Thursday, July 30, 2015

The Pre Poo: Importance of Pre Shampoo Oil Treatments

Ismail oubarka | 3:11 AM

Pre Poo [pre shampoo/pre cleanse] is one of those natural hair girl things we all do and probably don't really understand why we are doing it [definitely the case for me for quite some time]. I've started to pre poo my hair religiously before every wash and I'm seeing the benefits of the very useful step in my regimen.

Pre pooing is an important step in your hair care, and could be the key to beating dry hair and retaining moisture and it's something you shouldn't skip if you like myself have highly porous hair.

So what is pre pooing?

Pre poo is short for pre shampooing, this is the act of applying a treatment oil before you shampoo your hair, yes this seems weird putting and oil in our hair before you wash may seem like a waste of product and time as the purpose of washing hair for most people is for it to be clean and free of oil. however many of us need this oil as water can leave our hair dry.

What? water is drying?

Yes, I know we are told there is no better moisturiser than good old H2O however unless you have very low porosity hair water can be drying and if you have high porosity hair it can be extremely drying. This is because water enters the hair shaft to quickly and in fact drowns the hair flushing out all the proteins and all the things we need to maintain healthy strong hair, it also causes hair to swell raising the cuticles allowing water into the shaft causing frizz and dryness. Using a pre poo oil helps to waterproof the hairs core allowing water to penetrate your hair shaft slowly stopping the hair from swelling. This is what medium porosity hair does and medium porosity hair is the ideal hair type as it allows in enough moisture and also retains it.

OK so we want water to penetrate the hair shaft but not to much, won't using an oil prevent this?

Some oils will prevent this and are not the best oils to be used as a pre poo treatment such as Mineral Oil, Rice Bran Oil and Jojoba Oil which are best used a sealants, we need hair penetrating oils such as Coconut Oil, Palm Kernel Oil, Avocado Oil and Castor Oil. These oils are best for waterproofing the part of your hair that swells causing the hair cuticles to rise allowing water in and out of the hair shaft.

How do I pre poo?

I apply my oil or oil mixture onto dry hair some oils work better for this then others but I don't suggest using oil on wet or damp hair [for the purpose of what we are trying to achieve] try warming the oil for more flexibility and also to increase some oils penetrative qualities. I like to use Avocado Oil, and I leave it on over night. finding the right oil for your hair is important its mostly own to trial and error a lot of people like coconut oil however it's not for everyone so try out a few oils or oil combinations. Some avoid using butters as they can build up on the hair, however I have had great experience with avocado butter so again try a few thing to find your magic pre poo concoction.