Deep Conditioning: Are You OVER Doing It?

Early in my career as a hairstylist, my mother would always warn me of over-conditioning the hair. I learned quickly that when the hair is over conditioned, the moisture and protein levels are imbalanced, leading to an array of issues and possible irreversible damage.

It’s rare, but over moisturizing is a thing. It happens when you 1.) use too much moisture or never let the hair dry completely 2.) not enough protein.

Too much moisture happens there are too many deep conditioning treatments, by moisturizing too often or more often than required by hair, or allowing your hair to stay wet for far too long without drying.

Healthy Hair needs a balance of moisure and protein.

Here’s how you know your hair is Over-Conditioned or that you’re over doing it:

Hair is gummy, has the tendency to clump together when wet, feels gummy or stretchy leading to breakage though barely manipulated.

This is the first sign that the hair has been over conditioned. The hair will appear limp, lifeless, and if not attended to, will lead to severe breakage and damage. To correct, you want to implement a protein treatment.

If you need more help assessing whether or not your hair is over conditioned or over moisturized click here for a wet assessment.

This should begin repairing within first treatment. But going forth, it is recommended that you alternate deep conditioning masks with protein treatments to level out the amount of moisture within strands. If you moisturize daily as a part of your regimen AND you notice the first sign of over conditioning, try moisturizing and sealing every 3 days.

Hair may not show immediate signs, but a regimen that omits protein treatments though hair has been chemically treated with color or often heat styled can lead to over conditioning.

Anytime the hair isn’t receiving its necessary amounts of protein versus moisture, it can lead to over conditioning. When hair has been chemically altered, the protein and keratin in the hair can be depleted (which is why some notice curl pattern change after a color or heat styling service or blow dryer). The break down of the protein and/or keratin in the hair leads to weak, fragile hair and requires additional protein. By doing treatments, this restores the balance that may have been disturbed by chemical treatment, lessening your chance of breakage.

When your hair suddenly changes and you identify some of the signs listed above, don’t hesitate before you do something. A lot of times the hair will give you warning signs that it’s in distress long before you see visible changes such as breakage and other damage.

Implementing a protein treatment into your regimen, whether you’ve seen these signs or not, is always great.