One of the first things a hairstylist recommends is to start with damp hair. Most hair stylists say it’s easiest to shape and style your hair when it is wet. While that is true, a lot of people don’t know why it’s true.
It’s all about understanding your hair at the molecular level. Hair is made of keratin which is a type of protein. Protein deep within the hair fiber are arranged in long robe like structures called fibrils. These fibrils interact with each other through bonds which help give hair its shape. Two bonds exist, an electrostatic or hydrogen bond and a covalent or disulfide bond. Both are responsible for the natural shape of your hair. Electrostatic hydrogen bonds are weak bonds that can be disturbed by water. We can leave a discussion on the stronger disulfide bonds for another day. In either case, when the bond is intact, your hair keeps its shape but when the bond is broken, your hair turns limp.
The reason hair goes limp when it gets wet is that water also contains hydrogen atoms (H2O—see, high school science class comes in handy sometimes!). Hydrogen bonds are really a special case of a dipole force and the hydrogens in water interrupt these forces, breaking the bond between the hydrogens on the protein. Hair gets wet, existing hydrogen bonds are broken, hair goes limp. It’s that simple.
The protein hydrogen bonds reform again when your hair is dry. It’s also the reason why your hair loses its style when introduced to humidity—the water vapour breaks down the hydrogen bonds that maintain the shape of your hair.
The great part about all this science stuff is when your hair is wet, the bonds are weak enough where you can shape it anyway you want depending on how you want to style it. When your hair is dry again it will temporarily hold the new style you just created. That is until it gets wet again.
What do you do when you need to restyle your hair and don’t have time to wash it? Stay tuned—we may have just the solution for you!
