Cynical Girl sez…I have over-highlighted my hair and it’s fried. The salon recommended a Redken All Softconditioning treatment and another Redken protein treatment. Will any of these products really make a difference, or do I just need to cut off the damaged ends of my hair? Is it possible to add too much moisture or protein to my hair? Any risks?
The Right Brain replies:
Cynical Girl – it looks like you’ve committed the cardinal sin of chemically caring for your hair: you over-processed. But, rather than publicly berating you here on the Beauty Brains blog, we’ll give you some information that will help save your hair.
Is protein powerful?
Your stylist recommended a couple of Redkin products. There’s certainly nothing wrong with using those – the All Soft conditioner is a fine product that could mitigate some of the damage you’ve done to your hair. I’m not really sure you would necessarily need to use the protein treatment since protein aren’t typically a significant active ingredient in conditioner formulas. Although your hair is made of protein (keratin protein to be precise), protein delivered from a conditioner doesn’t really help that much. There are other conditioning and moisturizing agents that are more beneficial to your hair than proteins. Still, if you don’t mind spending the money on those Redkin products they’re certainly worth a shot.
You just need to be careful that you don’t over condition your hair or else you might end up with limp lifeless locks. Which leads us to the second part of your question. Can you add too much moisture or protein to your hair? The answer is: “Not exactly.” Let us explain.
Moisture is magic
One of the components of your hair is moisture – in fact your hair naturally contains between 8 and 14 percent water. But, and here is the tricky part, your hair naturally equilibrates to the humidity in your environment. In other words if it’s very dry outside you will have less moisture than 8 to 14 percent in your hair and if it’s very humid you’ll have more. Think about your hair after you wash it or after you’ve gone swimming. It doesn’t stay wet – it eventually does dry out.
On the other hand, you do need to watch out for adding too much moisturizer. A moisturizer is an ingredient that helps your hair hold onto moisture. Strictly speaking, moisture is water but moisturizers can be oils or silicones. And if you put too much of these materials on your hair you can get on build up or weigh down effect, which is not good, especially if you want your hair to look thick and full.
The Beauty Brains bottom line
We don’t discourage you from trying the Redken products, but you may find you don’t like them. If this happens, you’ll have to experiment with a few other conditioners to find one that gives you the right balance of moisture without weighdown. But at least now, hopefully we’ve given you have a better understanding of HOW your conditioner works. And by the way, don’t you dare wash your hair without conditioning – at least for the next few weeks. You’ve got to protect your fragile, over-processed strands.
What do YOU think? What are you favorite products for dealing with over-stressed tresses? Leave a comment and share your secrets with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.
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I use Feria to dye my hair and my mum regularly helps me. One night she left it on for about five minutes too long and my hair was completely fried. That five minutes made a big difference! I used Three-Minute Miracle by Aussie and that really helped make my hair manageable again and it only cost about $3.00. You might want to try that before spending all that money on Redkin.
Really? The whole protein for damaged hair is just a lie?? I really do trust you guys but that is just such a widespread belief.
Is this article bogus too then? Or is it talking about a different protein than what you guys meant?
http://thenaturalhaven.blogspot.com/2009/06/size-matters-protein-conditioning-part.html
There is a reason why obtaining a cosmo license takes time and lots of education, because hair is complicated. As a professional educator for advanced training in the beauty industry, I’ve heard so many of my fellow beauty professionals get the theory of proteins wrong. Unfortunately, this blog is as well.
The human hair strand is made of 90% protein, keratin. Protein gives the hair strength and resistance to damage. The outer layer of the strand, called the cuticle, is 100% protein, no moisture. When a hair strand is chemically damaged, it has lost or weakened much of the protein that fortifies it. When hair is chemically damaged, it must have protein reintroduced to prevent further breakage. Also, without protein, the hair strand cannot hold moisture, which gives it suppleness. Moisture does nothing for chemical damage.
Redken all soft is moisture only (avocado oil), the extreme line is a much better choice for it provides the hair with wheat proteins, the closest to keratin without a change in color.
With continued use the extreme line or Joico’s K-Pak, you will find that the damage to your hair will begin to reverse, but you will still need regular haircuts to remove the damage permanently.
Also, beware of the things you read on the internet. A pretty page and a willingness to blog does not an expert make. See a trusted hair expert for the best advice.
@Sarah – You misunderstood the post. We didn’t say the whole protein thing was a lie. We said there are more effective conditioners than proteins. Proteins are added more for the story than for the actual benefit. They do have the ability to adsorb to the hair but once there, they do not provide a greater conditioning benefit than other conditioning ingredients like cationic conditioning agents.
@Cricket – You’re correct that people should be skeptical of things they read on the Internet. They should also be skeptical of things they are taught in cosmo school. Science classes is the place to learn about the science of cosmetic products.
What specifically did this blog get wrong about hair protein?
Without protein, there is no hair. Hair IS protein!
Can you please show us your evidence that hair needs protein reintroduced onto it to reinforce its strength? A scientific study would be preferred.
thanks
Having fried my hair with an oooooold hairdryer and having tried every deep treatment under the sun in the aftermath of the frying, I can counsel that time, avoidance of heat styling (hello, air drying!), and judicious cutting are your best hope when it comes to recovering the health of your hair.
I love Redken products, they have done great things for my hair. My recent switch to better-quality shampoo has made a huge difference in my hair. I have also cut back on blow drying and styling with heat and I can already tell a noticeable difference and improvement in my hair. Redken is great and I highly recommend it to anyone!
Ok, I need some help. My daughter has chemially over processed hair. I know that there is no quick fix & that her hair need to grow out with out any more processing to become healthy again. However is there anything I can do in the mean time to stop the breakage & dryness. Her poor hair is brittle & breaking so bad. Bad me for not choosing a better salon that knows properly how to touch up a relaxer verses reappling it to the whole head. She is miserable & so am I knowing that for an 11 year old image is alot. I just need to know how to help keep it from breaking off so much & get it back healthy & moisturized. Please if you have advice let me know. To make matters worse she has been using Nuetragena T-gell as her regular shampoo once a week without a folow up moisturizer. So yes her hair is clean but it is aloso BONE DRY. Any items to promote hair growth to help the new grow -grow faster & healthier? Thank you for your advice(and scolding) jessica.dobbins@yahoo.com