I’m going to be completely honest here. The protein moisture balance was the hardest concept for me to understand. I’ll probably be have to write multiple posts about this topic because there’s a lot to it. I’m currently 2 years CG, with about 5 months previous experience from my first attempt at it. I keep thinking….okay, I definitely got it now!….. but then I mess it up again.
Thinking back, my hair was doing a lot better before I joined the curly hair community on Instagram. I was just using a handful of products that worked really well for me and I was keeping everything super simple. Meaning no treatments at all, except a deep condition every 3 ish months after I got my roots touched up. And that was it. I actually think my balance was perfect back then because I wasn’t manipulating my hair so much with trying to add protein or moisture.
To see the the products I was using back then and the simple routine Click Here: (coming soon)
I don’t want to put down the curly community by any means. The support, connections, and real life friends I’ve made over there were more than I ever expected.
I think what happened was I was suddenly introduced to sooooo many new products and sooooo many new routines. It didn’t take long for me to break the promise I originally made to myself before I started my 2nd round of CG…..to keep everything stupid simple.
I started buying more products in hopes they would work for me like they did for other people. I gave into product fads and bought what seemed to be the most popular product at the time, and my hair absolutely hated it. This played a part in not only messing up my balance I had going, but it also started making my hair so unpredictable trying too many products too quickly.
I started doing deep conditioning weekly, when my hair was perfectly fine doing it every 3 months which caused my hair to get overmoisturized
I started using more products with protein in them, thinking I could use an extra boost of protein.
And when I started upping the amount of NPF (Neutral Protein Filler) I’d put in my products and starting doing protein treatments, like gelatin, because I saw others having success with them, I’d go into protein overload
Now I know you’ve read about all the different signs to look for to figure out if your hair needs protein or moisture, but it’s not always easy figuring out which way to go. And I think a big part of it, that you probably don’t hear too often is that protein overload can look very similar to moisture overload. They can both make your hair very frizzy. They can both look like your curls are dropping.
I’ve always found the stretch test inconclusive. It just doesn’t give a good enough answer. I’ve tried it so many times, on so many occasions, and it’s never helped me. It’s very difficult to try to figure out the percentage of how much your hair is stretching. And it’s hard to figure out if it’s snapping too fast or not. I gave this up a while ago.
Now what I do to figure out what’s happening with my hair is mostly by how it FEELS.
This is what I look at now now to try to figure out if I have too much protein:
- If it feels very rough & brittle , like rough enough that’s its uncomfortable if it touches my bare back or pokes through my shirt.
- If it’s very tangly, especially on the under most layer, outer most layer, and the face framing pieces
- If I’m hearing it snap off when I’m gently taking my hair out of an elastic. I learned this from my curl friend, Amber
- If the ends are fraying, and feeling like those are the roughest getting parts
And also thinking back:
- Did I do a protein treatment or treatments when it wasn’t necessary?
- Am I using too much Neutral Protein Filler. My hair only really needs like 3 drops to balance a deep conditioner.
- Have all or most of the products I’ve been using contain protein?
If you think you have protein overload, Click Here to see how to get balanced again.
This is what I do now to figure out if I have too much moisture:
- Was I deep conditioning too often?
- I’d also check and see if I was accidentally not using any products with protein for too long.
- If it looks frizzy, curls dropping, but FEELS soft and smooth
If you think you might have too much moisture, Click Here to get it balanced again
Also, it’s important to note that everyone’s hair can look a little different at both protein overload,moisture overload and balanced. This is what my hair looked like at these 3 points. Over time you’ll learn to figure out which way to go for your hair. But remember, you’re not the only one who struggles with this. Like I mentioned before, I still struggle with it. And I’m sure many other people get lost, even if they’ve been CG for years. They may just not share it on their Instagram accounts.
What helped me the most to understand this better was to imagine it like a seesaw. You don’t wanna tip too far in either direction. You wanna try and stay in the middle. Sounds easy, but it takes time and practice.
Over time, and through trial and error, you’ll start figuring out if maybe your hair doesn’t need all the deep conditioning. Or maybe it doesn’t need extra protein and that just a few products with protein would be enough for your hair when it needs it.
Not to try to confuse you even more, but I also recommend you to look into protein mimickers even before you start figuring out your balance. It could be that your hair might not tolerate one of the mimickers, but your balance is fine. These tricky mimickers can make it look like you’re in protein overload when you’re not.
Click Here to read more about the protein mimickers
I’ve finally realized that I just need to go back to what I was doing before. No protein treatments. Deep condition once every few months. And use a product every wash or every other wash with protein. That’s it.
My hair just doesn’t need that much deep conditioning. And the part that took me much longer to understand, is that my hair also doesn’t need that much protein. It seemed to like it more before, but now it doesn’t. I learned about the protein part from my curl friend, Megan .She has a lot of information on her account about why she doesn’t use much protein anymore.
If you would like a one on one Curly Consultation with me, Click Here for more details.