The next essay is reprinted with permission from The Dialog, a web-based publication protecting the newest analysis.

When you’ve got curly hair, you understand that daily is a brand new journey. What is going to my hair do at present? Why does it curl higher on some days than others? And even these with out naturally curly hair may discover their hair curling – or, let’s be sincere, frizzing – a bit on humid summer time days.

As an individual with curly hair, I’m at all times in search of one of the simplest ways to take care of and perceive my hair. As a chemist, I’m within the science behind how my hair behaves on the molecular stage. There are completely different hair varieties, from straight to curly, and so they behave in a different way relying on their construction. However what hairs are made up of on the molecular stage is identical.

Hair construction

Hair begins rising underneath the pores and skin’s floor, but it surely’s what occurs after it pokes via the pores and skin that determines whether or not you have got a very good hair day or a foul one.

Every hair can have three layers – the medulla, the cortex and the cuticle. You may consider every hair like a tiny tree trunk.

The innermost, or core layer, is the medulla. This layer holds moisture, very similar to the pith within the heart of a tree trunk. This layer can also be very fragile, however solely thick or coarse hairs comprise this half – so these with skinny or blond hair sometimes don’t have the medulla layer of their hairs.

Subsequent is the cortex, which makes up most of a hair and is analogous to the wooden of a tree. The cortex is made up of spring-shaped protein molecules that lie in parallel rows in a cylindrical bundle. The precise form of that bundle is decided by the hair follicle, which is a pore on the pores and skin from the place the hair grows.

How the hair grows out of the follicle influences the distribution of its proteins. So a straight follicle produces straight hair and a curved follicle produces curly hair. The much less evenly distributed the squiggly proteins are, the curlier the hair. Your genetic code additionally performs a task within the form of the cortex and, due to this fact, the form and thickness of your hair.

Lastly, the outermost layer of a hair known as the cuticle. The cuticle is just like the bark of a tree – and it even seems to be like bark underneath a microscope.

It’s the cuticle’s job to guard the cortex, however the cuticle is very simply broken. Think about lifting or eradicating the bark from a tree. Doing so would go away the wooden inside vulnerable to moisture loss, publicity to the surroundings and injury.

The identical is true for every hair. When the cuticle is broken from brushing, chemical compounds, wind or warmth, the proteins of the cortex have a way more troublesome time mendacity easily collectively. This implies they will lose moisture, acquire moisture, fray like a rope – this causes break up ends – and even break. All these elements can affect how your hair seems to be at any given second.

Hair in the summertime

So what does all of this should do with humidity? Effectively, hair proteins comprise many everlasting chemical bonds. Solely chemical therapies like perms or straightening can change these bonds. However there’s one other pure phenomenon that retains the protein molecules within the cortex in line – one thing known as hydrogen bonding.

The lengthy, stringy protein molecules within the cortex comprise tiny constructive and destructive fees all through their construction. As a result of reverse fees appeal to one another, whole rows of proteins will be attracted to one another like tiny, weak magnets.

Heating or wetting your hair breaks the magnetlike attraction between these rows of proteins. So, warmth and water can rearrange the proteins in your hair by breaking the hydrogen bonds that maintain their construction collectively.

Water is without doubt one of the finest molecules at hydrogen bonding. So when a molecule of water has the chance to hydrogen bond with one thing, it should.

In your hair, water can kind hydrogen bonds between the rows of proteins in your hair’s cortex. It’s the extent to which this occurs that determines your hair’s destiny.

When just a bit water enters the hair, prefer it may in decrease humidity circumstances or when the cuticle is wholesome and capable of maintain an excessive amount of water out of the cortex, your hair might curl. When humidity is excessive, or the cuticle is broken, extra water enters the hair. An excessive amount of water can swell and crack the cuticle, making hair look frizzy.

Many individuals think about excessive humidity to be the issue behind frizzy hair, however styling your hair underneath excessive humidity after which getting into a much less humid surroundings will also be a problem. Water molecules leaving the hair’s cortex may also result in a change in hair conduct.

Treating summer time hair

A broken cuticle layer leaves the cortex extra vulnerable to water molecules creeping in or out and wreaking havoc in your hair. Anytime water molecules journey in or out, your hair’s construction suffers and your coiffure could also be ruined. When the cuticle is wholesome, it will probably defend the cortex, making your hair much less vulnerable to adjustments within the climate or surroundings. The underside line is {that a} wholesome hair cuticle helps maintain correct moisture within the cortex.

Warmth from styling instruments is the most typical wrongdoer behind broken cuticles, however chemical therapies, brushing, solar and wind may also trigger injury. Avoiding these actions will help, however some issues, equivalent to publicity to the solar, can’t be prevented.

You can too care for your scalp – a clear, wholesome scalp results in wholesome hair cuticles. Utilizing moisturizing merchandise in your hair will help keep cuticle well being as nicely. Oils and moisturizing therapies may even restore broken cuticles. The excellent news is that by understanding your hair and treating it nicely, you may assist forestall the undesired results of humidity.

This text was initially printed on The Dialog. Learn the unique article.