What adds moisture to hair?

[tabby28]

I feel really silly asking this because I have just spent hours reading all the relevant LHC articles I can find, including the thread about SMT - but I still don't actually understand what puts moisture back into your hair??

Initially I thought it was oil, ie. that our natural sebum was the moisture in our hair and that if hair was dry it was due to stripping the sebum. But now that I have read how oils (like sebum?) coat the hair I'm not certain. Is it just water that is moisture? Does conditioner provide moisture?

Sorry for being clueless, I thought I would understand by reading all the articles but I'm still not certain. :(

[spidermom]

The most important thing is to drink plenty of water. Don't let yourself get dehydrated.

When we're talking about skin and hair, "moisture" refers to both water and essential fatty acids. Applying a bit of oil to damp hair helps to replenish both. Similarly, you get more benefit from applying lotion (moisturizers) to damp skin. But again, the most important thing you can do is keep your entire system hydrated because anything you apply to the surface is only temporary.

[torrilin]

Hrm.

Something that might help is to be a bit more specific. After all, not all oils are the same. Just look at the difference between sebum from your scalp and olive oil. Nor are all conditioners the same - just compare a few bottles by looking at the ingredients list. Even water varies, and it might contain dissolved metal salts (like table salt or calcium carbonate from limestone), chlorine from a water purification plant, dissolved oxygen, bacteria, algae... If you live in the US your local water is supposed to be tested on a regular basis for contamination, and the reports are supposed to be publicly available.

So the stuff you can put on your hair varies.

And HAIR varies. Not all hair types look or feel just the same. A lot of that shampoo commercial hype about "replenishing lost moisture" is just that... hype. They don't concretely identify a problem (after all, how often have you thought that the before hair looked good?) and the fixed hair rarely looks very different. Even if you ignore the commercials, chances are that the individual hairs on your head are not all alike. And the texture of the freshly grown hair at your roots will be quite different from the oldest hair at the ends.

[gthlvrmx]

So water is the only thing that can "moisturize" your hair. You can't add honey into your hair and expect it to be moisturizing, it needs to get it from somewhere so either it attracts it from the environment around you or dump on the water. Oils are used at sealants to retain the moisture from leaving. Oils cannot moisturize.
Sebum acts like oils and jojoba oil is the closest thing that acts like our sebum, it coats the hair and protects it from moisture leaving and drying the hair to the point that it can be damaged, broken, or split.
But i think our sebum can penetrate into the hair. Some oils can penetrate, others cannot.

[spidermom]

Yes - oils can moisturize! They replace lost essential fatty acids. Some of them (such as coconut oil) do a lot more than coat the hair to seal in moisture. They are actually absorbed.

When skin is parched, it does no good whatsoever to merely splash water on it. You could do this all day long 24/7 and end up with even drier skin than when you started. You need essential fatty acids, too. In fact, you'd get more relief from massaging oil into your skin than you would from water.

For plants, yes - moisture = water. For skin and hair, no.

[tabby28]

Okay, I think I am beginning to understand. Water, and fatty acids are what creates hydration in skin and hair. I did think water felt drying because the more I wash my face, even with just water, the more it felt dry.

So, I need to hydrate and then maintain hydration with a good supply of fatty acids. Is it possible to hydrate already grown hair by maintaining my overall hydration? I know water hydrates cells but aren't my hair cells dead?

[WaitingSoLong]

Ok, for me aloe vera gel is the bomb for moisture. Coconut oil as well but I don't like to use it as a leave in, I let it absorb then wash off the excess. Cones can help hold in moisture or even give it a false sense of being hydrated.

Why is it that cones are bad? I keep forgetting...

[tabby28]

I want to try Aloe Vera - not too sure how I use it though, or where to get it in the UK. I am definitely going to try it though.

[spidermom]

Maintaining good hydration is going to benefit your new hairs. You get new hairs every day; this is not a small thing.

As for your long hairs, I don't think increased water intake will help them, but using good quality conditioners and oils will.

What is so bad about cones is that they can seal moisture out of hair. I don't think this is as big a problem as it is made out to be because you'd have to work really hard to get each and every hair on your head coated with cones. Even then, shampooing would get most of it out. People who won't or can't use shampoo probably shouldn't use cones, either, although at least one of them is water soluble (can't remember which one) so can be rinsed off the hair.