Chaning your looks by
Dyeing and Processing your Hair
Dying
and Processing Options
More
than half of the population above 50 have gray hair.
Many, especially women have taken to dying their hair
to avoid looking their age. However, improper use of
dyes can damage the hair.
Generally
dyeing can damage the hair. This can be avoided by using
plant-based dyes like henna. The advantage of these
is that the colors of these do not last as long as chemical
dyes.
A
common active ingredient found in commercial permanent
hair dyes is Pheynylenediamine (PPD) which usually can
cause skin sensitivity. Therefore it is advisable to
test a small area with hair color before covering the
whole head with it. Many semi-permanent hair dyes do
not contain PPD but always check then out first if you
want to avoid it.
You
can test for the presence of PPD in the following ways:
- Dilute
the hair dye being tested by 20 percent and applying
to a small area on your neck below the collar. Wait
72 hours to see if you have a reaction to PPD. The
typical reaction is a reddened rash in the area.
- Put
a 2 percent concentration of PPD on a petrolatum base
on a patch and apply it to the skin. Leave it there
for 3 days. See if there is a rash or reddining after
the period.
Apply
the above test even if you were not sensitive in the
past. Sensitivity can change over time.
How
you get your Natural Hair Color
Your
hair color is imprinted on the cortex of the hair fiber.
This is produced in the hair bulb below the surface
of the skin. The covering cuticle is actually clear.
There are two pigments (melanin) that affect your hair
color:
- Eumelanin:
This pigment controls the black and brown colors,
which color dominates depends on the genes.
- Phaeomelanin:
This has a red color to it. Except for people who
have completely white hair, everybody has some degree
of red pigment on their hair.
Eumelanin
determines the darkness of the hair through its concentration
in the following:
- Black
eumelanin makes the hair black.
- Low
concentration of black eumelanin will cause hair to
gray.
- Larger
concentration of brown emelanin makes the hair brown.
- Low
concentration of brown eumelanin makes the hair blond.
With
only black and brown eumelanins available, you will
not see natural blue or green hair. What you will see
are balances between black, brown and red natural hair
colors. Prevalence of higher concentration of certain
pigmentation results in some geographical hair color
identities. Northern Europe has more blondes and Scotland
has more redheads. Most parts of the world have dark
hair. You can lighten your hair by oxidizing the dark
pigments through bleaching. Albinos are people with
no pigment-producing cells, resulting in having only
white hair all over the body.
Phaeomelanin
has a strong impact on the hair. Hair with high concentration
of phaeomelanin are resistant to dyes and bleaches.
People with high phaeomelanin will find that the red
pigment lingers after bleaching.
How
Hair Dyes Work
There
are two main types of hair dyes: permanent and semi-permanent.
If not used properly, they can damage your hair
Semi-permanent
dyes are acidic. They are made up of small molecules
that can pass through the scales of the cuticles and
and into the hair cortex. They are also water-soluble
and depending on how strong the dyes are, will wash
away with frequent washings. These dyes do not contain
bleach, so they can darken but not lighten hair. They
are generally safe and can be used at home.
You
can rinse out semi-permanent dyes with common ingredients
such as tea, beer, lemon juice and very diluted honey.
To remove the dyes, rinse with these ingredients after
washing the hair. The sooner you do it after dyeing,
the faster it takes to remove the dye.
Bleaching
the Hair, and the Damage
Hair
is bleached by oxidizing the melanin granules in the
cortex of the hair. The resulting loss of color is permanent.
Hydrogen peroixide, an alkaline soltion, is the most
common bleaching ingredient. It is used with other dyes
to achieve the desired color.
The
more severe the bleaching (to achieve platinum blonde),
the more damage is done to the hair. Very light bleached
hair lose its silky feel. The hair is also made more
porous, producing uneven shading. As people continue
bleaching to de-colorize new hair, more damage is done
to the older hair. To achieve longer lasting de-colorization,
people also bleach into the roots.
Bleached
hair is damaged hair and is more difficult to comb.
Forced combing will cause further damage to the hair,
breaking it and inducing hair loss. Because the hair
is porous, it is weak when wet.
It
is goes without saying that repeating bleaching is stressful
to the hair. For many, it will result in more premature
and greater quantity of hair loss. This website discourages
bleaching. Instead, we
encourages much more gentler approaches to prevent hair
loss.
Permanent
Hair Coloring
Compared
to semi-permanent hair coloring described above, the
process of permanent coloring takes a more drastic approach.
It starts by bleaching the hair with hydrogen peroxid
(in 30 to 40 percent concentration) to remove all the
existing melanine granules. As in any bleaching process,
this tends to damage the keratin in the hair cortex,
resulting in a lifeless look.
Ammonia
is then applied to open the hair cuticle and allow the
new dye to penetrate into the cortex. It acts as a catalyst
to combine the permanent hair color to the hydrogen
peroxide. The new color dyes usually contain various
alcohols and conditioners to to close the scales on
the cuticle to embed the color. This process is is important
to maintain the moisture of the hair cortex, and hence
the silkiness of the hair. If directions are not followed
carefully, there can be considerable damage to the hair.
Perming
the Hair
Many
women (and some men) with thinning hair choose to give
a look of more body to the hair by perming. This process
is an art. Permanent perming uses strong alkaline chemicals
to break down the disulfide bonds in the hair and open
the cuticle of the hair fibers. This allows the cuticles
to take on water and reshape themselves automatically.
Then the hair is reformed by using perm rods.
After
rinsing the setting agents, neutralizers are applied
to to reset the hair in the new curled patterns. The
neutralizers contain hydrogen peroxide which harden
s the cement that bonds the hair fibers with its hair
keratin and reform the disulfide bonds into their new
shape.
During
the process, the setting agents on the hair make it
vulnerable to damage, which can occur with small changes
in temperature. The longer these chemicals are on the
hair shaft, the greater the chance of damage to the
cuticle, which in turn are more open to damage from
the perming chemicals.
After
perming you are usually asked not to wash your hair
for three days. The reason is that some of the setting
agent remains on the hair to continue setting the hair.
Otherwise you could lose the perm after all the hard
work. When the setting is washed to allow for the neutralizing
agent to work, some of it is left behind to do this
work.
It
is clear that perming is another process that cause
damage and puts considerable stress to the hair. Thin
hair is more susceptible to damage because it does not
have enough bulk to withstand repeated perming. Stronger
hair that are resistant to perming requires more chemicals,
which even exposes it to eventual damage.
Although
experts will minimize the negative impact of perming,
repeated perming is not recommended if you want to avoid
longer term hair loss.
Relaxing
and Straightening the Hair
Today,
relaxing the hair to make it more manageable is becoming
an very popular process, especially amongst African
Americans, and people with kinky hair. The process of
relaxing is similar to perming because the disulphide
bond and reforming process in the setting stage is similar.
The difference is this time the goal is to straighten
the hair.
Many
people are so aggressively in relaxing the hair that
they do permanent damage to their hair. They tend to
overuse the setting agents, damaging the hair shaft
above and below the skin, causing the hair to fall off.
It is therefore important to adhere to the instructions.
Many
also apply hot iron to the hair but this causes damage
to the underlying anatomy of the hair. It is safer and
easier to put the wet kinky hair under a paper bag and
run a hot iron on top of the bag. The paper insulates
the hair from the heat of the iron.
Important read to achieve better hair care below:
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