I have quite a lot of, quite thick hair, from a measurable length about a plait circumference of 10.5 cm, which is not bad at all. Since my childhood, I have had short to very short hair again and again in my life - just like now. So is there a connection? Do the hairs get thicker, stronger or even more if you cut them short every now and then? This is just one of the hair myths that I have come across from time to time and that I want to deal with today as the subject of hair bands. And what is it?
1. hair becomes stronger when you cut it short
There's nothing to it. I even got this myth told by a hairdresser who supposedly wanted to find out about me and her own daughter. But no. Cutting hair short doesn't make her stronger or increase hair growth. Maybe this makes the first impression (for the first time after cutting). Split ends and thin, brittle hair ends are then gone, as are the naturally tapering hair ends of hair that has never been cut. It may well be that the hair looks fuller and thicker.
When regrowing, however, it will turn out that nothing has changed, because cutting the hair has no effect on the scalp and hair roots and it is these that control hair growth. The only way to get thicker hair after a radical cut is to take less strain, care better, protect more. Then it may be that the regrowing hair is healthier than what you once cut off. Otherwise, cutting the hair has no effect on the quality and quantity of the regrowing hair.
But maybe that's a good thing. As often as I have shaved my hair off, I would otherwise soon have to have an incredibly thick plait circumference and then carry an unbearable weight around with me when it gets longer again. :D Lady elephant hair or something.
2. cutting according to the lunar calendar etc.
Related to the first point is unfortunately also the hair cutting according to the moon calendar and similar systems, only to cut the hair on certain dates. I do not want to discuss at all whether the moon has effects on us humans. That might be possible, but it doesn't really matter for this hair myth. The fact is that the cutting of the hair tips (as described under point 1) has no effect on the scalp or hair roots.
The roots don't care if and when the tips are snipped. Hair does not become longer, more beautiful, thicker or anything else, if one cuts it to the correct date. The tips may become healthier if they have been strained. But the new growth does not become more, faster or whatever. Everything else is a placebo effect. Of course, you can cut according to the lunar calendar if you feel good. And maybe it also benefits the hair if you believe in it, who knows. But everything else belongs to the field of hair myths.
3. 100 brush strokes a day ensure healthy hair
The hair myth with the 100 brush strokes is quite common - and perhaps because it is at least not quite wrong. In the past, people did not wash their hair so much as they did brush it. A more intensive, daily brushing was often simply necessary to remove dust and dirt. The sebum (grease that the scalp produces to protect the hair) wrapped the hair around it and possibly protected it a little better against the mechanical stress of brushing than our hair, which was usually "degreased" regularly. In addition, the brush then distributes this grease from the scalp into the hair lengths, so that shine develops there, so there is already something to it.
If you wash your hair "normally" (as is common nowadays), then the 100 brush strokes are a great strain for the hair due to the mechanical stress. If you are also careless, the whole thing does not lead to healthy hair, but rather to broken and split hair. As with many other things, brushing is the right measure. One should never brush the hair wet because then they are particularly sensitive (at most, if one has just a lot of conditioner or leave-in for protection in the hair). Curls and brushes also hardly get along.
Brushing your hair carefully and slowly BEFORE washing (after untangling it with your fingers or comb) can make sense, though. You brush out dirt (from the outside or skin flakes) and distribute the sebum that the hair ends like. The other advantage of brushing is the blood circulation of the scalp: if you stimulate it, then it contributes to beautiful hair. From a well supplied with blood scalp rather healthy, long hair grow! Somehow you have to find the middle: Spread the sebum, massage the scalp, but don't strain the hair lengths too much.
4. oils moisturize the hair
Oil is grease. Fat and water repel each other, without emulsifier they cannot suffer at all. Nevertheless one reads again and again that longhairs use oils to moisturize their hair. But this is impossible when viewed in isolation: oil does not contain any moisture and therefore cannot donate. Then why does it work anyway? Because the hair either already contains some moisture or you supply it with moisture (wash with water, for example) and the oil then lies over it and "encloses" the moisture in the hair, so to speak.
In this respect, this is not a real hair myth, but rather an inaccuracy. Oils do not moisturize the hair, but they do make it supple because they keep the moisture in the hair. Therefore, it can be especially useful to care for wet or damp hair with oil. And then there are also oils that actually manage to penetrate the hair, there are also longer cures before washing (in dry hair) useful, not necessarily for more moisture, but definitely for the care of hair.
But this goes a bit too far here, a good overview of which oil does what (penetrate or just "wrap") can be found in the Scienc-y Hair Blog. Apart from that, you'll probably use oils and fats even if you don't use the pure, but they're included in your conditioner or leave-in. Most of the time there are emulsifiers in it and so you have both: oil and moisture.
So, now I can't think of anything (as soon as the article is online, I'm sure there will be lots of ideas...). And just have a look at the other hair bandits, what came to their mind about hair myths.