Friday, January 18, 2013

Did You Know: Hygral Fatigue

Ever heard the saying that "black girls don't wash their hair every day because it will dry it out?" While it may just be a myth could it possibly hold some truth in it?

What Is Hygral Fatigue?

 When washing our hair, our hair shafts must expand to take in all of the "goodies" (shampoos or conditioners).  Hygral Fatigue is the damage on you hair caused from the frequent expanding while wet and contracting when drying hair. Porous hair have an increased chance and recieving damage, being that it takes in considerably alot of water, creating an intense swelling (expansion) and quickly contracting back to it's regular state during the drying process.

Studies have shown that using Coconut Oil (a polar oil) as a prepoo treatment will protect they hair fiber from hygral fatigue, by allowing some of the oil to absorb into the hair as it swells, binding onto some of the hair's inner proteins, thus reducing the amount of water that the hair fiber absorbs and limiting the ability for the fiber to swell.


Taking this in consideration, I only considered "Prepooing" as vital for those who actually used shampoo, as I cowash weekly and thought it would be pointless. Learning this has now opened my eyes to needing to further protect my tresses and incorporate Coconut Oil into my regimen as a prepoo to avoid this, especially considering that my hair can sometimes be very porous!!!




DO YOU PREPOO????








Resourses Used: The Science of Black Hair

2 comments:

  1. I prepoo as much as possible, and 90% of the time with coconut oil (which I also seal with and add a couple of drops to my leave-ins prior to roller setting, it's simply that brilliant). It truly makes a difference regarding the nourishment your hair gets through the entire washing process. Of course I wash my hair with a shampoo, so I can't say how prepooing and cowashing together will affect ones hair. Very nice post explaining hygral fatigue!

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