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.

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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.
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Source

african naturalistas, natural hair tips, team natural, hygral fatigue, natural hair care, natural hair regimen
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.

8 comments

  1. Great post. You really broke it down well! I love pre-pooing with olive oil or an olive and coconut oil mix as I usually have hygral fatigue in mind before I wash.

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  2. everyday a new lingo. some one should just publish a side that is a dictionary for hair stuff

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  3. Love using coconut oil for this purpose and also for shine.

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  4. Thanks for the education. Can you tell us how to solve the problem when the hygral fatigue has already occurred?

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  5. Read up about it sometime ago and decided to add prepooing to my routine. It helps a lot.

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  6. Read up about it sometime ago and decided to add prepooing to my routine. It helps a lot.

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  7. I haven't heard of this before now.
    I guess the learning never stop.

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  8. The last time I checked,my hair is in good shape.I usually pre poo and oil rinse with olive oil.

    ReplyDelete

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