oils Archives - Wavy Hair Care

What Causes Hair Build Up?

Hair build up is caused by hair products, your natural body oils, skin cells, hard water deposits, and even pollutants building up on your hair or scalp. At any given time, it’s natural for us to have tiny amounts of hair products, oil, pollutants and/or hard water deposits in our hair, as having 100% clean hair is nearly impossible. However, when we get ‘too much’ hair products, scalp oils, pollutants or mineral deposits in our hair it can start to cause problems with how our hair feels, acts or responds to styling. In severe cases it may even cause our scalp to feel irritated or itchy! So, it’s important to find a haircare routine that keeps build-up at a low level.

Does Hair Gel Cause Build Up?

Any products that you use on your hair or scalp can cause build-up, including shampoo! Yes, even shampoo. The more products you use, the more likely you are to get build-up. However, people often think that if they avoid using products like gel, mousse, curl cream, etc then they won’t get build-up, which is not the case. Everyone gets some amount of build-up, it’s just a matter of how much they get and how strong of a shampoo they need to use to clean their hair.

Not all shampoos are made equally, some are stronger than others, or work to remove certain types of buildup better than other products. You may find that some shampoos are not well-suited to remove build-up from certain products. The curly girl method attempted to simplify this by stating that if you avoid silicone products in your haircare products, then you don’t need to use a sulfate-containing shampoo. While this is commonly believed, it is not backed up with research or science (the curly girl method book sites no sources at all!).

Also, these days, there is a wide range of different strengths of shampoos even when looking at sulfate shampoos or non-sulfate shampoos. Meaning, even if you use all silicone-free products and use a sulfate-containing shampoo, you still may get build-up that needs to be removed with a stronger shampoo periodically.

Does The Curly Girl Method Cause Build-Up?

Why Does Humidity Cause Frizz?

When it’s humid, our hair absorbs water from the air. Of course, we all recognize that when we wet our styled hair by soaking it under the showerhead, this basically resets our style. When it’s really humid out, our hair will absorb water in different areas at different rates. The areas that absorb a lot of water will reset, while the areas of our hair that stay drier may not. This is why our hair can end up frizzy, losing its curl clumps, falling flatter/straighter and just looking more messy.

Is All Wavy Hair Sensitive To Humidity?

Not necessarily. Higher porosity hair is more likely to frizz up in humidity because it will take in water more easily, and has a raised or even damaged cuticle which can make it more prone to not staying sleekly clumped with nearby hairs.

how to care for wavy hair in high humidity

How Does Dew Point Impact Hair?

It’s commonly understood that some people’s hair gets frizzier or curlier looking when it’s humid. Dew point isn’t nearly as commonly discussed, but it’s actually a bigger factor in how your hair is impacted by the weather than humidity is.

Dew point fluctuates depending on different factors, and a high dew point is 60 Fahrenheit or higher, and a low dew point is 35 Fahrenheit or lower. The “sweet spot” for dew point is in between those two.

Causes and Solutions for Hair Build Up in Wavy Hair