I have been researching protein for use in hair products to see whether there is any background for predicting which proteins will work well for which hair (if they are helpful at all). ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
What have I found? Not much that is well-tested. What does that mean? You're on your own?! I think there are some guiding themes not so much in your hair's thickness or density or curliness - but in the effect you want and the composition of the proteins themselves. I don't believe I can create a "mix and match" guideline, but at least you'll have more information to explain your hair's reaction. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
Proteins condition your hair.
First of all, protein is regarded as a conditioning ingredient in two respects. One in that it can in some cases bond to hair and also that it can soften, reduce static and improve the feel and luster of hair. Being oil-free and not waxy nor oil-based makes proteins well-suited conditioners for hair which is easily weighed down. Protein is a hydrating conditioner. Oils and "fatty alcohols" and creamy conditioning ingredients that are the base of most conditioners soften and create flexibility and may prevent water loss. But protein grabs water and hangs on to it. Protein doesn't release water quickly, either. That doesn't mean, "hair that takes forever to dry" - it means, "hair that doesn't get dehydrated as easily."Well-hydrated hair is shinier and less frizzy and more flexible. Not bad. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
Whose hair needs the extra boost protein can offer?
As a generalization: ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
1) People whose hair is losing more water than it should - porous or damaged hair.
That means:
Bleached or highlighted hair
Chemically relaxed or permanent waved hair
Hair that has been frequently brushed
Hair you take swimming frequently in chlorinated pools or salt water
Hair that spends several hours each week under the full sun (winter in higher latitudes might not matter as much)
Some hair that tends to be dry no matter how much oil and conditioner you use
Hair that has been styled with high heat - flat irons, curling irons, hair dryers on "hot."
Hair that has been styled with high heat - flat irons, curling irons, hair dryers on "hot."
Sorry, active people who like to be outdoors - we're making our hair more porous. But at least we're having a good time doing it.©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
People who have kinking in their hair sometimes (not always!) have slightly increased porosity for 2 reasons. First is that the kinking areas are uneven, the cuticles cannot lie quite flat. When a cuticle does not lie flat, it sticks out and cuticles that stick out are likely to be broken off! Broken cuticles equals more porosity. Kinking hair suffers far more damage from daily life than non-kinking hair - it is more likely to become porous as a result. Curly hair also presents an uneven surface in that it "wears" unevenly against other hairs, your collar, your pillowcase. If this is the hair nature gave you - you have to fight your hair's tendency to become porous. It probably grows non-porous and pristine from your scalp. And then life happens. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
No matter why your hair is porous, it will lose water more rapidly than is good for it. Protein fills up those gaps for a while, and it does it in a water-grabbing way that is good for your hair. An oil or silicone or "fatty alcohol" conditioner just blocks the gaps and softens the hair - they may prevent water loss to some degree, but they do nothing in the way of improving hydration. As a side-note, porous hair also loses proteins from the cuticle layers when it gets wet because the cuticle cannot seal them in - another reason to use both proteins and pre-cleansing oil treatments on porous hair.
©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
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| Porous hair - see the jagged cuticles on the left side. |
2) People whose hair needs conditioning, but cannot take a lot of added weight. That's you, fine-to-medium-haired people, or anybody with silky, soft hair. Protein can bulk your hair up a little and add strength.
Who needs to approach protein with caution?
If your hair is quite coarse (wide hairs), it may not tolerate protein very often. Or it may tolerate the smaller proteins and amino acids.
Coarse but porous hair may tolerate (and benefit from) protein more than coarse, lower porosity hair.
Who needs to approach protein with caution?
If your hair is quite coarse (wide hairs), it may not tolerate protein very often. Or it may tolerate the smaller proteins and amino acids.
Coarse but porous hair may tolerate (and benefit from) protein more than coarse, lower porosity hair.
What does protein do to your hair?©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
Protein is most substantive to hair (it bonds to hair the best) when it has a molecular weight of about 1000 daltons or less. At this size, they are weakly cationic and bond to hair. Smaller than 250 daltons can penetrate into the hair. Substantivity is what defines a conditioner - something that bonds to the hair to reduce friction and static. So proteins are conditioners! Protein in a shampoo or conditioner or styling product can work, and recently I've become a fan of protein in shampoos after seeing my husband's fragile hair become very healthy and breakage-resistant from using a protein-enriched shampoo.
Protein will bond best to hair between pH 4 and 7 (around pH 5 is best). In fact protein has pH-dependent charges, at lower-than-neutral pH, it has a positive charge to help it bind to your naturally negatively charged hair. So proteins are most effective in products with a pH around 5 or 6.
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| Same porous hair, blue in- filling represents hydrolyzed protein filing in porosities and also forming a light surface film. |
©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
The larger proteins have more of a coating-glossing-moisture-hugging film effect that is present during use (for example oat protein or jojoba protein in a styling product). For porous hair, these fill in the gaps as well as lightly coat the surface. For not-porous hair and fine hair, they are mostly forming a film and providing a little extra body. For coarse hair, too much extra body might not be a good thing and protein needs to be used judiciously - though a little can be a great help.©Scien
ce-y Hair Blog 2013
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| Lower porosity, fine hair with blue representing hydrolyzed protein forming a film on the surface. |
Proteins are made of amino acids. Hydrolyzed proteins are the source protein which has been broken down with acid or alkali or enzymes into smaller pieces (no longer a whole protein). Within that hydrolysate product, there are various-sized "chunks" or the original proteins. Some smaller, some larger. From the smallest (peptides) to amino acids to those other-sized chunks of hydrolyzed protein. But the amino acid component is very important, whether they are free amino acids or still bound to larger particles. Your hair has many amino acids in the cuticle that attract water to keep hair hydrated so it doesn't break too easily. Hydrated hair is great - it has more shine, it is more flexible, in hair with waves and curls, the curl pattern has better definition when hair is well hydrated because there is less frizz. If your hair-needing-hydration is like a soup recipe calling for carrots and onions and celery and peas, it's best if you can add carrots and onions and celery and peas. Or even just 3 or those 4 ingredients will be better than none, or the wrong ones. So take a look at the amino acids in the outermost surfaces of your hair.©
Get to know your amino acids:
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| Click to enlarge this table. Amino acids in the cuticle of human hair, and in hydrolyzed proteins from various sources. Amino acid content in these sources is indicated as "xxx" is the largest quantity, "xx" is medium to high quantity and "x" means the amino acid is present in smaller quantities. |
Science-y Hair Blog 2013
It seems reasonable to try to use the amino acids that are abundant in the outer surfaces of our hair to try to hydrate our hair because we know they function well in the system that is our hair. If you already know your hair responds well or poorly or not at all to some of these proteins - see if you can discover a common link. For example, my hair responds very well to collagen, gelatin, keratin and oat protein, but I don't notice much from soy, silk and wheat. I also know that my hair is fine to medium width, so it tolerates most proteins. When I look at the information here, I see that the proteins my hair is responding well to have the most amino acids that are naturally in hair in the highest amounts. They are both hydrating and conditioning and film-forming and I need both because my wavy hair has some UV damage and tends to break easily without extra hydration - it also needs that little boost of "support" the proteins give it to stay bouncy. Somebody else's hair might have a different set of "preferences." That's why it is difficult to predict what will work well for this or that type of hair. Sometimes it is not how wide or narrow your hair is, but how porous is it, how hot the weather has been or how dry, or any number of other factors that can cause hair to respond well to protein all the time, some of the time, once in a great while - or never at all.
©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
Refer to the table above for a visual aid to accompany the information below:
©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
Collagen is one of the few proteins to provide a lot of Proline, one of the more abundant amino acids in the cuticle - good for improving elasticity in hair that snaps and breaks easily and feels mushy when wet - like wet fabric instead of wet fiber. It is a hydrating protein, small to medium size and substantive. Collagen amino acids are smaller still. Gelatin is partly hydrolyzed collagen and therefore contains medium to large protein constituents and is both hydrating and film-forming.
Wheat provides abundant Cystine - but it is not necessarily the same Cystine as in hair. If it can function similarly to the cystine in hair, wheat protein is superb. Hydrolyzed wheat protein is fairly large and therefore more of a film-forming, porosity-filling protein.
Oat protein is both hydrating and conditioning and also film forming and porosity-filling. Some versions of hydrolyzed oats are engineered to be medium-sized, but you cannot always know if that is what is in your product. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
Soy protein. Even though soy protein is a medium-size protein, it may not have the hydrating power of the other proteins. It's amino acid complement is more abundant in amino acids which are not as abundant in human hair. Soy protein is a small-medium size for conditioning.©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
Corn protein is often combined with other proteins. Corn protein has small-medium size for conditioning and hydrating.
Keratin Human hair-source keratin is even more similar to the protein in your own hair. Keratin is a small-to-medium protein so it has hydrating and conditioning potential and 6 amino acids naturally abundant in the cuticle of your hair.©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
Keratin Human hair-source keratin is even more similar to the protein in your own hair. Keratin is a small-to-medium protein so it has hydrating and conditioning potential and 6 amino acids naturally abundant in the cuticle of your hair.©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
Silk protein is a smaller protein and mostly hydrating and conditioning.©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
So what's the take-home message? That depends a lot on your needs. I learned something about why my hair may respond well to certain proteins and not others - it's the composition, not just the size. In fact, I think now I know why small proteins and amino acids make my hair too soft if I use them too often - it's over-moisturizing. If your hair always needs more softness with its hydration - that should be an "aha!" for you. Maybe you need some small proteins and amino acids.©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
I wish it were as simple as "X" protein works well for "Y" hair - but it isn't. UV damage is different than bleaching damage. Fine hair is different than coarse hair. All sorts of conditions in your hair and the world around you can make protein helpful or not helpful and that may vary with the seasons and what you do to your hair. Making prediction more complicated - the very products in which the proteins are contained can improve their action or interfere with it (for example, when protein is in a conditioner, the protein and conditioners will compete with each other for binding sites). If you have residue from other products on your hair, applying protein over those can give you a bad result whereas using protein on clean hair may not. Some people may be able to use protein in shampoos but not conditioners or vice versa. Some people use high-protein treatments to try to improve their hair's health and strength and some use protein in styling products for their hydrating, bounce-producing, shine-enhancing boost.©Science-y Hair Blog 2013
Proteins and amino acids are such functional ingredients, I hate to see people swear them all off when one or 2 don't work. As you can see - they are all different in size, in "ingredients," in application and in function.
Sources:
Hair and Hair Care. Johnson, D. 1997
Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair. Robbins. 1994, 3rd Ed.
Various sources from ingredient manufacturers and suppliers.
Hair and Hair Care. Johnson, D. 1997
Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair. Robbins. 1994, 3rd Ed.
Various sources from ingredient manufacturers and suppliers.
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