 Black hair care is essential for the impeccable look of your hair
Added: 01/25/2006 |
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Hair conditioners, sometimes called cream rinse, are often used in black hair care alongside gentle shampoo, to improve the texture and appearance of human hair. If you are lucky to have long and attractive black hair, preserving and enhancing your natural beauty is your duty before yourself. Black hair tends to fade if lacking appropriate black hair care. A little attention on a regular basis, gentle shampoo and your hair will pay you back with shine and beauty.
Hair consists of roughly 97% of a protein called keratin. Keratin is on its surface rich in negatively-charged amino acids. Black hair care therefore often contain cationic surfactants, which don't wash out completely, because their hydrophilic ends strongly bind to keratin. The hydrophobic ends of the surfactant molecules then act as the new hair surface.
Conditioning agents are also called moisturizers in some cases and usually are composed of various oils and lubricants (e.g., some fatty alcohols, panthenol, dimethicone, etc.). They also contain antistatic agents, and sequestrants for better function in hard water. Other additional chemicals are preservatives (usually parabens).
Conditioners are frequently acidic, as low pH protonates the amino acids, providing the hair with positive charge. This allows better forming of hydrogen bonds between the keratin scales, giving the hair more compact structure. Citric acid, or other organic acids, is the usual component maintaining acidity. There are several groups of black hair care, differing with composition and main functionality aspects:
Moisturizers, whose role is to hold moisture in the hair. Usually contain higher proportion of humectants.
Reconstructors, in form of gentle shampoo, usually containing hydrolyzed protein. Their role is to penetrate the hair and strengthen its structure.
Other black hare care elements are acidifiers, acidity regulators which maintain the conditioner's pH at about 2.5-3.5. In contact with acidic environment, the hair's somewhat scaly surface tightens up, as the hydrogen bonds between the keratin molecules get strengthened.
Detanglers, modifying the hair surface by pH as acidifiers, and/or by coating it with polymers, as glossers.
Thermal protectors, usually heat-absorbing polymers, shielding the hair against excessive heat, caused by, e.g., blow-drying or curling irons or hot rollers.
Glossers, light-reflecting chemicals binding to the hair surface. Usually polymers, usually silicones, e.g., dimethicone or cyclomethicone.
Oils, for dry hair.
Black hair care pack conditioners, heavy and thick, with high content of surfactants able to bind to the hair structure and "glue" the hair surface, when black hair tends to scale off alltogether. These are usually applied to the hair for longer time. The surfactants are based on long straight aliphatic chains similar to saturated fatty acids. Their molecules have tendency to crystallize easily, giving the conditioner higher viscosity, and they tend to form thicker layers on the hair surface.
Leave-in conditioners, thinner, containing different surfactants, adding only a little material to the hair. They are based on unsaturated chains, which are bent rather than straight. This shape makes them less prone to crystallizing, making a lighter, less viscous mixture and providing significantly thinner layer on the hair. The difference between leave-in and pack conditioners is similar to the difference between fats and oils.
Ordinary conditioners, contained in gentle shampoo, combining some aspects of both pack and leave-in ones.
Hold conditioners, based on cationic polyelectrolyte polymers, holding the hair in a desired shape. When it comes to black hair care, mention must be made of the fact that black hair tends to fade.
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