hair question for beauticians?

Question

I am told over and over again that our hair is dead.
OK. How come then at age 50 + I started having wavy hair after it
has been straight all my life. Same lenght and all now very wavy and when I am sick it does not do anything at all but lay flat.
Hair may be dead but sure reacts on something? What is your opinion?

Answer 1

Hair is dead. It is made of dead skin cells.

Straight, wavy, or curly hair is determined by genetics. Your genes tell your hair follicles how to structure the hair. When a hair is wavy or curly, there are disulfur bonds at certain points in the hair, and this causes the wave.

Your hair changed when you got older because your genetics changed slightly. Exposure to the elements all our life (sun, pollution, etc) mutates our cells slightly. Hormones also play a huge factor.

My hair was stick straight all my life, and it started getting wavy when I got to college. Now I'm 22, and have to straighten my hair everyday.

for the hairdresser below... yes, the hair itself is dead. The hair follicle it grows out of is not. That's why hair grows, because the follicle pushes dead cells up through the follicle.

Answer 2

Our hormones definately affect the growth of our hair. In addition to that, anytime we take any medication, have surgery(anesthesia), anything new in our system, that totally affects the way our hair grows as well. Have you ever heard of people who go through chemo and after their hair has fallen out and grows back it's a completely different head of hair. Probably the reason you're hair changed at 50 is because that's mid-life , hormones change. My mother's hair changed alot when she turned 50. Crazy huh??????

Answer 3

im a beautician... when people tell you your hair is dead doesnt mean it wont react... you hair is never alive silly... but hair will always react with temp. and humidity.. your hair is probably not shiney anymore and you have split ends therefore your hair may look "dead" you should try deeep contidioning treatments and revitalizing products if thats doesnt help your ends are probably just fryed and the only thing left to do is a good trim

Answer 4

hmmm well it cant be dead if it continues to grow I am a hairdresser I should know. our hair changes due to hormones and so hense you are experiencing a change in your hair, also when we turn grey our hair can also go from curly to staight from thick to fine just depends really I would worry about it. its normal only worry if it starts falling out in chunks .

best of luck

Answer 5

everyone's hair is dead. not something new. but the hair changes every seven years. depends on if you are taking medication or not. prescriptions affect the hair tremendously.
some more than others