Understanding hair bonds will allow you to make better decisions when considering chemical processes such as relaxers and when styling your hair. Also, I will make reference to this whenever I get to create the "What relaxers do to hair....scientifically speaking" page.
Hair Bonds
Cross-bonds and linkages create a network of strength that reinforces hair fibers.
- Disulfate bonds
- These bonds join the sulfur atoms of 2 nearby cysteine amino acid chains
- The more disulfate bonds, the kinkier and curlier the hair
- These bonds can't be broken by water or heat, only by chemical agents
- Relaxers work to disrupt these bonds and once these bonds are broken they cannot be reformed
- Salt bonds
- These bonds are formed when a positively charged end of an amino chain links to another amino acid chain's negative end
- These bonds are weaker than disulfate bonds and are broken by pH changes in the hair in either direction (acidic or alkaline)
- Bond breaks are not permanent, they can be reformed and stabilized by readjusting hair's pH
- Hydrogen bonds
- These bonds are what allows us to change the shape of our hair (i.e. from curly (wet) to straight (blow dried or stretched)
- These are the most flexible bonds in hair. They are easily broken with water or heat
- When wet, hair's molecules move in and break up our hair's present hydrogen bonds and form new ones
- Think of a roller set, we apply them when hair is wet and as hair dries, hydrogen rebonding occurs in the new shape of the hairstyle and the water remains in position until hair is re-wet (or when humidity strikes!)
No comments:
Post a Comment