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How to Best Care for Your Precious Hair
Chemical and mechanical injuries to the hair or scalp can produce a number of different effects.
Tight hairstyles, hot combs, hot oil treatments, and harsh use of hair blowers can all produce damage to the hair fiber. One should be aware of potential consequences when manipulating hair and to exercise caution.
The typical chemicals used to alter hair include bleaches, dyes, relaxers, and agents used for permanents.
Any of these chemicals can cause some degree of hair damage but, with care, most cosmetic products produce minimal unwanted side-effects. It is more difficult to repair damaged hair than to use gentler techniques that result in less damage to your hair.
Some cosmetic products are partially beneficial in repairing damaged hair but normal quality of hair will return only after the production of new hair to replace the damaged fibers.
Factors that damage hair include the normal "weathering" that occurs to the ends of long hairs that have been exposed to the environment for many years or exposure to chlorine from swimming pools.
The apparent lightening of hair color noted to occur with individuals who have prolonged sun exposure during the summertime is an example of photochemical damage. As with other forms of damage, full reversal is often not possible.
Your hair contains an entire dream, full of sails and masts; it contains vast seas whose soft monsoons bear me to delightful climates where space is deeper and bluer, where the atmosphere is perfumed with fruit, with foliage and with human skin
Charles Baudelaire
Brushing Your Hair
Brushing is an essential part of healthy hair. Brushing helps keep the scalp healthy
and improves your blood circulation which feeds the hair roots (follicles).
It also helps distributes the natural protective fats along the length of the hair shafts.
These fats serve as lubricants that allow smoother combing without breaking the hair shafts.
Morning brushing is best with a natural hair bristle brush which is similar to your hair structure and less likely to produce tangles on long hair.
The brush should have a wooden base that reduces static electricity. If combing, start with a wide tooth tortoise shell comb. Never use a metal or rubber comb.
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For brushing, stand with feet a little apart and bend down from your waist until the hair falls in a curtain before your face.
Then brush your hair gently, starting from the hair roots at the nape of your neck and moving toward the end of the hair.
Follow each brush stroke with a stoke from the open palm of your other hand to help counteract the build up of static electricity.
Slowly build up you brushing to 50 strokes a day.
Parting Hair to Improve Facial Features
Some hair stylists recommend parting your hair on the right side. Most people use a left part or a center part.
These experts say that hair follicles have a natural tendency to grow from the left to the right. A right side part tends to push the hair against this angle and adds more natural "push-up" height to your hair.
They say not to use a middle part which puts additional stress on the weakest hairs on the top of the head.
A center part starts a line that goes down the middle of the face and this accentuates the nose and any irregularities that exist between the left and the right sides of your face.
The movie and television industries found this out many years ago. Few people have faces that are symmetrical enough to look good in a center part. Studies on the biological basis (genetically ingrained) for viewing others as beautiful have found that humans highly value, albeit unconsciously, symmetrical facial features.
Yet very few people have truly symmetrical faces. By parting the hair on the side, you distract the mind of other people from focusing on any possible facial irregularities.
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Hot Oil Treatments
Hot oil treatment conditioners are the latest marketing ploy from the cosmetic companies.
The idea dates back to the 1950's when hot oil treatments were first marketed by Alberto Culver.
The basic idea is that the application of heat drives the conditioners - oils, peptides, etc. - deeper into the hair shaft and the hair looks better for a short time.
However, the high heat - about 250° F from a hot air dryer - will ultimately damage the hair follicles - which cannot take heat much about 120° F. - and the follicles will produce less hair and thinner hair.
Shampoos and Conditioners for Dry and Oily Hair
Excessive shampooing is the main cause of damage to the hair shafts. The best shampoos for hair should be at about pH 5.5.
This is at the high end of the pH range of the scalp (4.5 to 5.5) or slightly acid. This natural acid environment of the hair and scalp helps keep the hair proteins hard and prevents the growth of foreign bacteria.
The natural hair and skin oils also help maintain scalp health.
Shampoos of higher pH (more alkaline) work better to clean the hair and scalp but more alkaline shampoos strip away too many natural scalp oils and extract the "glues" that help hold the hair shafts together.
Experts say that these high pH alkaline shampoos make your hair look great for a few weeks but then cause the hair to become dry and brittle which and increases breakage of your hair.
Also, avoid baby shampoos which are formulated for gentleness if they get in to the eyes but dry out the hair.
Be careful of "clarifying shampoos. They are rather harsh and intended to remove materials that build up on hair such as mousses and sprays but they also can remove color and perms.
Some hair experts recommend avoiding such shampoos and instead just mix, in your hand, plain baking soda from your kitchen with your normal shampoo and apply this to your hair to remove build up.
The foaming of shampoos is often enhanced by "flash-foamers" but foaming means that too much shampoo was used and/or the shampoo is filled with foaming chemicals.
Likewise, fragrances have no positive effect on shampoos. The test of a shampoo is what your hair looks like after using the shampoo for a week or two.
Examine your hair's condition after this time. Does is seem healthy and easy to comb or is it hard to comb and limp looking?
Also check to see if the hair becomes dry and if your scalp become itchy. If a shampoo doesn't work for you, try another brand. The cost of a shampoo is not generally related to quality but to advertising.
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Dry hair lacks enough natural oils. To shampoo, use a minimum amount of a mild and slightly acid shampoo.
Do not over shampoo and do not repeat the shampoo application regardless of instructions.
Cosmetic companies try to increase your use of their product. If your hair is very dry, only shampoo every two to three days.
Our ancestors went months between hair washing and had healthy hair. Oily hair is more difficult to manage and shampoo.
Oily hair looks moist, dull and is often difficult to comb. The fatty substance that covers oily hair called sebum is over produced by the sebaceous glands of the hair follicle.
Sebum is rapidly is restored after washing the hair. More frequent washing with stronger, more soapy shampoos helps remove oil but damages the hair.
Retinoic acid may be used to reduce oil production. Retinoic acid also stimulates hair growth and increases follicle health. But do not overuse the retinoic acid since this can result in scalp irritation.
When finished, the shampoo should be completely rinsed from the hair to help bring the pH back down to its natural level. Also, the detergents in shampoos are very irritating to the scalp and must be completely removed.
Most experts recommend using a shower for the most complete removal of the shampoo. Some shampoo manufacturers recommend that you comb through your wet hair to distribute the shampoo evenly into the hair. But wet hair is more easily broken way and you will only end up with worse hair.
Use of Folligen Shampoo and Conditioner
Folligen Therapy Shampoo and Folligen Therapy Conditioner are concentrated and designed to clean hair with the minimum of damage, then tighten up and re-seal the hair shafts.
Copper-peptides are added to enhance the vitality of your hair follicles and your scalp.
The products are designed to be similar to the specialized shampoos and conditioners used by Long Hair Clinics to growth very long hair on people.
Our manufacturer said theseshampoos and conditioners were the most expensive shampoos and conditioners that they had ever produced because of the high levels of premium quality hair protective ingredients.
Because these products are concentrated, you may want to add a small amount of water to the bottles to the products to make using them easier.
Benefits of Using Folligen Shampoo
Folligen Therapy Shampoo is formulated at a relatively low pH of 5.8. These permits good cleaning but avoids the harsh alkaline pHs of most cosmetic shampoos.
The shampoo is designed to biochemically protect the hair proteins which have a high sulfur content from the amino acid cysteine and which can easily form cross-links to other cystines in the hair molecule.
These bonds are responsible for the hair's toughness and abrasion resistance and the cross-links hold the hair fibers together.
As long as this organization is not disrupted, the fiber is strong and appears "healthy".
Folligen Therapy Shampoo contains no "flash-foamers", foaming chemicals that add lather (which does nothing for the hair) and damages the hair shafts and the scalp.
Benefits of Using Folligen Conditioner
Folligen Therapy Conditioner is formulated pH 4.8 to re-acidfy your hair after shampooing.
Restoring this natural acid environment to the hair and scalp helps keep the hair proteins hard and prevents the growth of foreign bacteria.
It contains the highest quality amino acids and pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5) to re-seal the hair cuticles after shampooing. It is designed to help de-tangle hair and add a lustrous shine. amino acids.
The conditioner is designed to harden the hair's keratin after shampooing.
Keratin is the major hair protein which forms biologic filaments into hard, tough, insoluble, hair shafts. Three layers of keratin form every hair.
The outer sheath of cuticle forms overlapping scales. Copper-peptides are added to help enhance to health and vitality of your hair, scalp, and hair follicles.
How Folligen Therapy Conditioner Re-tightens Hair Cuticles
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The outer layer of hair forms cuticles somewhat like fish scales and is shown in the picture to the left.
A healthy strand of hair has an outer layer of scales that are laying close above each other. If scales are laying flat, the hair will look shiny, and a comb or brush will glide smoothly.
The cuticles are held down flat by mixtures of polypeptides - similar to the yellow liquid collagen glues used by schoolchildren such as LePage's Glue.
Shampoos remove some of the the bonding-peptides and loosen the cuticle. Folligen Therapy Conditioner adds these small peptides back into the cuticle to hold it into place again.
A small amount of pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5) is also used which helps with the bonding process. If the cuticle stays open it can start a tear (see second photo at the left) in the hair shaft that ultimately leads to breakage of the hair shaft (see third photo at the left).
High quality conditioners also help glue together split hair ends. The longer you leave the conditioner on the hair, the better it smoothes out the hair cuticle.
Many other types of hair conditioners contain botanicals and herbal extracts such as extracts of juniper berries and buckhorn leaves and so forth.
These herbal extracts interfere with the glue process and reduce the protective effects of the hair conditioners.
Combs with unpolished teeth, sharp hair clamps and tight elastic bands can also disrupt the hair scales and produce damage.
With this damage, the strand will rip more easily, the opened scales do not allow other strands to glide over as smooth as before, which can result in tangles.
Conditioners should be at a low pH of 4.0 to 4.5. The hair proteins remain very strong at a low pH and shampoos - with their higher pH - should be completely rinsed out of hair.
Higher pH's start unraveling the protein strands and loosen and break the hair. A small amount of fat is added to give the hair a better shine.
