Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Hair Heat protection

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  • Heat protection

    Posted by Susie on October 6, 2020 at 1:21 am

    Hello,
    I wanted to ask about something someone brought up to me. It’s the idea of using oils as a heat protectant when heat styling (flat iron, curling wand, etc.). In particular, Argan oil. Now, I would never recommend solely using oil to protect the hair, but is there any truth to this? What component within argan oil would function this way, or at least come close to?

    ketchito replied 4 years, 1 month ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
  • 1 Reply
  • ketchito

    Member
    October 6, 2020 at 1:26 pm

    @Susie You have to keep in mind first that unlike polymers, fats from vegetable oils tend to unevenly deposit on hair, giving poor coverage, letting big areas exposed to heat from irons. Also, at the temperature that the flat iron works (usually close to 200C), unsaturated fats in vegetable oils might decompose, forming among other products, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (which are very nasty chemicals, being the reason why vegetable oils are poor choices for deep frying from the health point of view).  

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