Since Darkhorse brought this up, so I thought I would borrow her comment for this:
My scalp always knows when the seasons change. I always wonder if it has something to do with sweating. We sweat more in the summer, and I wonder if that does something to the scalp that, when the cooler weather comes, is it irritable? Less moisture? Is something growing in there? For me, I have to wash, but I was using a special conditioner for my scalp once our temps dropped to what I call reasonable, and since our temps went back to August like (boo!), my scalp isn't cranky, but I am because I like the cooler autumn weather :DMy working theory on this is that season changes, especially for autumn messes with both the scalp and length of hair.
Just something to make you go 'hmmmmm...." :D
For the scalp:
The acid mantle which forms the protecting layer on your skin (And scalp) is formed by three things: Your sweat which contains lactic acid to maintain the right pH value, the sebum which helps to waterproof the skin (Both for penetration and evaporation) and the dead skin cells (Epidermis) which physically shields the skin.
So autumn is cold and rainy outside, and warm and dry inside and you start wearing hats more.
I could see you sweating more and not even noticing...
Also I could see you producing more sebum to keep the moisture inside your skin?
For the length:
As for the weird "irritated" reaction I get on the length, my best guess is: Hair contains 8-10 % water and it can absorb and release water depending on the surrounding environment. The little "scales" that covers the hair can't to do this, but the inner core of the hair (The cortex that contains the protein bundles which give hair its strength) can.
I imagine it would be like repeatedly steaming and drying wood. It should feel really strange, and I guess eventually it should crack and split.
Anyways. I'm just guessing and putting what little I know together.
...Anyone have some knowledge on this?
Interesting info! Now, here's a funny thing for my hair: The length LOVES the autumn and cooler weather, the scalp does not. My length hates humidity, my scalp does not. Go figure--now, I do have my hair colored to cover gray, so I'm going to say that's got to be a factor for my length.
ReplyDeleteI wear hats all year round, and sweat pretty much all year round, but I do notice when I wear my vented helmet in the winter, my scalp is more prone to being itchy than when I wear my good show helmet (which I will wear if it's freezing because I got dizzy once and realized it was due to my head being exposed to rushes of cold air via the vents in my helmet). My length, as long as it's braided or up, I don't notice, but oh wow--when I just wore a pony tail, it was so so mad at me--snarls galore. And leaves when I went hacking after rides. And a weird bug. Yes, I started to braid it after and knot the length.
But I'm guessing the sweat creates some type of hydrating barrier--figure we are in the sun/heat, even with a hat on for me, my scalp should be cranky all the time, but only when we go to fall.
I'm keeping track of this as we are currently in a disgusting heat wave. Temps in my area are going to feel like 42C on Sunday (no, I am not working or riding thank god!), and then by Thursday, we'll be down to lows of 6C. Great. I hate these extremes! For the horses that is ;)
exactly my scalp and legth issues. Ida has an article about hair buildups and gently Scratching your scalp in order to get rid of buildups step by step. it´s a tedious Job just like s&d but the time and work you invest it Worts it. no clarifying Shampoo in the world can clean my scalp when I have buildups. I have oily hair and dry scalp (http://leayellena.blogspot.de/2017/08/why-do-i-have-dry-scalp-but-greasy-hair.html) hence why it took my 27 years of my life to discover what no hairdresser knows :O my doctors told me I am sweating because I am fat. few years ago they told me it´s normal. romanian doctors really...
Deleteas for the length of your hair, I´d say it Needs oils. oils calms down the frizz. it´s either you use a conditioner based on oils or leave-ins... you should try and see what your hair likes. my hair likes oils on dry hair, not on freshly washed hair.
Absolutely. I use oil on my length--I work outdoors and in the elements as I work with horses and ride, and I wear hats or helmets all the time. Since my hair is color treated for gray coverage, I do olive oilings and find that really makes my length happy. From there, I will use a good moisturizing conditioner and the one I love in the humid weather has been discontinued. I'm upset about that and need to find an alternate. But what I difference it made when I used it yesterday. Now our temps are more cool, so back to my other conditioner. :)
Deletewelcome back Ida.
ReplyDeletenice short and structured article, as always. love to read every article you write. therefore I firmly think hairdressers should take some serious medicine lessons before they get a Chance to chop off hair.