If you are interested in having healthy hair and you want to grow your black hair long, then ceramides can be considered one of the most important aspects of your hair care routine. If you’re leaving this out of your regimen, you’ll definitely want to reconsider. So you may be wondering what exactly ceramides are, you may have heard them mentioned but you are not quite sure what they are and exactly what they do for your hair. So let’s get to it!

Ceramides are essentially a fatty lipid that makes up our hair and skin. In the hair, they work like the glue that holds our hair together. When you take a strand of hair and look at it under a microscope, you’ll see hundreds of tiny scales. On healthy hair, the scales will be flat. However, on damaged or over-processed hair, you will see these scales stick out and separate from the main cortex. This gives the hair a dull, rough look. What ceramides do is literally hold these scales together and keep them flat where they belong. What this means for your hair is that the precious moisture and protein you’ve been adding to your regimen stays trapped in the hair where it belongs instead of escaping through the raised, open cuticles.

After regularly incorporating ceramides into your hair care routine, you will notice that your hair is smoother, softer, and noticeably shinier due to flattening of the hair cuticles. Increasing your use of ceramide will help you have much healthier hair in the long run because you will be able to maintain protein and moisture balance much better. Adding the right amount of protein and moisture to your hair care regimen will go a long way while also adding ceramides to keep everything locked in. After repeated use and healthier hair, many people start to wonder if they need to keep doing protein treatments. Increased hair health makes it seem like all you need to do is keep using ceramides and moisture for beautiful, healthy hair. The truth is that hair needs all three. Think of it as a nice balanced balance that you want to keep in place. Instead of eliminating your protein, simply reduce the number of protein treats and space them out.

So where are these ceramides and how do you get them in your hair? They are found naturally in oils such as wheat germ oil, hemp seed oil, and sunflower oil. Ceramides are also made synthetically and can be found in many hair products. Some great ones to try include Sidal’s SOS Ceramides, La Bomba deep hair treatment, HASK’s cerafix ceramide repair, Redken’s extreme rescue strength, and Wild Growth hair oil.

Go ahead and try ceramides for yourself, you will be pleasantly surprised!