When you’re giving your hair all the treatments, investing in quality hair products and ensuring that it stays healthy and happy, you must be surprised to still find that it is still limp and not responding to the nourishment you are providing it. You’ll be wondering what you’re doing wrong and in your quest to correct this mistake, you must be changing your conditioner to one that is extremely rich. Well, there can be a thing as too rich.
What is Protein Overload?
Protein overload occurs when you give your hair too much protein. While hair does require it to flourish properly, a balance has to be maintained in order to keep your hair healthy and happy. Moreover, since hair is made up of protein, it might surprise you to know that it doesn’t require as much protein as it is said that they do.
How Can You Tell If You Have Protein Overload
When protein overload occurs, it can be difficult to identify it since the symptoms are so similar to other hair problems for which you tend to be feeding it with protein. The following are some of the common symptoms associated with protein overload:
- Hair strand snaps off easily when you are testing it
- Hair appears to be lifeless, brittle and rather dry
- The natural luster and shine is missing from your hair
- Hair is stiff and straw like in texture
- Hair tangles very easily and there is a lot of shedding too
If you’re experiencing these symptoms, you might be dismissing them as indicative of a deficiency in your hair health. If you’ve cancelled out all the deficiencies, then it might be time to consider that it could be because of an overload of protein.
How to Fix It
Once you have identified that you are getting a protein overload, you have to start working to rectify the situation. The biggest thing that you need to consider is that it will not be corrected overnight. Reversing the impact of a protein overload can take a month or more.
During this time, you need to work on incorporating a protein free hair care regime. Go through your hair products and set aside any that have oat flour, soy protein, wheat protein and hydrolyzed collagen. These can simply choke your hair and cause more breakage too.
This is done by opting for products that incorporate healthy oils such as avocado, almond, flaxseed and others like them. Also be sure to use a clarifying shampoo that helps to not only wash away the oils but product build up in the hair as well. If you want, you can also opt for a simple washing routine as well, where you only wash your hair with a conditioner.
At the end of the day, the main aim has to be to get moisture back into your hair which has been overloaded with protein. It can take some time but you can be sporting gorgeous, healthy hair in a few weeks or less.