What is Hygral Fatigue?

You know sometimes, I feel like such a newbie when it comes to [natural] hair terminology and different methods of hair care. I can hardly tell you the difference between the Curly Girl Method and the Maximum Hydration Method and the Ooh-La-La-I'm-Making-This-Up Method :p

Anyways, sometime ago, I was going over my blog reading list and I noticed in someone's comment, she complained about hygral fatigue. I went "huh?" And so off I went to find out more about it.

The definition of Hygral Fatigue is: when the hair shaft swells excessively in the presence of water, and contracts during the drying process. The hair shaft undergoes constant expansion and contraction, which causes the cuticle to lift. This in turn changes the uniformity of the hair shaft and can lead to splits. Some of the causes include using only moisturizing conditioners without protein, constantly doing overnight DCs or leaving them on for too long... some sites I read even said washing your hair everyday can lead to hygral fatigue.

Source

Source

How do you know if you have it? A possible sign is when you stretch a strand of hair and it doesn't snap back into place... basically, low elasticity. You can also check for signs of splits in the middle of your hair shaft. 

How to prevent Hygral Fatigue
Ensure that you balance your moisture treatments with protein treatments. Additionally, prepooing with oils like coconut or olive, helps to prevent your hair from swelling too much when wet. You can also do more air drying after washing your hair, as using drying tools can cause your hair to dry too quickly, causing fast contraction of your hair shaft. 

I don't know all the answers obviously, but if you're wondering, you can always check out the African Naturalistas Hair Clinic for answers to this and other hair issues.

Have a great weekend,
Berry Dakara.