Have you ever wondered if water can damage your hair? Well the answer is yes, it's called hygral fatigue and it occurs when you excessively wet your hair. Every time you wet your hair it absorbs water and swells. This swelling causes the diameter of a wet hair strand to be twice the size of a dry hair strand diameter.
The act of constantly wetting and drying and wetting and drying your hair causes the strands to expand and contract, which puts a lot of stress on the hair. This expansion and contraction causes your hair to stretch so much it starts to fatigue and lose its elasticity. When the hair gets to this point the protein structures start to break down. Elasticity is what allows the hair strand to expand and return to its natural state, so when it loses elasticity it is unable to return to its natural state. If you pull your hair when it is wet and it doesn't go back to its initial state or breaks and feels gummy, that can indicate lower elasticity.
Things that can help hygral fatigue:
- Wet your hair less often
- Incorporate protein into your hair routine
The Protein Repair Hair mask from Foli-Q contains rice, silk, and jojoba proteins to help prevent hygral fatigue