All About HAIR
How to Care for Damaged
Natural Hair:
Deep Conditioning
Let’s be real: every woman uses a thermoelectric
device, such as a flat iron or hairdryer, or a chemical
dye, such as hair color, on their hair once in their
life, even ladies with natural hair. The one time you
want to do a length check and get a trim resulting in
a blowout can be all it takes to damage the hair you
wanted to protect. If you have experienced this heat
damage, one thing that can help reduce that damage
is regularly deep conditioning treatments.
Here’s the rundown of what exactly deep condition-
ing treatments are, why every natural-haired wom-
en should be doing them and a recommendation of
products.
Deep Conditioning
If a normal conditioner nourishes the hair surface to
help maintain soft, radiant hair; a deep conditioner
will function by restoring the hair by nourishing the
interior. Thus, in order to actually repair damaged
hair and maintain its health, it is necessary to nour-
ish hair through deep conditioning.
Deep conditioners contain oils or proteins (amino
acids) that act as extra nutrients for hair. How well
these nutrients are able to penetrate the hair cuticle
to restore damaged hair is the basis for its effective-
ness. In order to put oil and protein, which are the
main nutrients in a deep conditioner, into the hair, it
is necessary to include an emulsifier, which ensures
that the water and oil in the product remain mixed.
Hair can be fairly porous and it absorbs water like
a sponge, in fact, absorbing liquids is one of hair’s
favorite things to do. Among the various ingredi-
ents in conditioner, the hair first absorbs water and
the space inside the hair becomes soaked with water
that it absorbs a small amount of oil (nutrients) in a
very narrow space. Because of this, the conditioner
products must contain emulsifying agents that will
mix the water and oil (nutrients) so that it can be ab-
sorbed into the hair. Surfactants are commonly used
as oil emulsifiers, and synthetic surfactants include
ethylene oxide, 1,4-dioxin, acrylonitrile, propylene
oxide, diethanolamine, cocamide DEA. They act as
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C O S M O B I Z M A G A Z I N E
natural emulsifier such as Decyl glucoside, lauryl
glucoside, palm kernel/coco glucoside, sodium co-
coyl apple amino acid, sodium cocoyl glutamate,
and potassium cocoyl glycinate. Protein does not
need any emulsifier because the protein itself mixes
well with water.
The oil component used in the product is advanta-
geous in penetrating into the hair as the smaller par-
ticle oil is, and the particle oil, such as the silicone
oil, is coated with the hair rather than the nutrient
penetrating function to the hair to prevent the hair
tangling and maintain the moisturization. This prod-
uct is excellent for use in serum or rib conditioner
products rather than deep conditioning products.
How to Deep Condition
1. Apply a sufficient amount of deep condition-
er to clean hair.
2. Put a plastic cap on while grabbing your at-