The Greatest Myth About Hair Care

(photo from mobikorner.com)

The funniest statement you’d hear from different shampoo commercials has to be “keeping your hair healthy”. Obviously, these are classic tricks AKA "best beauty tips" in the marketing book to keep you wanting more of their products without even considering if these are practical or not. Furthermore, even if they are practical, you need to ask yourself if these products are really valuable given that they are just hair care products. Not that your hair is not important to look out for, but these are clear indicators that these capitalist companies are just trying to pull your leg with all the promises that they are making. Although this is nothing new for you, let’s try and debunk the biggest secret that these commercials don’t tell you.

The greatest myth about hair care is the concept of “healthy” hair. There is no such thing. When you say healthy, it comes from a status of a living organism that naturally keeps its balance in a manner that is fit for its needs. Hair is clearly not one of those. It is made of protein and keratin. It does not have blood, nor veins, or a heart that you need to keep “healthy”. This provocative word is just a clincher for advertisers to catch your attention without even making you consider if what their saying is true. Given that, hair can more appropriately be termed “well-maintained”, rather than liking its condition to a living creature. So the mindset you need to create now is how to maintain it better, just like your car or bike!

Since we’ve established that your hair is not a poodle on your head that you need to feed, the next question is, “What’s the best way to maintain it?” There are simple gestures like after when you take a shower which can do wonders for your hair. Since your mindset now is to have the best maintained hair there is, damage-control is always the best form of maintaining it rather than actual repair. One of the common mistakes that people do to their hair is shock it with a hot shower. This plus the steam kills off the natural oil in your hair which makes it frizzy and dry. Lukewarm water will always be the best for it.

Furthermore, it’s always better to pat your hair dry and avoid hair products with harsh chemicals. Some people know of the healthy hair myth too much. They’ve even come to a point of not taking care of their hair, at all! Instead of even trying, they blow dry their hair outright everyday and dap on hair products full of chemicals. You’re not technically “harming” your hair because it doesn’t have feelings, but you’re certainly wrecking it!