The Curly Hair Benefits Of Mongongo Oil

Straight hair has long been valued as a reigning symbol of beauty in our culture, and while we love straight hair, many would agree that curly hair has been the neglected child of hair and beauty for far too long. We've since made strides (thanks in large part to the natural hair movement), and curly hair is now being recognized as the prom queen it always was, with its resilient and exciting in-your-face tresses.

But like with any type of hair, curly hair doesn't just wake up looking great. It requires regular maintenance to keep hair strands healthy with high elasticity. While there are many products to choose from, mongongo oil, made from the nuts of mongongo trees, is considered ideal for treating curly hair. In fact, Africans have been using it for centuries to nourish their hair and maintain its vitality. You can get mongongo oil treatments easily online. So, whether you have loose, wavy curls or more tightly curled strands, here are some reported benefits to using mongongo oil with curly hair.

Curly hair typically looks good the day after a wash. And you can probably go an extra day or two without washing it again, particularly if you sleep with a silk bonnet. But after several days, you'll likely struggle with dry and overly frizzy hair, forcing you to tie it up in a trusty bun for the next several days. This is at least partly due to low sebum. Sebum is a natural, oily substance produced by the sebaceous glands that moisturize the scalp and hair shaft.

 Because of the curved structure of curly strands, the sebum has a harder time reaching the hair shaft. This prevents it from being adequately moisturized, especially at the ends. So, the tighter your curl, the harder it will be for the oils to evenly penetrate the strand. Mongongo oil replaces the lost oil by forming a protective barrier over the hair shaft, locking in the moisture, and leaving hair looking shiny and revitalized. 

Since a "good hair" day usually occurs right after newly washed curls, you may be prone to overwashing in order to keep it up. It's been pretty well documented that overwashing causes dryness. Specifically, shampoos that contain alcohol and sulfate can speed up the drying process by stripping away the moisture in your hair. This leads to a host of other hair problems like brittle hair, breakage, and limp curls. 

If this pattern continues, your "wash and go" may soon turn into a "wash and no." So, it's important to have grab-and-go hair products that help you step into your day with confidence. While conditioners are important, you may not be able to achieve the glossy, polished look with washouts or leave-ins. A few drops of mongongo oil can protect the hair, minimize the damage from repeated washing, and give you that newly styled shine.

It's important to make a distinction between overwashing using shampoo and simply wetting the hair. Wetting your hair daily is not considered damaging, and using water with conditioners and detanglers can help to refresh your curls. However, you may not be particularly thrilled with wetting your hair every day. Some days, you probably just want to wing it or save time, particularly when life gets in the way. Not to mention, those second and third-day curls sometimes look better than newer curls, particularly when they have the right amount of volume and that unruly hair appeal.

So, if you want to hold off on wetting your curls for a day or two, use mongongo oil to add nutrients and moisture. This energizes and strengthens days-old curls, gives more structure to those frizzies, and makes life just a little easier.

One of the advantages of curly hair is being able to switch back and forth between curly and straight hair at will. It feels good to have options, but this flexibility comes at a cost. If you're really into changing your curly hair, you may be prone to using a lot of heat, including hot irons and blow dryers to achieve straight hair or any other type of curl like loose waves or droplets. 

It's well known that extensive heat is damaging to hair, and responsible for many split ends and damaged curl patterns. While we should be mindful of this, having a hair protectant can minimize some of the damage without stifling your creative hair ideas. The protective barriers created by the mongongo oil do the job of protecting your hair so you can feel freer to experiment with heat-induced styles.

Even if you choose not to chemically straighten your hair, you can alter its structure through other chemical processes such as bleach and hair dyes. The chemicals from hair dye can weaken protective layers and erode natural oils and moisture from hair, causing it to be dryer than usual. Since curly hair is already prone to dryness, these chemicals intensify the damage, leaving your hair in much need of revitalization. 

Furthermore, if you color your hair too much (like dying it red and blond in the same week), you can lose your curls altogether, leaving your hair limp. It's not unheard of to leave the salon with wonderfully overcolored, straightened hair and find out later when you decide to wash and go that your curls just aren't there. So, to minimize or reverse the damage caused by over-processing, use mongongo oil to replenish those oils and offset the dryness.