How common is refreshing your hair between washes with a water spray amongst LHC'ers?

[Fimu]

I understood that many wavies/wurlies/curlies have been taught to refresh their hair without fully wetting/washing by using a water spray and product for various reasons, like reducing frizz, reactivating the wave/curl or to smooth it down with product. In LHC, I understood that refreshing your ends with oils is a more common practice here than dampening and adding more product. Is that correct?

I hope my questioning makes a bit sense :blush:

[lottiealice]

I haven't done this and the only waves I have are from braiding my hair to sleep every night, but I'm rather tempted to concoct a catnip/fenugreek/conditioning water spritzer to do this. I like the idea of having something to soften my hair, help when braiding and refreshing waves between washes, and to get some extra goodness into my hair.

I'd be interested in reading others experiences.

[wo]

I don't do it very often but when I do, I put a little bit of my normal conditioner in a full squirt bottle and use that. But for my hair, refreshing causes more frizz than it's worth.

[blackgothicdoll]

It will cause me a lot of tangles and knots, as I keep my hair stretched, so I avoid it

[AmaryllisRed]

I wash my daughter's hair at night and spray it with a water/conditioner mix in the morning. Detangle and scrunch and air dry.

[BleachedBerry]

I do this regularly when I wear my hair down.

[EdG]

I sometimes dampen my hair with a small amount of distilled water before combing. The comb glides through slightly damp hair.
Ed

[BleachedBerry]

If I don't have time to co wash.

[AuNaturel]

I'm curly so I refresh to style, but I have recently been reading about the necessity, for very dry hair (curly or not) of adding moisture -- via WATER, not just using liquidy moisture products -- before any styling. Manes by Mell was talking about using a steamer, which I found interesting.

I had previously been refreshing with a moisturizer. Which, obviously, the first ingredient in those is water. But the argument is that dry hair benefits from water first (without any occlusives mixed in -- so, plain water), THEN moisturizing products, THEN sealants.

For hair that's not as dry, where the hair retains some moisture from day to day if properly sealed, re-sealing every day on the length/ends is probably fine. The typical LHC routine of a tiny bit of oil every day, serves to seal in the moisture that is already in the hair (especially if you have a routine that distributes natural sebum along the length, such as using a BBB or washing with water only, etc.). But for dry hair, the argument is to use literal water (spray, steam, hands, whatever works) before adding your refreshing products. I think I might dabble in a light steaming in the mornings, before my refreshing products, and see how it works. (Caveat, I live in a dry climate, so the humidity game is not a factor for me.)

[MusicalSpoons]

I have slight texture but it lives in a bun every day so no need to do anything special to preserve it - my main reason for preserving clumps is that my hair is happier that way, regardless of how it would look. My ends are happily moisturised for a week or more between full washes, which I attribute to my wash routine and the fact it's always bunned. Wearing it down at all (braided, ponytail, anything showing any length basically) would dry it out somewhat, with braids being The Worst for my hair.

[lapushka]

When my hair was BSL or shorter and I still sometimes wore it out (especially the first day after a wash), I used a mister with some distilled water, a squirt of a runny conditioner in it, shook it up, used it and that was pretty much it. I always made about half a 100ml bottle, so it would not go bad too fast.

With longer hair, came just the one week washings and the need for it to be up and out of my way more.

So now I use an oil rinse to keep my ends moisturized.

I never thought one (misting) was more done or popular than the other (general oil use).

[Firefox7275]

My hair is wavy and porous/ damaged. Spraying with water is neither healthy (causes swelling, contributes to hygral fatigue) nor is it prettifying (causes pouf).

[truepeacenik]

At roots if I’m sweating too much.

[Fimu]

My hair is wavy and porous/ damaged. Spraying with water is neither healthy (causes swelling, contributes to hygral fatigue) nor is it prettifying (causes pouf).

Interesting point! I stumbled upon this science-based article why refreshing your hair with water isn't necessary healthy for porous hair: https://checkthathairfact.com/perception-of-moisturized-hair/
However, it would be interesting if more research was done on the effects of water on the pliability of hair (bendiness) instead of only tensile strength.

I do refresh with distilled water like every other day or two if I want to add a bit of product, which gets better adsorbed on damp hair.

[Servana]

I've never done this. But then again I wash every other day so I guess I just don't relate. I will day that I hate my hair getting wet unless I'm washing it because it gets really frizzy and gross looking.

[Bri-Chan]

Mh sometimes but just if I apply a styling product after.

[Simpscone]

My natural wurls can sometimes look a little crazy in the morning, so if I'm going to wear my hair down I will probably refresh by misting water. It just encourages the texture to bounce back up. Since I've been working from home for over 3 months I've not been doing this as much, as my hair has been up or I've not felt the need to re-style it each day. But before COVID I would say my normal was to refresh with water every day. I tend to play it by ear with how it looks when I take it down in the morning though, if it doesn't look like it needs a slight restyle I won't bother.

[Hedwig]

I do it all the time on the part of my hair that gets really frizzy. I either use a pre-made leave in spray or just conditioner mixed with water in a spray bottle.

[zashin66]

I wash every 1.5-2 weeks. But I water it and recondition every 3-5 days depending on weather and my own inclination.