This post is for people who can’t wash their hair right away after working out. Pre-workout: Apply some dry shampoo before the workout, this will help absorb some of that sweat. Add a bit of oil to your ends (avoid applying it to the scalp). The oil will help prevent breakage and split ends. Post-workout: You can use a scalp serum if you can’t shower right after sweating. The serum will soothe the scalp, reduce irritation, and unclogs hair follicles which in turn helps in reducing hair shedding. Once you actually wash your hair, choose a clarifying shampoo or a sulfate-containing shampoo to really cleanse and ensure there is no…

In general, we interpret moisturizing/hydrating as the act of adding water to our hair. But, this is a bad idea as adding water to our hair can lead to damage and make the hair vulnerable. Wet hair without conditioning agents is more vulnerable and research has actually shown that hair containing higher percentages of water feels more dry/brittle/rough and hair with lower percentages is seen as more smooth. So, what should we do with our hair? We should condition it of course. We need to add ingredients to our hair that stick to the hair and coat it. In this way, we can make the hair smooth, easy to detangle,…

Although the hair is hygroscopic, which means that it does absorb water, the outermost layer or the surface of our hair is hydrophobic which means that it hates water and is designed to repel water. The interior fibres of the hair contain amino acids which attract water, but the outermost surface is a layer of fatty material (which repels water). This water repellent surface is of importance because it facilitates the drying of the hair and it reduces friction between hair fibers so that the hair doesn’t have a dried-out feeling and it’s easy to comb. This is also why oils are beneficial to hair because they also contribute to this…

You should always make sure to use an oil to protect your hair from damage due to (combing, brushing, etc). Mineral/silicone/sunflower (other vegetable) oils can also be used to reduce damage and protect your hair. Most oils only work on the outermost layer of the hair, which is already great and by sticking to the outermost layer, oils can reduce friction and smoothen the cuticles. This helps to comb your hair easily. If an oil wants to penetrate into the hair shaft or hair core, it needs to have enough affinity with the inner surface and the molecular weight or size also needs to be small enough to penetrate/diffuse inside…

First of all, what does pH mean? The pH indicates the acidity, alkalinity, or neutrality of a given medium. The pH scales range from 1 to 14. Solutions and substances with a pH below 7 are considered as acidic and above 7 alkaline. Your hair is a protein that carries a charge. Your hair can be positive, negative, or neutrally charged. The hair is neutrally charged when the pH is around 3.76. It will be slightly lower for bleached or damaged hair. The scalp has a pH somewhere between 4.5 and 5.5. So most shampoos are pH balanced and have a pH between 4 and 7. This will not lead…

Your hair consists of strands of the protein keratin. These keratin strands are held together by several types of bonds i.e. disulphide bonds, and hydrogen bonds). When heat styling, the hydrogen bonds are temporarily broken down and this effect gets lost when the hair gets wet. When chemical straightening, the stronger disulphide are being broken down and reformed (this is permanent). When doing a Brazilian keratin treatment, the disulphide bonds are not being broken and therefore are not a permanent treatment. BKT is based on crosslinking or binding amino acids in the hair fibre. Amino acids are the building blocks of keratin protein. In order to do so, formaldehyde is…

Weak hair is weaker than dry hair and is more likely to break. Every type of hair is weaker when it’s wet (from straight hair to curly hair to African hair). How is wet hair weaker to dry hair? So, water makes the hair wet. When the hair is wet, the inner cuticles (hair surface) swell up, but the outer cuticles do not swell up. This leads to cuticle lifting (damage to the cuticle and this leads to a coarse and rigid feeling of the hair). This cuticle lifting can become more induced when the hair is stretched or moved ( this is what happens with your hair while you’re…

You might think that it’s better to avoid blow-drying because heat is damaging to the hair. That’s true, but wet is more fragile than dry hair and is prone to breakage. So, there should be a balance between the two. Water can make the hair swell up. The inner cuticles swell up when the hair is wet, but the outer cuticles remain rigid and do not swell up. This leads to the cuticle (damage to the cuticle) lifting off. This happens when a strain (like brushing, touching, moving) is applied to wet hair. All types of hair are vulnerable to breakage when wet. The problem with heat styling is that…

A conditioner mainly consists of a mixture of water and oil with two types of conditioning ingredients: Cationic surfactants (behentrominium/centrimonium chloride), and Fatty alcohols (cetearly/cetyl/stearyl alcohol). Why do you need these 2 types of conditioning ingredients? These two types form a lamellar phase. Lamellar phases lead to a great deposition of ingredients into the hair and the main goal of a conditioner is to deposit the conditioning ingredients into the hair. Not every lamellar phase gives the same deposition and the optimal performance of a lamellar depends on the exact ratio of the ingredients. Two products can contain the same ingredients but, if the ratio is different, it will not…

Hyaluronic acid is an overrated ingredient in the skincare industry and it can hold up to 1000 times its own weight. In addition to that, it also hydrates the skin. Promoting HA for haircare just because it can hold so much water doesn’t make sense. Haircare products are not about hydrating or adding water to the hair. The hair needs to be conditioned i.e. conditioning agents form a film around the hair to smoothen it. When searching for hair care ingredients, we are looking for ingredients that can coat the hair and smoothen it. HA has lubricating properties, but the ingredient needs to be able to bind to the hair.…