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I've examined a number of shampoos (those that I had, I did not buy any for this project) to test the notion that certain detergents (surfactants) are harsh and others are not. I did this through examination of hairs in the shampoo under a transmitted light microscope, in comparison to those hairs dry or in distilled water. When hair is well-saturated with water, it swells. But different hair swells different amounts. Hair treated with coconut oil doesn't swell as much. Fine hair doesn't swell as much. Undamaged hair without many porosities swells less than damaged hair. I measured some hairs, dry vs. wet and found quite a difference in the amount of swelling in water. Pufferfish, all puffed up. Pufferfish, not yet puffed up. Never the less, water alone makes hair swell and in so doing, causes the normally-flat cuticle to lift and this creates porosities for things to leak out or diffuse in. Wetting hair alone has a "damaging" quality. Think of a pufferfish to get...

What defines wavy hair? ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 Let’s start with this warning. Lots of us who must go online to learn how to care for our hair encounter a hair typing system. On the surface, it can help us understand what we have. But let me say now that I hate labels and categorizing. Remember the “blue eyes / brown eyes experiment?” Yeah, you get the picture. More on this later. First, some quick and dirty “bioengineering.” ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 Hair curls or waves because of the composition of proteins in the cortex of hair fibers and how the strands of proteins are arranged in the hair’s cortex (the mid-portion of the hair strand). There are cells in the cortex of some people’s hair called orthocortical cells, accompanied by paracortical cells, and mesocortical cells. How curly hair will be is determined by the proportion of these cells relative to each other, where they are located in the cortex, and what is the protein composition of the orthocortical cells. ©Science-y Hair...

Updated: October 2017 I have been researching various proteins used in hair products. Claims that this or that protein are high or low molecular weight and therefore good for this or that fell short of an adequate explanation. And some people can use one type of protein, but not another. Some proteins are lauded as being good for certain hair concerns. Okay, why? The weight of the protein does play a role, and it makes sense if you compare proteins. I converted all weights to the unit “Daltons.” Smaller numbers are easier to deal with, reducing them to Kilodaltons gave some numbers which seemed a bit misleading. Hydrolyzed Protein Source Weight in Daltons   ©Science-y Hair Blog 2017 Amino Acids Less than 200 (usually) Human hair keratin 400 Silk 300-1000 Avocado 300-1200 Keratin 300-3000 Hazelnut 500-1000 Wheat (low molecular weight) 1000-1500 Collagen 1000-10,000 (depends ...

Sounds so nice – deep conditioning for your hair. And yet it seems impossible because hair is not living tissue. You wouldn’t try to deep condition a damaged, old wool sweater, would you? But then we don’t subject our woolens to the same handling we subject our hair. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 Deep conditioning hair really means several things: softening the hair, bonding compounds to the damaged areas to make hair “hydrophobic” or water-repelling like healthy hair. Deep conditioning is meant to maximize those things which conditioner does for your hair: reducing friction to prevent tangles and resulting breakage from combing and other mechanical damage, sealing in moisture, adding flexibility and softness. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 There are several aspects of deep conditioning: product distribution, substantivity (ingredients bond to your hair rather than rinsing off), product penetration into the hair, duration (time of treatment) and use of heat. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 Distributi...

Flaxseed curl cream! If you like "all in one" products or are just looking for something new to try without actually shelling out cash, mix up some of this curl cream. The recipe is also at the bottom of the "Recipes and Projects" page. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 Flaxseed Curl Cream: Combine:  1 tablespoon t hick, rich conditioner (use less for fine hair) - add a few drops of canola oil or whatever oil you like if the conditioner has no oil in it 2 tablespoons flaxseed gel (with protein added if your hair likes it) 1 tablespoon strong hold hair gel optional: 4 drops honey or agave nectar ( or 1/8 teaspoon or more - this is meant to add more "hold") ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 Apply fairly liberally, style as you usually do. This gives great curl definition and "clumps," controls frizz, enhances curls and feels soft in the hair. For the hair gel, use whatever feels like "strong hold" to you - whatever you have on hand. You can always use mo...

If you make homemade hair gels (I won’t discuss other products right now because ionic-charged ingredients in conditioners or shampoos makes preserving more complicated), and you do not store them in the refrigerator – or if you usually do, but are going away from home, then you need to think about preservatives. This refers to flaxseed based gels, vegetable gum based gels (guar gum, xanthan gum), aloe based gels, or any other vegetable-based gel (psyllium, okra…). ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 How Can A Product Go Bad? Rancidity can happen to oils (aka oxidation) if you use them. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 Bacteria or fungi can grow, using the sugar and nutrient-rich gel for food, also excreting their metabolic wastes into the gel causing cloudiness, fermentation, changes in thickness and texture and odor. These are the biggies, not only because they ruin your gel, but because the bacteria (or fungi) growing in your un-preserved, un-refrigerated gel could be pathogenic. Let me get up on my...

Preservatives are a common source of skin irritation or allergic reaction in cosmetics and hair products. This is a short list of common offenders to suspect if a product causes problems for you: Benzyl alcohol Imidazolidinyl urea Diazolidinyl urea Sodium Hydroxylmethylglycinate Methyl, Propyl, Butyl, and Ethyl Parabens Phenoxyethanol DMDM hydantoin Quaternium-15 Methylisothiazolinone ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 Those in italics are formaldehyde releasers. Formaldehyde is an excellent preservative, but can be commonly irritating to skin and is dangerous to breathe (carcinogenic). ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013

Everything I have read about amino acids in hair products has been conflicting. So I did a little digging and here’s what I found out. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 What Are Amino Acids: Amino acids are very small molecules, they’re not even “proteins” on their own, they’re the constituents of proteins formed from an amine group (nitrogen-containing, and all things proteinaceous contain nitrogen), a carboxylic acid group (carbon, hydroxide or “OH” and oxygen) and a side chain with a varied number of carbons, nitrogens, hydrogens, occasionally sulfur. To have a protein, you put these amino acids together. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 Where Are They: In hair, there are many amino acids (one source I have lists 20). The cuticle of hair – it’s multi-layered outer coating of “scales,” contains more amino acids than in the inner parts of the hair fiber - partly because proteins break down into amino acids and there is always protein being broken down at the cuticle. The outermost layer of cuticle (...