Silicon Mix Treatment (Original)
- Crece Pelo Treatment
The lower the porosity of your curly hair, the more you should concentrate on the first few 1-4 conditioners; we’ve listed the most penetrating first. If your hair is moderately low to high porosity, you should get good results with any of these six – subject to other characteristics of your hair of course.
What’s the best protein treatment for Afro hair?
The same as the ones we recommended for curly hair. Afro hair = curly hair in most cases (those with real-life Addy doll hair excepted of course). If your hair is relaxed, check out our suggestions in the section on relaxed hair below.
So again, the list of best protein treatments for Afro hair:
- La Aplanadora Treatment
- Halka Baba de Caracol Moisturizing Hair Mask,
- BPT Wheat Germ Treatment
- MayOliva Treatment
- Silicon Mix Treatment (Original)
- Crece Pelo Treatment
What’s the best protein treatment for 4c hair?
In most cases, we’d caution against using your curl type to tell you what protein treatment or any other product to use. Why? Because curl type = curl size for the most part. It doesn’t tell you anything about texture, porosity, condition – all factors that have way more influence on what product will or won’t work.
But 4c is different.
4c is the only curl category that takes porosity into account, so it tells you a lot more useful information on what hair characteristics you’re working with. With 4c hair being pretty much universally low porosity (most of it super low porosity), you can tell immediately that certain conditioners – the ones with formulas that just don’t bind to the hair as well – aren’t going to work.
4c hair is also typically extremely dry, so a protein treatment for 4c hair needs to bring some degree of moisture. Otherwise, the stiffness caused by the protein (necessary in most cases to strengthen the hair) could lead to brittleness, or “protein sensitivity”.
The condition the hair is in is the third major factor. If your hair is seriously damaged, it will need a higher strength protein treatment.
Not only does the concentration of protein in the treatment need to be high enough to really make an instant change on hair that is at that breaking point, but the protein it contains should be the most binding, too.
And to make all of that happen, the overall formulation of the treatment will need to be good at binding to the cuticle, or your hair won’t be able to benefit.
We managed to narrow that down to two: La Aplanadora Treatment and Halka Baba de Caracol Hair Moisturizing Mask.
For 4c hair with severe damage or breakage, it’s La Aplanadora Treatment. This is a high moisture, high protein treatment so will take care of the moisture-protein balance issues on really dry 4c hair. It’s also based on keratin isolates, which have a greater affinity for hair so can bind to the damaged sections really well.
For 4c hair that’s less damaged and is sometimes on the protein sensitive side, the best protein treatment would be Halka Baba de Caracol Hair Moisturizing Mask. The protein aspect of this treatment is slightly less intense; it’s based on collagen and elastin proteins rather than keratin. It’s intensely moisturising and softening though.
By the way, to get this treatment to bind to 4c hair properly, you have to layer on its sister conditioner, Halka Baba de Caracol Conditioner, first. That product acts like a carrier to bring the treatment into your hair.
If your 4c hair is certified protein sensitive, then you can use atrActiva Keratin Rich Conditioner. It’s a more gradual strengthener, using ceramides to strengthen hair, so it’s a good alternative to protein for 4c hair that doesn’t tolerate proteins that well.
Another gradual way to strengthen damaged hair without protein is through moisture training.
Can you use a protein treatment on locs?
Technically the answer is yes. The one concern would be the residue; protein treatments are designed to leave deposits of protein on the hair to strengthen it.
For that reason, protein treatments can sometimes cause temporary buildup issues, though on unlocked hair that’s usually solved with a clarifying shampoo. With locs, any buildup issue that you get on loose hair tends to be more complicated to remove.
For locked hair, we recommend less intense protein alternatives like atrActiva Keratin Rich Conditioner, which uses ceramides to fill in the gaps in your hair instead of protein. The lighter, more liquid consistency also makes it easier to apply on your locs..
Can you use a protein treatment on protein sensitive hair if it’s breaking?
Deciding what to use on protein sensitive hair when it’s extremely damaged can be tricky. On the one hand, proteins on protein sensitive hair can cause near instant breakage. But on the other, proteins are one of the main ways to stop your hair from breaking.
The safest thing is to test your hair’s reaction to protein first. So clarify with a deep cleansing shampoo to remove all the buildup. atrActiva Anti-Stress Shampoo does this well. Then apply your protein treatment to one small section, leave it on for the allotted time, rinse it and note your hair’s reaction as it dries and over the next couple of days.
If your hair doesn’t start to feel brittle, it’s probably safe to apply the protein treatment all over your hair. It also indicates that you probably had a type of very temporary protein sensitivity which was just due to buildup.
If your hair does get a little stiff, but still feels stronger overall, you can try mixing the protein treatment with a non protein treatment, e.g., La Aplanadora Treatment + atrActiva Multivitamin Treatment. Using a milder protein treatment like Halka Baba de Caracol Moisturizing Mask, as long as you use the matching conditioner under it, should also work.
If your hair feels brittle after your protein test, then go for a protein alternative like atrActiva Keratin Rich Conditioner.
What’s the best protein treatment for bleached hair?
For bleached hair, we’d recommend La Aplanadora Treatment; you need a seriously strong protein that can cope with the severe levels of damage caused by bleach. Another really good protein treatment for bleached hair – that few people realise is a protein treatment – is Silicon Mix, the original formula.
It’s not as strong as La Aplanadora in the protein stakes, but the combination of keratin and silicones are great for filling and sealing respectively – two really important conditioning goals on bleached hair. Silicon Mix Proteina de Perla Treatment is another good option on bleached hair, based on pearl protein extract.
What’s the best protein treatment for relaxed hair?
Relaxed hair is dealing with some very similar damage to bleached hair, so has similar needs. Depending on other factors in your hair, you can use the same protein treatments on your relaxed hair, but take the quiz above to be sure.
La Aplanadora Treatment, Silicon Mix Treatment (original), Silicon Mix Proteina de Perla Treatment and Crece Pelo Treatment are all good protein treatments for relaxed hair.
What’s the best protein treatment for low porosity hair?
The best protein treatments for low porosity hair are, of course, the ones that are best able to bind to your hair.
That would be La Aplanadora Treatment, Halka Baba de Caracol Moisturizing Hair Mask, BPT Wheat Germ Treatment and MayOliva Treatment. And yes, you can use protein treatments on low porosity hair. We have a whole article on that, here.
What’s the best protein treatment for high porosity hair?
Like bleached hair and relaxed hair (both of which are at the high porosity end of the spectrum), strong protein treatments are the way to go for high porosity hair. La Aplanadora Treatment, as a potent rejuvenator formula, will help fill in the gaps on the surface that high porosity hair is more prone to, as well as connecting with the binding sites on the surface that make high porosity hair so thirsty. Silicon Mix is a great follow up.
Alternatively, try Halka Baba de Caracol Conditioner paired with Halka Baba de Caracol Moisturizing Hair Mask. This combination is less intense, but is still very strengthening. It also balances that strengthening side very well with its emollient element, so can be used long term without fear of the stiffness that can come with protein overload.
To find out more on how to take care of your high porosity hair, download our free, full-length DHA High Porosity Guide.
by DHA's DIY | Jul 18, 2022 | High Porosity, Low Porosity, Porosity, Super Low Porosity
Why is hair porosity important? Does it really matter?
And how do you even find out if you have high porosity, medium porosity, low porosity or super low porosity hair?
The answers to these, plus (finally!) a legit, science-based porosity test that actually works.
First, what’s hair porosity?
Unlike other hair typing systems, which are based on strand diameter (fine, medium, coarse), density (thin, medium, thick), or wave pattern (straight, wavy, curly), hair porosity is more evident in the way your hair behaves than how it looks.
That’s because your hair porosity isn’t a feature you can see, at least with the naked eye. It’s a measure of how your strands react to products, ingredients, and even air or water. The more willing your hair is to absorb these different things, or hold them on its surface, the higher your hair porosity.
What are the porosity hair types?
The main hair porosity types are: high porosity hair, medium porosity hair, and low porosity hair . Low porosity hair can be divided into two further subtypes (moderately) low porosity hair, and super low porosity hair as when hair porosity gets very low it begins to act in almost the opposite way to other low porosity hair. Porosity occurs along a range, from extremely high to extremely low.
As a result, some high porosity hair is higher than others, and even within extremely low porosity hair (aka super low porosity) there are degrees of difference in how low your porosity is.
Hair porosity also refers to the amount of pores or holes on the surface of your hair. Damaged hair tends to have lots of these, which makes it porous; prone to absorbing a lot of stuff due to its structure.
Why does hair porosity matter?
The main reason why hair porosity is important is because it controls how your hair interacts with pretty much everything, from the weather, to water, to the products you apply.
Your hair’s porosity affects how it reacts to humidity. Image by Rodrigo Feksa.
Because it’s based on how the surface of your hair behaves, porosity is a better predictor of how your hair will respond to any of these factors than traditional ideas used to classify hair, including strand diameter, curl type or ethnicity.
Knowing your hair’s porosity will help you know how your hair is likely to react to humid weather, figure out what type of dye or other process you can use, and choose the right products and routines.
What’s high porosity hair?
High porosity hair is the same as “porous hair”; it’s hair with a more ‘open’ structure than other hair types. This can be for a variety of reasons. For one, the cuticle layers might be more raised, naturally, or due to severe chemical or physical damage.
The surface of the strand might have more pores or holes in it, due to damage. Or the outer layers of the hair might be completely or partially missing; this also happens due to damage.
Sometimes, it’s all three. Either way, this makes the hair more porous: it will absorb more liquids, but usually release them very quickly, too. Ingredients that don’t stick to the surface of other hair types can stick to the surface of high porosity hair and be very difficult to remove.
And frequently, products and ingredients that can’t make it past the surface on other hair types get drawn in deep on high porosity hair and often seem to ‘disappear’. Chemical processes also tend to happen faster on this type of hair, too. Check out the DHA High Porosity Guide to find out more about what makes hair high porosity, and how to take care of high porosity hair.
What’s low porosity hair?
Low porosity hair is the type of hair we’re all born with: it has flattened, compact cuticles, and a hydrophobic, ‘water hating’ surface that absorbs very little, very slowly.
Over time, most people’s hair transforms to medium or even high porosity, due to wear and tear. The hair that doesn’t change as much, and retains most of these characteristics is called low porosity hair.
Low porosity hair in general tends to have a resistant surface which is choosy about the products it will let sit on its surface let alone absorb. Chemical processes also typically take longer on low porosity hair because of this resistant surface.
Low porosity begins with moderately low porosity hair, which while slow, absorbs moisture and retains it very well, so tends not to suffer from dryness. It extends all the way to super low porosity hair at the very end of the porosity continuum.
What is super low porosity hair?
This is the second of the two subtypes of low porosity hair. While moderately low porosity hair, is what is often thought of as ‘classic low porosity hair’, super low porosity hair’s extreme traits mean some people might not realise it is actually low porosity hair.
Super low porosity hair isn’t just slow to absorb; it resists penetration by even water, almost completely. Most products slide off its surface or sit awkwardly on the cuticle, causing flaking or buildup instead of really connecting with the hair.
As a result, super low porosity hair doesn’t have the great moisture retention typically attributed to low porosity hair because it can never take in enough to meet its needs in the first place.
On this type of low porosity hair, severe dryness is a common issue–despite the widely held idea that low porosity hair is doesn’t suffer from moisture issues.
As the name suggests, medium porosity hair stands somewhere in the middle. It’s not resistant to processing or products, nor does it overly absorb or react to them. When this hair type is in good condition, its moisture needs are low and easily met by normal shampoooing and conditioning. However, when it is damaged, or exposed to extreme weather, both undermoisturisation and overmoisturisation can be a problem. Medium porosity hair is often described as “normal porosity hair”, although due to wide use of chemicals and low porosity hair being more common than originally thought, it is probably not the norm.
Hair porosity: How to know
You can determine your hair’s porosity by its characteristics, which we’ve mentioned in this article, weighing them up and seeing which category your hair best fits into.
You can also take a hair porosity quiz like the one below, or physically do a hair porosity test, by applying water to your hair and observing what happens to the water, while it’s on your strand.
If the water gets taken in very quickly, your hair is most likely high porosity. If that happens very slowly, or doesn’t seem to happen at all, then you have low porosity hair. There’s more on that below.
Hair porosity and drying time
The biggest clue to your hair’s porosity is the drying time—but be careful. It does throw up more than a little confusion. . .
What hair porosity takes forever to dry?
Low porosity hair is notorious for taking long to dry. It can take several hours, sometimes well over a day, to airdry after washing. Why? The resistant surface on this hair type is hard to penetrate, but once water enters, it’s even harder to leave.
Some low porosity hair can remain wet for several hours. Image by Ashley
This characteristic only applies to one type of low porosity hair, however: moderately low porosity hair. The lower the porosity goes, the more this effect weakens, until it disappears completely.
There are also some extreme cases, where high porosity hair is so porous, it begins to hold onto moisture for ages, just like low porosity hair. But in this case, it’s not because the cuticle won’t let the water leave; it’s because the cuticle and lipid layers have been completely destroyed. The cortex underneath is very hydrophilic or water-loving, so will hold onto a lot of water, even though excess water absorption damages the hair.
What porosity hair dries fast?
This is a tricky one. There are actually two hair porosity types that dry very fast: high porosity hair and super low porosity hair. Other than their fast drying time, which happens for completely opposite reasons, these porosity types are actually very different and need very different care.
Porosity hair test: water version
Be warned: the ‘porosity test’ where you put a strand of your hair in a glass of water and see if it will float or not is bogus. It’s been debunked many times over.
The main flaw is that it tends to give false results depending on how thick your strands are (heavier strands tend to sink regardless of porosity; finer ones tend to float), and what’s on your hair (oil helps the hair float, other more humectant debris could make it more sinkable).
Floating a strand of your hair in a glass of water won’t tell you your porosity. Image by Marco Flores.
If you want to use water to test your hair’s porosity, there are much better ways.
For a rough test of your hair porosity, you can just start with freshly shampooed, product-free hair. Then let it airdry. If it dries really slowly, you most likely have moderately low porosity hair. If it takes a few hours, that’s likely to be medium, and if it dries super fast, you either have super low porosity hair or high porosity hair.
Step-by-step instructions on how to do a more accurate version of the porosity test are here.
Or try the no water porosity test:
Porosity test: no water version
If you want to know if you have low porosity or high porosity hair, but don’t feel like applying water to your hair and then waiting with the patience of a scientist to see what it does, you can take the science-based porosity test at the top of this page, based on your hair’s behaviour to give you a result in about 3 minutes.
When to test hair porosity
If you’re going to do a physical test of your hair’s porosity, you need to do it when your hair is clean, as in freshly shampooed; product-free – as in nothing applied after the shampoo, not even conditioner, or a drop of oil. Your hair should also be airdried – so don’t use a blowdryer, as this can have a temporary effect on your hair’s porosity.
For the most accurate results, follow the step-by-step instructions in the DHA High Porosity Guide which you can download for free here.
Hair porosity and products
Your hair’s porosity has an overarching impact on how products work. Porosity decides which products can absorb into your hair, which ones get to adsorb (have some type of attraction or bond that sticks them to your hair’s surface) or which ones will just sit there momentarily until they roll off, evaporate or get rubbed away.
And because different porosity types act differently in different weather, you’ll need to change up your products (or at least how you apply them), based on the way your porosity interacts with the weather.
For example, humidity tends to be more of a problem for high or medium porosity hair than for low porosity hair types.
If you have medium to high porosity hair, you might be better off trying to block excess moisture from entering your hair in humid conditions. Simple steps like using an occlusive conditioner, and finishing off with a few drops of Shine Drop Shield Leave In Conditioning Serum would do a good job of reducing frizz and swelling.
But if you have low porosity hair, whether moderately low or super low, the high levels of moisture in the air can be a good thing. Because of your hair’s resistant structure, it’s unlikely to absorb too much moisture. Instead, the warm, wet air could enhance the work of your leave in and actually calm frizz.
Moisturizing with La Aplanadora Leave In, topped by a humectant-rich jelly like Capilo Pro B-Natural Gel could help you make the most of sultry weather, especially if you tend to suffer from dryness in more temperate climes.
Which hair porosity is the best?
It all depends on which problems you’d prefer to have. Each level of porosity comes with its own advantages and tradeoffs.
High porosity hair tends to respond well to most products, but it tends to absorb them very quickly so you’ll need to strategise on how to apply them. As a rule of thumb you’ll need to use very concentrated treatments: think La Aplanadora or Silicon Mix, to get the conditioning effects to last a lot longer and keep on top of dryness.
You’ll also need to be extra strict about chemical processes when you have this hair type, since high porosity hair tends to overprocess easily. In extreme cases, when the porosity is due to severe damage, it can become impossible for hair dye to take.
Most products are designed for medium porosity hair, which makes it easy to find products that work at this porosity level. However, medium porosity hair can be sensitive to humidity and get weighed down easily.
Moderately low porosity hair tends to be better at holding onto moisture than other hair types. The flipside is that great moisture retention tends to come with an extremely long drying time.
Low porosity hair in general tends to only ‘like’ a few products, so you might end up searching for longer before you find something that actually suits your hair. Few conditioners ‘penetrate’ because they can’t bind well to the resistant surface typical of low porosity hair; one that does is Keratin Rich Detangling Conditioner and the new Afro Love Detox Mask.
Super low porosity hair rejects even more products and ingredients than moderately low porosity hair. It’s also a lot harder to moisturise (though it gets easy when you know how).
The key is finding the products that match your hair’s surface and then layering them: using a mild sulfate shampoo like Silicon Mix Hidratante, to clear the surface is the first step. Then, you need to infuse moisture and emollients: Baba de Caracol Conditioner overlaid with Baba de Caracol Mask, followed up with La Aplanadora Leave In and a low porosity sealant will help your hair overcome typical super low porosity moisture issues.
On the flipside, there are advantages. Super low porosity hair dries so fast after you wash it, you will probably never need a blowdryer if you have this hair type–Dominican Blowouts aside, of course. And because it’s much more difficult to weigh down, super low porosity hair tends to have pretty good volume.
Can hair porosity change?
Yes. You can temporarily change the porosity of your hair by the products you use. Conditioners, for example are designed to lower the porosity of your hair; natural, healthy hair is always low in porosity.
You can also raise the porosity of your hair: shampoos do this temporarily, as in, they make your hair more hydrophilic or willing to absorb water. Interestingly, conditioners do too, initially, but by the time you’ve rinsed the conditioner from your hair, this effect switches and your hair becomes hydrophobic, more like low porosity hair, thanks to the complex layering of ingredients in conditioning formulas.
Those are the temporary changes. Permanent changes to your hair’s porosity happen via damage. And they only tend to happen in one direction: increasing it.
Cuticle lifting, before and after. Image by Jae Hong Ji, Tae-Sik Park, Hae-Jin Lee, Yoon-Duk Kim, Long-Quan Pi, Xin-Hai Jin & Won-Soo Lee
hair porosity hair porosity hair porosity
The porosity increase happens after a structural change to your hair. One of the most common is cuticle lifting, where your cuticle scales either buckle or get decemented from your strand. Buckling can sometimes be remedied, but a fully lifted cuticle is a gone cuticle; it’s permanently damaged.
Your hair’s porosity can also rise when damage from heat, harsh styling or the environment leaves holes in your cuticle. The most common way to raise your porosity is by dissolving the hydrophobic outer layer of your hair, and creating holes in the next water resistant layer. Most chemicals used to alter colour or texture can do this and the effect is irreversible, a common side effect of bleaching, relaxing or perming hair.
That’s why it’s so important to protect your hair porosity as much as possible when it comes to the products, styling methods and any chemical processes you use on your hair. An excessive increase in porosity always comes with a rise in fragility, roughness and product issues. It can lead to severe breakage.
If you’re looking to increase your hair porosity on purpose, to get it to absorb more moisture, that strategy might work at first, but the damage that gets inflicted eventually becomes unsustainable.
hair porosity hair porosity hair porosit
To enhance your hair’s hydration levels safely, try moisture training instead. hair porosity hair porosity hair porosit
by DHA's DIY | Mar 31, 2022 | Deep Conditioners, Dry Hair, Low Porosity, Porosity, Super Low Porosity
If you have low porosity natural hair, you’ve probably heard that you need to steam your hair to get your conditioner to penetrate.
But every good steamer comes with a price tag and if that’s not in the budget right now it’s OK.
Here’s how you can get some of the benefits of a steamer just by turning up your conditioners and your method.
Why is steam good for natural and low porosity hair?
At DHA, we’re big fans of moist heat, aka steam. because of the way it can bring hydration to the most resistant, impenetrable low porosity hair.
The ‘steam’ your hair actually comes into contact with when using a steamer is really water vapour, droplets of H2O that have gotten hot and light enough to float in the air, but not quite hot enough to be steam.
Using steam can help moisture from conditioners penetrate low porosity hair. Image by Bryant Churckyno.
These droplets work so well at hydrating low porosity hair because when they’re in this vaporous state, water molecules have way more energy than in their regular liquid form. They move faster and more freely, which makes it quicker and easier for these droplets (aka moisture) to penetrate your hair strand.
Another big reason why hair steamers hydrate better than normal, liquid water is because the surface tension is reduced to almost zero. You know how when water is still, whether in a glass or a calm lake, the surface looks really flat, almost like it has a skin over it? This is because of surface tension, or the way the molecules at the surface of a liquid naturally cling together.
Water’s high surface tension gives it a flat surface in this glass. Image by Manu Schwendener.
Water’s surface tension makes it harder for it to penetrate your hair since its own surface is holding it back. Add that to the resistance of low porosity hair to absorb pretty much anything and you’ll see why it takes so long for your hair to get wet – if it gets wet at all.
For the water droplets released by the steamer, surface tension is effectively gone. This is what frees them to float onto and drift into your hair, making their way into the few gaps your low porosity hair permits – and finally getting it hydrated.
All this added moisture is what makes deep conditioning low porosity hair with steam so effective.
What is better a hair steamer, a heat cap or a dryer?
Using just heat, e.g., a heat cap, does make your conditioner more fluid and so more able to give good coverage. But since heat caps don’t emit water vapour, they don’t deliver the level of hydration you’ll get with a steamer.
Using heat from a hood dryer can also help ‘activate’ your conditioning treatment, but it won’t add moisture. Plus, if your hair is not properly sealed with plastic or you stay under the dry heat too long, it can even dry out your hair.
Why deep penetrating moisture is so important to low porosity hair
Natural hair needs moisture because our strands’ internal structure actually uses water for strength. Water also increases hair’s plasticity; it makes it more flexible, which in turn makes it more manageable, easier to style and able to resist breakage.
Straight low porosity hair tends to take care of its moisture needs on auto pilot, especially when it comes to virgin hair. The different structure of curly hair makes holding onto moisture more complicated, so the hair’s natural moisture needs to be topped up.
Tightly-curled low porosity hair is prone to breakage if moisture levels get too low. Image by The Collab.
When porosity is extremely low, which happens naturally on many tight curly hair types, especially “4C”, your hair can become so dry it breaks off. This happens because the natural moisture stores within the strand are not enough, and it’s so hard to get moisture to penetrate with typical haircare methods and products.
Using steam is one way to overcome that barrier and allow these hair types – which are prone to breaking off before they hit their terminal length – to grow long. Add to that the fact that when your hair’s moisture level is correct, it also feels a lot softer and smoother to the touch, and just more fun to play in.
How steaming helps increase your hair’s moisture level faster
If you’re trying to correct your moisture protein balance or get your hair moisture trained, a steamer, with its higher energy water molecules, is a much faster way to hydrate your hair.
A weekly steam will mean your hair (provided it is not extremely damaged) gets to its ideal moisture level within 1-2 months, as opposed to several months if you try to achieve this by weekly treatments with a typical deep conditioner and no steam.
How much does a good hair steamer cost?
Good steamers aren’t cheap. A decent steamer will cost you in the region of £150, and the price can get a lot higher the more premium the model you’re looking at.
How to get the benefits of steaming WITHOUT a hair steamer
If a steamer is sounding like exactly what your hair needs, but the cost is prohibitive right now, don’t worry. It turns out you can get almost all the benefits of steaming if you just switch to a conditioner that penetrates better, and change the way you apply your conditioners.
OK there’s no question: adding steam to this improved conditioning method would take your moisture levels up to stratospheric. But if you’re looking for a moisture increase that’s equivalent to the level that steam + any decent treatment will bring, then upgrading to a stronger treatment + this method will do the trick and then some, with no steamer needed.
Using a superconditioner, the right application and timing hydrates hair like a steamer. Image by DHA.
Step 1: Pick the right treatment
f you want moisture at a steam type level, you need to use a conditioning treatment, not a regular conditioner. You can use rinse out conditioner as an additional product, but you’ll need to use a hair mask, too. Treatments or hair masks are designed to be more intensive, which is what you need to get anywhere near the effects of steaming.
And don’t just throw on any conditioning treatment and hope for the best. Go for a superconditioner if you want to replicate the work a steamer does and then some. Superconditioners are extremely concentrated, high performance conditioning treatments. Because they contain many times the typical level of conditioning ingredients, they feel a lot richer and can hydrate your hair way faster and on a deeper level than even good quality conventional deep conditioners.
atrActiva Multivitamin Treatment is a superconditioner that can be used to replicate the steaming effect.
|
|
How to identify the best treatments for steaming hair
Cetyl alcohol is fatty, solid and conditioning. It shouldn’t be confused with drying, liquid alcohols.
You’ll know these superconditioners by their thickness, and their higher concentrations of the ingredients that count. These are the ingredients that hydrate your hair, strengthen it and smooth it, by penetrating or adsorbing onto to your hair.
Ironically, the ingredients that do this hard work generally aren’t the botanical extracts and natural oils most brands boast about on their labels.
Instead, look for actual conditioning agents high up on the list: cetrimonium chloride, cetyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol, to name a few. Silicones have gotten a lot of negativity in the media, but having one or two somewhere in the middle of the ingredients list is usually good news for your hair, too.
Also avoid very oily or buttery conditioning treatments when steaming low porosity hair. If there’s too much oil or butter in the treatment, these ingredients can act as barriers, especially on low porosity hair which has limited room on the surface or inside the strand.
Finally, the treatment you choose should be very slippery to the touch. This characteristic, known as detangling slip, means the product has good movement along the strands. Not only does this help with combing more easily, it’s also a sign of good coverage, which is essential for proper conditioning on low porosity hair.
For treatments that tick all these boxes, atrActiva Multivitamin, La Aplanadora Treatment and Halka Baba de Caracol are some good options. We list quite a few more here.
Step 2: Apply your conditioning treatment the right way
Once you’ve picked your treatment, it’s all about the application. We’ll be blunt: you need to be generous. Don’t bother trying to get away with using just a teaspoon or a quarter size on low porosity hair, especially if your hair is very dry. Give your hair what it needs.
The goal is to take your hair right to the point where it’s seaweedy with conditioner. That feel signals that your hair has started to absorb the treatment. We have a step-by-step guide on how to get products to penetrate into low porosity hair that explains exactly how to do it.
See how seaweed always looks drenched and slimy? That’s what your hair should look like once you’re done applying conditioner. Image by Matt Dawson.
Then, take some plastic wrap and cover your head. Make sure all the hair is in, including the edges, and wrap it around your head a few times.
Step 3: Get the timing right
Leave your treatment on at least 20 to 30 minutes to allow it to truly take to your hair, then rinse it all the way out with warm water. If you’ve never ever steamed your hair, chances are you’ve never experienced your hair like this before. If you have steamed, then you know what to expect: intensely silky, soft, flexible hair unlike anything your regular rinse out conditioner, hot oil or deep conditioner can do alone on low porosity hair.
With a superconditioner and this intensive application method, you can consistently achieve steamer-fresh hair on low porosity hair without needing a steamer.
This method is so good to your hair, in terms of softness, smoothness, shine, manageability, growth and potential for definition, it’s worth doing this every week to keep your hair in this pristine condition that is unlike anything you knew it could achieve.
This method will work especially well if you have ‘hard hair’ aka super low porosity hair that no conditioner, treatment or method ever seems to work on. To get the results, you need to follow every step to the T. If you have any questions on getting the steps right, just let us know in the comments section below.
The Super Low Porosity Survival Kit
We’re putting the finishing touches on our first batch of the DHA Super Low Porosity Survival Kit. It’s a compilation of the products that really work on super low porosity hair – the most extreme kind of low porosity hair out there – and a free course on how to care for this hair type. You can preorder your kit via the link below. Press the pink button for details.
by DHA's DIY | Mar 30, 2022 | Blowout, Deep Conditioners, Dry Hair, Hair Growth, Hair Straightening, High Porosity, Low Porosity, Natural Hair, Porosity, Super Low Porosity
These days, Silicon Mix Bambu Treatment is almost as popular as the shine-amplifying Silicon Mix original. But what’s the difference between these two Dominican superconditioners and which one is best for your hair type?
What is Silicon Mix Conditioner?
Unless you’ve missed the Caribbean wave of hair products that’s swept the beauty world in recent years – from Jamaican Black Castor oil to Dominican superconditioners – you’ll already have heard of Silicon Mix.
Hailed for its services to blowouts, silk presses and weaves everywhere, Silicon Mix is a line of conditioners, shampoos, leave ins and stylers from the Dominican Republic – the Caribbean island nation famous for its exports of rich, exotic conditioners. There are actually four lines under the Silicon Mix name: the original Silicon Mix (Hidratante), Silicon Mix Argan Oil, Silicon Mix Proteina de Perla, and Silicon Mix Bambu.
Silicon Mix is best known for its conditioners or more accurately, its conditioning treatments: rich, creamy formulas with tropical scents and tons of slip that leave hair gleaming, no matter how damaged, dry or brittle it was before.The original Silicon Mix treatment has become the stuff of hairdressing legend. Once the Dominican salon’s best-kept secret for creating mirror-shiny blowouts on hair textures other salons couldn’t straighten, it quickly spread out to other stylists in cities like NYC, with strong connections to the DR, and
is now used around the world.
Silicon Mix Treatments. Clockwise from top left: Bambu; Hidratante; Argan Oil; and Proteina De Perla.
How Silicon Mix Treatments work
All the Silicon Mix treatments use a proprietary mix of silicones and substantive conditioning agents alongside other ingredients to create a protective layer on the hair that silkens away roughness, smooths curls and amps up the hair’s shine.
While the silicones tackle the surface, ingredients like cetyl alcohol and cetrimonium chloride make the hair softer and more flexible, as well as helping draw moisture into the strand, leaving it hydrated.
The protective, yet weightless layer it encases strands in has gained the original Silicon Mix a second claim to fame: this time for reviving wigs and weaves. Extension specialists use it to maintain Remy hair, extending the lifetime on these costly human hair extensions, allowing them to be reused multiple times.
Silicon Mix Treatment works well on weaves and wigs. Image by Tubarones Photography.
The difference between Silicon Mix and Silicon Mix Bambu
When you open up the jars, you notice the difference in these two products right away. The original Silicon Mix is white and very viscous, while Silicon Mix Bambu is yellow and a little lighter in consistency. Silicon Mix has a gentle musky scent, slightly reminiscent of Caribbean vetiver; Silicon Mix Bambu has a more playful, tropical fruit aroma.
They work differently, too. While all the Silicon Mix conditioners use a blend of silicones and fatty conditioning agents to provide intense conditioning and protection to the hair, each of the spin-offs contains its own star ingredient, designed to add a different benefit. For Silicon Mix Bambu, it’s bamboo extract, known for its strengthening abilities. There are a few other differences as well:
Silicon Mix Bambu is protein-free
The overall formulation is different in Silicon Mix Bambu Treatment vs Silicon Mix Treatment. Flip around the jar to the ingredients list, and you’ll see a number of those differences. For one, protein (keratin) is a key ingredient in Silicon Mix original. It’s partly responsible for the strengthening “shock treatment” the product delivers to damaged, brittle hair.
Silicon Mix Bambu Treatment is keratin-free, which is appealing to people with protein sensitive hair. Mineral oil is also lower down in the list in Bambu, which is good news for people with low porosity hair that doesn’t usually ‘like’ this ingredient in higher concentrations.
Silicon Mix Bambu Treatment is lighter
The lighter consistency makes Silicon Mix Bambu easier and quicker to spread through the hair, especially if you have thick or low porosity hair and like to apply your conditioners with a wet brush. That lighter formula also makes Silicon Mix Bambu a good option for people with loose curls who want to keep the curl in their hair as they blowdry.
The original Silicon Mix is designed for blowdrying hair straight which mean it can straighten a little too much on hair where the curl is not that strong. Silicon Mix Bambu delivers the trademark Silicon Mix smoothing without the straightening effect.
Silicon Mix adds more shine, Bambu is more penetrating
Performance-wise, the original Silicon Mix definitely has the most dramatic effect on the hair’s surface, slipping it into an invisible silicone envelope and creating the most intense shine.
Silicon Mix Bambu penetrates easily into low porosity 4C hair. Image by Tubarones Photography.
This is what makes it so good on weaves and wigs which start to look dull as the cuticle wears down. Silicon Mix’s protective casing makes human hair wigs and extensions look brand new again – especially when you blend it with atrActiva Multivitamin Treatment.
On the other hand, Silicon Mix Bambu Treatment is more penetrating. This means it outperforms the original on hair types that find it difficult to get products to absorb into them, and which are harder to moisturise, such as low porosity hair and 4C hair.
Is Silicon Mix Bambu good for hair?
Yes. Let’s count the ways: First, the blend of ingredients that resist heat (like dimethicone), with flexibility-enhancing ingredients (like cetyl alcohol) makes hair easier to blowdry or iron, while also reducing heat exposure. That means Silicon Mix Bambu has a built-in heat protectant component which helps shield hair, even in intense blowdrying.
Secondly, Bambu does all of this without flattening the hair or leaving behind residue – both of which are frowned upon in the Dominican haircare tradition, which prizes smooth, natural-looking hair with tons of movement.
This requirement for strong conditioning that doesn’t weigh hair down means that Silicon mix Bambu Treatment can be used on all types of hair, even fine or extremely straight hair that usually can’t use conditioners – all without a trace of greasiness.
When Dominican women straighten their hair, a flowing, silky look is preferred. Image by ElMarto.
At Dominican Hair Alliance, we do pretty extensive product testing, on hair with different textures, densities, condition and of different origins. Based on our research, Silicon Mix Bambu is good for hair that is curly, straight, wavy, natural, heat-damaged, bleached, relaxed, dyed, texturized, or Brazilian Keratin straightened, with high, low or medium porosity, from people of African, Native American, European, Asian descent.It works – and by that we mean smooths, softens, adds shine, detangles, protects from heat damage and increases manageability – on almost everyone.
No one product will work for every person on the planet. But we love the fact that it can actually penetrate and hydrate super low porosity 4C hair and yet work on fine, straight, bleached hair that needs conditioning but can’t get it from most products because of the weight.
If your hair is dry, damaged and needs a transformation, the statistics are heavily in in your favour with this versatile, super concentrated treatment.
The best conditioners work even better with consistency. To learn how to create the most moisturizing routine for dry hair, download this moisture training guide and FREE course.
