Blogging from A to Z challenge: W is for Weird shit in your hair

 

I've been in the longhair circuit for something like 21 years by now (Holy shit. Honestly, what the fuck? How did that happen?) and over the years I have seen people put so much weird shit in and on their hair. Nothing compared to the weirdness in skin products though, especially when you're into K-beauty which has a tendency to be very experimental with ingredients. I'm pretty hardened with that. 

But ingredients can only do so much for hair, since it's mostly dead protein. You can try to rebuild the protein and sulphur hydrogen bonds, but other than that, ingredients can only really make hairs surface shiny, and make it feel good and smooth. 

Of course some products will treat the scalp, but even then, they are not so inventive.

For the really weird hair product ingredients, you often have to look at DIY.

When I say an ingredient is weird, it's not always the ingredient in itself but the risk it has. A lot of the DIY ingredients are simply not water soluble! I will never understand why people want to run the risk of putting something in their hair that can't be rinsed away with water. It can be a real problem just to rinse out "clingy" products that are deliberately made for hair and to be rinsed out, so why risk it with DIY?

But of course there are products such as Hask henna and placenta, which will rinse out just fine, but most people will be creeped out by the fact that it does contain placenta. I actually tried this one, a few times and it was... okay? Not impressed, not disappointed, but not doing something that most other products can't do.

Even with a ingredient like oatmeal I would worry about solubility, and oatmeal is known for being an excellent skin reliever for itchiness or dryness. There are scalp products found on the market that can do the same, or almost the same, so why risk leaving tiny bits of grainy oats in your hair?

If you really want to go "natural", why not try honey? Honey can do almost the same, but it's water soluble. It can be dissolved and rinsed away. The only issue with honey is that it starts a reaction that leads to hydrogen peroxide when it comes into contact with water, but supposedly you can stop that ability by microwaving it first so it doesn't bleach your hair.

But there are so many ingredients I have seen used over the years that can't dissolve in water: Quinoa, seaweed, avocado, bananas, flaxseeds and so on and so on.

Even with something like rice water, which is said to help accelerate hair growth, I would worry about rice "dust" or stickiness being left behind in the hair.

There are also some ingredients that are more or less sort of-kind of water soluble such as yoghurt and mayonnaise. I would want to try to absorb it into regular conditioner before rinsing it out, and even then I would worry about leftovers rotting in my hair. 

I never understood why people use mayonnaise, but maybe that's just me. Those who use it, use it because it contains both protein and oil. Why not just use some regular oil then? And a protein treatment?

And speaking of protein treatments, I've read one too many horror-stories about people using eggs for the protein, and then trying to rinse with too warm water. Eggs doesn't need to boil, or even come close to boiling for the proteins to start taking damage, and the egg changes texture and...Voila: Little, clingy egg chunks in your hair. Yummy.

Then there are the products that soluble just fine, but where I would worry about absorbing smells: Beer, which is said to help plump up fine hair. Potato juice, which is supposedly good for hair growth. Onion juice is recommended for the sulphur content, but I can't imagine why anyone would dare try it with the potential smell issues. Hair is absorbent. It likes to pick up smells. Why risk it?

I have spotted products a few times that contained volcanic rock and I think they were meant for exfoliating the scalp. I wouldn't want to have that sandpaper effect on any length it would get into contact with though... But maybe volcanic rock isn't as much "weird" as it is "epic". Or just a tourist on a volcano island-kind of thing.

Morocco method has a conditioner with quartz crystals liquefied into a base of St. John's Wort Oil, which, I guess wouldn't be so weird if it was just to make your hair pretty and shiny. But no. They are "highly energized liquid crystals from the Himalayan Mountains of India" for... Dunno. Something holistic? Something with healing?