Dull and/or Porous Hair

Contents
1•  Dull hair
2• Porous hair
3•  What you should avoid
4•  What we recommend
for Caucasian type hair
for straightened frizzy hair

1. Dull hair

A hair that shines shows it is in good health; one that lacks lustre is the symptom of its early aging…

Under the electronic microscope, a hair stem in good shape has a cuticle  shaped like smooth and tightened scales (left picture). That is what enables it to reflect the light rays and naturally shine. Dull hair, on the other hand, shows strong detached pieces (picture on the right). The surface’s irregularity prevents the light from reflecting.

Dull hair thus means a damaged cuticle. There are many causes for this alteration, which can actually add on to others.

External causes
- cosmetic aggression, such as colouration, perms, straightening…
- excessively intense brushing or drying,
- limestone particles that land on the hair during shampoos,
- excessive use of untangling balms, which are high in silicon (which adheres to the cuticle)
- excessive exposure to sun rays
- an excessively acid diet

Internal causes
- hair that is excessively dry by nature and made more fragile by the lack of sebum,
- hypothyroidia Thyroid Problems and Hair Loss
. iron de ficiency Iron Deficiency and Hair Loss

2. Porous Hair

The term comes from the mineral world: it is said that a rock is porous (chalk, pumice stone…) when it has an infinite number of small pores that make it permeable to humidity. By extension, a porous hair is an excessively hydrophilic hair. Its porosity comes, there again, from a deterioration of its cuticle, which no longer plays its role of a natural barrier, in front of the cortex. The more the cuticle is altered, even sometimes destroyed, the more the cortex’s keratin easily ‘gets wet’ and loses its compactness.

The symptoms
The hair is dull, it does not dry easily, gets dirty faster, tends to curl and to lose its shape, at the slightest drop. Another effect is that it does not take or keep its coloration as well. In the extreme cases, when the cuticle is totally destroyed, it even becomes very difficult to colour it.

The causes
The hair is rarely porous by nature: it becomes so following treatments that are bad for it: perms, frequent straightening, abusive decolouration, traumatising drying….

The case of white hair
In general, white hair is also more sensitive to humidity. But the cause of its porosity is different. Here is why: the hair’s whitening is the result of the disappearance of the melanin pigments, which leads to a void in the cortex and thus an increased dispersion of the fibril of which the keratin is made. The hair’s substance can then change: its girth increases, it becomes more fragile and less porous.

3. What you should avoid

Everything that makes your hair’s cuticle more fragile (or kills it)…
Hasty shampooing, with insufficient rinsing.
Hair drying when it is too frequent, too hot and too close to the hair.
Too strong and frequent manipulations (perms, straightening, colouration).  

4. What we recommend

Caucasian Hair

Chitin and vegetal collagen based masks
Properties: Chitin is the main ingredient of shellfish’s shell and collagen is what makes conjunctive tissues firm and elastic. Combined, they favour the rebuilding of the cells, and help the cuticle regain its cohesion. The mask should be applied for at least 10 minutes. As of the first treatments, the head of hair will become more receptive to the light, and softer.

For very porous hair: a mask based on organic keratin in order to strengthen the hair, make it less permeable to humidity and more consolidated. Added to collagen and a vegetable protein, it also helps to rebuild the cuticle. 

While shampooing, totally rinsing with tepid hair, until the hair ‘crunches’ under your fingers. To end rinsing, use cold water with cider vinegar or lemon added to it: it helps to shut the cuticle’s scales.

Open air drying or with a hairdryer set to tepid, and kept at least 15 cm away from the hair.


Frizzy & Straightened Hair

The mere fact of straightening (see Frizzy/Straightened Hair) risks not only damaging the cuticle but also the keratin fibres located in the cortex. A straightened hair thus always tends, by ‘programmed denaturising’, to become tern and porous. That is why the healing action must here be double. It is necessarily to simultaneously:

1rebuild the hair by an intake in sulphured proteins (of which the keratin is made), chitin and collagen.

2consolidate this with a formula made of vegetable oils with a strong penetrating power, in order to infiltrate the heart of the hair, and feed it in depth.

Those actions are necessary: if the hair is rebuilt without being fed, it risks breaking like glass every time is it is remotely pulled. If it is just oiled, without a parallel input of proteins, it greases artificially and remains tern and porous because its structure is not rebuilt. At Centre Clauderer, we have developed a product for frizzy hair, which simultaneously integrates both actions, and corresponds to an overall hair treatment Clauderer Treatments for Frizzy Hair

Treat your Hair to the French Touch!

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