Hair Styling Tips
Certain hairstyles and treatments can cause breakage or root damage. Avoid excessively tight braiding, buns, or ponytails. do not roll your hair too tightly in curlers.
Teasing and back combing should be done gently or not at all. To much
exposure to sun, wind, or swimming-pool chemicals will dry out your
hair and cause it to knot.
A styling gel or mousse can give your hair more body or thickness. They
do not necessarily damage your hair, but you may experience extra
dryness, especially at the hair ends.
Hair bleaches chemically alter the melanin granule in the middle layer
of each hair strand. Despite careful treatment, persistent bleaching
eventually damages even healthy, strong hair shafts, but it does not
injure the roots from which future hair growth takes place.
Most hair sprays bond the hair strands into long, linear bundles - that
is, they 'seam weld' the hair. But this structure is broken down as
soon as a comb or fingers are run through it, or even in damp or windy
conditions.
Hair dyes work more like paint by covering hair strands with color or
by mixing with the melanin granules without altering them. Dyes come in
temporary form, which eventually wash out, and semi-permanent and
permanent forms, conduct a patch test to check for possible irritation,
because a severe allergic reaction to hair dye could cause hair loss.
Curling is safest if you twist your hair into pin curls overnight. Use
of hot rollers or curling irons gives the best results for coarse hair,
but they may damage strands or roots when used to excess. When you use
a curling iron always roll in the ends last. For safe curling of fine
hair, let it air dry and wind it loosely around sponge rollers.
Permanent waving rearranges the inner hair molecules, breaking and
reforming its sulfur bonds, in a step-wise chemical process (that gives
off the familiar sulfide odor which wafts off the head being waved).
Permanent waving is safe for healthy hair, but you may find it results
in increased dryness and splitting. Straightening and permanent waving
use the same chemical methods to change the properties of hair strands.
In permanent waving, a gentle shampoo first strips off the sebum, then
swelling agents open up the hair shaft -- to allow entry of the
bond-rearranging waving solution. Modern waving solutions (mostly
ammonium or sodium sulfide) are more flexible than the former types,
safer and more controllable. The latest acidic waving lotions, although
more expensive, have the gentlest hair-reforming action, and are
advised for use on fragile or tinted hair. Wound on rollers of varying
sizes, hair gets a permanent curl of the desired type. The final extent
of the wave depends on the kind of hair (finer curling faster), the
time the solution stays on and the size of roller used. After the hair
is arranged in its new, curly configuration. Waving solution is rinsed
off and the second solution, the neutralizer which restores the linkage
is put on to halt the curling process. The waving action must be
stopped at the right time to avoid overprocessing. Modern waving
solutions are often self-timed, the hair-altering reaction
automatically halted after a designated time. A permanent waving should
never be done on hair dyed with metallic products and only with extreme
care (using the gentler waving lotions) on hair that's been recently
bleached or tinted with permanent, oxidative dyes. Dual processing
could disintegrate hair made porous by the tinting procedure. Waving
after coloring hair requires great care and use of weaker waving
lotions -- a fact known by any trained hairdresser. Done by a reliable
stylist, permanent waving today is pretty safe.
|
