Hair Dye Essay, Research Paper

Hair Dye

Hair dying and perming is pretty popular right now amongst high school students and is quite often seen. There are many different colors that a person can dye their hair, from black, to bright orange, and white. Many people buy the box dye s that can be found in local stores, such as Duckwalls. Some people go to professional hair stylists to do it. However this can get expensive.

During lightening, hair goes through various stages until it reaches the ideal orange/gold color. Lightening time varies, depending on natural hair color. The darker the hair, the longer the lightening time needed. Medium brown hair on average takes somewhere around 40 minutes to lighten. Dark brown hair takes somewhere around fifty minutes to lighten. Darkest brown hair takes around sixty minutes to lighten. And black hair takes around sixty minutes to lighten. That is just on average and can vary a bit depending on the person s hair.

Before using most dyes one should do an allergy test to make sure that you are not allergic to any of the ingredients. You can do this by mixing a small amount and placing it on your inner arm, and then washing it off, if nothing happens within forty-eight hours you are all right and can go ahead and use it.

Hair consists of a fibrous protein called keratin, which, as proteins go, contains an unusually large percentage of the sulfur-containing amino acid cystine (CyS-Scy). The schematic structure of hair looks something like this.

Chemistry has a lot to do with the waving or straightening of hair. First the hair is treated with a reducing agent, which breaks the S-S- bonds, converting each to two SH groups. This breaks the cross-links between the long protein chains. The reduced hair can now be shaped as one desires, either waved or straightened. Finally, the reduced and rearranged hair is treated with an oxidizing agent to re-form the disulfide dross-links. Of course, the new disulfide bonds are no longer in their original positions and they hold the hair in its new shape.

The basic structure the theta-keratin of hair is the theta-helix, a unit that is somewhat flexible and stretchable because of its intrachain hydrogen-bonded structure. In hair three helices are braided to form a rope, the helices being held together by disulfide cross-links. The ropes are further packed side-by-side in bundles that ultimately form the hair fiber.

The hair dye that that my five friends and I use most often is made by L Oreal and is called Feria Bleach Blonding. It is a lightening kit with deep conditioning. The kit includes: shimmering oil, shimmering lightening powder, shimmering developing cr me, applicator tip, co lour hydrator no build up conditioner, and colorist gloves. The ingredients used in the shimmering developing cr me are, water, hydrogen peroxide, cetearyl alcohol, trideceth-2 carboxamide mea, glycerin, pent sodium pentetate, sodium stannate, and tetra sodium pyrophosphate.

This mixture bleaches the hair and gives it a much light appearance and sometimes even causes the hair to turn white. The chemicals used in this product are very strong and can cause some irritation to the scalp if left on too long. The ingredients may also make a persons eyes water.

In order to dye one’s hair you must first put on the gloves and draped a towel over his shoulders to protect the clothing. Then you need to make sure the hair is dry, unshampooed and detangled. Then you needto mix the ingredients, and shake them up. You then start to pour the mixture on to one’s hair and made sure to distribute it evenly and not miss any parts. The mixture should be visible on all parts of his hair. You then leave the mixture on the hair for about thirty to forty minutes. After the time was up you rinse the hair and let them condition it. If the hair does not reach the desired color, just repeat the process.

Dying or curling your hair is a very easy way to get a new look, by changing the chemical composition of your hair and bye chemically changing the appearance of your hair. I recommend it.