The Over-hydration of Curls

It’s been almost a month since I started on my next stage of curly hair-ness. And since then I have been living at a vacation home next to a lake. And since lake life seems to be in my blood(in other words I love it and could easily do it for the rest of my life) there were I a few things I needed to learn about my hair and lake water.

So I was under the impression, since my hair was so dry going into this curly revolution that there was no such thing as too much hydration… Yep I was wrong. Shocker. After one particular warm week, in which I spent most of the time in and/or under the water, my hair became… Well gross. I’d rinse and wash it out(thinking that was the problem) but it was like the more water I applied the more my hair was crying out for help.

This is when I once again turned to the trusty internet and began researching. And I learned about a thing called over-hydration.

What the what?

So what is over-hydration? Exactly what it sounds like. It’s when your hair gets too much moisture, which apparently can happen. Curly hair is all about finding that balance between moisture and protein. (Still learning here) Too much of either is a bad thing.

So what can one do to stop over-hydration? Easy answer: stay out of the water!!! My heart broke when I learned this. I’m part mermaid and asking me to stay dry is like asking me to give up coffee- Not gonna happen!! So what to do? One curly haired sister said applying a crap ton of coconut oil before swimming and then applying again as needed(like sunscreen) is a good way to fight over-hydration. I’m excited to give this a try. If that doesn’t work I have a swimmer’s hair mask I use for pool water plus a swimmer’s cap. I’ll just have to experiment and see what works best.

Okay but what if you have over-hydrated your hair? How do you fix the damage? I did an over night coconut oil mask, which is rich in protein. Attempting in my experimental way to balance out my hair. (Sometimes I have no idea what I’m doing) I left the mask in for a whole day(or you could do it over night) and then I rinsed/washed almost all of the oil out and applied my leave-in products. Over the next week, which abnormally cold and therefore I didn’t do any swimming, my hair slowly absorbed the oil.

Day 8 after oil mask= **Zero water contact!**

My hair is back to semi-balanced life. At least I had a week of good hair days. Which is a lot more than I could say a month ago.

Another thing I have been doing to encourage I stick to my curly hair regime is not to pull my hair up. Whether it’s a good day or a bad one, I live with the hair I got. Learning what it likes and what it doesn’t.