This really appeals to the scientist in me. You can see all of the important hair structures like the cuticle, the cortex and even the melanin that gives hair it’s color.

It also shows you why you can’t fix a split end. Once the hair fiber has been broken, no amount of hair treatment is going to rebuild a broken strand.

Mid Brain muses:

I saw an article in US News and World Report that would catch the eye of any red blooded beauty blogger: “Science May Banish Bad Hair Days.” I thought “Wow, did the Beauty Brains miss something?” because I’d be very surprised if such a major breakthrough was made and we didn’t hear about it. So of course I read the article to see what I was missing. Here’s a quick summary of what it said:

In a new study, said to be the first of its kind, German researchers say they’ve gotten extreme-close-up views of how hair fibers interact. Their insights could lead to products that banish bad hair days for good, they say.

In the new study, Max and colleagues explored the workings of hair with an atomic-force microscope and samples of Caucasian female hair. The study authors were scheduled to present their findings Aug. 17 2008 at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting, in Philadelphia.

According to the team, damage to hair causes scaly projections to protrude from hair fibers. These projections create friction with other fibers and make hair feel rough to the touch and hard to comb. The researchers also found that electrical charges build up on hair, causing friction.

Exaggerated experiment?

I was just surprised at the breakthrough tone of this article because it suggests that something  brand new has been discovered, yet the information mentioned in the article is already fairly well known to cosmetic scientists. For example, we know that electron micrographs of hair (at about 2000x magnification) clearly show the “scaly protrusions” which are broken protein fibrils that can create friction. And that fact that hair holds electrical charges is pretty obvious to anyone who’s had static flyway (or rubbed a balloon on their head!) So I guess I’m skeptical that this research is worthy of such an impressive title but I guess I’ll have to wait and check out the full study report once it’s available. Don’t worry though, if I see anything that’s really newsworthy you’ll read all about it here on the Beauty Brains.

Poetic justice

All this talk about scaly hair protrusions reminded me of one of my favorite Shel Silverstein poems. It’s called “Medusa” and it goes like this:

Coil and hiss- writhe and twist-
My hairdo won’t get done.
‘Cause one hair’s hissing, “Ponytail,”
And one yells, “Simple bun.”
One whispers, “Cornrows,”
One screams, “Bangs.”
One shouts, “Just wash and dry it,”
One snaps, “No, curl and tie it,”
One hollers, “Bleach and dye it.”
And how am I to fix my hair
If my hair will not keep quiet?

What do YOU think? If you have any favorite hair poems, leave a comment and let us know. Maybe we can have a sciencey poetry slam!

Kim’s question: Aloha, Beauty Brains! I was laying on the beach yesterday reading a well-known women’s interest magazine, when I came across an article teaching readers how to “exfoliate hair”. It told readers to brush from the ends up to the roots in order to “open” the cuticle to “allow hair to absorb treatments better” and other strange instructions. (Doesn’t that just damage the cuticle?) My question is, does one really need to “exfoliate” their hair since it’s not skin?

The Right Brain’s response:

The advice that Kim is referring is from stylist Oscar Blandi and is featured in the Summer/Fall 2008 issue of Cosmo (p. 33). While exfoliating your scalp can provide a skin benefit, backcombing (also known as teasing), your hair to make it absorb treatment products is simply ridiculous.

Exfoliate skin, not hair

Skin is a living organ that produces new cells in its deep, inner layers. The fresh cells are pushed upward until they reach the outer layers of your skin where they die and are sloughed off. Exfoliating means you scrape off the upper, dead layers to reveal the newer skin cells below.

Hair, on the other hand, is dead as soon as it grows out of your scalp. Unlike skin, if you scrape off the surface of your hair it is not repaired or regenerated. Scraping off the cuticle just weakens your hair and leads to more split ends. (It does give your hair more volume, but at the cost of creating more damage.) Think of it this way: Breaking the cuticles off of your hair because of product “buildup” is like scraping the shingles off the roof of your house because they’re dirty. Both approaches cause more harm than good.

Improved penetration

Oscar says that exfoliating hair helps treatment products penetrate but this isn’t quite true either. Most treatments work on the surface of your hair to smooth the cuticle. While there are some ingredients, like coconut oil, that can penetrate into the cortex of your hair the mechanism of penetration is not enhanced by stripping off the cuticle. And even is there IS some minor improvement in penetration it’s certainly not worth the loss of cuticle protection.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Back combing hair is damaging. Period. With all due respect to famous stylists, like Oscar Blandi, they really should stick to styling and leave advice on the chemistry and biology of hair to the scientists who understand how these products work.

What do YOU think? Do you backcomb or tease your hair? Leave a comment and tease the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Katy’s combing question: A lot if my friends backcomb their hair. They say it adds more volume. My hair is fairly short and I tried this but I looked like a bird’s nest. What type of products would you recommend for people with short thin hair who are looking for a little extra volume boost for their hair?

The Right Brain’s reply:
Good question, Katy. The answer is a combination of hair biology and product chemistry.

What is backcombing?

As the name implies, backcombing means you literally comb your hair backwards. Instead of moving the comb from root to tip, you reverse the direction and comb your hair from tip to root. This kind of combing is also known as “teasing.” It’s an old stylist trick to give your hair more volume.

The good news – it works

Does it really work? You bet! Why? Because you’re combing your hair against the grain, so to speak. Look at your hair under a microscope, or, if you don’t have a microscope handy, you can look at the picture at the right. The hair is covered by small scales, known as cuticles, that make a hair shaft look a little like the bark on a palm tree. As the hair grows, the cuticles form in such a way that the leading edge is facing toward the end of your hair shaft.

When you back comb, you’re scraping the edge of the cuticle in the opposition direction. This action causes lifts the cuticle up and makes it stand away from the hair shaft. The more cuticles you lift up, the more volume your hair will have because each little piece of cuticle will push away the hair shaft laying next to it. You can create tons of volume by combing this way.

The bad news – it’s damaging

The bad news is that back combing is very bad for your hair. When you lift up those little pieces of cuticle, they never return to their nice flat arrangement, no matter what you do to your hair. Instead, they become increasingly loose and eventually break off. Once you remove enough layers of cuticles, your hair shaft will be damaged and you’ll create a split end. If it helps you to visualize it, think of cuticles like the shingles on the roof of a house. When they lay nice and flat they form a protective barrier on the roof that keeps the rain out of your bedroom. But when the shingles become loose, they break off and the next thing you know, the roof leaks and you’ve got a water stained carpet. That’s how cuticles work on your hair. Except for the part about staining your carpet.

Is there any safe way to boost volume?

Are there any good products that will allow you to boost volume without requiring you to scrape off your cuticle layer by layer? Sure, you can use a styling product to give the hair fibers some stiffness. Mousses and root boost stylers can coat your hair, providing some interaction that makes the fibers lift up and stand apart to it temporarily creates volume. Of course, this kind of volume disappears once you wash the product out of your hair. But does ANYTHING really last in this crazy modern world we live in? Here are few products you might try:

5 Popular Volume Boosters

Tresemme Volume Big Boost Root Lift Spray

Catwalk Root Boost

Paul Mitchell Root Boost

Redken Full Frame Volumizing Mousse

Rusk Full Volume Mousse

What’s your favorite tip or trick for adding volume to your hair? Leave a comment and share your secrets with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Neecholle needs knowledge: I have natural African-American textured hair, which I would like to grow longer by keeping my hair natural, healthy and moisturized. How safe, effective, and natural is the PhytoSpecific PhytoRelaxer?

The Right Brain responds:
Before we answer your question about Phytorelaxer, we’ll explain about hair and how it’s relaxed for our readers who may not understand the process.

Chemical bonds in hair

The shape of hair is partly controlled by chemical bridges, called disulfide bonds, that connect protein fibrils together. Because these bonds are so strong, a powerful chemical reaction is required to break them apart before the hair can be straightened. This reaction requires a very high pH. For those of you who fell asleep during chemistry class, pH is a measure of how acidic or basic a substance it. The pH scale runs from 1 to 14. Chemicals with a very low pH value (around 1 to 3) are very acidic and can be damaging to hair and skin. Chemicals with very high pH (10 to 14) are very basic and can also be damaging.

Relaxers have high pH

Relaxers must have a very high pH (11 or above) in order to work. Unfortunately, this pH can also weaken your hair and damage your scalp. Historically, relaxers used a chemical called sodium hydroxide (also known as “lye”) to create such a high pH. Over time, chemists found similar chemicals like calcium hydroxide, lithium hydroxide, ammonium thioglycolate, and guanidine carbonate which basically do the same thing. Relaxers based on these chemicals are called “no lye” because they don’t contain sodium hydroxide. But they still expose your hair and scalp to very high, potentially damaging pH.

How Phytorelaxer works

Phytospecific’s Phytorelaxer is a no-lye type. It’s based on guanidine carbonate and its pH is between 11 and 12. Here’s what Phytospecifc’s website says about the product:

“Phytorelaxer is effective yet different because it permanently relaxes hair without harsh chemicals or irritation usually associated with chemical relaxers. The active ingredients in the straightening cream are a complex of egg and soy extracts. These ingredients are from 100% botanical sources and are hypoallergenic.”

This is a very misleading statement for two reasons. First, the pH of this product is very high, almost as high as lye relaxers, so it is using harsh chemicals. Second, the straightening cream may contain natural ingredients but egg and soy are not what make this product work. This cream is only one of the products in the relaxer kit. You also have to use the high pH guanidine carbonate Inductor product, or the hair won’t be permanently straightened.

So, to answer your question: is this a safe product? It’s as safe as other no-lye relaxers. Is it effective? Yes, it’s active ingredient really works. Is it natural? No, but Phytospecific leads you to think that based on what they say about the product. In our opinion, that’s misleading to consumers. They have a very good product, they shouldn’t have to distort the truth to get people to buy it.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Phytorelaxer is a good, but somewhat expensive, alternative if you’re looking for a milder relaxer. But don’t fall for their hype about natural egg and soy extracts permanently straightening your hair because that is just NOT TRUE.

If you want to try it for yourself, you can buy Phytorelaxer here. And if any of our community would like to share their thoughts on no-lye relaxers, we’d love to hear your comments.

Do you see the secret message in the face picture above? Leave a comment and let us know if you got it.