Friday 15 February 2013

The L.O.C Method - Moisture for days

Your hair journey has no greater enemy than dryness (Ok, there are scissor happy stylists, chemical over processing, poor hair handling etc but dryness is definitely up there with them). Dryness is a lack of moisture (i.e. water) not oil. I stress this because of the numerous times I have heard people say "my hair is so dry" and then reach for the jar of grease or bottle of oil to 'moisturize'. You really should be reaching for the spray bottle of water instead because water is the true moisturizer. This begs the question: Are those of us who need daily moisturizing required to wet our hair daily? While this may work for some people (natural heads sporting wash and go styles, braids, cornrows etc), daily wetting will not work for a number of us. Enter the L.O.C method for retaining moisture. This method spares you the hassle of daily moisturizing by helping retain water within the shaft of your hair for days. So here is how is works:

The acronym L.O.C stands for:
L - Liquid
O - Oil
C- Cream

 It basically means applying products to your hair in layers. Each layer seals in the previous one. So the first product you would apply is the liquid which would be water or a water based product. The second product would be an oil. Oil acts as a barrier, it traps the water within the hair's shaft and seals it in. The third layer is the cream which seals in both the oil and water making it even more difficult for the water to escape.

I suppose you could say in trying to combat the dryness from harmattan and winter by co washing and oiling every other day, I have been applying the first 2 layers of the LOC method (i.e. water and oil). I recently tried the LOC method by adding elasta qp mango butter as the last layer (cream) and I loved it. My hair stayed moisturized until my next co wash which was not the case prior to using this method.


For L.O.C, you can use whatever products work for you. Here are the products I am using:

Liquid - Water


Oil - Olive oil


Cream - Elasta QP mango butter



I feel that the cream was quite heavy and weighed my hair down, so I plan to either switch to a lighter cream or practice the LOC method only when I am protective styling.

If you are combating dryness, you should definitely try this method. I've heard rave reviews from relaxed and naturals alike. Let me know how it works for you if you do get around to trying it.

xoxo
B

10 comments:

  1. I recently posted on this method too! Although I have to admit, I've never used water as the liquid step. BTW - what is harmattan?

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  2. Yeah, I use water because I figure I can't go wrong with it. I see from your post that you switched it up a bit though, using the cream before the oil. That actually makes a lot of sense. I should try that! Harmattan is a wind that blows across some west african countries between December and February causing the weather to be extremely dry and dusty. We refer to the period where this wind is active as "harmattan". It can be very hard on the hair, skin, lips etc (kind of like winter) so we have to moisturize heavier and more frequently during this period to prevent dryness. HTH.

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  3. I've always just used a liquid leave in as my Liquid instead of water. I still have issues with the L.O.C order so I've stuck to my L.C.O method.

    A lighter cream to use may be the Profectiv Growth Lotion.

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  4. Thanks Ladi, I'll try the profectiv lotion. Yes, considering the fact that oil forms a barrier, it makes sense to apply it last.

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  5. I will try out the Mango moisturiser cream. Lovely contents. Well done. :)

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    Replies
    1. I'm Mariam! Hi....ur blog's been an inspiration 2 grow my hair bk.hw often is healthy enuf to co-wash my hair n is making corn-rows wit attachments unhealthy?thanks

      Delete
  6. I use Elasta QP Olive Oil & Mango Butter Leave-In H2 Conditioner, cream and oil - L.C.0.

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  7. Do u apply the oil and cream to the wet hair or after it has dried?? If yes, can u use rollers and dry in a hooded dryer afterwards??? 2ndly if U're wearing out ur hair how often do u need to do d LOC?

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  8. Hi, I'm planning on growing my hair by 2 inches in 3months hopefully. But can I use a mix of olive oil and shea butter?

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  9. Thanks for sharing this post its all information is really very nice and useful for hair safety.

    Lace Frontal Closure

    ReplyDelete

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