Hello and welcome back to Locs Talk, where I talk about all things Locs and Loose Natural hair. This week I am going to discuss the caution on bleach and heat application to Loose-Natural hair/Locs and the damage they can cause. Before jumping to any conclusions, let me be clear, I am not suggesting that you do not use heat or bleach on your loose-natural hair or Locs, that is totally 100% your choice to make. This is just an information session to be aware and of the caution you should take before proceeding. If you are negligent with proper caution and care, irreversible damage can be the result. I choose to stand in caution not to participate with high heat and bleaching because I am cautious of damages that can occur. I am all about the health of your Hair/Locs. Even though I consistently reinforce and educate proper at home care and discuss products that should be used or shouldn't be used without caution, I know in some cases, it doesn't always stick, and learning comes with repetition. I have seen the repercussions of not following through with caution and the damage it has caused with no hope of reversible repair. For that reason, I have chosen to discuss and reinforce precautionary measures to take before any damage has a chance to be done.
I am going to begin this discussion with the effects and damages bleaching can cause and why I selected to not participate in the practice of bleaching hair; despite the fact that I am well versed and properly trained on how to do it. As a Loctician and Loose-Natural hair specialist, I choose to work with as little chemicals as possible, especially harsh and harmful chemicals. So, let's begin by defining what bleaching is; bleaching is a chemical process that involves stripping the pigment (color) from hair strands, resulting in lighter hair color. This is a permanent process that cannot be reversed. Hair bleaching is harmful to your natural hair in any state, whether Loose-natural or Loc'd. One of the most serious dangers of bleaching is the hair's loss of keratin, which is one of a group of fibrous proteins, also known as scleroproteins. Without it, the hair is compromised making it brittle and hard to style. Loss of keratin is inevitable when bleaching the hair. For a better analogy, stripping the hair of keratin is much like stripping away the DNA of your hair; without it, there is no structure.
Below is a list of 5 bad side effects bleaching can have on your hair:
Bleaching harms the scalp: Bleaching take more than a couple of hours. Depending on your pain tolerance and your skin sensitivity, it can harm your scalp badly. Bleach is a really strong chemical, so it is not uncommon for it to make a tingling to burning sensation if it comes into contact with your scalp. If it gets really itchy and painful, either an allergic reaction, a chemical burn or both has occurred, and it should be removed immediately rinsing it out thoroughly with cool water.
Bleaching leaves your hair EXTREMELY dry: The hair's dryness is caused by oxidation, which leads to oxidative stress of the scalp. Oxidative stress weakens the hold your scalp has on your hair and accelerates hair loss. Stressed scalp let's go of hair sooner than it should, which means normal shedding is significantly increased. This is why in some cases; you see a person's hair coming out in huge clumps as the bleach is rinsed out of the hair.
You end up with discolored hair: Your goal is to get a head of beautiful blonde or platinum hair, but instead you might end up with horribly discolored hair. This one is an important fact for the client to be made well aware of, ahead of time, so they know the risk they are taking. You may be risking unattractively discolored hair; you just don't know how your hair will react to the bleach and that is a fact! Not even the colorist can give you a 100% guarantee that this won't happen to you. Discolored hair happens often, which unfortunately leads to additional chemically based bleaching treatments to try and correct it and a higher risk of further damage. By the time you achieve the color you wanted, some irreversible unrepairable damage may have already occurred.
Your hair becomes more prone to other damage: You can suffer additional damage to your hair in addition to the damages caused by the bleaching such as heat and sun damage, brittleness, breakage, and permanent hair loss. Even tension from styling can be too stressful for your hair and can pull from the root, which is very common when you have Locs and braids.
Bleached hair is very high maintenance, especially the aftercare. Here's an irony for you, I have had many consultations; and one of the questions I ask is, " why do you want to Loc your hair?" and the most common reply is: " because Locs are really low maintenance, and I don't have a lot of time to maintain my hair. So, I decided to get Locs to lower the maintenance of having to do my hair too often." But, within that same group, the most common follow-up question from them would be: " Is it safe to bleach my Locs? Because I really want to be able to color-rinse them in any color I'd like, and I know I need to bleach my hair so it will show better." Please make this make since to me, because it's not making much since. Since bleached hair is so weak and prone to damages, it will require a lot of dedication and commitment to keeping it as healthy as you can possibly keep up with. Not to mention, having to repeat the process every few weeks to keep up the color if you choose to remain blonde. Bleach causes even more damage to your hair, if you are not consistent with the aftercare that is required, not to mention the addition expense for the aftercare.
Damage done by bleaching is permanent, so please aware and cautious before you proceed with decision making to bleach your hair.
Moving on, another damaging practice for hair maintenance is applying too much heat. Heat damage on hair is caused by a number of things, sun damage, extremely hot water, heat styling instruments such as hooded dryers, blow dryers, straightening combs and curlers, flat irons and other items that supplies high heat, when used at extremely high temperatures or used frequently. Now some will say, you can use a heat shielding protection products. Keep in mind, while it may delay the effects, using heat protectant doesn't completely prevent heat damage, especially if you style often. Also, you have to be careful using heat protectant products because it contains ingredients like panthenol and propylene glycol. If you've read the 2-part Beauty is not Pain series blog, you will understand my point. Like bleaching, high heat also destroys keratin protein and strips the hair of its moisture as well, making strands look thin and lifeless. Exposure to high heat also affects the hair's ability to hold moisture. Exposure to high heat changes the shape of your hair's keratin strand. Regular heat source to hair also dehydrates the hair, making it stiff. Hooded dryers and handheld Blow dryers are notorious for causing Dehydrating heat damage. Temperatures over 300-degree Fahrenheit convert the a-keratin into b-keratin which leads to weaker hair that has lost its elasticity and becomes more prone to damage Hot combs, flat irons, and curlers are notorious for this damage. With Locs, this same effect of dehydration takes place resulting in loss of Locs from dryness and begin breaking off, due to lack of moisture and weakened hair from loss of keratin. Here is an illustration of heat damage and loss of elasticity to natural hair which resulted in a permanent change in shape and texture.
Notice in the picture on the left. The top portion is the hair's natural curl pattern and the straighter portion at the bottom is heat damaged hair that has lost its elasticity. This damage is irreversible.
So, what are some other types of heat damage:
-Dryness and Dullness
-Split ends
-Breakage
-Frizziness
-Flyaways (breaking off dry hairs)
-Rough and changed texture
-Increased tangling
-Faded hair color (including your natural hair color)
To avoid heat damage to hair, lower the temperature to low or air dry. My personal preference is to Go Natural! Let your Locs air dry and embrace its natural texture. Taking you through step by step after washing my client's hair, first I let gravity do its job a few moments, and let the water flow away from the scalp to the ends of their Locs/hair. Next, I gently squeeze (not wring) out the excess water, as much as possible. Finally, I use a Peculiar Roots Microfiber wrap towel and let it sit for about 20 minutes to soak up more moisture but leaving their Locs damp enough to work with when I retwist and style their Locs. By the time I am done, their Locs are approximately 90% dried naturally. Depending on the weather, if needed, with a low setting of warm air, I blow-dry the roots to assure their scalp and roots are fully dried before they leave. With loose-natural hair, taking these steps make it easy to dry their hair on a low warm setting, enough to dry and stretch their hair for styling.
Here is the million-dollar question: Can heat damaged hair be repaired? The short answer is NO! Heat damaged hair cannot be repaired because the protein bonds and cuticles have been permanently altered and cannot be restored. Some will say a Keratin treatment will reverse the damage, but please let me assure you, it will not. It may improve the appearance of your hair some, but it is not going to replace the keratin that is lost, this is also true for bleached hair. Instead, the focus should be on maintaining the hair to prevent further damage. If it is severely damaged, the only other solution I'd recommend is to cut off the damaged hair and start fresh. About a year ago, I was asked a question by someone on behalf of a third-party; it was about possibly being a way to repair heat damaged Locs caused by using a heat gun on their hair. The person had attempted to use a heat gun to speed up the process of drying their Locs. If you do not know what a heat gun is, it is a device used to emit a stream of hot air at temperatures from 200-degrees to 1000-degree Fahrenheit. Typically, the heat gun is used in carpentry and contractors work for removing paint and wallpaper, heating and blending plastic and softening glue and adhesive floor tiles, to name a few. The regular hair dryer heats up from 80 to140 degrees Fahrenheit. Not only was it scary for me to hear the question being asked, due to the 2nd and 3rd degree burns that could have occurred due to the high temperature, I was absolutely certain that this person has scolded and permanently damaged their Locs beyond repair. I was right, because I was also told the person's Locs had become extremely dry and had begun to break off. Please, please, please, be careful about the choices you make when it comes to drying your Locs and treating your hair in general.
I personally set aside a day to wash my Locs. Of course, it doesn't take an entire day to wash my Locs, nor does it take all day for them to dry. I simply set aside a day because that's my ME time. No rushing to get to my hair. This week's discussion, I guess you can say is based on my WHY, when it comes down to how I prefer to serve my clients, serving them in the healthiest way I possibly can. I don't suggest what they should or shouldn't do under these circumstances, I simply educate them, and they decided what they are going to do. This is also one of the reasons why a consultation is done prior to taking on any new clients. Since bleaching is so highly prone to damaging the hair, it is not a practice I'd personally participate in doing. If the client decides to move forward with bleaching, they can, unfortunately, they will have to seek another professional to do the job for them. Some have done so, but later returned with damaged bleached Locs. I'd welcome them back and do all I can to help them to maintain their Locs as they grow out, slowly cutting away the damaged portion as it grew out. They've been held accountable enough in suffering through the results that has already taken place. Don't get me wrong now, some bleaching experiences has gone well for some individuals, and the person put a lot of time and money into keeping their damages minimized and well maintained to keep it from further damage. Unfortunately, this does not happen often enough for me to be okay with bleaching hair. Therefore, I withdraw from extending services of bleaching.
Educating yourself is crucial when it comes to making decisions about your hair. Remember, it is your hair, and no one should dictate the choices you make for your hair. As a professional, part of my job is to inform and educate in repetition, but it is the client's job to reinforce the information given to them and to make choices for themselves 100%whether or not to move forward with their decision.
Next week we will discuss the effects of over styling which also includes:
- retwisting too often and tightly.
-braiding loose natural hair with and without extensions.
-Styling product do's and don'ts.
-the purpose of protective styles.
And more... Be gentle and patient with your Locs and loose-natural hair. Until next week, be well informed and have a happy and healthy Loc Journey.
Pammie
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