Obsessed with the idea of curbing your curly hair to pin straight permanently?

With media personalities sporting pin straight silky hair and increasing ads for such cosmetic products and treatments promising a silky straight hair, makes having a frizzy curly hair highly undesirable.

Having curly or wavy hair? – It is not your fault!!

The shape of the hair follicles from which the hair grows determines the nature of our hair. The circular the follicles the more straight and smooth the hair. The curly hair grows from oval or flattened follicles.

The bottom most part, hair bulb, which remains deep inside the skin, is the living part of the hair and the layers surrounding the hair bulb is rich with blood vessels and provides nourishment to hair.The sebaceous glands surrounding the hair bulb secretes sebum, an oily substance, which nourishes the hair, making it shiny. This sebum easily spreads evenly and through the entire length of straight hairs which make them look shiny and silky, while the structure of curly hair prevents the sebum from spreading evenly and till the end thus making their ends frizzy and dry.

The shaft, part of the hair seen outside the skin, I made of dead cells rich in keratin containing amino acids. The complex structure of the shaft is formed mainly by hydrogen and disulphide bonds.Most hair straightening treatments are done by altering the structure of these bonds.

The hydrogen bonds become much stronger in the presence of water molecules, causing the hair to curl up. Hence one method is to break the hydrogen bonds by the application of the heat using flat iron platters. Further conditioners are applied to protect it from moisture. This is a temporary solution and once the proteins are hydrated it curls back again.

More the disulphide bonds, curlier are the hair. Hence another treatment aims at reducing these disulphide bonds using alkaline chemicals. Once the bonds are broken it is heat treated to straighten it. Breaking the bonds using chemicals does not revert back the structure and is generally mentioned as a permanent solution. But with further growth of new hair, the effect of straightening fades and requires the treatment to be continued periodically depending upon the growth rate of the hair.Repeated treatment damages the hair structure, making it thinner, further resulting in hair loss.

With all these latest technologies it is possible to have a desired hair texture temporarily. But one should keep in mind that there is no permanent solution to it as long as the hair grows and also be aware of the after effects.

Few tips to soften the curly hair:

• Remove the aloevera gel and grind it to smooth fluid gel and apply it for an hour on the shampooed hair and rinse it. Aloevera acts as an excellent hair conditioner making it very smooth and soft.

• Applying coconut milk with little lemon juice for half an hour before shampooing with a mild shampoo. It nourishes the hair giving it a shiny texture.

• Soak handful of fenugreek seeds in one cup of curd for 2 to 3 hours and grind it into fine paste. Apply it on the scalp and hair for one hour before shampooing. This softens the hair and the fenugreek seeds help in treating the dandruff. Fenugreek seeds also act as a coolant and hence care should be taken so that it does not affect the health.

These remedies do not straighten your hair, but nourishes and softens your hair in the long run, when done regularly.