Dear Asha:
I have been pressing my hair and have noticed it is breaking and has
started to feel
thinner so I am thinking of having my hair relaxed instead. What do
you think?
Rachel
Seattle, Washington
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| Dear
Rachel:
When Black hair
is pressed you are using a heated thermal tool to accomplish what a
relaxer does through chemical action, to release curl and therefore straighten the
hair. The heat is acting as the "relaxer", you need higher
heat and expose your hair to longer sessions of it when pressing your
hair. We do very little pressing in our salon as I believe if you want to
straighten hair on a regular basis a relaxer is a superior way to
accomplish this and less heat is required on relaxed hair to accomplish a finished
hair style, plus you have the option of wet setting the hair which you
don't have when you press.
To press Black hair as safely a possible, it's all about heat. The best example I can give is
this, if you have a silk blouse or a pair of wool pants, you may iron them
for years with no damage, both silk and wool are made from protein matter
as is our hair. However, if just one time through inattention to the heat
setting or distraction you scorch or burn the item you are ironing, it is
ruined. The same thing can happen to your hair. Your hair may not be
ruined at casual glance but depending on how burnt and scorched the hair
is you will have breakage in that area, which no treatment can repair.
Moreover, the process
of this type of breakage
is not a even one, just as when you burn a blouse there are some areas more
badly burnt and scorched than others, the same goes for your hair.
In your hair the areas that are burnt the worse will start to break first and then this
breakage will progress to the next less damaged areas and so forth; this may
last many weeks or even months. You can end up in a cycle of breakage that
seems unending because of the way hair breaks off when thermal burning
takes place. If you burn your hair again a few weeks/months later the
cycle is perpetuated so it seems like your hair is always breaking and it
will feel thinner. Most people also use a
pressing cream which generally are petroleum based and we do not believe
in putting these kinds of oils on hair, and these creams have been know
when heated with a hot comb or iron to run down onto the scalp causing
burning, scaring and permanently damaging some people's hair and scalp.
Finally, these pressing creams over time form a heavy coating on the hair - have
you ever looked at an old frying pan and seen the burned on coating that
heated oils leave - this coating is hard to remove, it weights the hair
down - reducing bounce and body - and interferes with the way
chemical services such as colours
and even treatments perform on the hair.
I view thermal styling tools with a tremendous respect as to how they can
impact the hair and scalp as I do all hair service chemicals as well. I
believe the less often you have to straighten and then thermal style with
heat the better, as you greatly reduce the potential for burnt hair. I believe
because of this a correctly applied relaxer is a better alternative to straighten
hair with as you will require less thermal heat and frequency of use to
have the style you desire
Asha
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Dear
Asha:
Some of my friends told me to try a deep conditioner with mayonnaise in my
hair. Does the mayonnaise really work? If so, what exactly does it do for
the hair?
Jasmine
Richmond, Virginia
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| Dear
Jasmine:
These are good questions.
Let's start with mayonnaise. It for the most part is made from vegetable
oil, eggs, lemon and vinegar. On the surface these may seem like a good
things to put in our hair, we have vegetable oil not mineral oil, we have
eggs for cholesterol and protein, we have vinegar and lemon juice which
will close the cuticle to seal and add shine. My problem with using this
product as a conditioner is that it was meant to go in us and not on us.
First of all when conditioners or treatments are designed for the hair the
cosmetic chemist has a goal in mind, it could be to strengthen, add moisture, detangle,
eliminate static charge, add body, add shine or it could be combination
all of these with a special emphasis on one. The mayonnaise will do almost
none of these things that are essential to be a good hair conditioner as
well as a conditioner designed for hair will. Moreover, the three
most important properties a treatment should have are absent in the
mayonnaise; they are detangling ability, ability to re-moisturize and
ability to repair.
In selecting a protein to strengthen or repair hair, the formulator will have dozens
of proteins to choose from, many are different in their effect on the hair
as well as from the source they are derived from. Most
importantly the protein he selects will be hydrolyzed and quaternized.
Proteins found in such things as egg whites or dried milk have very large
molecules, that while good to eat are much too large to be effective at adding
strength, repair or changing the condition of your hair. When used because
of their large size they will just
sit on the outside surface of the hair and wash away when rinsed with water. When
a protein is hydrolyzed it is chemically broken down into smaller sized
molecules, these molecules can now easily penetrate into the hair to offer
maximum reconstruction of damaged hair.
Just as important is the
quaternization process. Protein matter has a natural negative charge and
this includes our hair, so when you put an unprocessed protein, such as egg whites,
on to your hair you are putting a negative to a negative, no attraction.
When a protein is quaternized by the manufacturer it is changed from a
negative to a positive charge, now when placed onto the hair the protein is
attracted to the hair, it wants to lock in and on to the hair to repair
and strengthen and it
won't be easily rinsed
off and down the drain. You can see how critical these processes are for a
protein to be effective on the hair. The vegetable oil will add some lubrication but
will mask dryness, and tend to add too much weight to your finished style
reducing bounce and body and the vinegar and lemon will close down the
cuticle but this is not effective conditioning.
It is extremely important that what you treat or condition your hair with have good
detangling properties, especially on relaxed hair as relaxed hair is at
its weakest and most fragile state when wet, we don't want to rip and tear
the hair trying to detangle it. There is nothing in the mayonnaise to
detangle your hair. Also, there are a whole list of ingredients available to help to
remoisturize the hair that will not be present in the mayonnaise, this is
critical if your hair is dry and brittle; do you see where I'm going with
this? There are many ingredients in any hair treatment a stylist may
recommend to treat and help correct specific problems you may be having
with your hair, none of which are present or correct in the mayonnaise.
You will be much better off conditioning your hair
with a properly formulated treatment than using mayonnaise on your
hair in my opinion.
Asha
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Dear
Asha:
I have a real problem with dandruff and my scalp is itchy all the time.
What causes dandruff and what can I do to get rid or it?
Krystal
Seattle, Washington
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| Dear
Krystal:
Dandruff is a subject with no
easy answer because there is still a lack of total agreement by experts on what may
actually cause the condition. There is currently still no known real cure
for it and at sometime in our lives over 90% of us will suffer from it,
and it can happen at any age from puberty on.
Lets talk about just what dandruff is. As part of its normal cell
reproduction cycle, your scalp continuously sheds dead skin cells.
However, dandruff is when your scalp cell production and turnover is abnormally
rapid, it’s like if your scalp had a thermostat, this
thermostat has been set to high for unknown reasons. Now these cells
collect on the scalp and they clump together to form flakes. When these
flakes break free from the scalp they are easily seen in your hair as
well as on your clothing. One of the most common conditions associated with
dandruff is scalp itch. This itching can be very frustrating not only for
social reasons but when scratched, your scalp can become irritated and
even inflamed. An inflamed, irritated scalp is extremely sensitive when it
comes time to do any chemical services on your hair.
There are other causes of scalp flaking and itching such as seborrheic
dermatitis. Seborrheic dermatitis usually appears as lesions or rashes
covered by sometimes oily, yellowish or whitish scale. And is treated by
some of the same products as used to treat dandruff.
I just want to touch on the fact that although skin specialists can’t
totally agree on a cause for dandruff, many do feel that dandruff is
associated with a fungus called Pityrosporum ovale. This microscopic
fungus lives on our bodies as well as our scalp, usually without causing a
problem. However, for some people this fungus can increase in numbers. It is this
increase in numbers that leads to dandruff in the opinion of some experts.
I'm sorry to say that dandruff can not be eliminated; at this time it can
only be controlled. We do this a number of ways. First we want to keep the
scalp clean. I find that many women don’t shampoo their hair often
enough. Think about it this way, if your scalp contains food; dead scalp cells
and sebum, the oil your body produces, as well as moisture from
perspiration, don’t you think that fungus and bacteria may want to set
up home there? I would ideally like to see people shampooing once a week.
There is some resistance to this because of the effort, in particularly Black
women who have relaxed hair have to go through each time they shampoo, to
restyle their hair. However, we need to clean house and move out any
"critters" that may be there. This is the advantage of having a
Wash & Wear Relaxer™, you can shampoo your hair even every day and go! (sorry
just had to get that in, but it’s the truth)
Now what shampoos to use. We want to either use a shampoo that has a
cytostatic agent; a cytostatic agent is able to slow down the rapid cell
division we talked about earlier or "turn down the thermostat",
zinc pyrithione is the one I prefer in a regular dandruff shampoo. I will not name a brand, just look on
the back at the ingredients list and see if the dandruff shampoo you are
considering has this as its active ingredient. The other one I sometime recommend
an anti-fungal; Nizoral® shampoo. It is by far the one most often
prescribed by doctors and pharmacists for treating dandruff and is
effective if you may have seborrheic dermatitis. This shampoo will act to
inhibit the growth of any fungus on your scalp. My preference would be to see
you try the Nizoral® first and see if it works and is effective for you.
The most effective way I find to use any shampoo that you are using to
treat a scalp condition is this. Start by dampening your hair, just your
hair and not your scalp, be sure not to have your hair dripping wet. Now
using your fingers to part your hair slow apply the shampoo to your scalp,
try to get none on your hair, do this all over. After applying, gently
work it into the scalp. Leave it there for 10 minutes. Now apply more
water to your entire hair and rinse it out well. If you have natural Afro textured
hair you may work it into a lather if you wish. If you have any type of
chemically treated hair I prefer that you don’t cause it to lather, just rinse it out well.
Now follow this with a conditioning shampoo (see my thoughts on conditioning
shampoos in the next letter) work this into a good lather, very gently but thoroughly
scrubbing the scalp, you may do this twice. Always finish by conditioning
your hair and style as usual.
If you feel your dandruff is still persisting as bad after about 6 weeks, you will need
to see a dermatologist to have him have a look and for further help.
Asha
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Dear
Asha:
My daughter is bi-racial (Black and White). Her hair is very curly, hard
to manage and tends to be quite frizzy. She usually keeps it in a braided
pony tail but wishes she could wear other styles. Do you have any tips for
this type of hair?
Patricia
San Diego, California
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Dear
Patricia:
Our salon's clientele includes many clients with a mixed racial background. This
for us typically tends to be Black mixed with many other races, but
most often White. People of this multi-racial background mix have a
natural hair texture that can run from lightly wavy to super curly Afro
textured hair, but most often it is similar to your daughter’s, very
curly but not Afro textured.
You daughter has naturally through genetics, what we accomplish with our
Wash & Wear Relaxer™
technique to Afro textured hair. However, sometimes mixed race
hair can have two or three different textures (curl pattern tightness)
all on the same head and I find I have to occasionally apply a partial
Wash & Wear Relaxer™
technique or even sometimes a full one to evenly match all the textures, or to
sometimes just
loosen up the wave pattern a little more for ease of style. I always
encourage people with hair like this to embrace it, learn to work with it,
and not try and relax
it straight.
Most people with hair like your daughter’s find that after they shampoo
and condition their hair, when they let their hair just air dry naturally,
there is a point between wet damp hair and dry hair, where their hair
looks just perfect, how most people would desire it look all the time. It’s soft, with nice ringlets corkscrewing down, this
only lasts for a short period of time and then the hair completely dries.
At this point the corkscrews lose their definition and the hair becomes
somewhat dry, puffy and frizzy.
Your daughter's naturally curly hair needs specific products to enable it
to remain all day in that desirable zone I described. These products will
also maintain a constant level of moisture to ensure softness and to aid
ease of style. They are Kerasoft Interlink Leave-In Conditioner, Quench
Moisturizing Spray, Revival Curl Revitalizer and Actisilk Curl Enhancer.
These products are water based, non-greasy and without them naturally
curly, bi-racial type hair does tend to want to sometimes be a ball of
frizz.
When your daughter blow-dries and irons to wear a straight style.
The newest way to fight frizz is with a shining mist or glossing polish,
such as our Kerasoft Glas Spray Shine Mist and Glosify Hair Polish.
These new "wonder" products are made with the purest and finest
conditioning silicones. Just a little of these concentrated styling tools
will smooth the cuticle layer of the hair so it lies flat and seals out
that dreaded moisture on humid or rainy days and they add a tremendous amount
of shine to the hair.
One other thing. She needs a good conditioning shampoo. Patricia, it’s not
good enough
for it to say conditioning shampoo on the bottle. Without getting too
technical on you, if the shampoo starts with ingredients such as
sodium
lauryl sulfate, ammonium laurel sulfate, sodium myreth sulfate or any lauryl/laureth
sulfate or similar sounding names. I recommend that you not purchase or use these shampoos for your daughter. They are not
truly designed for
naturally curly or Black hair and I find they tend to be much too drying
and stripping, which is not good for hair with curl. As we all know, dry stripped
hair equals frizzy, puffy hair.
As a further note; people with curl in their hair do not want to use a
shampoo that will make their hair "squeaky clean". As hair that
squeaks after shampooing, denotes that the hair has been stripped to a state
with no lubrication that it can squeak. While for people with straight hair this may be fine.
However, for people with curl this is not what we want, some mothers, like
yourself, that
come to me don't realize that hair with curl in it needs much different shampoos
and conditioners that straight hair does.
A shampoo that is designed for hair with curl should be formulated in my
opinion with amphoteric surfactants - surfactant means; surface active agent,
a fancy technical way of saying cleanser. Amphoterics
are mild cleansing agents that are neutral in nature and gently cleanse
the hair without stripping it.
Some
product manufacturers do add strong conditioning agents to their shampoos
that contain the laurel sulfates as their active ingredients to compensate for the
stripping action of these cleansers. However, this is not
sufficient or good enough in my opinion. Also, many do this to save money as
there are higher costs involved in manufacturing with amphoterics. (*
There
is an exception to this guideline, this being sodium trideceth sulfate, it acts synergistically
with amphoterics when added with them to a shampoo as a secondary cleansing ingredient).
For example our
Kerasoft Enrich Conditioning Shampoo costs our company probably 2 -3 times more to manufacture than a
shampoo using lauryl sulfates would. We do use ingredients that are called
amphoterics as our main active cleansing ingredients. They are non-stripping, gentle
and yet thoroughly cleanse the hair, as I just mentioned.
In the shampoos I recommend, the first item in the ingredient listing
after water should be an ingredient such as lauroamphoglycinate,
cocoamphocarboxyglycinate, cocoamphopropionate, there are quite a few
variations on these names but they should be similar. If you noticed they
all contain "ampho" in their name, this will help you in
determining if they are an amphoteric based shampoo. I hope this not too
technical, but you need to know how to purchase a superior shampoo for
curly textured hair. As long as it’s not a lauryl
sulfate based one you should be all right. And as always, she needs a good
detangling moisturizing conditioner to finish with, such as our Kerasoft
Reflex Moisturizing Treatment.
These products I believe will give you the kind of results you desire for your
daughter's hair. I hope this helps for now.
Asha
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