Why You Shouldn't Use Keratin Too Much as a Hair Ingredient
By Cadiveu | 24, August, 2022
Nowadays, everyone seems to prefer keratin as their preferred hair element. After all, it's a protein that is naturally present in hair and helps to strengthen hair. Therefore, keratin treatments are recommended as a good chemical straightening and relaxing hair option.
But even beneficial things may be bad in excess, which is what is occurring with keratin. Many daily keratin treatment products contain hydrolyzed keratin, which has an impact on our hair. Do not purchase a large quantity of salon-grade keratin treatment as it cannot be used on a weekly basis like a deep conditioner.
What is the purpose of keratin treatments? How does it work?
Contrary to straightening, keratin treatments remove frizz without altering the shape of your hair, whether it is wavy or curly. Therefore, this strengthens damaged, limp, weak, and dull hair, especially if you frequently style it. Shine is also improved. This explains its appeal.
No matter how hard hair stylists at salons try to persuade you otherwise, not everyone needs one. Your hair may require lipids, ceramides, or hydration at various times. Keratin treatments don't always help damaged, frizzy, or dry hair.
What excessive keratin products does to hair
Each hair strand has three concentric layers: the cuticle, which is the outermost layer; the cortex, which is the middle layer and is composed of keratin and other materials; and the medulla. For hair to be healthy, nutrients and hydration must penetrate the cuticles and reach the cortex. However, if the cortex is overly protein-coated, moisture cannot get there.
Therefore, if you overdo it and add this protein to hair that doesn't need it, your hair will turn straw-like like mine did. It loses softness, gloss, becomes tangled quickly, and becomes drab. It also loses shine. Basically, if you apply too much keratin, your hair will lose its elasticity and become stiff and hard. It is more brittle because of this hardness. Therefore, when hair is yanked, it doesn't bounce back into shape but instead breaks more easily. It is sleek, firm, and stiff, the exact opposite of soft, frizzy, wavy, limp hair.
Additionally damaging are the chemicals used in in-salon keratin treatments
Methylene glycol, formalin, methanal, and methanediol are among the substances used in salon keratin treatments; when combined with water, they release formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is extremely harmful to human health and is known to cause cancer. So, while you can use keratin shampoos and conditioners, going overboard with them is not a smart idea. Nevertheless, as previously mentioned, those might still be a factor in hair hardening and breaking.
Does everyone benefit from keratin treatments, and how frequently should we receive them?
A monthly keratin treatment is more than sufficient for someone with regular hair that is frizzy yet soft, and it can even last up to six months. Depending on how badly the hair has been fashioned and how damaged it is, keratin treatments should be performed either every two weeks or every week on severely damaged, porous hair. The latter is ineligible for the majority of people.
To make this choice, you can examine your hair in a few different ways. You don't require an intensive keratin hair treatment if you pull a damp hair strand and it stretches before shrinking and snapping back into place without breaking. This indicates that the hair has keratin. A strand is devoid of keratin if, when pulled, it extends but does not shrink in size. Hair needs both moisture and keratin if it stretches and breaks. However, moisture rather than keratin is needed if hair breaks instead of stretching.
A further test involves dipping a hair strand into a glass of water. It is referred to as the porosity test. Your hair is porous and lacking in keratin if the strand sinks. You don't actually require a keratin treatment if it floats or swims halfway without sinking.
Therefore, it's crucial to examine these factors before having something like this done, or you risk doing more harm than good to your hair.
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