Humectants and Curly/Wavy Hair: A Guide

Humectants are ingredients that help your hair absorb and retain moisture. As curly hair tends to be thirsty for water, these ingredients are important in our products.

Types of humectants for curly/wavy hair

We classify humectants into two types based on their unique properties for curly/wavy hair:

• Simple: These are common humectants that are molecularly small like glycerin. They usually do a great job, except if the air is dry they can become brittle and make things worse (frizz, friction, etc.)
• Complex: These are heavier and more complicated humectants like flax seed extract. They have lots of nooks and crannies to store water in, so they are less affected by dry air.

If you’re in a place with very dry air, you might want to avoid the simple humectants and opt for the complex ones instead.

As a note proteins can act as humectants as well, but we haven’t decided whether to place them in this group or their own group.