You Better Check Yourself....

...before you wreck yourself. Lol.

No seriously, I was doing my hair last night and I had a moment to think. I have been on my hair journey for almost a year and a half and my hair has made a complete 180 from where it used to be. When I started, my hair was super duper dry and broke off if you just looked at it. Of course, the shampooing and the deep conditioning have made a huge difference in my hair health. However, there is another factor that is so important yet ignored by a lot of people. I focus on the pH of my hair. Yes, the pH. I'm going to skip the whole science lecture and just say that pH is a measure of acidity or alkalinity. Something that is acidic has a pH that is below 7 and something that is alkaline has a pH that is above 7. Normally, hair has a pH that is ~5. When your hair is at its normal pH, it allows for the cuticle of you hair to lie down-locking in moisture. It also allows for natural shine, helps in detangling, and adds elasticity.

Like most of you, I relax my hair. The relaxer jacks the pH of the hair way way way up ( to 14 ) so that it can raise the cuticle of the hair and let the relaxer do its thing. Even though water (pH 7) and the neutralizing shampoo used immediately after the relaxer bring the pH down somewhat extra care has to be taken to bring the pH of my hair back down to it's normal levels and keep it there. Here is what I do (there is really only one step):

Use products that have a certain pH

I take great care to choose products that have the appropriate pH for my hair. From shampoo to porosity control, there is a pH for most of the products I use on wash day.

* Keracare First Lather shampoo--pH 4.5

*Elasta QP Creme Condition shampoo--pH 5.5

*Roux Porosity Control Conditioner--pH 4.5

With the pH of my hair in check at all times, the cuticles of my hair are able to lie down and my hair can retain the moisture I give to it via my deep conditioners. Even though it is easy to get caught up in the whole deep conditioning your hair thing, it is so important to not overlook this step!

Check the link: http://www.ehow.com/how_4894020_keep-relaxed-hair-ph-balanced.html