"Hair grows faster when you constantly cut it."
Myth.
"You have dandruff because your scalp is dry."
Dandruff isn't a dry-scalp problem,
it's actually almost always oily.
"Shampooing causes extra hair loss."
Myth.
Hi, I'm Anabel Kingsley.
I'm consultant trichologist
and brand president at Philip Kingsley,
and a trichologist is a scientist of the hair and scalp.
Hi, I'm Dr. Howard.
I'm a New York-based board-certified dermatologist
and the founder of Girl+Hair.
Dermatology is the study of the skin, scalp,
hair, and mucus membranes.
And today we will be debunking myths about hair.
"Hair grows faster when you constantly cut it."
Myth.
Kingsley: Hair grows around half an inch a month,
and cutting it won't speed up that process.
On average, we have around 120,000
hair follicles on our scalp,
and they're all going through
different phases of the hair-growth cycle.
Correct, correct.
Kingsley: So there's anagen,
catagen, telogen, and exogen.
Howard-Verovic: And right now on your scalp ...
Kingsley: Generally up to 90% of hairs
will be in the growth phase.
Howard-Verovic: And then the rest are waiting to fall out.
Kingsley: And then some are shedding.
So hair is not going to grow faster if you cut it,
but it will look nice if you get your trims regularly.
"You have dandruff because your scalp is dry."
Dandruff isn't a dry-scalp problem,
it's actually almost always oily.
Dandruff is also known as seborrheic dermatitis,
an overgrowth of naturally occurring yeast
on your scalp called the Malassezia yeast.
And they are lipophilic, which means they love oils.
Howard-Verovic: They love sebum.
Kingsley: Yes, they gobble it up.
And the more oil is on your scalp ...
Howard-Verovic: The happier they are.
Kingsley: Yes, the happier they are.
The more flakes you tend to see.
You might find it's behind your ears,
on the side of your nose, eyebrows.
And it can be right here even.
Wherever the yeast likes the sebum.
Kingsley: Some things to treat dandruff
are targeted shampoos, scalp toners,
scalp masks, and also,
look at what you're eating.
"Washing your hair every day is bad for you."
It's a myth, but there is some fact in there.
You want to treat your scalp just as you treat your skin.
So you want to make sure it's properly cleansed.
You want to make sure you have good hydration on the scalp.
If you are a very active person,
maybe you want to cleanse some more.
Fine hair like mine, if I don't shampoo daily,
my roots get very greasy and flat.
And the reason for this is that
when you have fine hair,
you have more hairs on your scalp,
and therefore you have more oil glands on your scalp,
because every hair is attached to an oil gland.
Whereas coarser hair textures ...
Howard-Verovic: Sometimes the sebum has a hard time
leaving the scalp to the tip of the hair.
And it's counterintuitive,
because you think that maybe coily hair or textured hair,
you don't want to wash it a lot,
but actually the washing process
is a part of the hydration process.
So the more you wash, the more you hydrate.
"Shaving causes hair to grow back thicker and darker."
Myth. So, hair naturally grows tapered.
So when you shave, you just make the ends blunt,
and you're cutting the hair
at a thicker point along the hair shaft.
So shaving may appear to make your hair
grow thicker and darker, but it actually doesn't.
Howard-Verovic: If you were to wax, you're taking the hair
out of the follicle. So it's still going to grow back.
Kingsley: Tapered.
If shaving did make our hair grow back thicker,
I'd shave my hair.
"Air-drying your hair is better than blow-drying."
It depends on your method again.
So if you are air-drying,
but your method of air-drying
is really scrunching or constantly tugging
and, you know,
that's going to be more damaging.
Or, you know what, I know some people who "air-dry,"
but they're, like, running out of the house,
and they'll swoop their hair in a ponytail,
but it's wet in the middle but dry on the outside.
That could be a problem with that wet hair
all the time in the middle
or at the base of your scalp.
So if you just brush your hair gently
and let it dry without really touching it much,
without roughly towel-drying it, that's fine.
But equally, blow-drying doesn't have to be damaging
if you do it in the right way.
Howard-Verovic: And using a heat-protectant spray.
You should hold it at least six inches away.
Like, around this far away.
You can start on a medium heat setting,
and then reduce to low as you go.
You use the back of your hand as a reference.
If it feels too hot, it's too hot for your hair.
Howard-Verovic: Especially with curly or coily
or zigzag-pattern hair,
a hooded dryer may be a good choice
if you like to wear wigs, weaves, box braids.
And sometimes air-drying it might not be the best option,
because you can get mold and mildew within the braids
if it's not dried properly.
One isn't necessarily better than the other.
All method dependent.
"Shampooing causes extra hair loss."
Myth. This is something that I hear all the time.
What shampooing does
is it simply dislodges hairs
that were sitting loosely in their hair follicle
and were ready to come out.
So you're not actually causing hair loss.
It's normal to lose up to 100 hairs a day.
But I really do encourage my clients
who are experiencing excessive daily hair shedding
to shampoo regularly, because it's really important
in terms of keeping your scalp healthy.
And the healthier your scalp is,
the better able it is
to support new healthy hair growth.
I 100% agree.
Kingsley: Focus on your scalp when you shampoo,
and just the suds that run down
through the length of your hair
will be enough to cleanse them.
"Only shaving causes ingrown hairs."
Myth.
Waxing can cause ingrown hairs.
With any hair-removal method,
if you break the hair
instead of pulling it out from the root,
you're more likely to get an ingrown hair,
because the end will be blunt as opposed to tapered.
Howard-Verovic: It's all about, when you cut the hair,
the angle at which you're cutting.
It goes back into the skin.
So you have a curling,
but what happens when that curling occurs?
There is an inflammatory response
that happens with that curling.
So that's where you get the red bump,
and sometimes that red bump
could become a pus-filled bump,
and you can have a real situation there.
Perhaps shaving after shower.
Using a blade designated
for sensitive skin could be helpful.
Kingsley: Or a fresh, sharp blade.
Howard-Verovic: Yes.
Kingsley: And also exfoliation.
So gentle exfoliation maybe once or twice a week.
Howard-Verovic: Yes, absolutely.
"Stress makes you have gray hair."
Well, there are elements of truth and myth to this.
So, when you go gray is largely dependent on genes.
So if your mother or your father went gray early,
it does increase the chances that you will too.
But stress can certainly speed up the process.
Your hair's color is determined
by something called melanin, which is pigment.
And the color of your hair,
ranging from blond hair,
which will have less melanin,
to darker hair, which will have a lot more melanin.
When your hair bulb stops producing these pigment cells
is when you start to turn gray.
I think embracing the gray can look beautiful,
or you can color over them. Whatever works for you.
"If you pluck a gray hair,
two more will grow in its place."
Myth.
Kingsley: What I find happens
is that when you notice one gray hair,
you go searching for others.
Howard-Verovic: So maybe you're just looking more,
as you're saying.
Like a private eye.
And you find them everywhere.
A strand scrutinizer.
She's saying it's all in your mind.
There is no data that show that
if you pluck a gray hair,
you'll have two sprout up.
Kingsley: This myth is really common,
but I just think maybe it's a word of caution,
because you shouldn't pluck gray hairs out.
Because over time,
if you continuously pull a hair out of its follicle,
you can damage the hair follicle.
You don't want to damage your follicles.
We love them so much.
And you think, "Well,
one isn't going to make a difference,"
but when one turns into 30
and you're constantly plucking 30 or more,
then you can get patches of hair loss on your scalp.
And that's never good.
"You can repair a split end."
Myth. Once it's split, that's it.
It's split. Oh! Nice rhyme.
Thanks.
Split ends happen because of general day-to-day weathering.
So blow-drying, brushing,
towel-drying it roughly,
wind exposure, UV exposure.
Howard-Verovic: That cool wooly hat that you bought
that you think is so cool
that you want to wear all winter.
Kingsley: So, hair doesn't regenerate itself.
Treat your hair like your favorite cashmere sweater.
But if you want a true cure for a split end,
you have to cut it off.
"Baldness is only passed down through your mother."
Losing your hair has some genetic components,
but it's not only 'cause mom lost her hair.
The baldness gene could be passed from your mother's side,
could be passed from your father's side.
It could even be inherited from a grandparent
or a great-grandparent.
There are many different types of hair loss.
So hereditary hair loss or "baldness,"
which, I don't really like that term.
I don't like that term either.
It's called androgenic alopecia or reduced hair volume.
So, androgenic alopecia is a genetic type of hair loss
that can be inherited from either
your mother or your father's side.
But it's also dependent on your hormone levels,
specifically your androgens.
So anything that impacts your hormone levels
can then impact your hair.
So it can potentially make
density changes worse.
So things like polycystic ovary syndrome, menopause ...
Howard-Verovic: Oral contraceptives.
Puberty, pregnancy.
So the best thing is to speak to
a trichologist or a dermatologist
so that they can speak to you
about all the different options that are available.
"The more you brush your hair, the healthier it will be."
So, brushing or overbrushing
can actually cause microtears along the hair shaft
and be potentially bad for your hair.
Especially when it comes to textured,
coily, or zigzag-pattern hair.
And there's actually something
where there's finger detangling
in the coily- or natural-hair community,
where you use your fingers to detangle your hair.
So you should detangle your hair regularly,
just so that those tangles
don't accumulate and mat together.
Look for a brush with rounded plastic prongs,
so these aren't going to scratch
your hair or your scalp,
and a vented cushion base.
Do the back-of-hand test.
So gently run your brush over the back of your hand.
If it leaves red marks, if it feels harsh or scratchy,
it's going to be damaging your hair.
For curly or textured hair, there are actually
two brushes that I really love.
One is called the Felicia Leatherwood brush.
It has openings, so when you brush coily hair,
the brush actually expands.
It's like a spring.
And then there's another one
called the Kazmaleje brush.
They have really big teeth,
so you can definitely get it through
really coarse and thick hair.
"Oils will make hair grow faster and longer."
Ooh, this is a good one.
No!
Ooh, I cannot stand when I see "magic growth oil"!
Do you want to rip that one up?
Yes!
Oils do not make your hair grow faster or longer.
But eating enough oils in your diet,
important to scalp health.
So rather than, you know, putting olive oil on your scalp,
put it on your salad,
I have to tell you about what's going on
in the curly community.
There's a whole big discussion about no oil.
So there are some stylists who said
absolutely no oils on the hair.
I never really suggest applying pure oil to your hair,
but using a cream that contains things
like olive oil or castor oil or coconut oil,
those can be really beneficial
to the aesthetic appearance of your hair.
"Wigs, weaves, and braids always protect your hair."
Myth.
Not all the time.
I sometimes wear my hair out naturally.
Sometimes I put it in a bun.
Sometimes I wear box braids.
Sometimes I wear a wig or a weave.
It all depends on my mood.
So it's a part of just changing hairstyles.
But in that, with curly, textured hair,
you can experience some hair loss
with the frequent changing.
Some people use protective styling
as a way to minimize
the manipulation on their hair.
But if it's too heavy,
if it's in too long,
if you neglect your scalp while you have your weave ...
Or if braids are too tight or putting too much traction
on your hair follicle or your hair, it can cause breakage.
Exactly, exactly.
I like to call it responsible protective styling.
Not only relying on one style for too long.
So letting your hair breathe
and just wearing your hair as is.
You should not neglect your scalp.
You should be cleansing,
you should be hydrating,
finding someone who really understands
responsible protective styling.
So, if you're going to a salon,
making sure he or she understands
that tight is never good,
tenderness is never good,
because if it hurts, it's never good.
"Tender headed is just that."
Myth. And it's a phrase
that we hear all the time, right?
If you say "ouch!" you know, you might get a little
pang of the comb just to be still.
And you hear phrases like
"tender headed" when you're super small,
so you grow up thinking it's just a part of life
that you're just sensitive in certain areas,
because you've always been told
that you're sensitive in those areas.
And while that may be true for some people
as far as just scalp sensitivity,
for many people, actually,
the tender headedness could mean something else.
There could be inflammation there.
On a microscopic level that if we catch early,
especially scarring alopecia, you can do good.
Tenderness isn't necessarily normal,
and you don't want to dismiss it.
Never suffer in silence,
and be really discerning
when it comes to choosing your products.
If you're experiencing hair loss
or a scalp concern,
you can either see a trichologist or ...
A dermatologist!
Or even a really experienced stylist
who is all about education,
hair education, can take you long way.