1C hair requires minimal product and styling techniques for low maintenance needs and is resistant to humidity and heat. Straight strands make this hair ideal for transporting natural scalp oils throughout your strands, with slightly ruffled or bent ends without full curls that can become oily at their roots.
Coarseness
1C hair has coarser strands compared to other straight hair types, making it more likely to frizz under humid conditions or when suffering from chronic dryness. This prevents your strands from looking smooth and sleek even if you take the time to heat style or air dry into waves or curls using heatless techniques.
Your strands’ straight structure allows oil from your scalp’s sebaceous glands to travel quickly down and along each one, increasing its likelihood of becoming oily soon after washing, potentially leading to overwashing as your scalp produces additional natural oils in response to an excess amount of shampoo being applied. This cycle could create an endless cycle of overwashing, which causes even more natural oil production due to extra wash time being administered to it.
To combat these issues, ensure your hair care routine includes rinse-out conditioner and leave-in conditioning spray to help your strands remain hydrated. Furthermore, consider switching to satin or silk pillowcases during sleep to reduce friction that causes frizz-causing damage – both measures should help you save your locks from damage-causing frizz!
Strength
1C hair strands don’t fully curl, angle, or coil like type 3 and 4 locks, making them naturally strong. Every curl or angle creates weak points where breakage may occur – something 1C strands don’t suffer from! This allows them to be stretched more easily for lengthier locks than their counterparts with less robust and breakable structures.
1C hair can also withstand heat damage more effectively than finer straight varieties, though a heat protectant must still be used when using hot tools. 1C hair types need extra moisture for frizz-fighting results, so look for shampoo and conditioner products free from sulfates, parabens, phthalates, and silicone. A strength-enhancing shampoo such as this one has a nourishing formula that can smooth and enhance strand health using avocado oil, keratin, and cocoa butter while being free from sulfates, parabens, phthalates, and silicone to achieve beautifully sleek results without weighing down 1C locks.
Natural Damage Resistance
1C hair tends to be more resilient against physical and chemical damage than its curlier and wavy counterparts; however, you should still pay attention to proper maintenance. Shower hard water contains minerals that damage hair strands over time, making them susceptible to breakage and becoming brittle.
Naturally coarse strands may also be susceptible to frizz on humid days, and using anti-frizz products and air drying your hair (preferably using anti-frizz serum) are great ways to manage frizz and keep it sleek and shiny. Your scalp produces a lot of oil, leaving your locks looking greasy just a day or two after being washed. Washing too frequently causes an oil feast-famine cycle whereby more oil is produced to make up for what was stripped away by shampoo. To combat this effect, try washing every other day and applying dry shampoo when your roots look oily.
Length
Your thick strands make it easy for oil from sebaceous glands on your scalp to travel down each strand to your roots and along your hair length, creating a feast-famine cycle of oil accumulation at sources and depletion on size. Your scalp then produces more oil to compensate for what has been lost as your scalp detects excess has been stripped from it and thus continues producing surplus.
1C hair tends to frizz in humid conditions due to its coarse texture, so having anti-frizz serums on hand and styling with low to medium heat settings are key to prevent dryness and brittleness from dryness or over styling with heat tools. You can use products to tame frizz when air drying heatless waves or curls using air drying, while your natural strength makes it simple for you to achieve longer lengths with sturdy, non-breakable strands.
