Dew Point?

Hi Curlies!

It's been a minute, huh? Or "eh" as I am more comfortable saying :) Hope your curls are poppin' and your day is beautiful!

Today we're going to talk a bit about dew point and personal care. Now some of you are saying "Yes! Finally some information on dew point". And some of you are saying "What?!?!? Another thing to worry about on this Curly Hair Journey of ours!".

As we get better and better at dialing in healthy hair, we discover more and more factors that can play a role in getting good hair days more often than not. Now, what is dew point and how do we navigate this new territory? Even deeper is steps to calculating dew point. To put it simply, the dew point is the temperature at which water droplets (dew) start to form from the moisture in the air. But wait - there's more! Atmospheric pressure and humidity also play a role in this, and it can get a little complicated. But we got this far in the Curly Girl Method by being hair scientists, why stop now?

Why should we care about the dew point, you ask?

Well, many of us use products that contain humectants, like glycerin, that absorb or retain moisture. Sometimes this is a great thing, and sometimes it can lead to the frizz of a lifetime. Many times, we use the exact same products and techniques but get wildly different results from day-to-day. We blame it on the humidity but dew point is often the culprit.

In ideal conditions, glycerin helps keep bouncy, moisturized curls but in the wrong conditions breakage and frizz can occur. The "ideal" conditions have a lot to do with the dew point.

It sounds like a lot to think about but never fear, my Curlies…there is an amazing site called The Wholistic Enchilada and they did most of the heavy lifting for you! Check out their super in depth article The Curly Girl’s Guide To Dew Points, Humectants, & Humidity and learn more about calculating dew point from your own local forecast as well as understand what ingredients to avoid on any given day. Once you know your numbers you can head over to Weather Street (that has a musical sound to it…”We gonna head on down to Weather Street…) and get your exact dew point forecast for the next day! Let your personal care commence.

Look-with great gifts comes great responsibilities. We would not have been given this head of lovely curls if we weren’t up to the challenge of always looking our best. Only after you know the season and the dew point number that can affect your curls can you then proactively fight the good fight and claim “NOT TODAY DEW….not today!”