 Trinity Girl Natural. Hi everyone, welcome to my channel. So we talked about the basic role of protein in terms of kind of temporary plugging holes in the strand. Plugging holes in the cuticle, helping the show of the structure of the strand. So those are the strengthening roles. High utilize protein can come in different types and sizes and have different effects based on the type and size. They can be strengthening as we know, as we kind of typically hear about in terms of protein. They can be moisturizing. They can be conditioning. They can add body. They can add volume. They can actually hydrate the strand. They can add elasticity even. I think that's part of why you see protein in a lot of products. The really small ones, they penetrate, but they don't stick around that long. But they are generally humectants. So they can get your deep moisture. The medium ones, they penetrate not as deeply as the small ones. I mean, I get all the way to the cortex, but they penetrate to be lower cuticle. And then they can help seal the cuticle. The larger ones, they don't really penetrate that far or but they can help patch up holes in the cuticle as well as seal the strand, seal the shaft. Silk proteins and milk proteins. Those are the smallest proteins. They are moisturizing proteins. So you don't have to worry about them making your hair hard in any way, shape, or form. They penetrate into the strand. They penetrate actually into the cortex. They moisturize and they add elasticity. And they can also add shine and just conditioning and so on. But they're too small to plug gaps in your cuticle and help prevent breakage and damage that way. So the medium sized proteins are collagen and keratin, which are small enough to moisturize and have humectant properties, but are also large enough to help stop gaps in the cuticle and help plug up the holes in the cuticle and temporarily repair the cuticle. And they also last a couple washes on your hair because like I said, they penetrate as well as temporarily plug gaps. So in a sense, those are really ideal proteins, especially for those who maybe have normal porosity and medium sized strands. They're going to do a little bit of moisture and they're going to do a little bit of damage prevention. So if you don't have extremely damaged hair or high porosity, those might be good proteins for you. Even for me, I guess, with my low porosity coarse strands, I can venture into trying collagen and keratin on my hair. Of course, I wouldn't use them too often because my strands don't have that many physical gaps in the first place, especially since I don't even use heat or color. And last, we have the larger proteins, which are like Wheat and Cunin, right? So those plug up holes in the strand, those are not moisturizing proteins. So those are the ones that really tend to make your hair stiffer. But they do plug holes in the cuticle and as well can actually coat and seal the whole cuticle. So they can help trap moisture in. They can help prevent like break it from really happening when it's about to happen right now kind of thing by actually coating the entire strand and they can help plug gaps in the cuticle. So if you have extreme damage, you want to look for wheat, rice, cunin, maybe oats. So which one is right for you? Basically, my guide is if it's milk or still go for it, it's moisture, don't even worry about it. If it's collagen or keratin, fine strands, high porosity, go for it. Don't even worry about it. People like low porosity coarse strands, double as needed. It's like wheat, rice, cunin, et cetera. It's more for those with more damaged hair, but those with normal porosity and medium strands can dabble in it to like where the ingredients listed up. It appears because I have used KNO protein and it did give me a wash trauma. I don't know what I was using before, but it didn't look my hair because it was really pretty far down in the ingredients list. So in terms of figuring out which one is right for you, definitely start mild and then go higher as needed. Start off with a conditioner because most of these proteins come in conditioners whether leaving or insult. So start off with a conditioner containing maybe collagen or keratin, maybe somewhat far down. Try it out. See if you see a difference. If you don't see a difference, maybe try something with wheat or oat next time. If you do see a difference and you like it, a difference kind of goes away. Like you stop seeing the benefit and then try it again or try something stronger. If you try and you hear it, then try something milder. But say, you know, your twist out came out really good. You retain extra moisture. This was all great. Then just take a note of all the good things that happened and when you hear the moisture retention drops again or something, then that's when you make the decision. Do you want to use this exact one years before? Do you want to even be adventurous and try something a little stronger? So maybe try something a little higher up in the ingredients list or try leaving it on a little bit longer. Try something with more proteins in it, things like that. It is an as needed thing and at first you may do it more often than eventually. As you're here, guess how regular protein you may need to do it less and less in the future. So how to apply protein? The first thing you want to do is start off with clarified hair because protein is obviously meant to penetrate the strand and it can't do that if your strand is coated with oil and product builder. And of course whenever I say clarified hair, I always have to add with shampoo, then you apply your protein treatment. Definitely follow the instructions of the protein treatment at least to start because you really don't want to go too brave and have a setback or something. So apply how they say, leave it on how long they say, you know, etc, etc. In terms of if they don't say add heat, maybe don't add heat the first time. If they say leave it on 20 minutes, just leave it on 20 minutes the first time. And then the next time you're doing it, like I said, if it went well, you can try adding heat, you can try leaving it on longer. You can try a product with protein higher up in the ingredients list. You can try a product with more proteins, more types of proteins. After applying the protein, after you rinse your protein treatment, I always start to follow up with a deep conditioning treatment. Protein actually binds to water, so it does help with moisture retention. So you have all that protein there. Now would be a great time to add some really deep conditioning moisturizing treatment to help give yourself a little moisture boost. So yes, it can be water, but what about that nice honey in that deep conditioner? I mean, you might want some of that stuff in there. The protein is going to trap all that deep penetrating stuff in as well, let it be good stuff, right? Especially with milder proteins, it may not feel necessary, but I always think that it gives you a good moisture boost. And I do notice a difference, although it could just be from double conditioning, but I always notice a difference when I do a deep conditioner after my protein treatment. So in terms of some of the popular protein treatments out there, of course, everybody has heard of Apogee. The two-step protein treatment is very strong, so I don't recommend that unless you have extremely damaged hair. Apogee two-minute keratin is moderate, but still rather strong, so you can use it just follow the instructions carefully and do a moisturizing treatment after. When I'm doing protein, I tend to use the She-Send-It Okra Reconstructor, which is a rather mild protein, because I don't need protein that much. It's just kind of good for long-term maintenance of my hair to do protein every now and then. So I kind of go by how my hair looks and feels, and how long since I've done it, and how much moisture I've been adding recently, and so on in terms of deciding when to do it. Another thing to note is just be aware of the protein in your products. So I'll start doing an actual treatment. A lot of the products that we use contain protein, so like I said, the milk and cell proteins, you can pretty much ignore those. But check your ingredients. Listen, if you see things like wheat protein, rice protein, oat protein, K-O protein, it's just something to keep in mind. So if your hair doesn't have any adverse effect, that's fine. But if you start feeling like your hair might be too stiff or brittle, you might want to ease off on the protein a little bit. So you can give yourself too much protein or protein over the world. Yes, by doing too harsh on your protein treatment or doing it too often, but also by using too many products for just a little bit of protein in them. Okay, so I think that's it. I hope I answered all of your questions about protein. If not, definitely let me know down below. So I hope all of that was really informative and helpful for you. Let me know if you plan to try protein if you have been using protein. Thanks for watching. I'll see you in the next one. Bye.