Hyspin asks…In the black natural hair community there’s a big thing about controlling hair breakage by balancing your protein and moisture with conditioners (leave-ins and rinse-outs). But I have read time and time again that protein doesn’t do anything but a lot of women swear if they don’t do the protein treatments their hair becomes mushy or over stretches; in other words, with moisture conditioning their hair that becomes mushy with too much moisture. What is really happening here? Does the protein really make a difference?
The Right Brain responds:
We’ve seen this “mushy” effect on African American hair that has been relaxed, so here’s what we think is most likely happening:
Protein conditioners don’t over condition
Hair that has been relaxed can be extremely damaged and porous. Hair in this condition is like a sponge: it will absorb much more of the conditioning chemicals. ”Moisturizing” conditioners can contain high levels of quats, fatty alcohols, and silicones and when the hair absorbs of lot of these materials it feels “mushy” as you described. The feel can be so bad that some women are even afraid to dry their hair!
Protein conditioners, on the other hand, tend to contain relatively high levels of protein (in the range of 5% or so) with LOWER levels of quats, silicones, etc. Since there are fewer moisturizing ingredients in these formulas, the hair doesn’t absorb so much. So, it’s not the presence of protein that’s preventing the hair from being mushy, it’s the absence of other conditioning agents.
The Beauty Brains bottom line
If you want to avoid that mushy feeling, be careful not to over condition your hair.
Image credit: wholesalewigsonline.com
Have you tried protein conditioners? Do they work for your hair? Leave a comment and share your thoughts with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.
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Have yet to find a protein conditioner, quite hard to find in my Area. I will report back when I actually do find one with results!
Thank you for your very interesting article.
I have just a little additive question : some girls complaining about the stiffness and breakage (and sometimes dryness), when using proteins based products for their hair.
Is it because of the “lower levels of quats, silicones, etc” you mention in those products or do proteins can dry some type of hair by themselves ?
And by the way, are those proteins based products only for relaxed and very porous hair and should be avoided by other type of hair (low and medium porous, etc) ?
Thank you very much for your answes,
A French reader ! (sorry for my english)
@Sonia: For some people, protein conditioners may not offer enough conditioning, so yes they could cause a perceived stiffness.
And anyone can use protein conditioners (but it may not provide enough benefit for all hair types.)
Thank you very much for your answer.
I’m staying curious of the reals effects of proteins…
I read in an other article this information : “Hydrolyzed proteins penetrate the cuticle and absorb into the cortex of the hair. (…) This protein absorption has been found to increase the strength and elasticity of hair fibers.”
(from : http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/curl-products/proteins-why-you-should-care)
I would be interested to have your opinion about the abilty of proteins to improve “strength and elasticity” of the hair, comparing to other conditionners ?
Thank you very much in advance for your answer,