Want Great Hair? Do a Protein Treatment for Your Hair

Doing a regular protein treatment for your hair is a way to maintain your hair’s structure, elasticity and strength.

Have you ever seen other people with strong, healthy natural hair, and full of curls that are popping? Perhaps your hair used to be like that, but now, without popping curls, it looks so limp, flat, and dull.

So, if this is you, then you may need to do a protein treatment for your hair. Read on to know the importance of protein treatment for your hair and how to identify the signs that you need one.

Read: How to moisturise your hair properly to avoid breakage

Table of Contents

Why is protein essential for your hair?

Hair is made of a protein called keratin. And, this protein provides the hair with structure, giving it form and strength accordingly.

Factors such as overexposure to the sun, pollutants, heat, and chemicals can cause the proteins in your hair to break down when our hair is exposed to them. Consequently, this leads to loss of strength, elasticity and breakage over time. Hence, the need for regular protein treatment for your hair.

Protein treatments encourage the hair to repair any damage done to it, in the same way, that conditioners help to restore moisture. Doing a protein treatment for your hair is to provide strength to your hair strands. To clarify, during the treatment proteins latch onto the hair follicle and fill in the cuticle with any holes or gaps. As a result, the outcome is stronger hair which looks and feels so healthy.

To know when you need to do a protein treatment for your hair is not always easy to tell. Nonetheless, your hair is great at showing you signs that you require one. Hence, you need to know these signs.

Some of the indications that you need to do a protein treatment for your hair include:

1. Shedding and breakage is excessive

A typical aspect of hair life is shedding. So, we can naturally lose up to 100 strands every day. However, if you notice that you are losing hair (hair strands with a white bulb at one end), then that is your hair breaking from its roots.

Consequently, breakage may be attributed to a lack of protein or moisture. As, a lack of protein can be linked to problems with hair elasticity, which leads to breakage. Therefore, excess breakage can be avoided doing a protein treatment for your hair regularly.

2. Excessive brittleness and dryness

If your hair feels excessively dry, it may mean that your hair needs protein. Also, if your hair doesn’t hold moisture no matter how many times in a day, you try to moisturize.

This is a major sign that you need a protein treatment for your hair.

Because to hold on to the moisture and hold it in for longer, your hair needs more protein.

3. Loss of elasticity

One indication that you need a protein treatment for your hair is its loss of elasticity. If, when wet, you try to stretch your hair and it doesn’t return to its natural curl pattern, then it may have lost its elasticity, and it’s time to get a protein treatment.

4. Weak, limp and mushy hair

If your hair, particularly when wet feels mushy and limp, then it’s a major sign that your hair is weak and damaged. Therefore, you need to do a protein treatment for your hair. Also, it shows that your hair lacks strength if your hair comes off easily as slide your fingers through your hair.

5. Regular protein treatment for hair is needed for colour treated hair

A regular protein treatment is essential for coloured hair care, just as deep conditioning is also essential in the care of coloured hair, hair treated with colour is highly porous and most vulnerable to damage.

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Benefits of Doing a Protein Treatment for Your Hair

♥Doing a regular protein treatment for your hair will lead to strengthened hair strands

♥ Protein treatment will leave you with softer hair

♥ Regular protein treatment for your hair will give it extra body and volume

♥ Regular protein treatment helps to make your hair thicker

How often should you do protein treatment for your hair?

A protein treatment should be applied once or twice a month. However, I do protein treatment for my hair once a month.

For your hair to flourish and your curls popping, you need to find a perfect moisture-protein balance as too much protein in your hair will make it hard, dry and brittle. And too much moisture in your hair will make it mushy and weak. Therefore, Finding a moisture-protein balance is essential.

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A simple hair DIY protein treatment

Egg

The best protein source for your hair is an egg. As, the yolk is rich in protein and fat, which is highly moisturizing, and this is great for the hair.

Also, the egg white is full of enzyme-eating bacteria that cleans your scalp and hair.

How to use

• For regular dry hair, use the full egg. While for oily scalps and hair use only the egg white. And for extremely dry hair use just the egg yolk. (I use the full egg). However, you can decide to use the full egg to get both the oil-removing and moisturizing benefits for your hair.

• Beat an egg or two, determined by your hair’s length and thickness. You can decide to add other ingredients like natural hair oils and honey. ( When I do this, I add olive oil, coconut oil, honey, scented essential oils to mask the smell of the egg and apple cider vinegar because I feel it helps to break down the larger protein chains in the egg, into smaller ones that can be absorbed better by the hair. (Notice, the use of the word ‘I feel’ because it is a personal conviction from what I have seen and experienced while experimenting with egg protein treatments. I have not found substantial research to back it up))

• Section your hair and add it to your hair and scalp. Make sure that all your hair is coated properly with eggs.

• Place a plastic bag/shower cap over your hair and keep it on for 30-45 minutes max, if it sits too long on your hair, it will result in really hard hair, and we don’t want that, we want to strengthen it.

• Then you shampoo, condition and rinse with cool water (Cool water is not as cold as cold water, so use this if you don’t want to use cold water)

Make sure to use cool water when using any egg protein treatment for your hair; rinsing with hot to warm water can cause the egg to scramble in your hair. this is going to lead to a big mess, and it’s going to be hard to get the little bits of the cooked egg out of your hair.

Egg-free protein treatments for your hair are possible and will still be very effective in your hair..e.g rice water

NB: Some sites say that the protein chains found in egg and other homemade protein treatments are too big for the hair to absorb them effectively. And for one to fully get the protein benefits, the protein needs to be hydrolyzed (broken down in the lab).

So you can decide to buy store-bought protein treatments, that you are certain contains hydrolyzed protein, or you can do my style of adding Apple cider vinegar to it.

However, I am sticking with my egg protein treatments. You know how science proves and disproves itself daily. I use egg protein treatments, and it works. Additionally, the use of egg for protein treatments has been passed down through the centuries, with positive reviews about it.

The Takeaway

To sum up: protein treatments could add moisture to your hair, reinforce strands, build volume and body, and could be useful for natural and relaxed hair.

Also, you can use protein treatments purchased from the store, or develop your protein treatments using home products at home.

You might make the most straightforward homemade protein treatment using egg (and any other products you wish to add), but you must remember to rinse the egg out with cold or lukewarm water to avoid scrambling the eggs in your hair.

Bear in mind that the use of protein therapies for too long or too often can lead to tough hair and breakage. Learn to strike a balance

Ultimately, only you can decide the items that work best for your hair and whether the store-bought or homemade protein treatments are better for your hair’s overall health.

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Till next time,

Stay be’you’tiful, stay blessed.