Treat your hair right

Dermatologist Sushil K Chaudhry tells you whether frequent use of shampoos and hair dyes, bleaching agents, gels and sprays is safe medically for your hair and skin

Shampooing hair daily:
Most good-quality shampoos are safe. You may shampoo your hair daily if it’s quite greasy. However, excessive cleansing may lead to flyway hair due to static-electricity build-up. Vigorous rubbing, towel drying or combing of wet hair may lead to breakage.  

Hair gels, sprays and styling mousses:
These are used to style hair. They make a thin film on hair to help in styling it and impart it volume and give it a wet look. They are generally safe, but may make hair stiffer and prone to damage while combing.


Depilatory creams and lotions for hair removal:
They contain disulfide bond ― which give strength to hair ― breaking agents like thioglycolic acid, calcium thioglycolate and barium sulphide, and some detergents and adhesives. The only drawbacks are that these may be irritating, foul-smelling or less effective against darkly pigmented coarse hair. Laser or intense pulsed light treatment is a better option for hair reduction, if one can afford it.

Bleaching:
Most bleaching agents have hydrogen peroxide, sulfates and persulfates and some activating agents that oxidise, soften and bleach hair. They are safe if one is not allergic to any of the ingredients.

Split ends:
Uncut hair can grow up to a length of 80 cms, but it is exposed to many daily injuries like combing, brushing, perming and shampooing. Since the hair shaft is a dead structure, it cannot be repaired. As a result, the outer layers of the hair might get damaged and are completely lost at the tips, leading to split ends. You may prevent them from breaking to some extent by avoiding rubber bands, sharp-toothed combs or brushes. Don’t comb wet hair and use only good-quality shampoos containing conditioners like hydrolysed gelatine. If you have split-ends, get rid of them by trimming your hair or make them less noticeable by using good conditioners. 

Picture credit: Image source/India pictures

Hair dyes:
Most permanent hair dyes contain paraphenylenediamine. If you are not allergic to it, these dyes are generally safe, though there are some doubtful reports of them increasing risk of skin cancers. However, there are some hair colours which may damage the hair’s protein and make it more porous and prone to breakage.