Hair School Lesson 6: Hair Growth

This post will deal with *drumroll* INCREASING HAIR-GROWTH. Ahh, the one thing we all want to do, and the one thing we have no scientifically supported method of doing. Except, reducing damage to the hair, which makes it break off less, of course. But that doesn’t make the hair growth speed increase, you’re just preserving more of the hair.

Anyway, I’ve been lurking around the Hair Science thread on the LHC forum (started by the amazing meteor, I’m so impressed with all the info she has gathered). One section of the thread links to scientific articles that deal with factors which increase hair-growth, and I thought I’d write something up on it, to make sense of it for myself. And share it here, of course, because I know there are more people than myself who find reading scientific articles daunting, no matter how interesting the topic is.

Preserving hair

Numero uno: the hair grows from the scalp, but it breaks off at the ends - so protect your ends. This won't increase your growth, but you'll maintain more of it. Oil them, bun them, quit heat, whatever. Just protect them!

Nutrients

You must eat enough protein, vitamins, nutrients, bla bla bla. The usual boring stuff, but it must be said. Eat well, and your hair grows at its natural speed. If you're eating poorly or have some sort of illness, that can hamper your growth. If you're just eating poorly, switch up your diet. If your lacking hair growth is due to poor absorption of vitamins and nutrients because of an illness, talk to your doctor. In this case vitamin supplements may help. Vitamins for hair growth generally don't do much if you're not lacking in some nutrient.

Increasing blood flow to your scalp

An increased blood flow to your scalp will spur your follicles into action. There are many methods out there that may, or may not, work. Examples are the inverse head massage method and daily head massage. Other things that increase blood flow is heat - part of the reason why you may see a growth spurt during summer. Increasing your exercise may also make your blood flow and hair grow. Some essential oils, such as rose, lavender, and peppermint, are also said to increase blood flow.

Cleansing your follicles

Especially if you're suffering from SD, dandruff, eczema, or other scalp problems, your follicles could be clogged up and hampering growth. For example rose and tea tree essential oils are known anti-bacterials that can help you both with your scalp issues and your hair growth. Anti-dandruff ingredients, especially piroctone olamine and ketoconazole have been scientifically proven to help people with dandruff increase both the thickness and growth speed of their hair (I wrote a bit about my own experiment with piroctone olamine here). Other ingredients, such as micozanole (which is commonly found in products for vaginal fungi) have anecdotally shown to increase hair growth. This isn't scientifically proven, but interestingly micozanole and ketoconazole are two related substances. So who knows? If you already have a healthy scalp, there's no science that says that cleansing your follicles with special ingredients other than a regular shampoo or what-have-you will increase your growth. Personally, I'm trying things out anyway!

Castor oil

This one deserves it's own section simply because it's a very common hair growth treatment, but also because I haven't seen any exact reasons why it works. It's said to "stimulate follicles" and whatnot. But, how, that's another question. Apparently it's good for dandruff, so I'm wondering if it might have some anti-bacterial properties. Either way, I find castor oil to be relatively easy to get a hold of, relatively cheap, and relatively easy to apply. Personally I mix it with sunflower seed oil and peppermint oil and let it sit for awhile before I wash my hair. Castor oil has a very thick consistency, so I prefer to mix it with other oils to make application easier.


~ Siv

Hair School Lesson 5: Henna and Herbal Treatments

Now we're getting more onto alternative haircare!

Henna, indigo, katam, cassia and amla

Henna, indigo, katam, and amla are herbal dyes and treatments. They are extracted from different plants. Henna, for example, is extracted from the henna tree, Lawsonia inermis. It is a ground up fine powder that you mix with water (sometime acid also) and let sit for a few hours for the dye to develop. You then apply the gunk to your hair, let it sit for a few more hours, and then rinse out. For exact instructions, read the label on the packaging.

Dyeing properties

Depending on your original colour your henna hair will look differently. Black hair will still be black (perhaps with a slight red shine in the sun), while light blonde hair will be orange. You should do a test strand first to see what it will look like. If you apply henna again, the colour will deepen, and with several applications, it will deepen to a burgundy colour. If you do a similar treatment with indigo first, then henna on top, you will get a brown shade. If you apply henna first, then indigo, you will get pitch black! Indigo on it's own will give a blue-ish colour. Katam on the other hand gives a bluish-greyish colour, but can be mixed into henna to tone down the red or give brown tones. It's less intense than indigo, and works better on grey hair than both henna and indigo. Amla has a light brownish-greyish colour and can be used to tone down red tones in henna somewhat. On darker hairs it can be used without any colour change. Cassia has a bright yellow colour that only stains light hairs, and wash out in a month or so. It's sometimes used to dilute henna.

Important to note is that henna is very permanent. Your best bet to get it out is to cut it off. The amount of bleach needed to get henna out will, in most cases, fry your hair beyond saving. Katam and indigo are less permanent, but still stick to your hair quite well.

Treatment properties

Herbal dyes are also good for your hair, in difference to chemical dyes. The dye that henna deposits on your hair shaft is akin to a protein treatment in that it fills in cracks in the hair. The good thing here is that henna is relatively permanent, while protein treatments wash out. This conditioning effect may abate somewhat over time, but not entirely. Henna may relax your curl pattern a bit, but that's not for sure. Indigo and katam have less conditioning properties, but then again, they are rarely used without henna. Amla is considered to condition your hair and promote your curl pattern, and washes out after awhile. Cassia has similar strengthening and conditioning effects to henna, but less intense, and washes out after a few weeks.

These are the most common herbal dyes and treatments, but there are many more out there, such as rhubarb root, neem, and shikakai, that can be used for conditioning, strengthening, cleansing, dyeing, pretty much all you can think of! If this seems interesting to you, just hang tight, I'm currently researching for a post on specifically Ayurvedic herbs and haircare!

~ Siv

Hair School Lesson 2: Moisturisers and Sealants

So what's the difference between a moisturiser and a sealant?

Moisturiser

A moisturiser penetrates the hair, and fills it with goodness. You hair feels soft and plump - not dry and brittle. You can have too much goodness, however. An over-moisturised hair will feel soft, gummy, and too elastic! If this happens to you, you need to balance your moisture with some protein. 

The main moisturiser for hair is cheap - it's water. Some oils also penetrate the hair shaft. Coconut and palm oil are the two big ones, but avocado oil and olive oil have some penetrating properties as well. These oils are great to utilise when you're suffering from hygral fatigue. When the hair is constantly swelling up with water, then slimming down as it dries out, the “swelling properties” (elasticity) of the hair gets “tired out”, sort of like a worn out rubber band. The hair becomes inelastic and may break. Applying penetrating oils – but not overdoing it – keeps your moisture levels more constant.

Sealant

Sealants coat the hair and create a barrier. This prevents the moisture in the hair from drying out as quickly. Sealants are also great for preventing hygral fatigue! A word of caution – applying copious amounts of sealants but not washing them out properly can cause build up which, in the long run, may lead to these sealants locking moisture out of the hair instead.

Silicones are artificial sealants, and are very commonly found in conditioners and other commercial products. Oils can also act as sealants. Many oils are non-penetrating, and therefore only coat the hair shaft. My personal non-penetrating favourites are sunflower oil and mineral oil since they’re light and easily available. Many people also like jojoba oil, shea butter, rapeseed oil, and castor oil.

Moisturiser/sealant combo

A nifty thing about penetrating oils is that if you apply only a small amount it will penetrate into your hair, but if you apply a little more, the excess amount will coat your hair as a sealant! The amount used is highly individual and depends on how porous your hair is – i.e. how well it absorbs moisture. Curly hair, dyed hair, dry hair, and damaged hair tend to be very porous and soak up moisture like a sponge. The moisture also leaves the hair quickly, if sealants aren't used. But this is not a certain fact; my hair is dry and non-porous, for example.

Historical Haircare Part 2: 19th Century Hair Washing

Here comes the second part of the historical hair care series! Let's see how 19th century ladies dealt with oily hair.

I've delved, into a few threads on forums and blog posts lately regarding ~19th century hair care. The sources, seem to be for British/American hair care during the era, and I found some interesting tidbits! I'll summarise some points, which I personally found extra worthy of note, but I'll also link the sources for anyone interested.

Frequent Brushing

The Pragmatic Costumer explains, in a wonderful way, how ladies of the 19th century actually weren't afraid of getting oily hair. For someone like myself, born in the 1990's long after the advent of the modern shampoo, oily hair has always been avoided like the plague. And, oily hair can only be avoided through shampooing, right? Apparently, around 1918, the average seemed to be to wash your hair every three weeks (Mental Floss), and as far as I understand, just a few decades earlier during the 19th century, women didn't wash more often than that. What they instead did, according to the Pragmatic Costumer, was to detangle gently with a comb, and then brush through with a natural bristle brush. A boar bristle brush, is a good option that is easy to find in modern stores (I own two!!). The bristles, will soak up some of the sebum (technical term for "oil") and spread the rest along the hair shaft, moisturising the hair and giving it a "clean" look. The bristles, will also brush out actual dirt. Sebum is good for your hair! The hair, will look a bit more slicked than what we're used to in the voluminous schampoo-era. Fans of boar bristle brushing today, will also tell you it's important to clean the brush quite often as it soaks up some of the sebum, and will deposit it back on the hair the next time you brush, unless you give it a proper cleaning. 

Infrequent Washing

Eventually, it would be time for wash-day, even for a 19th century lady. Soap, has long been a method of cleaning hair. It still has a great following today. With my hair type, and since I live in an area with hard water, soap isn't a good option for me. That's why I quite liked what the English History Authors have to say about dealing with oily hair. Eggs, instead of modern shampoo, does the trick of cleaning oily hair. I've tried this myself, long ago before I even started reading up on 19th century hair care, and it works great! It's a bit finicky, to get it onto your scalp, and you need to give yourself a good scalp massage with it to make sure it gets all the sebum off. Also, be sure to not rinse your hair with too warm water, as you'll (literally) get scrambled eggs in your hair and that's a nightmare to get rid of! Yuck! For less oil-prone hair, a honey rinse is recommended. The original recipe, is apparently to dissolve a little honey in "spirits" (alcohol), but I'm curious to find an alcohol-free recipe for that. A third method, to deal with oily hair, is to apply powder on it at night, leave it to soak up the sebum overnight, and then brush out the powder in the morning. Interestingly, this is pretty much historical dry shampoo. Personally, I've had some success applying baby powder at night and then brushing it out in the morning, but mostly I rely on regular dry shampoo for a quick fix. 

Integrating Historical Methods in a Modern Hair Routine

Quoting Our Heritage of Health: "Cleanliness is a Matter of Perception". Today, most (including myself), see oily hair as "dirty" hair. It's gross, it's just "not socially acceptable". Back in the day, oily hair wasn't seen that way. And their hair was better off for it, too, I think. Frequent shampooing, is damaging to your hair, which isn't that much of a problem if you have bra strap length hair or shorter, but might be a problem if you have coloured hair (especially bleached), heat style a lot, or have longer hair. A problem you may face, if you clean your hair with anything but modern sulphate shampoos, is that they don't clean out silicones. Silicones, are a common ingredient in many modern hair products, and may build up over time if you don't clean them out with sulphates, leaving you with lank hair. If you don't avoid silicone products, going full on 19th century hair care might be difficult. Actually, a few modern day alternative methods for cleaning hair, such as sulphate free shampoos or conditioner-only, may not work well either. In this case, you have a few options, for example: 1) avoiding silicones all-together; 2) "clarifying" your hair with a sulphate shampoo as often as needed, alternating with e.g. egg washes or conditioner-only. Honestly, there are so many ways you can put together your own hair care routine, those are only two out of many options!

Sources Used

This is just my personal highlights from these sources, but for anyone interested, you should definitely go have a look at the original content. There you'll find so much more that I personally don't take inspiration from at this point in time, but you might! For example, there is plenty of information on oils and pomades, and recipes for washing including ingredients such as brandy and borax.

First, LHC is where I found most of the sources! Go have a look, the LHC users are the most knowledgable people on hair care that I know of!

The Long Hair Community Forum

- Historical hair care for the modern woman: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=142979 

The rest in alphabetical order:

English History Authors

- A Victorian Lady's Guide to Hair Care: http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.se/2015/12/a-victorian-ladys-guide-to-hair-care.html

Mental Floss

- 5 Easy Tips for Better Hair (From the Early 1900's): http://mentalfloss.com/article/52720/5-easy-tips-better-hair-early-1900s

Our Heritage of Health

- Victorian Shampoo Alternatives: https://www.ourheritageofhealth.com/victorian-shampoo-alternatives/

The Pragmatic Costumer

- The Myth of a Myth: Brushing Your Hair 100 Times: https://thepragmaticcostumer.wordpress.com/2014/09/17/the-myth-of-a-myth-brushing-your-hair-100-times/

Bonus Reading!

Two Nerdy History Girls

- The Truth About the Big Hair of the 1770's: Part One: http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.se/2014/07/the-truth-about-big-hair-of-1770s-part.html

- The Truth About the Big Hair of the 1770's: Part II: How They Did It: http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.se/2014/07/the-truth-about-big-hair-of-1770s-part_24.html

- Hair care in the 1820's and 1830's: http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.se/2014/07/hair-care-in-1820s-1830s.html