The MAX HYDRATION METHOD(from my other post)

when you water down the KCKT for the deep condition step what is the water to condish ratio? i want to try this to see if my hair likes it before i buy a MHM friendly conditioner to dc with.

newbies don't keep this regimen to yourself. Share it with your natural hair friends, families, who ever. If you have a facebook, share it. An instagram? Share it. Youtube? talk about it. We need to spread this regimen.

And to make sure no one will question that those before pictures are actually me, i will have a zoom out picture of some of those before pics and wear the same outfit or take it in the same spot that i took it in. No more excuses. This regimen simply works, stop convincing yourselves your 4c hair doesn't have a curl pattern if you still are. If your hair was only kinky and had no actual curl, your hair would be straight. You wouldn't be able to have shrinkage f your hair wasn't tightly coiled. And since other looser textures have kinks and are able to still tame them when it is getting properly hydrated, then we with 4c hair can do the same.





Here's an example of minimal shrinkage hair that is very kinky. This is Hair Crush. She has not got 4b or 4c hair. But she has kinks and a wavy curl pattern that almost looks straight. This would be what 4c hair would look like if we go by the misinformed definition of "no curl pattern". Because curl pattern, tightness and shrinkage are not the same things as kinks. Kinks are what disrupt the uniformity of the strands. But with out the kink, the curl would be there. You would not get less shrinkage, and your curl pattern wouldn't change. It would be more uniform, and therefore you could see it.


Texturized Hair                                                                
  VERSUS

Max hydrated hair
 

Compare someone with texlaxed hair to my hair right now. The texturizer does not effect their kinks, because kinks are caused by lack of moisture. they are a curl pattern that can be loosened. Even after getting a texturizer, your hair would still not be shiny, and still not be uniform. You would simply have less shrinkage.

 Kinks are a different kind of bend and twist the hair does, and when light hits it, it is not shiny. Look at this link for reference(scroll down for the comparison of low and high porosity):
http://forum.blackhairmedia.com/the-max-hydration-methodfrom-my-other-post_topic368937_post10840588.html?KW=So+her+frizz#10840588

You can find a correlation with those who describe their hair as naturally(not due to damage) higher or normal porosity, with shine. Where as we usually think the opposite. Low porosity= shine. But the ppl with higher porous or normal porous hair do not have as much resistance to absorbing moisture into their hair.

Their hair therefore has less kink, and when the light hits it, it is easier to reflect light because the strand itself lacks all those torsions and twists. It is just a ringlet/ coil, and so it is very easy to get it to be uniform. So you can have someone with very tight coils and when it is uniform you will see shine. But their hair will not be uniform if there are too many kinks to the point where you don't believe you have a curl pattern. There will be no shine or sheen. That should tell you your hair is not hydrated, and we shouldn't be so stubborn about that. That's the way it is and its why many of us have problems in our journeys. I would rather be wrong than to feel like i'm right and then never reach my hair's potential.

Anyway that would explain why relaxed 4c hair(most likely low porous) will look a lot different from relaxed type 3a porosity or a more higher porous hair, interms of health(length, moveability) and shine. Just because you relax your hair, doesn't mean the kinks actually go away. And those weakness are still there and actually enhanced because now you have broken bonds on top of everything.

Also, when you have a lot of kinks in your hair, it is not just the dryness factor that causes breakage. Each kink is a weak spot. A sharp twist and bend in the hair, that the hair doesn't actually want to be doing, its only doing this because it's dehydrated. This means your hair is more prone to breaking and has difficulty retaining length if it isn't hidden in protective style 90% of the year. And even then because our hair is still dry, the growth disappoints or gets broken off during detangling.

This is not to say all our kinks will be gone, but we are on the extreme end of very kinky because our kinks overwhelm our coils to the point where they are completely unable to be uniform. That is caused by our hair being dehydrated, and it happens on everyone's hair type. The dryer your hair is the more kinky and frizzy and lightweight it will be.

 Hydrating your hair from within the cortex, would prevent those twists and bends because the hair cortex is going to fill with water little by little. This is good swelling the kind that everyone is supposed to have, not the kind of swelling caused by relaxers that cause the bonds of the hair to be broken. This untwists those kinks the way someone with a stiff in their neck would find relief from better joint lubrication. Our hair will be less light weight and be able to resist loosing uniformity upon shrinking. it is kind of like the kinks will cause your hair to "overshrink" and be lightweight. but this is a different kind of shrinkage from the one caused by curl tightness, this just adds to it.

You may think with this method, it's all about getting definition in your wash and goes, and you have to choose between moisture or length.

But think about it like this. Despite what some people think, 4c hair in it's dehydrated state doesn't hold definition well. Your twist outs won't come out defined or if they do, you won't be able to separate your hair or you will have wasted your time even trying for a twist out look. In this sense our hair needs uniformity for it to hold the shape of those styles well, have them to be easy to separate, and get consistent results. Otherwise you'll be forced to use heavy amount of product and still get undesirable results.

when the curl is more uniform, our set styles are going to be able to turn out well even with minimal product as i displayed in my before and after pics.

In terms of health and length. Those points of kink are points of tension, it is not like a coil which has it's uniformity enabling it to clump and protect itself. A kink will make your strands all separate and have to fight on their own. If you have fine or low density 4c strands, this is going to mean you do not retain length well. It's dry, brittle, and has a lot of weak points. Protective styles many times worsen the situation, and when the hair is dry for too long, split ends occur along with single strand knots. Hydrated uniform coils do not leave their shape or curl on other strands, they tend to be better at staying together and therefore they protect each other better. This is how i retained length during this method.(although i had trimmed because of a protective style i had been doing before i started this regimen, which btw i had already trimmed before doing the protective style!)

Last moisture has a direct effect the rate at which your hair grows. I know this from when i had my completely smoothed bald spot(using ecostyler gel with all its horrible ingredients), the spot remained stagnant for over a year. tingly oils, vitamins and protective styles didn't save me. GHE for 3 months straight 24hours a day did.

And the hair grew back curling from root to tip, even though it was a section that seemingly had no curl pattern before. (The other sections did not benefit as much because i sealed them with heavy butters and no clarification steps were in my regimen.) That was what made me start to open my eyes about the importance of opening up my cuticles and porosity and moisture.  so i started researching and found the cherrylola. Modified it and liked my results better with my version as it was more foamy.

Then i happened to hear someone talk about max hydration. Researched that. Found danabnatural and then aketafitgirl. And so i did some more research about porosity and products and bam! Max hydration Method.

A close look at 4c hair. Scroll through entire page.
http://forum.blackhairmedia.com/the-max-hydration-methodfrom-my-other-post_topic368937_post10819984.html?KW=Just+wanted+to+post+side+by+side+pi#10819984


What 4a hair looks like, so you can see the majority of my hair is not 4a.



What 3c hair looks like.



Over all.

• 4c hair is tightcoils, not pure kink.

• Kinks and coils are not the same thing.

• It is possible to have kinks but not coils and to have coils yet no kink.

• It is not possible to have at least 20% shrinkage with out first having a tight coil or some sort of curl pattern.

• It is possible for all curl types to be defined or uniform. Curl uniformity is not synonymous with curl size or curl pattern.

• Curl uniformity is controlled by kinks which is exactly what cause frizz, which is controlled directly by moisture levels.

• Most 4c hair has the most difficulty absorbing moisture, which is why it is the most prone to showing no curl uniformity of clumping.

Edited by pinkecube - Jun 08 2014 at 3:31pm

Rebekah93 wrote: Hiya  My hair is made up of O and S strands which only clump in random places (mostly the middle and front of my hair.) This seems like a good method to get the most moisture into my hair strands and get a uniform texture, so I'm excited to give it a try! I was wondering if anyone knows where I can purchase clay from in the UK that's good value, preferably a shop, but online is good too! Also, I'll probably be using an oil to seal in step 5 instead of a gel as they can be quite expensive here! What oils would work best? Thanks!

Hello Rebekah93 Welcome to the MHM journey.
I am being lenient with the oils, now. But i still highly recommend gel.

As for oils, I recommend castor oil. It has a good consistency and sealing ability. Pairing it with olive oil or some antihumectant oil/butter would help with the mild humectant and astringent property.

keishamichelle wrote: gosh i cannot WAIT to try this. all im waiting on is my KCCC to come in and my aminos for the cherry lola treatment. i am experiencing breakage right now that i have not been able to combat, and dryness after i moisturize and seal.

Hi keishamichelle,

Yes, what people don't realize is moisturizing  the traditional way and just sealing is just not enough for our hair type. Literally the moisture will sit on your closed hair cuticles until it completely evaporates. The only thing that will stay is the oil. So your hair will end up dry, as a result.

MHM, combats that directly and so there is guarantee we absorb the moisture we put on our hair. That's why when many ppl try this their hair does a 180. We have never seen our hair in a truly moisturized state. And like i said above too, the causes of breakage are being directly combated.
So when you start this method you are going to overcome those problems you've been having.




Edited by pinkecube - Jun 08 2014 at 3:00pm

Naturaltash1 wrote: @pinkecube what do we do if our hair is hydrating at a slow rate? I've realized my wash n go's will always turn into a fro until I get more hydration. My hair is still too light weight to keep my curl pattern once it air dries. I no that I need the water to get into the cortex to weigh my hair down. I'm not going for the afro look and that's what I get each time I try to do a wash n go no matter what products I use. Should I just do a twist out or braid out until I get more hydrated curls & then revisit my wash n go once I get more hydrated strands?

Hi Naturaltash,

If that is what you feel comfortable with, there is no real issue in doing the steps and ending with twists and braids, and then the next day doing a twistout or braid out. I would like to see pictures of your hair eventually or something i can visibly see so i have a better idea of what you are struggling with. You could email them to me. also, what options have you been doing btw? Have you experiemented with them so you can see which option works best for you? Last, it does take time to get the results, but they do happen. It's reliant on how many times you have done the regimen. How many times have you repeated the regimen?

 So far it's been 23 regimen repeats for me. Not counting my trial and error stage and the days i DC'd when i didn't have product. You also have to take into account beginning moisture levels. Prior to starting the method, i had done GHE for 3 months straight 24 hours a day, and then incorporated cherry lola treatment a couple times. Taking that into account it's possible i  started out with slightly higher moisture levels. So maybe getting to the point i am at will take a bit longer.

However, i estimate the range of max hydration would be 25-60 days of you actively doing the regimen to get there. And some strands get there faster than others. Have you been monitoring your progress btw during the bentonite step? So you have any strands that do not shrink up into a fro anymore? The progress is going to be small but you will see visible progress every time you repeat, even if it's one strand. So do the twist outs and just focus on seeing those small marks of progress.


Edited by pinkecube - Jun 08 2014 at 3:58pm