Wednesday

Does Water Damage the Hair?



I’ll never forget when I worked in a salon as a youth and learned so much about how to care for and properly treat my mane. Those days were vital in forming my opinions and strengthening my knowledge of how to care for the body, mind and spirit. I was not only blessed to work with my favorite Celebrity Hair Maven Kitre Jones but one of my other favorites Master Stylist Virgil McDaniel.

Virgil maintained my very healthy, combination, complicated mane back then and I credit him for helping me to understand how diet, treatment and environment can effect negatively or positively affect the hair and the body.

One thing he said to me that still sticks with me today is how water affects the hair. We have all grown up with images and words that discuss how important water is to our body and our world however, we seldom if ever discuss any negative effects.

It is true that water deserves a healthy amount of respect in that we need a certain amount in our hair for moisture and general health. However we need to use water gingerly when we are maintaining and cleaning our locks. Why? Well simply because water weakens the hair.  This happens for a number of reasons.

The first reason is that wet hair becomes more fragile and vulnerable when saturated. Therefore, any type of stress on the hair when wet can cause breakage, fatigue of strands, fractures and splitting. ( i.e. combing, towel drying, brushing, bows. Etc)

The second is that because of the types of waters that are most readily available it contains a lot of minerals. The minerals dissolved in hard water deposits on the hair after several washings can cause build up which causes dryness, tangles, and can lead to poor hair appearance and breakage.

Also water deposits may reduce hair’s health due to its stripping of natural oils and fatty acids that aid in natural hair health.

In order to counteract these effects there are several different types of simple, inexpensive remedies.

One of the easiest ways to limit hair damage due to water is to dry hair with a wet t-shirt. Towel material is far to drying for excessive styling and is softer on the hair fibers. More common alternatives include Deep conditioning, routine conditioning, reduces stress, heat on the hair and a healthy diet can help the health of your hair.
 

Source: http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/curl-products/is-water-damaging-my-hair

1 comment:

  1. The way I see it, water is not harmful to hair but using a cold water on your hair then pouring another hot water into your hair after the cold one will definitely destroy your hair. It's like a law in science where mixing hot and cold may break matter. Taking good care of our hair is not that hard but we only need proper knowledge to do so. I've read several articles that having zinc deficiency could also affect your hairs growth including it's health. It is important to know what you hairs nutritional needs to avoid any damage and breakouts.

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