Common myths about your hair

Do you ever hear weird sayings about hair and think they might be true? Today I’m using my expertise as a hair stylist to tell you about all those myths and wives tales and why they are all false!

• Cutting your hair makes it grow faster
  This saying is totally false for one reason- your hair grows from your scalp! Cutting your dead ends off allows your hair to grow in healthier and stay healthy instead of splitting, but will not actually speed up hair growth. (However, you should go no longer than three months without a haircut or your ends will split and continue to split.)

• Pull out one grey hair, two more grow in its place.
  This one, scientifically, makes no sense. Each individual hair strand grows out of one single hair follicle. Each hair follicle cannot produce more than one strand of hair so you can pull out your grey hairs in peace knowing you won’t be making yourself more grey. (Highly recommend NOT pulling any hair out of your head as you can actually damage the hair follicles and cause hair loss over time.)

• Split ends can be repaired.
  This one I’m super passionate about because there are way too many products on the market that claim ‘split end mender’ ‘split end repair’ etc. Once your hair is split, it will only split further up the hair shaft until you cut it off. The bonds in the hair cannot be repaired and fused back together like metal. You can use products to protect your split ends from splitting further, but that’s about it.
  This is why frequent hair cuts are always recommended to keep the hair healthy!

  Pro tip: If you can see through the last few inches of your hair, it’s time to let it go girl because there’s no coming back from that. There’s a significant difference between long healthy hair and long damaged hair.

• Hair color is bad for pregnant women.
  This one is definitely a touchy subject and varies depending on who you talk to. You can most definitely color your hair while you are pregnant, within reason. You can get highlights, and anything that is not permanent color. The only color that causes concern is the permanent color that lifts the pigment of the hair and replaces it, which contains ingredients like ammonia.
  There are also tons of alternative permanent colors without any ammonia and are all organic that are totally safe as well! I’d definitely say to ask your doctor if you are concerned, but I guarantee you that your hair stylist has used color with plenty of pregnant clients and it is perfectly safe to do so. If color is not classified as permanent, there are no dangerous or harmful chemicals for your baby to absorb.

• Shaving/waxing hair makes it grow in thicker.
  This one is totally false, because of science again. You can’t change the texture of your hair and how it grows. If you have fine hair, you can’t change your body chemistry and make it grow in thicker. The reason this came about is because when you cut hair with a razor or wax it off, you are cutting the hair at such a harsh angle, that the hair that is left in the base of the follicle is now cut very blunt. When the blunt edge of that strand of hair grows in, it appears ‘thicker’ but that’s just because it’s such a sharp angle.

• Conditioner makes your hair greasy.
  This is such a silly statement and it drives me nuts! Conditioner is essential for everyone, male or female. Your hair needs the nourishment from the conditioner to look and feel healthy. There are lots of fine haired people that feel conditioner weighs their hair down, which is perfectly valid, but that just means you need a lightweight product specifically for fine hair. The main reason this myth came about, is because conditioner was marketed for years as a roots to ends product. In time, we realized that conditioner has way too many oils and should not be utilized at the root and only throughout the mid shaft and ends of the hair. Basically, if your hair is greasy after you condition, it was either placed on your scalp when it should not have been and/or you didn’t rinse the product well enough before you finished.

I’m sure there are many more myths and sayings we’ve heard over the years that are rumored to be true, but don’t believe them. Ask your hair stylist if you hear something weird that you think might be a myth! Trust the professionals my friends, not the internet.

XOXO