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Ones hair is most definitely an essential and important
part of his or her appearance. Healthy, good-looking hair adds to an
individual’s good looks without any doubt, just as damaged hair takes
away from them. In layman’s terms, a hair can be described as a chain of
proteins called ‘keratins’ covered by a ‘cuticle’ which is protective in
function and appears shiny.
From this definition, it is but obvious that your hair gets its shine
from the cuticle and a damaged cuticle would lead to lifeless looking
and damaged hair. Damages to the cuticle (and in effect to hair) are in
the form of roughening, chipping, cracking or even wearing off of this
layer. In addition, the cuticle prevents water loss. Have you ever seen
what happens to a plant deprived of water? Well then, why should our
hair be an exception? In fact, even plants have a protective cuticle.
All that glitters is not gold, it might just be cuticle!
The next two inevitable questions are – What causes hair damage and how
can it be prevented? Firstly, heat damages hair. When we blow-dry, curl
or straighten our hair with a hair iron, we are subjecting it to heat.
Other agents of hair damage are ultra violet rays of the sun, chemicals,
a poor diet and lastly mechanical damage caused by combing, brushing and
using hair rollers etc. Wetting hair too much or for too long is also
harmful to it.
The answer to the first question also holds a part of the answer to the
second one, and we all know that prevention is better than cure. Indian
beauties of the past have always turned heads with their glossy, long
and lovely locks, flowing like a stream of vitality from their head and
their secret was that they avoided treatment that was harmful to hair.
Some of the above processes are however, quite unavoidable many a time.
This is where modifications such as the following come in use. Instead
of blow drying your hair to hay-like dryness, allow it to retain some
moisture. Blow-drying is a better alternative to hair ironing.
Conditioning ones hair after a hair wash makes it less entangled,
thereby causing least harm while brushing or combing it. A protein rich
diet is something that would make not only ones hair but also the rest
of the body healthy. ~
Author Mansi Ghuwalewala.
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