Healthy Hair

Who doesn’t want to have movie star hair, the kind of hair that is always lustrous, full-bodied, bouncy, and never out of place? It sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? Or at least, something that can be had only by spending an inordinate amount of cash on salon care and hair products?

No, not really. Having beautiful hair doesn’t really cost much. All it takes to have gorgeous, head-turning locks is to take very good care of your hair. Taking very good care of your hair means shampooing it regularly and getting some deep conditioning done at least once every week. It also means protecting your hair from damage caused by ultraviolet rays, chlorine, saltwater, and overexposure to heat, perming, coloring and bleaching.

Unfortunately, there are some of us who fail in the basics of hair care, and thus ending up with dull, dry and frizzled hair, thinned and made brittle by too much sun exposure, too much chemical treatments, and even over-shampooing.

The American Academy of Dermatology says that there are four factors that we have to watch out in order to keep our hair healthy and beautiful. These for factors are keeping the hair shiny, decreasing the static electricity of our hair, improving the strength of each strand, and protecting it from ultraviolet radiation.

The first obvious sign of having healthy hair is its shine. A shiny head of hair means that the scales of the cuticle, which is the protective covering of each hair strand, are smooth and flat against the hair shaft, enough to reflect the light. Conditioning the hair regularly to keep the cuticle lying flat against the hair shaft is the way to go to having shiny hair.

The hair’s static electricity is caused by too much combing or brushing. Not only does static electricity prevent the hair from lying flat and sticking to hairstyle you have set, but it also dries the hair. Fine hair is more susceptible to damage from static electricity. A solution to this would be to neutralize the static by conditioning the hair with products containing quaternary ammonium.

The strength of each individual hair strand is also a determinant to the health of the hair. Hair that is brittle and breaks off easily lacks nutrients. One of the more obvious signs of weakened hair is the presence of split ends. Conditioning with hydrolyzed proteins or hydrolyzed keratin replenishes the nutrients of the hair and in effect takes care of this problem.

The last factor, but certainly not the least, is protection of the hair from exposure to ultraviolet rays. UV rays can oxidize the sulfur molecules in the hair and make the strands faded and brittle. UV rays also cause photo-yellowing, where chemicals on bleached or perm-treated hair react from the radiation and lighten. Applying a leave-on conditioner and wearing a hat prevents UV ray damage.

A healthy and shiny head of hair bespeaks a lot about our general health and about how neat we are as a person. Keep your hair in good condition, and you will always be a head-turner.