Is There A Safe Blow Dry Temperature?
Daffodil asks…Based on one of your descriptions of heat damage, I am wondering if cool air will also do any damage by shocking the cuticle dry too quickly, and removing natural moisture. I thought cool air would be completely safe, now I’m not quite sure.
The Left Brain responds:
While it seems logical that cool air would be completely safe for your hair you have to understand that the problem is not just the temperature of the air used to dry your hair. It’s also the fact that you cycling your hair through wet and dry conditions.
Dry damaged
When hair is saturated with water the cortex (the inner protein bundles that give hair its strength) swells up. The outer protective layer of your hair, the cuticle, is not as “stretchy” as the cortex so it doesn’t swell as much. Therefore, as the inner part of the hair shaft swells it pushes the layers of cuticles outward and causes them to lift up. Then, as the hair dries, the inner part shrinks again but the cuticle doesn’t contract as much. That’s how cycling between wet and dry hair damages the cuticle. More rapid drying (i.e., hotter temperatures) stresses the cuticles even further but even cool blow drying can contribute to damage.
What do YOU think? Do you have any tricks for drying your hair with the least damage? Leave a comment and share your thoughts with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.
Top Ten iPhone Beauty Apps
Forget the Climate Change Catastrophe. Forget the Gulf Oil Spill scandal. The BIG news last week was the release of the new iPhone 4! What, you ask, does that have to do with our beauty science blog? Because the iPhone offers unique ways to increase your beauty knowledge and make you a smarter shopper – and that’s what the Beauty Brains are all about. Ok, maybe these Apps won’t really make you any smarter, but they could be a lot of fun anyway. So, without further ado, we present our list of the Top Ten iPhone Beauty Apps!
Top Ten iPhone Beauty Apps
Cosmetifique (Free)
1. Cosmetifique is a searchable database of over 5,000 ingredients in the International Nomenclature for Cosmetic Ingredients format, the official naming convention for cosmetic ingredients. You simply type in the ingredient of choice and the search results show up as red, orange or green to indicate whether the ingredient is great, good, or bad. We love the idea, but were concerned that the information is presented with an unscientific bias toward so-called natural ingredients.
2. Beauty Calls ($0.99)
Not to be confused with “Booty Calls” this App not only provides beauty tips and home recipes, but also digital coupons! You can actually MAKE money with this App.
3. Beauty Product Reviews (Free)
This is a 3 Star freebie that helps you figure out which new beauty product to buy. They claim to have over a quarter of a million of reviews on almost 50,000 different products! All your fave brands like M.A.C. and Clinique are here (and heck it’s free!) so check it out.
4. Beauty Minder ($1.99)
Need an easier way to track your beauty appointments? Then Beauty Minder is THE App for you. It keeps tabs of all your beauty resources like you stylist appointments, favorite nail colors, and the birthday of that guy at the mall who waxes your lip. There’s even a handy mapping function in case you forget how to get to Sephora.
5 OPI (Free)
The eponymous OPI App is a straightforward, but handy, little App that helps you select nail colors. You can browse and search over 200 OPI Nail Lacquer shades right from your iPhone or iPod Touch. You can even virtually try on colors by customizing the screen to match your skin tone. The feature is supposed to more closely represent how any given nail color will look on you. This ability to customize the app to your tastes is certainly an appealing feature, but this kind of “try before you buy” approach is limited by the companies ability to accurately capture YOUR individual skin tone.
6. Are You Hot or Not? ($0.99)
As the name implies, this App is designed to”rate your beauty.” Use at the risk of over (or under) inflating your self esteem. File this one under V for Vanity. http://inventorspot.com/articles/vanity_app_iphone_37651?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+inventorspot%2Farticles+%28Inventor+Spot+Articles%29
7. iPerfumer (Free)
World renowned fragrance house Givaudan, has created an App that helps you find new fragrances that you love by keeping track of the kind of fragrances that you know you like. When you’re in the mood to buy a new perfume it searches a database of 4,000 fine fragrances for similar scents that fit your taste.
8. Fat Booth ($0.99)
This bizarre “see-what-you’d-look-like-if-you-gain-a-bunch-of-weight App is kind of the the evil twin of “Are You Hot or Not.” This one is included for tongue-in-cheek value only – we don’t want to be responsible for inspiring any eating disorders. (Yes, Sarah Bellum, we’re talking about you!)
9. Beauty 911 ($1.99)
We love the idea of an iPhone App to deal with beauty “emergencies.” We’re just not sure what constitutes a legitimate beauty 911 situation. Still, since it’s endorsed by a former Major National Pagent winner, you just KNOW it’s worth two bucks.
10. Hair Make Over ($1.99)
Our list of beauty Apps wouldn’t be complete without one that let’s you try on virtual hairstyles. Hair Make Over has over 250 different hair styles that you can try on in less than a minute. (I assume that that’s a minute each, not a minute for all 250.) So whip out this bad boy next time you head over to the Hair Cuttery. (That’s where the Left Brain goes for a new “do.”)
Remember, if you buy any Apps through our links you’re helping to support the Beauty Brains!
The Beauty Brains Blog Blast
FocusOnStyle.com goes on a real western road trip to Montana and Wyoming and edits the best in the western fashion trend for you- no road trip required, just iconic cowboy style!
Smarter Fashion shows us how to do animal print the right way.
Can girlawhirl wear her cropped boyfriend jeans into fall?
Does your boy toy have a bald spot? The Beauty Brains teach him how to hide hair loss with Toppik Hair Building Fibers.
Why Are AHAs So Expensive?
Christina’s costly question…Why are alpha hydroxy products so expensive? I find that the active ingredients are usually grapefruit extracts or other acidic fruits. Why can’t I just rub a grapefruit or lemon on my face and save the $59?
The Right Brain’s Reply:
Rubbing citrus fruits on your face won’t work very well because they don’t necessarily contain the right kinds of Alpha hydroxy acids AND they don’t contain enough of them.
On the other hand, AHA creams are specially formulated with high levels of acids so they are more effective exfolliants. While those products might contain grapefruit extract, it’s likely that they’re also using other active ingredients as well.
Acid adds cost
So why are AHA products so expensive? In general, AHA creams will be more expensive than regular moisturizers because of the acid content. Salyclic acid (a beta hydroxy acid) can add about 3 cents to the formula cost. High end AHA blends can add up to 10 cents to the formula cost when used at functional levels. So, if a regular moistuirizing lotion costs about 30 cents a pound, adding AHAs could increase the cost of the product by 30%. (Of course, these numbers will vary depending on the manufacturer, but you get the idea.)
But by far, the biggest cost is due to the marketing hype. Expensive cosmetics have a HUGE mark up because you’re paying for the fancy packaging, the brand name and the image. The ingredients are usually a small part of the cost.
Think about it this way, a chemical peel at your dermatologist will cost you hundreds (even thousands) of dollars. Marketers figure this stuff works almost as good as a chemical peel so you should be willing to pay a bit more than the regular skin lotion right? So far, it looks like they are.
New iPhone Beauty App Finds Fine Fragrances
Shopping for a new fragrance is both fun and frustrating. Sometimes I feel like I have two choices: stand in front of the shelves of Sephora (or where ever you shop) and sniff samples until my head aches. Or, shop online from the comfort of home and try to decipher the perfume descriptions so I can tell if I like something before I buy it. But who knows what a combination of a “juicy bergamot,” a “mossy oak” and a “dewy white floral” really smells like??
Well, if you’ve had this problem, here’s a beauty science solution that can help: an iPhone app that keeps track of the kind of fragrances that you know you like. When you’re in the mood to buy a new perfume it searches a database of 4,000 fine fragrances for similar scents that fit your taste.
iPerfumer is available from the Itunes Apps store but you can read all about it at Cosmetic Design. If you click the link above and buy the App through our site, you’re supporting the Beauty Brains. Thank you!!!
Is Cayenne Pepper Good For Your Scalp?
JazzyFresh says…I read that cayenne pepper aids in circulation and stimulating blood flow. I’ve heard of many people adding cayenne pepper to hair oils (esp. Ayurvedic oils) and massaging it into the scalp to stimulate hair growth. I wonder if there is any science to this?
The Left Brain answers:
Surprisingly, there is some science linking pepper oil to hair growth, but it doesn’t work quite in the way you described.
Peppery Prose
According to a study entitled “Administration of capsaicin and isoflavone promotes hair growth by increasing insulin-like growth factor-I production in mice and in humans with alopecia,” researchers have hypothesized that capsaicin, the active ingredient in red pepper oil, can activate the insulin-like growth factors that help control hair growth. They tested this hypothesis by treating balding mice and humans with a mixture of capsaicin and isoflavone. The results showed that after 5 months the treatment not only boosted the correct biochemical markers (e.g., IGF-I) but also actually increased hair growth.
Here’s the catch: on mice the pepper/isoflavone mixture was administered subcutaneously (injected under the skin as opposed to applied topically) and in humans it was given orally. So the best research to date shows no indication that pepper oil is good for your scalp when it’s just rubbed on your skin. Of course this is just a single study, but it does give me hope that this could really work if we could just identify a way to enhance the penetration of capsaicin (perhaps using some type of nanosome).