The world of hair care can sometimes be a big, scary place. With so many choices to be made and with all the new advancements and technology popping up almost daily, if not hourly, taking care of your hair can be a bit confusing. While opinions on some things may vary from person to person, here are ten tried and true hair myths exposed, which should help make your next hair care quest a little less frustrating.

 

You cannot lift color with color.

No matter what anybody says, you just can’t do it. Once you’ve applied a permanent hair color to your hair, there are only three ways to get rid of it.

• Use a permanent hair color remover or bleach.
• Let it grow out.
• Cut it off.

Applying blonde hair color over black hair color will not make you blonde. Applying a color that is slightly lighter than your existing color can brighten your color, leading some people to feel like their hair is lighter, but when it comes down to it, trying to lift color with color is liable to do nothing more than turn your hair brassy, do unnecessary damage and leave you frustrated.

The longer you leave shampoo on your hair, the cleaner your hair will be.

The only time there is an extra benefit to allowing your shampoo to set on your hair for longer than what it takes to lather it is if your shampoo happens to be a color depositing shampoo. Color depositing shampoos can be left on the hair for a few extra minutes in order to deposit more of their color, but they won’t make your hair any cleaner. The truth is, shampoo attracts dirt, rather than absorbs it, so there’s really no point to the lather and linger method.

Fine hair doesn’t need conditioner.

ALL hair needs conditioning, just like all skin needs moisturizing. Conditioners help to restore natural moisture that’s lost due to heat styling, chemical treatments, sun, wind, free radicals and just day-to-day abuse. Conditioners can also help add body and volume, strengthen, prepare the hair for curling or straightening and a whole host of other wonderful things, depending on the ingredients. No matter your type or texture, there is a conditioner for you. For fine hair, look for words like lightweight, volumizing, body-building, amplifying and texturizing. You might also consider a leave-in conditioner which can be lighter and do more long term repair.

Wattage on a blow dryer refers to how hot it gets – the higher the wattage, the hotter it gets.

Wattage actually refers to how fast the air comes out of a blow dryer, and more is not always better. Lots of hot air coming at your hair all at once can actually make it frizzy and dull-looking, with less manageability. Think of the difference between a gentle summer breeze blowing your hair dry, versus drying your hair by flying down a rollercoaster. 1875 watts is more than enough to get the job done. It’s the industry standard for a reason, after all.

 

White flakes in my hair mean I have dandruff.

This is true. However, there are two kinds of dandruff. The first, which most people automatically assume they have, is caused by dry, flaky skin on the scalp. The second, which most people actually suffer from, is a build up of styling products. Don’t panic if you see a few white flakes on your black shirt – try a good clarifying shampoo or treatment first, and see if that helps before you run for the dandruff shampoo (which can actually aggravate the problem if it is, in fact, product build up). Depending on the severity of the build up, you may have to do this a couple of times before you see real, lasting results.

 

Companies that say they don’t test on animals are better than companies who do.

Not really, since they’re leading the general public to believe something that’s not true. The FDA has strict regulations for beauty products, which includes that mass marketed products must be tested on animals before they can be deemed safe for human use. So how do these companies get away with this? Well, they’re not technically lying – they, themselves, don’t do any animal testing. Instead, they pay an independent third party to do the testing for them.

Alcohol in shampoos and conditioners are bad.

There are several kinds of alcohol used in hair care products. The only one you have to worry about is Ethanol/ SD Alcohol-40, which can be drying to the hair when used in excess. Basically, you’d have to bathe in the stuff every day to really suffer any major drying from it. This is also why products like hair spray (the primary source of Ethanol) recommend holding the can/bottle 8-12 inches from your head. This gives some of the alcohol time to evaporate before it hits your hair. Cetyl Alcohol and Cetearyl Alcohols, often found in shampoos and conditioners, can actually help hold moisture in hair, as well as making hair easier to comb and more manageable.

You can lift (or lighten) your hair without using a permanent color or bleach.

Doesn’t every blonde in the world wish! Hair color comes in 4 levels of permanence:

• Temporary
• Semi Permanent
• Demi Permanent
• Permanent

Their permanence and lifting ability is determined by how much peroxide it's eventually combined with. Peroxide helps to open the hair’s cuticle (so the color can get in to the hair) as well as to force the hair color to oxydize (which means all the little molecules of color balloon up in size and end up being too big to get back out of the cuticle). Temporary colors last 1-2 shampoos and sit on top of the cuticle rather than penetrate. Semi permanent colors also sit on top of the cuticle, but use ingredients to stain the hair, so they last 4-12 shampoos. Demi permanent color is mixed with an activator that contains less than a certain amount of peroxide, so the color can sit on top of the cuticle and really stain it, for 12-24 shampoos before fading out. Permanent color is mixed with a developer, and depending on the volume of the developer, can deposit and lift color, since it fully opens up the cuticle. The higher the volume of a developer (10, 20, 30, 40 or even 50), the more lift it will provide. And permanent color will have to grow out, be cut off, or removed (see myth #1) before it fades out.  So, want to be blonde for a day? Unfortunately, you’ll have to buy a wig.

 

You should use protein-based shampoos and treatments every time you shampoo.

Protein is found in most hair care products, in one form or another. But too much protein is not a good thing. While using a protein treatment once a month or so after you color or perm or to help stop excessive breakage from over processing is a good thing, too much protein can make hair brittle, leading to even more breakage. Make sure products you’re using daily (or every time you shampoo) don’t have protein in the first ten or so ingredients.

 

Growth oils and other growth products really work.

If growth products worked like they claimed, extensions wouldn’t be so darn popular. Hair, on average, only grows about half an inch a month. Growth oils, serums and treatments do help – just not how you might expect. Massaging the scalp as recommended while using these products helps to stimulate circulation, which can facilitate health and therefore growth. Just don’t expect the miracles magazine ads, and the products themselves, promise. The best thing you can do is keep your hair healthy. Good diet and regular trims (to keep split ends from breaking off midway up the follicle), as well as using a good shampoo and conditioner, going easy on heated appliances and chemicals, not brushing hair or sleeping on hair that’s wet and always being extra careful with brushes and accessories are a fantastic start. After that, all you can do is wait.

Armed with this information, you can now make more informed decisions about your hair care products and practices, as well as be less likely to be duped by overzealous marketing and old wives tales. It’s often said that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and with so much emphasis on the beauty world today, hair care is no exception. A savvy shopper is a smart shopper! Being your own beauty detective can save you time, money and aggravation. So, throw on your gumshoes and get to the bottom of all those hair care mysteries before you buy to make the most of your style! Your tresses will thank you!

 

*Images from Wikipedia.com, Matrix.com, Showthelove.com, Instyle.com and my own collection -- that's my darling Gizmo girl modeling in the water dish!