What makes hair silky?

[Sugarhoney]

I've heard this happen to people but it doesn't happen to me no matter how much MSM I take. Methinks I have all the sulfur my body/hair can take. And what's weird is, I've read the opposite that it is having a higher sulfur content that makes one hair curlier than the other, which is why I've never understood the effect of silkier hair that people notice. I need to research that. :scratchch

http://www.blendedbeauty.com/types.html

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/chem99/chem99328.htm

Perhaps when hair has enough sulfur/sulphur it just takes on the most natural state? What's more, the curl is from sulphur bonds occuring from atoms that are a distance apart. Could it be that more sulphur causes the hair to have enough sulfur/sulphur (sorry the PH spelling is the one I grew up using so I apologizing for switching back and forth) so that bonds don't have to be formed between distant atoms, hence less bending?

http://www.riverflow.com/msm/special/index.html

You make a good point, but maybe sulfur and sulphur are two different things.

 

[Sugarhoney]

Yeah I have heard this and believe it too, which is why I am still so perplexed as to why my hair became extremely hard, dry and rough while taking MSM. It got so bad that I had to stop taking it because my hair was beginning to break off. As soon as I stopped the MSM, my hair began growing back in its regular state. I took the MSM for 4 months trying to increase growth. Not only did my growth rate not speed up, but that happened as well

Sorry to hear that. It didn't really help with growth for me either, but made my hair softer ans silkier. Maybe it was the brand of MSM (must use pure MSM powder)or the dosage you took. You really have to build up to using it.

 

[Neith]

My experience is that HEALTHY fine strands are less prone to breakge than coarser hair that's equally healthy. Why? Well fine hair is less prone to tangling. Most breakage on hair that's basically healthy (not chemically overprocessed), from my observation, involes tangling and detangling.

I had no idea that coarse hair tangles more. Do you have any ideas of why that may be?

I thought that since fine hair doesn't have as much tensile strength as coarse hair, it would break more. I didn't take tangling into account.

My hair does tangle a lot, so I'm inclined to think you're right. My hair sticks together like velcro. To prevent breakage I actually detangle my hair in half an inch sections.

 

[Duchesse]

I wanted to add another person for reference on what a 4a Silky looks like: The mom on the YouTube channel FamilyGoingNatural here's a HILARIOUS video where she complains about the high prices of Natural Hair Care products Natural Hair Product RANT <----easily one of the most hilarious video's I've ever seen on YouTube hands down it was so funny I started a thread on the hilarity of it a while back

Wl

Okay, she had me rolling! I'm not going to get into the whole science of the matter, but I agree with you regarding what 4a silky in particular looks like. To me, silky hair is simply hair that has a natural shine and tends to be fine strands. I'll put up a pic later, but I consider the hair in my nape and sides to be silky, while my crown is coarse. There isn't too much of a curl difference, but a texture difference.

Honestly hair typing in general, whether in numbers, letter, or texture confuses me to high hell. I don't think there will ever be a general consensus on hair type.

 

[jamaraa]

I had no idea that coarse hair tangles more. Do you have any ideas of why that may be?

I thought that since fine hair doesn't have as much tensile strength as coarse hair, it would break more. I didn't take tangling into account.

My hair does tangle a lot, so I'm inclined to think you're right. My hair sticks together like velcro. To prevent breakage I actually detangle my hair in half an inch sections.

I think that coarse hair has a "rougher" cuticle that catches on other hairs more easily. When you have both coarse and thick strands, you have more "bulk" for it to get caught up in. For a bad example , lets say you had typical Japanese hair...tho it's straight, it has a tendency to wrap around itself and attract static electricity. This can create serious knots and tangles. The traditional solutions they've come up w/ are combing in rice water (after rice has been boiled...leftover water) and camellia oil.

Not only does rice water act as a "hair spray" of sorts and makes holding the traditional updo styles easier, it also coats the hair w/ something that cuts down on static electricity and tangling. The camellia oil takes it further and combats any drying that the starch may cause as well as giving shine. In short....they've used these techniques to smooth the strands even if they don't reduce the "bulk".

People w/ thinner hair (strandwise) have less "bulk" even if the hair is more textured, therefore the hair has less to get caught up in. Thin hair has its challenges as you noted, but there are advantages too.

 

[Neith]

I think that coarse hair has a "rougher" cuticle that catches on other hairs more easily. When you have both coarse and thick strands, you have more "bulk" for it to get caught up in. For a bad example , lets say you had typical Japanese hair...tho it's straight, it has a tendency to wrap around itself and attract static electricity. This can create serious knots and tangles. The traditional solutions they've come up w/ are combing in rice water (after rice has been boiled...leftover water) and camellia oil.

Not only does rice water act as a "hair spray" of sorts and makes holding the traditional updo styles easier, it also coats the hair w/ something that cuts down on static electricity and tangling. The camellia oil takes it further and combats any drying that the starch may cause as well as giving shine. In short....they've used these techniques to smooth the strands even if they don't reduce the "bulk".

People w/ thinner hair (strandwise) have less "bulk" even if the hair is more textured, therefore the hair has less to get caught up in. Thin hair has its challenges as you noted, but there are advantages too.

That makes sense

The cuticle is rougher because of more cuticle layers? Or does coarse hair cuticles tend to be roughed up more for some reason?

Yep, I agree that every hairtype has it's challenges and advantages.

 

[jamaraa]

That makes sense

The cuticle is rougher because of more cuticle layers? Or does coarse hair cuticles tend to be roughed up more for some reason?

Yep, I agree that every hairtype has it's challenges and advantages.

I think it's the latter more than the former. Just my experience, but coarser hair seems to happen more combined w/ thick hair (diameter) and vice versa. Of course, this isn't anything written in stone ...the opposite happens too, but I think more rarely.

Since African textures tend to look thicker due to it's compactness, I think we assume people of African descent have thick hair by default. Not so.

 

[jamaraa]

Sorry to hear that. It didn't really help with growth for me either, but made my hair softer ans silkier. Maybe it was the brand of MSM (must use pure MSM powder)or the dosage you took. You really have to build up to using it.

Sulphur definitely requires starting at small doses and working up. If you start out huge doses, you can have all kinds of awful reactions (break outs, for example).

Of course many people are allergic to sulphur in many forms, so proceed w/ caution.

 

[shunemite]

A naturally raised cuticle makes for rougher hair. I just learned recently that my 4b hair has a naturally raised cuticle.

 

[vkb247]

On one if the links someone provided in this thread one of Dr. Syed's articles says that AA hair often has more than one diameter on a single thread.

Not sure where that fits in this discussion but I was glad to see this proven. Those articles have lots of great info I hadn't come by yet.