Five Tips to Winterize Your Natural Hair Regimen

Winter is upon us. In Texas, winters can be extreme and brutal on the hair. In today's post, I wanted to provide five tips to help winterize your natural hair regimen. If you are anything like me, you want to maintain overall hair health as well as length retention throughout the winter months. These five tips will help you achieve just that.

Five Tips to Winterize Your Natural Hair Regimen

1. Increase your use of heavier oils. My oil of choice is Castor Oil. It can be regular distilled Castor Oil or Jamaican Black Castor Oil. Castor Oil is an excellent emollient and humectant for the hair. It is also great for hair loss and hair thinning. In addition, olive oil and avocado oil are heavier oils that are beneficial as well. So if Castor Oil isn't your cup of tea, try olive oil or avocado oil.

2. Butters are best. Butters are most definitely a staple, and they are part of the LOC/LCO method as well. Choose your butter from shea, mango, and cocoa to intensify your moisturizing treatment. I personally love shea butter. It's a great moisturizer for your hair and skin.

3. Moisturize your hair more often. Whether you moisturize your hair in the morning or at night, daily moisturizing is key. Even if you are protective styling, moisture is vital to ensuring your hair stays healthy while it is tucked away.

4. Deep condition more frequently. Indoor heating and extreme outdoor temperatures can leave hair feeling dry and brittle. Conditioning the hair more frequently will help to restore and maintain moisture levels in the hair. You may even use a steamer or some sort of method to promote steaming to intensify your conditioning treatment. Remember, healthy is hair is moisturized hair!

5. Protective styles. Protective styles, where your ends are tucked away, can be helpful in the winter months and can be essential for length retention. Braids, twists, top knots, halo braids, and the list goes on of common protective styles. Some of my past protective styles i have worn can be seen in the following posts:

My Marley Twist Installation + Top Five Reasons to Love Marley Twists

Oh chic! My mini-twists are back and more than just fabulous!

Creative Hairstyling Options for Box Braids

I hope you enjoyed this post, and you are inspired to incorporate additional protection against the harsh winter elements. If you have others ways of winterizing your natural hair regimen, feel free to share them below.

Until next time...
Be faith-filled, fearless, and fabulous,
Kurly Ken

The LOC/LCO Method + My Homemade Moisturizing Cream/Mixture

Hey Kurlies,

The LOC method is one of the most popular ways to moisturize and seal hair among naturals. LOC is an abbreviation for liquid/water based leave in conditioner, oil, and cream. I swear by this method-
sort of! I'll tell you about the LOC method in general, and then I'll share my version of the LOC
method at the end. Without further adoo, let's get started.

What does the LOC method entail?

Using your choice of LOC method products, you should apply your liquid/water based leave in conditioner first, oil second, and cream last. Sometimes the order of items is rearranged to create the LCO method, where the leave in is first, cream is second, and oil is last. Regardless, the moisture in your natural tresses is sealed by two well known sealants, oil and butter. 

Oil and butter are well known for their ability to create a moisturizing layer along the hair shaft, which prevents water from being evaporated from your hair. When water does not evaporate from your hair, your hair will stay moisturized longer. 

How do I complete the LOC method? 

1. Apply a moisturizing liquid/water based leave in conditioner to freshly washed hair
2. Apply a thin layer of oil to your hair for moisture
3. Apply a butter based, creamy moisturizer to your hair to seal that moisture in

What are some of the best products to use in the LOC method? 

Moisturizing liquid/water based leave in conditioner can include pure water (lone of the most moisturizing liquids EVER), Giovanni Leave In Conditioner, Cantu Leave In Conditioner, Karen's Body Beautiful Leave In Spray, and Alikay Naturals Lemongrass Leave In, and many more.

Oils that are great for sealing are Jamaican black castor oil, olive oil, jojoba oil, avocado oil, argan oil, macadamia oil, and grapeseed oil; however, there are plenty of other oils you can use.

Your cream/butter can be your styler if you are placing your hair in twists or bantu knots. If you like 
to rock wash and go, a cream can help define your curls or coils a little more. Examples of creams/ 
butters could be shea butter, mango butter, or cocoa butter; commercial creams you can use include Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie, Alikay Naturals Shea Yogurt Hair Moisturizer, just to name a few. 

How frequently should one complete the LOC method?

The answer to this question is totally dependent on you and your hair's porosity. High porosity hair may have to moisturize more frequently. Low porosity hair may need less. 

My personal account on the LOC method....
Now, I personally have tweaked the LOC method to work for me. My liquid/ leave in is my water and Aloe Vera juice mix, which consists of a spray bottle filled with 1/3 Aloe Vera juice and 2/3 water. For my homemade moisturizing mixture, I use several oils, which include olive oil, castor oil, and several others. The cream I use is shea butter. I mix my shea butter and oils together to create my
homemade moisturizing mix, technically, combining steps 2 and 3 of the LOC method (See post on how to create moisturizing mix here). I moisturize my hair every day or every two days, depending on how my hair feels. Since I have begun using this combination, I have seen a major difference in the moisture levels of my hair. My hair was already soft prior to using this method, but since the use of this method and products, my hair is truly moisturized, easier to detangle, and overall, more manageable.

The products for my current LOC method

Kurlies Weigh In: Do you use the LOC method or some other variation of this method, like LCO (same products in a different order)? If you use the LOC method, what are your favorite staple products to moisturize and seal? If you don;t use the LOC method, what do you use to keep your hair moisturized?

Until next time...

Be faith-filled,fearless, and fabulous,

Kurly Ken