Kristy's Blog

1. Curly hair happens because hair follicles cross-sections are oval in shape. Straight hair is completely round. “If you think about gift wrapping ribbon, when you try to make it curly, you take the scissors and you pull it on one side, so you kind of flatten the one side and it curls. So you’re changing the shape of one side compared to the other,” says Dr. Paradi Mirmirani, a dermatologist in Vallejo, Calif., who specializes in hair. “When it’s oval, one side is curved and the other side is flat, which makes it curl.”

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102074149

2. Americans wash their hair too much – causing the scalp to produce more oil. That’s why if you don’t wash your hair every day it gets oily. Daily washing, they say, strips the hair of beneficial oil (called sebum) and can damage and can even damage it. Counter intuitively, if you just wash your hair 2-3 times a week, the oil should be balanced. During your daily shower, you just need to rinse your hair.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102062969

3. Gray hair happens because hair shafts accumulate hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in millimolar concentrations. Hydrogen peroxide is the main ingredient used in products to bleach hair blond.

http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/abstract/fj.08-125435v1