so you found the hair routine of your dreams and
your hair is magnificent but then it just stops working
what is going on
I'm Michelle of lab muffin beauty science chemistry PhD cosmetic chemist
and person with high maintenance hair today I'm going to help you work out
why your products suddenly stopped working and what you can do about it
you might need to change shampoo
first changing your shampoo can make a difference
I did a video about how complex shampoos are and one big reason
is the way they clean is complicated the one shampoo will work in different
ways to remove different things from your hair for example this shows how shampoo cleans an oil
the pink tadpoles are the surfactants which are the cleaning ingredients from
the shampoo they break off little bits of the oil into mini droplets
it's actually even more complex than this a really runny oil isn't going to interact
the same way with these surfactants as a really thick sticky oil
so some shampoos might be worse at cleaning off a particular type of substance from
your hair than a different shampoo that means if you use a shampoo for
a while an ingredient may might be building up it could be a styling ingredient it could be a
conditioning ingredient it could even be something from the shampoo itself so you might just need to
rotate through a few different shampoos a clarifying shampoo can also help but
a lot of the time these are designed to be used every once in a while that might not be enough to
remove buildup but it could still be worth a try you could have also changed your other products
hair products are pretty complicated so how they work with each other can make a difference
it's like a group work assignment but for hair products it might feel like
one product is working differently but it's actually a different product that
partied too hard and didn't finish formatting the presentation that you all had to present
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let me explain how this works for hair products conditioning ingredients show up in most hair
products not just conditioners so they all end up working in tandem
you might have added say a hair mask to your routine it might be leaving
an ingredient in your hair that your shampoo can't remove as easily so now it feels like
your shampoo isn't working as well anymore or you might have changed shampoos maybe
your old shampoo had some sort of conditioning ingredient that combined with everything else
you're using gave the right level of conditioning but your new shampoo is less conditioning
so it kind of feels like your old conditioner isn't working anymore
maybe if you go back to your old shampoo your conditioner might feel like it's working again
you might have treated your hair this is something I am very familiar
with I think we all know that chemical treatments like perms dyes straightening
and bleaching are really damaging but it is a bit more complicated than that
you can't just use a more concentrated conditioner these treatments will actually
change the chemical structure of your hair so it won't interact with ingredients the same way
the main thing we care about here is oxidative damage and
the main place this happens is called the F layer
you might have seen the structure of hair before if we zoom into the surface of the
outside layer called the cuticle there is this thin layer of oily substances
attached this is called 18-methyleicosanoic acid it's like your hair's natural hair conditioner
that is permanently bonded to your hair when you treat your hair with some sort
of oxidizing chemical treatment a lot of this will break off and you're left with
these groups which are called sulfonates these are not oily they're on the other
end of the chemistry spectrum where water is and like water they don't really stick to oil
and this is a problem because a lot of hair conditioning ingredients are oily they'll
stick to the oily F layer on less damaged hair but they will slide right off super damaged hair
so hair conditioners that are designed for less damaged hair are just not going to work
it doesn't matter how much you use plus your hair is more damaged so it's getting less conditioned
while also needing more conditioning this is one big reason why I think
a lot of people have a sort of crisis after they radically change their hair
I definitely did it felt like I just ruined my hair
and there was no going back but it turned out I just needed a different hair conditioner with more
positively charged conditioning ingredients these new sulfonate groups on the hair are
negatively charged most of the time and opposite charges attract
so these positive conditioning ingredients will stick more strongly to the more damaged parts of
your hair which is exactly what you want these ingredients are also self-limiting
which means that once you have enough attached to your hair it will get a slightly positive charge
so these positively charged ingredients will have a much harder time sticking on
so that means your hair is less likely to get weighed down if you're using more conditioner
here are some examples of uncharged and charged conditioning ingredients
now all hair conditioners will have a mix of both categories
but conditioners for damaged hair will usually be formulated with high inputs of the charged
ingredients so looking for products with labels like damaged colored hair
intense repair is a good starting point but these ingredients also show up in
some other conditioners as well one of my favorite supermarket
conditioners is the Toni and Guy volumizing conditioner it has amodimethicone near the
top I never would have tried this if I wasn't looking for charged ingredients
my hair is really coarse so I actually have a lot of trouble with like poofy hair and I stay away
from volume products but this works really well so chemical treatments are the main thing that
kind of blasts away a lot of this F layer but there are other things that can remove it too
the main ones we encounter every day are UV from the sun and pool chlorine
these tend to cause a lot less damage than a chemical treatment but if you
suddenly notice your hair conditioner stops working after you start swimming
for six hours a day in summer then this might be worth looking into
your water might have changed
a lot of people notice that their products don't work as well after
they move to a different location there are a lot of possible culprits
but one of the most common is tap water some places have hard water which contains
more metal ions this is mostly calcium and magnesium and they can interact with fatty
acids and turn into tiny soap scum particles which stick to your hair and make it feel dirty
fatty acids aren't really common in most shampoos and conditioners anymore but you
do see them a lot in solid shampoo and conditioner bars you might also see them
in natural soaps that are used as shampoos these are some names that might show up in
ingredient lists they can also be listed in the ingredients as some sort of natural fat or oil
like olive oil beef tallow coconut oil along with sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide
fatty alcohols don't have this problem and plant oils don't have this problem
if there's no hydroxide base the reactive groups stay tucked away in their structures
you do also have some fatty acids in your sebum which is your natural oil and that could
potentially react the same way with hard water the hard water ions can also stick to your hair
especially if it's damaged it is those sulfonate groups again they can sort of hitch a ride on
them they can then interact with products that you might use outside of the shower like hair
serums so have a look in those as well on top of that these hard water ions
can make some of the ingredients in your hair products less effective for
example some of those cleaning surfactants in shampoos don't work as well in hard water
tap water can also have some other metal ions like copper and iron
these are really bad because they can speed up oxidative reactions in your hair
so they can mess up how chemical treatments like bleach and hair dye work they can produce
a lot of heat and cause way more damage than usual a lot of hair damage processes are also oxidative
so these ions could be speeding them up and making your hair more damaged and harder to maintain
copper can also turn your hair green it's in a lot of swimming pools so
it isn't actually the chlorine's fault so the best thing to do here is probably
try some products that don't have fatty acids and consider getting a water softening shower head
another big change that can happen with location is humidity
water has a huge impact on hair and humidity especially messes around with your hair shape
when you style your hair you're pretty much just holding it in place with hydrogen bonds
picture this you and your dog go to an empty dog park you have a nice strong
bond with your dog you call for your dog dougie dougie comes running now
let's add in a whole bunch of really friendly dogs your dog's distracted
you're distracted you're both having all these extra interactions with other dogs
your bond with your dog is is temporarily weaker this is basically what water does to your hair
your hair has a whole bunch of protein the shape is held in place with hydrogen bonds this is a
bit like glue holding everything in place water also forms hydrogen bonds so when you
dump in a whole bunch of water (puppies) on your hair your hair proteins will
start forming bonds with those instead the proteins aren't holding onto each
other as tightly so your hair isn't held in shape anymore and you get frizzy hair
styling products work by adding extra bonds to the outside of your hair strands that adds to
the hold that the hydrogen bonds are giving but if you have high humidity then there's more water
around a lot of those hydrogen bonds are gone your styling products are kind of left during all the
work and they might not be enough anymore some styling ingredients can also hydrogen
bond so these water puppies will also mess up how they hold as well so if you're in
a more humid place you might want to try some styling products with more humidity resistance
hormones and aging might also be changing your natural hair
hormones can change a lot of the stuff inside your body and even though your
hair is dead it it can still have an impact for example around menopause hair tends to become
a lot thinner and there's less oil production on your scalp that means your hair might not be
getting as much of that natural conditioning if thinning is a problem you might want to
look for more volumizing products if your hair feels rougher then
you might want a heavier conditioner there are also some medications like
isotretinoin and oral contraceptives they can also lower oil production
during pregnancy hair tends to grow a lot faster and becomes thicker but after giving
birth that goes back to normal and you lose a whole bunch of hair which is pretty disturbing
being really sick or really stressed can also cause a whole bunch of hair
to prematurely end their growing cycle they quickly move out of the anagen or growing
phase into the telogen phase and then fall out this is called telogen effluvium and the
hair loss usually happens a few months after the actual stress
and that delay means it's a lot harder to make the connection so a lot of people
end up blaming their hair products there's also this annoying aspect of
aging your hair texture changes but it doesn't like it all suddenly turns curly or straight
you just start getting more and more irregular hair strands
it tends to start in your 30s so now some of my hair is wavier
than it used to be it's a bit like there
are multiple hair types on my head now my hair feels and looks rougher
than it used to and yeah the bleach didn't really help but no regrets
they could have also changed the product formula
I left this til a bit later because it's kind of obvious
sometimes companies will just change the formula without telling anyone
so double check if that ingredient list has changed
sometimes the formula can change without the ingredient list changing as well
a lot of cosmetic ingredients aren't pure substances they are mixtures so
the exact properties can change with all the supply chain issues a lot of
companies have had to adjust their formulas they might be getting an ingredient from
a different supplier and that will have slightly different impacts on the formula
you could also just be taking the product for granted
maybe you loved the product at the start because it made a huge difference
before you were using a much less suitable product but now you've been using it for a while
your expectations have risen you've been spoiled by the product
you aren't appreciating what it's doing anymore this is really common
we did not evolve to have perfect memories and we tend to notice things that are new
we like novelty so maybe put that
product aside try a different product for a while or skip using it if it isn't an essential product
and then see if you can notice a difference I hope I gave you some insights into what's
going on with your hair if you enjoyed this video
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