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UV protectants are ideal for active people, for going to the beach where sand and water amplify UV radiation, and especially helpful for gray hair which tends to discolor (usually turning yellowish) in sunlight. Any hair benefits from UV protection because direct sunlight increases hair's porosity. Sunlight tends to make your hair's cuticles shrink and fuse together - like "shrinky dinks" or similar to what happens to hard plastic placed in a hot oven. That means tiny pores are opened up where the cuticle used to cover the hair. This takes only 200 hours in the sun - half an hour a day for just over a year. Brown to black hair tends to fade both lighter and reddish in the sun and blonde hair and red hair lose color. Highlighted hair tends to become "brassy" and gray/white hair can turn yellowish as well. One may not blog about summer and sunshine without invoking a beach scene. Here you go. The Ingredients: These are all UV light absorbers - the word "p...

I'm going for long-winded again, but you get pictures at the end as a reward... Hair is a fibrous, proteinaceous system which can absorb fluids. How porous or absorbent your hair is has a lot to do with how it looks and can help you decide what to use on your hair to help it look it’s best. A porosity is a hole or a gap – an opening. For example, teeth are slightly porous and that is why they can be stained by coffee or tea. Limestone is porous and so water can run through it (a groundwater aquifer). Concrete can be porous and so the inside of concrete basements can become damp when the outside soil is saturated with water. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 Hair which is porous will take on water and other chemicals easily because of all the tiny openings in the cuticle. Most of these openings only go from the outside world to a deeper layer of cuticle. Porous hair has little flaps of cuticle sticking up. These areas can be “patched” – stuck down or filled in temporarily by hydrolyzed prot...

I work outdoors, sometimes all day for a week at a time in spring, summer or autumn. So I know a thing or two about what makes an ideal hat. What does this have to do with hair, skin and the meaning of life? Bear with me, please. 1) A proper hat protects your eyes. Shading the eyes prevents migraines, cataracts and squinting which can cause headaches. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 2) A good hat keeps the sun off your scalp and hair. Hair protects the scalp. Hats protect the hair and scalp.  When hair is exposed to 200 hours of ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, the cuticle edges begin to fuse as the cuticle “shrinks.” As it shrinks, tiny openings are created and these are known as "porosities." After 400 hours, porosity continues to increase with further cuticle damage, and after 1200 hours, the cuticle becomes rigid, brittle, and may crack, leading to even further increases in porosity. If your hair grows the "average" of up to 6 inches per year (15 cm) and you get s...