Sarah Bellum says:

Cyber-Lingerie

Today’s post shows how the Internet is changing the way we shop for intimate apparel.

Check out this virtual dressing room from KnickerPicker (I love that name!) The website lets you try on lingerie before you buy it (sort of.) It’s a lot of fun, even though they only have 3 different models to choose from. (I just wish they sold Spanx bodysuits, I’d love to see how they help shape the different models.)

What do YOU think? Are these 3 models close enough to your body type to be helpful, or is this just another marketing gimmick? Leave a comment and let the rest of the Beauty Brains community know what you think.

I wonder why the Beauty Brains never do studies like this.   Here are a few reports that demonstrate some interesting findings about our sense of smell.

Women smell better

Women are better at smelling things than men. Researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia conducted a study to see how well fragrances hid or covered body odor. They took smelly scents and combined them with different perfumes. Out of the 32 fragrances tested, women were only fooled by 2 of them. For men, 19 of the fragrances worked.

This explains why your boyfriend thinks his deodorant shower works but you don’t.

Scent will tell

Researchers also found that women can tell when a man is interested in her from his body odor. You can read the article for the study details but essentially they found women’s brains activated differently when they smelled aroused male sweat versus non-aroused male sweat.

The Power of the Pill

One final story finding about scent is that women who are on the pill do a worse job of picking a suitable mate than women who are not. Evidently, the pill sets the body’s hormones to a pregnant-like state, significantly inhibiting the ability to sense a suitable mate.

If you keep picking the wrong guy, it might be your birth control

-Mid Brain

Do you have more examples of things you think women can do better than men? Leave a comment. They might be worth studying scientifically.

The Right Brain instructs…

We haven’t done a Beauty Science post in a while so here’s one on hair color.

Alright, admit it. You’ve gone to the salon or bought a box at the store just to change the color of your hair. It’s not surprising as over 75% of women in the United States report coloring their hair.  But did you ever wonder what exactly is going on?  How are your lovely brown locks transformed into sassy blond strands?

A brief history of hair coloring

Before we talk about how hair color is changed now, it is helpful to know how women have been modifying their hair color for centuries. Ancient Egyptians were known to use indigo leaves, black walnut shells and henna extracts to give their jet black hair reddish or bluish tints. Women in India also used henna to color their hair. Lighter colors were achieved by the ancient Roman women who used acidic plant extracts and sun to bleach their colors. Unfortunately, these natural solutions had limited and inconsistent effects. And it wasn’t until the late 1800s when hydrogen peroxide solutions were introduced that people were actually able to create truly blond hair.

What makes your hair’s natural color?

You might be surprised to learn that all natural hair colors are the result of only 2 types of hair pigment. That’s right, red heads, blonds, and brunettes are all created by the same 2 pigments. Both of these pigments are a type of melanin and it is produced right inside your hair follicle. Phaeomelanin is responsible for the yellowish-blond to red colors and Eumelanin is responsible for the brown to black shades.

What about gray hair?  Well, this is what happens when you stop producing these melanin molecules. Grey/white hair is what hair looks like when there is no pigment.

How is hair color changed?

If you’re like most people, you’ve changed the color of your hair at some point in your life. There are really only three ways that hair is colored, bleaching, staining, or a combination of both. Which one you use depends on primarily on factors including your starting hair color, your ending hair color, and how long you want it to last.

Going lighter

We’ve already talked about what gives your hair its natural color. If you have dark hair and want to go lighter then you have to do something to remove the color you’ve already got. This is where bleaching comes in.

Bleach (most commonly hydrogen peroxide) chemically reacts with the hair’s melanin rendering it permanently colorless. How light it gets depends on the strength of the bleach solution and the amount of time it is left on the hair. If you have a really dark color you’ll need to use repeated applications to chemically change all of the melanin. But even if you use the strongest bleach you can find, the hair will maintain a pale yellow tint. This is due to the fact that there is still some melanin that will remain unreacted. To get all of the pigment to react, an alkaline solution is used in addition to the peroxide in order to open up the hair’s cuticles and allow the bleach into the hair shaft.

Note that bleaching is a permanent color change that is not reversible. If you lighten your hair you can only go dark again by coloring it or letting new hair grow out.

Making your hair darker

To make hair darker you’ll need to add color to it. If you are not sure about a new color, you should start with a temporary hair colorant. Temporary or semi-permanent hair colors are stains that deposit color on the outside of the hair shaft. These are the same type of compounds people have been using for centuries. Unfortunately (or fortunately) they wash out after a number of shampooings.

Of course, the lighter your hair the easier it will be to add different hair colors. If you have blond hair you can go to almost any color from black to red to brown to blue. If you have dark hair changing to a different shade will require a different strategy.

Changing to a different hair color shade

If you want to really change your hair color then you’ll want to have a permanent dye job. No matter what hair color you start with, permanent dying is a two-step process. First, your natural hair color is removed through the process of bleaching as described above. Then the hair dye is put on your hair where it chemically reacts to permanently change the color. Typically, both of these processes happen at the same time.

The permanent hair dyes are special chemicals. They start out as tiny molecules (called monomers) that are small enough to penetrate into your hair shafts. Then when they are there, they react with each other to create bigger molecules (called polymers). These polymers are so big that they can not be washed out of your hair. They stay in your hair even through shampooing. At least they are supposed to.

The problem with ‘permanent’ hair color

In an ideal world, permanent hair color would stay permanent. Unfortunately, hair color can be removed and it is, EVERY TIME YOU WASH. Anytime you expose your artificial hair color to water and shampoo you lose more and more hair dye.  And it doesn’t matter what kind of shampoo you are using.  ALL Shampoos that require you to get your hair wet will strip hair color.  This is why you are not able to keep the just-from-the-salon look for more than a couple of days.

Interested in other beauty science topics?  Leave a comment and we’ll try to do a write-up soon.

Sarah Bellum says:

I can’t let this Valentine’s Day pass without sharing this story with the Beauty Brains community, even though it doesn’t exactly fit with Mid Brain’s “Science of Valentines Day” theme.

Realdoll is a company that sells lifelike (I repeat, lifelike) male and female rubber companions (aka, dolls) for a mere $5,000. (No, that’s not a typo – I said $5,000!) No written description that I can provide could possibly do justice to this concept. To get the full impact you’ve GOT to see the Realdoll website and this bizarrely captivating video featuring interviews with 4 people who are in, uh…relationships with dolls. Needless to say, this is all very NSFW. If you’re under 18, don’t even THINK about clicking on these links. Seriously. We will hunt you down and tell your parents, you little brats.

*Sigh* I miss my Barbies. Happy Valentines Day, everyone!

The Beauty Brains are counting down to Feb 14th with Science of St. Valentines Day posts. It’s here!

Today is February 14th and the roses you just received are ruining our planet. Happy Valentines Day!

The Telegraph reports that Andrew Sims, policy director for Britain’s New Economics Foundation, says that flying flowers into Britain from around the world is causing an increase in greenhouse gasses, which leads to global warming.

According to figures cited in the article:

• Fresh flowers flown into Britain have traveled an average of 33,800 miles.
• The amount of flowers imported from Africa has increased 39% to 17,000 tons/year.
• Imports of roses from Ethiopia have grown from zero to 130 tons/ year since 2003.
• Britain imports more than £315 million of flowers/year.

There are no specific details on how much effect flying flowers really have on global warming, but if you’re an environmentally conscious romantic you might ask for some silk flowers instead of the real thing. Or, you could grow them at home yourself with this Indoor Hanging Flower Garden.

Do you like flowers for Valentines Day or are you more of a candy gal? Leave a comment and share your fave gifts with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.