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Let’s talk about hats in winter. You need to protect your head, your ears and (of course) your hair from the cold, dry air and the wind. Your ears will never forgive you if they get frostbitten because you did not wear a hat for fear of messing up your hair! Frostbite (when your skin actually freezes and even blisters) anywhere on your body is an unforgettable experience.  ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 What about your hair under that necessary hat? You would not take a very fine wool sweater, wrap it around your head, and then pull on a tight cap and go for a walk or out to shovel snow. If you did, you’d find that lovely sweater matted, fuzzy, undefined, losing shape and over time, developing thin patches from breakage. I wear a hat a few times each day in winter for about  4 months of the year. It adds up to many hours that could damage the strong-but-delicate fiber on my head which is my hair. Not to mention irritating sensitive skin. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 First I lined my h...

This post is timely to those of us in the Northern Hemisphere - to our friends and family in the Southern Hemisphere - hope you are enjoying spring into summer! Humidity is water vapor suspended in the air. How humidity is measured: Dewpoint – the temperature at which the air is saturated with as much water as it can hold, and so dew (or fog) forms. Dewpoint tells us the most about how dry the air is. Unless a new air mass moves in, the dewpoint can stay the same all day. This is what you want to watch to know just how moist or dry the air is. Dewpoints below 50° F (10° C) are “dry.” In the 50s  (10-15° C) is “comfortable” 60-65° (15- 18° C) is “muggy” 65-70° (18-21° C) is “humid” 70° (21° C) and greater is “oppressive” – rainforest-y - you feel you need to grow gills This is important for hair because dewpoint tells you how much moisture is in the air. Except for hair which has a very strong curl pattern, low moisture in the air tends to lead to flatter, less defined wavy or curl...