By Lenore T. Adkins, Special to the AFRO

What do you need to use to moisturize your natural hair? Oil or water? To hear natural hair experts Tonia Butler and Shannon Davis tell it, the answer is water.

“We need to use water or a water-like product to moisturize our hair,” said Butler, a stylist at N Natural Hair Studio in Silver Spring and co-director of its Natural Hair Nstitute. “We use oil to trap in the moisture that we’ve put in — so oil is a sealant. It’s either going to trap something in or it’s going to block something out . . . but you have to have something to seal because if you don’t, you’re going to have oily, dry hair.”

Naturalista Expo founder Angela Walker and Anika Hobbs, founder of Nubian Hueman in Southeast, D.C. at the Naturalista Expo 2018. (Courtesy Photo)

Wet hair is pliable and bendable while dry hair breaks, Butler said. So, when you’re styling your hair, you should always start with water or a water-based product.

Water also acts as a good maintenance product, Butler said. If your hair feels limp after three days, mist it with water to freshen it up.  And don’t be afraid to mist your hair in the middle of the day if it’s feeling dry.

Butler and Davis made their remarks Sept. 15 at the sixth-annual Naturalista Expo, held in College Park, Maryland. The expo, founded by N Natural Hair Studio owner Angela Walker, centers on natural hair and celebrates Black women’s health and beauty.

As such, panels focused on skin care, women’s health, swimming with natural hair, mental health, fashion, how to be an influencer, and other topics. The fitness piece invited women to do Zumba, Bikram yoga and more. Hands-on workshops taught women how to cornrow and flat twist.

Butler and Davis helmed a 48-minute panel called “Dispelling Natural Hair Myths” in which they debunked six myths about Black women’s hair in its natural state.

For instance when it comes to influencers and the products they use on their hair, just because you may have the same hair type, doesn’t mean you’ll get the same results from their hair regimen products. You must consider how your hair’s density, thickness and porosity compares with your hair idol.

The answer to this myth is knowing the key characteristics of your hair type, said Davis, a student at the “Nstitute”

“You might be able to use the same hair products as an influencer that you love, but you may need to use it when your hair is wet as opposed to her using it when the hair is damp,” Davis said. “You may need to use more, you may need to use less, you just really have to get to know your own individual hair texture – there’s really no shortcut to that.”

Another myth the ladies frequently hear is that natural hair doesn’t grow. In reality, they said, it does grow – the problem is retaining length, Butler said.

Hair grows in different stages all over our heads — some are in the growth stage, others are dormant, and some are just starting to grow. Butler’s advice is to be mindful of how you’re styling your hair and to avoid playing with your hair, because both can lead to breakage, she said.

“So, if the strand isn’t feeling a lot of love, it’s going to say, ‘Peace out, you don’t love me. I’m going to stay right here on this bathroom floor,’” Butler said.