Dry vs. Damaged

Summertime
And the livin’ is easy ....

... may not be true for our hair here in Arizona though! The sun, heat, chemical treatments and free-radicals are brutal on our hair drying it out, making it brittle, fading colour, leaving it lack lustre, coarse and not silky or smooth with split ends. But... is it dry or is it chemically damaged?

Dry;

Considering we do live in the desert and are exposed to the intense heat of the sun, you will find that curly hair is naturally coarse, frizzy and dry as well. Blow-drying, flat-ironing and other heat styling tools will add to the moisture depletion of our hair.

Damaged;

Damaged hair will feel lifeless, brittle, dry and 'weak', presenting itself with split ends and broken hair strands caused from heavily processing your hair (colour, perms, relaxers etc.) and from extensive sun exposure.

As you can see there are some very strong similarities between the two. The difference is that damaged hair is lacking a sufficient amount of protein, is structurally weak and porous resulting in a lack of elasticity. Where as dry hair does not have sufficient moisture and the naturally occurring oils it needs to feel silky, smooth and have shine and lustre. The easiest and quickest way for us to determine whether, or not, your hair is dry vs. damaged is to perform an elasticity test.

How to perform an elasticity test for yourself:

1. With your hair wet, hold a strand of hair at the scalp and at the end and gently stretch out the hair and release it.
2. If your hair returns to its original length, this means the elasticity is good, is DRY and needs moisture.
3. Should the strand not return to its original length this indicates your hair is DAMAGED and is lacking sufficient elasticity and needs repair.

We thought this information would be helpful for you because most of us do feel the effects of the sun and heat and most of us do chemically alter our hair in some way and since the words are very similar they really do mean two very different things.

No worries! At NEXT SALON, as you are well aware, we use salon and professional-only products! We are ALWAYS concerned for the integrity of your hair and will not jeopardize that in any way. It is our belief that healthy hair is the most beautiful hair and will help you decide if you are in need of any kind of special treatment! Most often choosing the correct shampoo and conditioner will help significantly along with a deep conditioning treatment.

We hope that you find this blog post informative?!?!! If you have any ideas, questions or suggestions please feel free to post a comment :)

The Staff of NEXT SALON