“Your hair is really flourishing”
That’s the first compliment that let me know the Q-Redew handheld hair steamer I’d recently tried was doing its good work. When another co-worker told me a few days later, “Your hair is looking so good these days,” I knew I had to keep steaming as a normal part of my routine.
I’ve known hair steaming was a thing for a while now, but being the low-maintenance natural that I am, I just didn’t feel I had time for it. And, honestly, being the naturally cynical person that I am, I figured steaming was one of those time-consuming wash day routine steps only women who get paid for their hair to be flawless really need to do. In short, I just didn’t believe the benefits were as amazing as others had reported. And I also wasn’t interested in revisiting those sit under the dryer days — no matter what the treatment was– but when I saw there was a handheld steaming option on the market, that peaked my interest more than anything.
Dryness is what made me finally pull my Q-Redew out of the drawer it’d been sitting in for more than a month. I’d recently removed extensions and my curls just weren’t bouncing back like they had before. I’d tried deep conditioning but the moisture seemed to leave my strands as soon as the product did, so one morning after sleeping in my deep conditioner, I decided to steam my hair before rinsing it out. The difference in just 20 minutes of lightly blasting spurts of steam onto my strands was instantaneous. My hair retained far more moisture, I found myself using less styling product, and I had less shrinkage — three things every natural strives for.
During that first treatment I noticed the steam from the Q-Redew was actually helping my hair dry but without the strong heat of a blowdryer so a week later I actually steamed my hair before work to speed up the drying process and lessen the shrinkage I typically have from blow drying with a diffuser. The results were just as good. My hair felt soft, I’d lost less length, and the strands were nice and moisturized. All of this from simply pulling a handheld device through my mane for about 15 minutes.
Now that I’ve steamed about three times, I’m also finding that the process is quite therapeutic. I like the sensation of steam hitting my scalp — I actually feel like product is penetrating my roots and ends rather than sitting on top of the hair shaft — and the prongs on the steamer allow me to detangle my strands without harsh pulling or tugging, or my curls’ losing shape, which does more for reducing shrinkage than a lot of products on the market claim they can. Same goes for the reduction of frizz. The great thing is you can also use the Q-Redew on dry hair to refresh and even style your fro or as a pre-poo treatment to detangle hair which is great for women like me who usually have to start from scratch with a soaking wet head of hair to get the look I’m going for.
If low porosity and dryness are constant struggles for you, I’d strongly encourage you to try the Q-Redew.
Check out the videos below for tips on steaming.
