As we move into spring and summer, our favorite seasons for fun outdoor activities, we face challenges with our curly hair that are unique to the climate and activities.
There’s no denying that the change in seasons can be tough on our hair care routines. Products and processes that were working so well suddenly seem to have the opposite effect. Often, at the heart of these issues is a change in the environmental moisture content (humidity). High humidity is especially harsh on curly hair.
The reason for its susceptibility to humidity fluctuations lies in the physical structure of curly hair. Straight hair, undamaged by environmental or treatment factors, has a protective outer layer of cuticle scales that overlap and lie fairly flat against one another. Curly hair, even in very good condition, is much more porous because those cuticle scales do not always lie flat. This porosity allows more water to migrate out of curly hair into the environment in dry weather (not good), and also allows more moisture from the environment to migrate into the cortex of the hair strands in humid weather (also not good).