Beauty

[Iwantcoffee]

by Paula's Choice, Inc. on Saturday, August 27, 2011 at 4:09pm

Part two in our series that busts the myths preventing you from finding your best haircare routine! A few helpful tips to remember as we continue on our look at the facts and fallacies of navigating the product aisle...

What you can expect depends less on the products you use...and far more on the actual texture and structure of your hair, how adept you are at wielding styling tools, and how much time and trouble you are willing to go through to achieve the desired results.

Hair is dead (notice that when you cut hair, you don’t say ouch), and once it has been damaged it cannot be repaired in any way, shape, or form. Repeated blow drying, brushing, styling, chemical processing, and sun exposure degrades hair, and the damage cannot be mended or undone.

Hair has a particular genetic or hormonally generated nature; you can work with it and spend time controlling it, and find products that simulate a different feel, but you cannot change how it grows. Perms, straighteners, and dyes can make a drastic change in the appearance of your hair (and there are definite negative consequences to these processes), but the effects grow out, and that’s an entirely different story from thinking that some quality of your hair can be altered for good.

PARTIAL MYTH: The longer you leave a conditioner on, the more effective it will be. Depending on the ingredients, this is entirely true. There is plenty of evidence that certain ingredients can penetrate the cuticle better when left on longer. However, that doesn’t mean the ingredients will be better able to repair damage or restructure the hair shaft.

There is discussion in the world of hair care about the permeability of the hair shaft. Can ingredients penetrate beyond the cuticle into the hair shaft? Given that hair can absorb water, why not other compounds? If hair wasn’t permeable, then humidity couldn’t get in and change the hair’s appearance, hair dyes couldn’t get inside and become permanent, and perms wouldn’t change the curl status of the hair. The question that leaves experts arguing is, how much benefit is derived from the absorption of such ingredients as amino acids, panthenols, biotin, and the like?

One thing we can be fairly certain of is that these microscopically tiny ingredients are absorbed to some degree. However, this absorption occurs in a laboratory setting, using high concentrations and pure forms of these ingredients. In contrast, given that the amount of these ingredients included in shampoos and conditioners is negligible and that the products are rinsed off or manipulated during the styling process, and then exposed to the elements, it is almost impossible for them to have any effect on hair whatsoever. Besides, what most of us already know from our own experience is that even the most expensive hair products in the world won’t change damaged hair, and those lovely ingredients are gone the next time you wash your hair.

MYTH: I have oily hair, so it is best for me to avoid conditioners. If you have oily hair it is because your scalp is producing oil and the oil accumulation is making its way down the hair shaft. Other than that, hair itself is not oily, which means the hair farthest away from your scalp can be dry or damaged. In that case, you do need a conditioner, but you should use it on the ends only and be careful not to get it anywhere near the scalp.

MYTH: Lots of lather means the hair is getting thoroughly clean. I know this may be shocking—it still shocks me—but lather is unrelated to the cleaning ingredients in shampoo. Lather ingredients are added to shampoo for the emotional appeal they provide. They have no effect on cleaning. Why do we associate the amount of lather with clean hair? Because the amount of lather you get while shampooing is directly affected by the amount of oil and debris on the hair. The more oils, conditioning agents, or styling-product residue on the hair, the less lather will be produced when you shampoo. So the hair may be clean, but the lather ingredients were deactivated by the presence of the oil and other stuff you want to wash away. That is why hair generally lathers better the second time you wash it, because it was cleaned on the first go around, and now the lather agents can foam unimpeded.

MYTH: Baby shampoos are milder and gentler, so they are the best to use for my dry scalp and dried-out ends. No way! It’s true that baby shampoos do omit ingredients that can sting the eyes (to some extent), which is nice, but because they are formulated with cleansing agents that are less drying and irritating they also have less cleaning ability. Obviously, it’s rare for younger children to be using styling products, applying emollient conditioners, perming or coloring their hair, overusing blow dryers or curling irons, or doing any of a number of other problematic things that adults inflict on their hair. If you want to handle adult hair issues, adult shampoos and conditioners are the only way to go.

MYTH: Brushing the hair 100 times is good for the hair. Nothing could be further from the truth! Brushing the hair roughs up the cuticle, eventually chipping it away and exposing the cortex, leaving the hair porous and frayed.

MYTH: Even though two hair-care products list the same ingredients, they are not the same product because the quality of the ingredients varies. Most cosmetics companies would like you to believe that you can’t tell anything from reading the ingredient list, and suggest that the quality of the ingredients is what counts. Having spoken with many raw-ingredient manufacturers and cosmetics chemists from most of the major hair-care companies and contract manufacturers, I assure you that the overall quality of the ingredients is fairly consistent. There are only a small number of raw-ingredient manufacturers, and they are not in the business of producing inferior materials for companies looking for a bargain. Every time I have asked an expensive hair-care line to show me proof that their ingredients are of a better grade or quality, I’m told they can’t reveal their sources. Sources aren’t a secret; if they were, the ingredient manufacturers couldn’t earn a living. If a company can’t substantiate a claim, then they have made it up, knowing that most consumers will fall for the line and won’t press for details.

MYTH: Products within a line are designed to work together, so it is best never to mix products from other lines. Do not assume that hair-care products from the same line are all wonderful or that all of them will be compatible with your hair. Experiment with what works best for your hair’s needs, not the needs of the hair-care line selling you products.

MYTH: Cutting your hair makes it thicker. Cutting hair does not make it thicker. However, because damaged ends can feel sparse, look thin, and may lie in a fuzzy layer, cutting them off can make your hair look newly thick. And it can stay looking and feeling healthy if you don’t start re-torturing the ends. Also, depending on the talent of your hairstylist, a specific hairstyle can make the hair appear thicker through layering or stacking.

MYTH: Hair can be double-processed without causing damage, or hair can be double-processed if you wait a few weeks between treatments. In other words, you can perm and color your hair at the same time or a few weeks apart and not worry about excessive decomposition of the cuticle or hair shaft. Well, nothing could be further from the truth, even though some hairstylists would like us to believe otherwise. And why shouldn’t they? A perm and a color job add up to a lot of technical work, plus the intensive hair treatments the hair will require if it is to endure your fashion indulgence. Hair coloring, as well as perms or relaxers, are treatments that require an alkaline base to make a permanent change in the color or shape of the hair. That process causes the hair shaft to swell, making it more porous and damaging the cuticle. Doing that to the hair twice is twice as damaging. And because hair isn’t alive, waiting won’t heal it. Damaged hair cannot be repaired. Nothing can restore the hair from the problematic effects of one chemical process, let alone two.

MYTH: You can double-process the hair if the products being used are gentle and don’t contain any harmful ingredients. If it were possible to find gentle dyes and perms I would agree with this statement, but the basic characteristics of dyes and perms (those that create lasting change to the full length of hair—until the roots start showing) mean that these products are damaging to the hair. What you have to put the hair through to change its color, cover gray, and straighten or curl it is damaging to the hair. Doing both is doubly damaging. Products often claim they will be less damaging to the hair because they don’t contain peroxide or ammonia. What they don’t tell you, however, is that the ingredients they use instead, which don’t sound like peroxide or ammonia, do exactly the same thing to the hair as peroxide and ammonia. You may not recognize the names, but they are just as damaging.

MYTH: You can protect your hair from chemical damage by using a good conditioner or conditioning treatment before you color or perm your hair. The ingredients in dyes and perms easily penetrate past conditioning ingredients (they have to or they wouldn’t be able to change your hair color or shape), and that is where the damage takes place, inside the hair shaft.

PARTIAL MYTH: The best way to make limp, thin hair full is to perm it. To some extent that’s true—perming can make hair look markedly fuller—but perming the entire head, especially on small rods and on a regular basis (to keep up with grow-out), is not a viable solution if you want full hair that looks good. When perming was all the rage in the 1980s, we saw plenty of evidence of what happens when thin, fine hair gets permed on a regular basis or when small rods are used to set in curl as opposed to fullness. Hair can’t easily handle repeated perms without the risk of becoming a frizzy mess. Grow-out can look terrible, and re-perming only makes matters worse. A root perm is an option (only the root area is treated with perm solution, while the rest of the hair is protected with conditioner, creams, or oils), but it takes a very savvy hairstylist to do it well.

MYTH: Taking vitamins can make hair stronger and healthier. If you started taking special vitamin supplements for your hair, it would take months for the effect, if any, to show up. Hair has to grow to be affected by a new addition to your diet. So the promise of instant hair health with a vitamin supplement is sheer nonsense. This includes taking gelatin capsules or consuming gelatin with the hope of making your hair stronger.

Additionally, there are no definitive studies indicating that taking any vitamin changes the texture or appearance of the hair. Trace minerals and drugs can show up in hair analysis after the hair is chemically broken down and treated, but that doesn’t mean you would be able to detect a difference in your hair between the months you took the vitamin supplements and the months you didn’t.