Straight and curly hair (shutterstock photo)
For women with curly or frizzy hair it’s really not easy to find hair smoothing products that really work. There is conflicting advice everywhere, and one product that someone raves about may be the worst product that someone else has ever tried. However, scientists are making things a little easier by identifying specific characteristics that can ultimately help people choose the perfect hair products.
“As an African-American, I was born with very curly, seemingly unmanageable hair, and other ethnicities can have similar hair characteristics,” says Dr. Michelle Gaines, the project’s principal investigator.
More in-
Like many black women, Gaines used to rely on chemical treatments to straighten her hair throughout her life. It stopped when she got pregnant. She then had to choose the right product from the sea of available options. The conflicting advice, YouTube tutorials and limited information about the best options in general only made it worse.
“As a chemist and materials scientist, I thought it would be great to start a project where I could learn the nuances of my own hair, because I felt it was not so well understood,” she says.
Gaines and her team measured the mechanical properties of wavy, curly and kinky hair with a texture analyzer and a mechanical analyzer. These tools are able to measure force, tension and other factors. The team also calculated a “stretch ratio,” a new parameter they developed to quantify and compare the force required to open a strand until it straightens. This ratio was negligible for straight hair, about 0.8 for wavy, 1.1 for frizzy and 1.4 for curly. This data can help quantify the differences between different hair types.
The team also measured diameter, cross-section and three-dimensional shape of strands using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and a camera. In addition, researchers developed contour metrics, which included the number of complete waves or curls measured on a three-centimeter length of hair.
The results show that wavy hair has less than one full outline and curly hair has close to two. Gaines explains that this means contours may help people accurately categorize their hair.
Recently, Gaines began examining the protective layer on the surface of hair fibers, the cuticle. When exposed to water, shampoo and conditioner, the hairs usually open and lift. However, excessive exposure can damage them permanently and lift them for good.
This could help explain why the curlier the hair, the faster it dries. Gaines looks forward to using these findings to help those with curls find the best product for them.
Comments to the article(0):
Your response has been received and will be published subject to the system policy.
Thanks.
for a new comment
Your response was not sent due to a communication problem, please try again.
Return to comment