Tuesday, November 2, 2010

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT HAIR CUTICLES...

Q: "I'm hearing so much talk about hair cuticles with Indian hair, but what are cuticles and what should I know about them? Please help, I'm confused!!" 
crazeeSexy



A: It can be a bit confusing because pertaining to hair, the word cuticle, is sometimes used in two different contexts; yet it is referring to essentially the same thing. Hopefully, this will help put it all into perspective for you. 

By definition, the hair cuticle is the outermost part of the hair shaft. It is a hard shingle-like layer of overlapping cells, which form scales that gives the hair shaft strength and acts as a protective barrier against all forms of damage to the softer inner structure, which includes the medulla and cortex.

A healthy cuticle controls the water content of the hair fiber, provides shine and allows hair to move fluidly. The cuticle is often damaged or lifted by excessive brushing, heat, or chemical processing like perms, color, and texturizers, and even sun and wind. Damaged hair cuticles may have a reduced amount of moisture in them and can make hair look dull, lifeless, brittle or stringy. A conditioner helps keep hair moisturized. Color treated hair or hair that has had a straightening treatment should be deep conditioned regularly, and hair that has undergone stronger chemical treatments should also have a serum to help protect it when blow drying and styling with heat.
 

The word “cuticle” pertaining to human hair extensions and the word “remy” are essentially the same. It means that the hair is “virgin” hair that has has not been chemically altered. Even more confusing is that the word cuticle
 also means that when the hair is collected and before the weft is sewn, care was taken to ensure that all the root ends of the hair strands are pointed in the same direction, just as they were when coming from the scalp. This ensures that all of the cuticles are going from root to end, which enables the hair to maintain its healthy shine and appearance, move fluidly and remain tangle free. If care was not taken at collection and the cuticle for each hair strand is sewn in the weft in different directions, tangling and matting are likely to occur and hair will appear dull and lifeless. This is what makes lesser quality Indian hair extensions unmanageable, with a tendency to tangle and matte, and is also an example of non-remy hair. 

Further, "Beware of non-Remy Indain" hair as referenced here
 http://www.perfectlocks.com/about-perfect-locks-hair... In order to compensate for this, the hair will go through a process sometimes referred to as an acid bath, to completely remove all the cuticle. This can be equivalent to about ten perms in a row. After the cuticle removal process, the hair is dipped in silicone to make it shine and to cover up any cuticles that were not removed in the acid bath.

Felicia Wills 
http://howdoyoudoyourdo.blogspot.com
 
http://naturalnailenhancements.blogspot.com



by crazeeSexy » Mon Nov 01, 2010 9:31 am

Wow, thank you so much for this response. I never expected to get such an informative answer! Sounds like getting hair cuticles running in the same direction is a complicated process... glad Perfect Locks does is doing that for me, haha. Very excited to get my hair, this info will help me learn more about how to care for it :lol:

Please check out Perfect Locks Forums for more interesting topics and to get your questions answered! http://www.perfectlocks.com/forums/felicia-wills-u55/

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