Hair Styling
Styling hair means temporarily or permanently altering its shape. We shall discuss perming in the next section. Here we are talking about the temporary changes brought about by setting the hair. Setting is different from perming in that there is no chemical reaction in the hair. All that happens is that some of the weak hydrogen bonds are broken by water and then re-form in the newly positioned hair as the water evaporates.
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HAIR FACTS |
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Changing the hair Whether your hair is straight or naturally curly depends on your genetic inheritance, which of course cannot be changed. Any alteration to the natural state of hair must be brought about by either mechanical manipulation, or chemical change, or both. |
A curl can be produced by setting hair on a former such as a curler or roller - that is, allowing wet hair to dry while twisted round the former. (Fixing wet hair into pin curls has a similar effect.) After the curlers or rollers have been removed the hair holds its shape until it gets wet again.
In a perfect world, the hair could be left to dry naturally on the curlers or rollers and then combed out with a broad-toothed comb. But the pace and hurry of modern life makes this a luxury that we cannot afford, and some kind of hair dryer has to be used to speed the process up. Heat is a great enemy to hair, however, and that means that dryers must always be used with great care and on a moderate setting. A hair dryer on its hottest setting will reach temperatures well above that at which water boils. As we have seen, this can have a disastrous effect on the hair. Using a 'hot oil' has a protective effect. So too do hair mousses, which contain specially formulated resins.
Curls produced by setting are tight when they are first formed, but they can be brushed out into a lighter style. Using setting lotions or hair sprays gives a firmer effect, and helps to hold the temporary curl in for longer.
Softer, looser styles can be created by brushing and blow drying only, without using rollers. The principle is exactly the same as that of the setting process. The only difference is that the hydrogen bonds re-connect to form the style that has been shaped by the brush.
All hair gradually absorbs moisture from the air, and as the hydrogen bonds break it will in time lose its style - especially in damp weather!
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What happens during setting First, read again the section in Chapter 1 of this book about the chemical structure of hair. When hair is set, the millions of weak hydrogen bonds between the keratin chains in the hair are broken when the hair is wetted, and form up again in different places on the chains as the water evaporates during drying. The strong disulphide linkages in hair can only be altered by chemical treatments, and are unaffected during setting. They keep the hair in its fundamental natural shape throughout repeated washing and drying. |