A knot girls can face a call with a disaster.
Hair care is the most important, if tricky, form of self-care, which, if not managed properly, can leave people with split ends, warns a new hair growth report.
Instead of torturing the tresses with excessive heat – which makes the hair smooth – followed by a quick brush, researchers from the University of Dublin suggest treating the newly prepared strands for 30 minutes to a two-hour recovery phase before styling.
“The use of heat causes a significant reduction in performance… which is completely compensated by rest time” the authors of the study explained. “This well-known effect, possibly caused by dehydration and rehydration, is clearly and unambiguously demonstrated.”
Researchers have created a machine to recreate the damaging effect of brushing tangled hair. Putting bristle brushes in knots can force tangles down along the strand, stressing the hair and causing split ends, according to experts.
For the analysis, doctors performed the “Moving Loop Fatigue” test on 12 different types of hair, including straight, curly and strong, as well as both treated and natural hair that is prone to breakage. To test each section, the insiders repeatedly bend the hair, forcing it through a tight loop, simulating the pressure that brushing has on a tangled mane.
Due to the tendency of hair to be weakened temporarily, experts found that when hair is exposed to heat of about 300-degrees, it grows longer. Before adding heat, the straight hair strand was able to withstand 234 cycles of the traveling loop fatigue test. Those same keys, however, can only survive 38 cycles after a heat stroke.
The strength of curly hair also decreased from 185 cycles to 40, determined the team, which attributed the breakage of both types of hair to heat-induced dehydration. A few extremely dehydrated samples were reported to break in the first cycle.
But, when the hair was allowed to rest and rehydrate before brushing, the damaging effects of heat were reversed and the strands recovered.
David Taylor, a professor at the University, told the DailyMail, “There is enough water in the air to restore dry hair, although it varies greatly depending on the humidity of the air around you.”
“We need to do more tests to find out how long it takes for the hair to grow back,” he added, “but I suspect even a few minutes will make a difference.”
Taylor and his colleagues also found that “strong” hairs resisted cracking longer, while split hairs formed internal cracks earlier.
But this pro urged people of all hair types to treat their hair with loving care.
“Some people have hair that tends to split, so there’s not much they can do about that,” said Taylor, noting that long hair is more likely to split than short hair. “For the rest of us, be aware that any kind of therapy – coloring, straightening, etc. – can be dangerous.”
But the good news is that it’s not forever, so if a certain treatment causes problems, don’t do it again.”
