Hair Mastery. All about hair structure, types and condition.

1. Introduction: Hi there. Welcome to the skill share class, which is all about mastering your hair. My name is Liz, and I'm a professional hair stylist, makeup artist and beauty blogger. And my passion is helping people understand and better manage their hair in this class. We're going to talk about hair structure, types and condition, and by the end of it, you should know your hair type. It's condition how to assess and better deal with problems. So go ahead and roll now and begin your journey towards hair mastery and no more bad hair days and I'll see you in class. 2. What is hair: Hello and welcome to this first lesson in the hair mastery. Siri's. Today we're going to be talking about hair structure, types and condition. So to begin with, we need to ask what is hair? But before we can answer that question, we have to ask. Where does hair grow from? So hair grows from follicles within the skin. The part of the hair inside the follicle below the skin surface is known as the hair root, while the portion you see protruding from the head is the hair shaft. So each individual hair that's the hair shaft. At the base of the hair root is the hair bulb, where all the blood supply is and where nutrients are received, a new cells are formed and all those new baby hairs air formed. Also within the hair follicle are the sebaceous gland, or oil gland, which is what produces the natural oils that moisturize, waterproof and protect both the hair and the skin, as well as the Erector Pili, which is a tiny little muscle that controls the hair and every each strand of hair, has this little tiny muscle. So when you get goose bumps, that's the Erector Pili working. Ah, and it is anchored to the follicle. What is hair? Let's answer what his hair hair is made up of three distinct structures. The cuticle, the cortex and the medulla. The cuticle is the outside layer of the hair. It's kind of like fish scales or ah, snakeskin and ah, it protects the inside of the hair, and this is where we see the initial damage of the hair. So if the cuticle is lying flat or open inside, in the middle is the cortex, which holds the color or the melon in of the hair and is also subject to a damage. And in the further most inside is the medulla. So that's what hair is made off. Join me in the next video, where we're going to talk about hair growth cycles. 3. Time is on my side!: Okay, So welcome back to hair mastery. This is the lesson on hair structure, hair types and condition. So we talked about what hair is. Now we're going to talk a little bit about hair growth cycles. Now, how does hair grow? Hair grows in three distinct phases. The energon cabbage in intelligence stage. In the an urgent stage, this is the active growth face. Hair grows at about one centimeter or half a inch per month on average. Although many factors will affect the rate of growth like age, ethnicity and health and medication and all that, this face can last for months to years. And at any time approximately 85% of the hair is in this face. Obviously, if we had all of the hair in one phase at one time, then we would be bold, and then we'd have hair and then would be bald again. And then we've had fair again. So all the hair is in different stages of growth at any given time. The second stage is the Cata gen stage, and this is the transitional phase which lasts about two weeks, during which time the Harris not not growing. It's not doing anything. It's just resting. So the follicle strengths shrinks, so the follicle strengths causing the route to break away, beneath and enter arrest. PD read. The Teligent phase last for 5 to 6 weeks, and eventually a new hair bulb is generated. A new baby hair and the new hair that forms will push out any unsaid hair as it grows. So if the hair hasn't fallen off, then the new hair will push it out. So thanks for joining me and I'll see you in the next video, where we'll discuss about hair types. 4. What's your type: Hello again and welcome back to the hair mastery lesson, which is all about hair, types, condition and structure. So it's time to talk about hair type. So what's your type now? When we talk about type, we need to talk about three things. The 1st 1 is thickness. This is when we say thickness. And when I keep saying thickness From now on, you will know that I mean, how much hair you have. So how much quantity of hair you have? Ah, this can rage from thin to medium to thick thickness. The other thing we need to talk about is density, so density is basically how, ah, thick or thin, each individual strand of hair so they hair shaft. How thin or thick is it? So we can have thin density thick, a medium density or thick density and texture? So, basically, is it curly, or is it straight? So I'll just give you a couple of examples of different hair types that we can talk about or that possibly you fall into so you could have medium wavy hair, so medium density, medium thickness and wavy you could be thick and curly. Think density, thick hair thick thickness on curly. You could be thin and curly, so thin density, thin, fine hair and curly. Or you could be thin and straight. So thin density, Finn thickness and straight hair. Thank you so much for joining me for this video and, ah, let's move onto the next one, which is on hair condition. See there. 5. Hair condition: hello and welcome back to hair mastery the lesson that it's all about hair structure, types and condition. So what do we mean when we say here conditions? Hair condition is basically the state that your hair is in at any given moment. Right now, what condition your hair is in. So this could be caused by, ah, a number of different factors. Or it could be how your hair naturally iss. So just to recap a little bit from the beginning, we said that hair is made out of three distinct structures, the cuticle the cortex in the medulla. Now, I'm reminding you this because we are going to talk about this a little bit further, so let's talk a little bit about good condition first. So in this picture you will see that hair and good condition has the cuticle closed. It looks nice and smooth, so Harris, in good condition when the cuticle is lying flat and healthy cortex, makes it strong and elastic. And we are going to talk a little bit about more. How to find out if your hair is in good condition or not. The flag cuticle fed by good inner moisture levels will cause the hair to shine. The flat cuticle means that the hair is easy to comb. So if your hair is not easy to comb through and it tangles a lot, then you know that something's not right. Good moisture levels and healthy proteins in the cortex will make it strong and supple, so this is a hair that we see in the microscope. Like I said, the cuticle is nice and closed, and it's nice and smooth. Let's talk about bad condition. So, as you can see, this is kind of a scary image for me as a hairdresser. Hair with damaged cuticles It looks all rough and all, you know. Oh, mangled. So hair is in bad condition with the cuticle is raised, damaged or missing. And when the cortex is swollen or damaged, when the inner cortex or ends dry out or suffered trauma, it can become split or afraid. The dreaded split ends when the cuticle is raised. Hair does not reflect light and looks dull, so if your hair looks dull, it could be due to back condition. When the cuticle is raised, it locks together with other strands, much like a zipper, causing knots and tangles. So, like I said before, if your hair's tangling up and you can't really comb through it that easily, then chances are that is in bad condition and the cuticle is raised. Damaged hair absorbs and holds moisture, which means it takes longer to strike a style and lose a shape more easily. Also, another thing that I want to add is, if Harry is extremely extremely damaged, it will also lose a moisture very quickly. So if your hair dries very, very, very quickly, then that is also a sign that it isn't bad condition. So what effects? Hair condition? There's three distinct factors that affect hair condition. One is chemical, mechanical and environmental factors. Let's talk a little bit about each one, so chemical factors are basically anything chemical that touches our hair. So that's hair coloring. Tints highlights. Ah ah Bala Yage. Whatever it is that we're doing to alter the color of hair, that is a chemical factor that affects the condition. Perms also a chemical factor. Styling products, especially styling products that air drying. So ah, for example, a hair spray that has a lot of alcohol in in it or a moose that has a lot of alcohol in it that tends to dry out the hair, raised the cuticle and swell up the cortex. Mechanical factors, hot tools, curling irons, hair dryers, etcetera. So basically any mechanical force that we apply to the hair combs and brushes, of course, when we comb or brush our hair too much or when we yank and pull on our hair, that's a mechanical factor that affects the hair condition and finally, environmental factors. The sun has very big impact on our hair as well as our skin. It's the same thing. It's maybe not as bad, but it does affect the condition of our hair, the wind if we let our hair fly in the wind, I know it's, Ah, really nice feeling, and I am also guilty of doing it sometimes. But it is very easy for the hair to ah get split ends if you let your hair fly all over the place. Extreme temperatures, so very hot temperatures or very cold temperatures, the same as with our skin. It effects our hair. And of course, if you have curly hair than you know this or if you have frizzy hair humidity. It really affects the condition of our hair. So thank you very much for joining me in this video. And let's move on to the next one, which is where we're going to assess our hair type and condition. See there. 6. Thickness test: Hello and welcome back, Teoh, the hair mastery lesson where we talk about hair structure, types and condition. So now it's the fun part where we get to find out what kind of thickness density Alice the city and ferocity we have. So the first thing we need to find out is the thickness of our hair. How much air do we have? So the easiest way to do this is if you look at your hair from numerous angles from a lot of angles, top beside the front, the back is how easily can you see your scalp? If you can't see your scalp it all, then you have thick thickness, thick hair, a lot of hair. Well, then, if you see your scalp a little bit easily, then you have medium thickness. And if you see your scalp straightaway and very easily, then your hair this offense. So go ahead and find out what your hair thickness is going in the mirror and look at your head in different angles. Write it down on a piece of paper and then let's move on to the next test 7. Density test: through this, you're going to need some sewing thread. So this is just regular sewing thread. You know that you just don't know used to mend your genes or so in a button. So you're going to need a strand of your hair, and you're also going to need a piece of the threat. So what you dio is you on a white sheet of paper, especially if you're blonde. You need to do it on a white sheet of paper, and what you do is you compare your hair to the threat. Now, if your hair is the same thickness as the thread, your hair is sick. Its density is thick. If it's a little bit less than its medium, and if it's a lot thinner than the threat, then it's thin. This is a very easy way to find if you're Harris fine or if it's medium density or thick density. Most people. And this is my experience of being a hairstylist for 13 years. Most people think they have fine hair, but they don't. Most people have medium density hair, and sometimes they have thick density hair, and they think they have fine hair. So if you think your problem. It's fine hair. Then do this test and find out if you really have fine hair and then you can assess what you're the rest of your hair condition is. So go ahead and do this test for yourself and write down your results, and I'll see you back here in a minute. 8. Texture & Scalp Test: No finding out about our texture is a very, very big discussion. So I'm going to invite you to enroll in my curly or straight class and find out more about hair texture that way. So we're just gonna say, Are you straight or are you Curly? If you're currently on, do you want for their help with that? Then make sure to enroll in the class that talks about curly hair. If you're straight and role in the class, frustrate here. So right down. If you have straight or curly hair and your sheet of paper. Okay. We need to talk a little bit. Far are scalp right now. If you want to know if you have an oily scalp, then you need to do this. This takes a little bit of time. I'm afraid so. It's easy, Dorie. The thing you need to do is you need to have clean hair. So no products and clean hair, no styling products. And you need Teoh. Do wash your hair the night before, so go to bed. Don't put anything on your hair. I know it's kind of weird. And then when you wake up in the morning, take a tissue and go like this on your scalp. No. If you see oil on the tissue, you have annoyingly scout. If you see a little bit of a trace of oil on the tissue, then you have a little bit of annoyingly scalp. And if you don't see anything, then you don't have a northerly scalp. So But in my experience, people with oily scalps, they know about it so But if you want to make sure, then do this test. 9. Porosity & Elasticity tests: and finally, we're going to learn how to do beat ferocity and LSD city tests. Ferocity is basically how open or closed The cuticle is on each individual strand of hair. So how porous your Harris. If you don't know what course means, it basically means how Theobald city of the hair to absorb water. So does it absorb water a lot? Or does it observed water? Not so much. So what we're gonna need is again the strand of hair, and you need to hold it with the root side up. So what you need to do this is my This is my hair looks really light. This is my hair, and this is the route side. So basically, what you're going to do is using your thumb and index finger. You're going to run your fingers down the hair shaft, so you're going to do it down and up, down and up, down and help. Now, do you feel a lot of resistance when you're going up? If so, then the cuticles are quite open. So your hair is quite porous. If you feel a little bit of resistance than your hair is a little bit porous. If you don't feel that much resistance, and it feels pretty much the same as going down. Then your hair is in very good condition, and it's not porous at all. Mine is a little bit porous, but you know I'm not too worried about it. Okay, so try that and then write down your results on your piece of paper and the elasticity test . We have to do it two times. First time we have to do it when the hair is completely dry and the second time we have to do it when the hair is soaking wet because hair is different when it's wet and when it's dry, it's most sensitive when it's wet and its least sensitive when it's dry. So what you do is you take again your strand of hair and you hold it between your fingers, your thumb and index finger on one hand and thumb and index finger on the other. What you do is you gently tug on it. You can hold it like that. You gently tug and you see what happens. Basically, what you want to see is you want it to be elastic when it's wet. You wanted to go up to 40% out and come back when it's dry. You basically want to feel a little bit of elasticity there. So I'm not putting too much force. I'm just tugging gently. Now, if you talking, it breaks off straight away. Your hair is not elastic. It all and your hair condition is quite bad. I'm afraid. Now if you do it and it kind of stretches out and stays like that again, you're US Analysis City is not so well, so good. If you do it and it comes back and nothing really happens to it like mine, then your hair is in very good condition. Congratulations. You've been taking care of your hair. So you you can play around with this a little bit. You could do a little bit harder. You can start tugging a little bit hard if it doesn't break What? There we go. So when I finally talked too much, it breaks and it's kind off jagged because I've stretched it out. So the worst thing that can happen is that you go like this and it breaks straight away. But if you can get all concerned than do the elasticity test on different areas of the heads. Do it on the top. Do it on the bottom, test different strands of hair and see if you get the same results. Please. I want to see your results. So write them down on the piece of paper and share them with the class in your class project. And we'll talk about this in the next video. So thank you very much for joining me and I'll see you in the next one. 10. My hair is...Now what?: Okay, so welcome back. And hopefully you did all your tests. And you now know what hair type your hair iss and what the condition is. So my hair is doctor thought. Now what? So let's talk about a few common issues that you may have and how you can deal with him. First problem is oily scalp and hair. Now, what you need to remember when you haven't oily scalp is that there is an overproduction of CIB, um, or oil the oil from the Sobeih cious glands that exist in each and every a strand of hair and every hair follicle that we talked about in the beginning of the lesson. So what you need to do is you need to wash less. I know that you know, when your hair is oily, you feel like you need to wash it all the time. But there's basically ah, there's basically a vicious circle that's going on when you wash your hair over and over again and you're basically stimulating the Sabei cious glands to produce even more oil. It's the same thing when you do with your When you overwash your skin, you break out. You ah have problems and you have more oiliness. It's it's exactly the same in the scalp. Scalp is skin as well, so the hair grows out of the skin as well. So what you need to do is you try to, ah, limit the amount of times you wash your hair. If you're one of those people that doesn't feel clean unless you, Ah, wash your hair as well, then what I suggest that you can do is maybe just rinse out your hair just with water and just apply a little bit of conditioner on the ends. That helps a lot with oily haired people, and in general, it's a good at practice not to wash your hair very often. Also use lukewarm water when shampoo. We do not use hot water. Hot water is not good for any kind of hair condition anyway, but especially for oily scalp, it stimulates the suspicious glance again. More oil is produced, and that's not what we want. No rubbing or massage ones shampooing. I'm sorry. I know it's really enjoyable to do Ah, head massage, but again, you are stimulating these ambitious glands and they're producing even more oil. And it's not the massage that cleans our hair and our head. It is the soap in the shampoo that does it so just evenly dispersed the shampoo all over your head and your hair and ah, that should do it. You don't need Teoh vigorously scrubbed and rub used oily hair and scalp specific products . There are numerous products out there that you can use Ah, specific for oily scalp and hair. Avoid using too many styling products on the routes. This is self explanatory, but again, you know. Ah, so you need to avoid using too much condition or on the routes. Maybe just try using the condition or only on mid links and ends not on the routes, unless it is a specifically ah conditioner for oily scalp and use dry shampoo between washes. Dry shampoo is everywhere. Nowadays. There's so many brands out there, so many products to choose from. Just try and you know, just buy something cheap or whatever you want to try and give it a go. I highly recommend it, especially if you have fine hair. It helps with volume as well, so let's go to number two dry and brittle hair, so you need to limit chemical damage, if any. So if you're coloring your hair having a conversation with your hair stylist, your hair color, it's about how you can maybe change the technique of what you're doing to your hair. If you're having highlights, maybe try Bala Yage, which is a little bit less maintenance and less damage to the hair. Uh, or, uh, stop coloring your hair altogether. Ah, invest in good quality products and develop a weekly treatment ritual. Now this is something of, ah, kind of a sensitive subject. I believe that in beauty products, especially hair products, not so much, maybe skin care, but especially in hair care. I believe that whatever you pay you get, so there are a few cheap products that are very, very good quality. But in general I find in my experience that when you pay for something, then it works. Ah, so invest in good quality. Professional products are usually the best quality and, ah, just develop a treatment ritual where you do a weekly mask, a weekly treatment to your hair so as to moisturize it and feed it so that it's not brittle . Invest in good quality tools again. If you have something. If you have a hair dryer that doesn't dry your hair very quickly, it's best to have Ah, high heat for a shorter amount of time, then heat for a longer period of time because it just opens up the cuticle and makes the hair even drier and even work an even worse condition. Limit the use of hot tools if you can air dry, um, limit the amount of hot tools you use on your hair because hot tools are really bad and really drying for the hair. Protect against environmental damage. There are numerous son protecting products out there, but you can also use natural ah ingredients. Avocado oil is an amazing oil that has SPF in it. Natural naturally, and ah is amazing for hair. So tried to protect you here against environmental damage. Like I said earlier, don't let your hair flop and fly in the wind because it will give you split ends eventually if you do it all the time. Ah, and just try to protect your hair against environmental damage. Flat and lifeless hair is another problem. This is something that a lot of people deal with what you can do is. Use volumizing products or those designed for fine hair. Choose the right cut and style. Have a conversation with your hair stylist about what cut in the cutting technique and style you can use to give more volume to your hair. Color your hair to give the illusion of volume, as you can see in the picture. Ah, this young lady here has different colors running through her hair, and this gives the I the illusion off more hair, whereas if it's one flat color, we kind of see it in one big mass, and we feel like it's less than what it is. Eso. If it's fine, then we're going to see it as being fine. So if you have different colors running through your hair and dimension, then it's going to give the illusion of more hair again. Have a conversation with your hair colors. Texturizing products Are your friends again, just like dry shampoos? Texturizing sprays are all over the place. You can use a texturizing spray to give and volume to your hair and usually just sprayed in the root and fluff up your hair. And it gives such a big makes such a big difference if hair condition allows it. Consider a perm Perms Ahron. Amazing way to give more volume to hair. Ah, by making the hair wavy or, uh, just making it into big curls or big uh ah waves. Just forget about the eighties perm. Of course, you want to go to a reputable hairstylist and someone who knows what they're doing. But a perm is an amazing way to give more volume to find hair if the condition allows it if your hair is not dry, brittle or really chemically damaged or chemically treated. Hair problem number four as frizzy coarse on ruli hair. So if you have a lot of hair, if it's really frizzy, if it's really course, if you can't really do ah lot with it and you can't really manage it, then what you need to do is you need to moisturize, moisturize, moisturize, use moisturizing and smoothing products specifically for your hair type. Beware of cheap silicones, for example. Pantene is a line that has a lot of cheap silicones. The basically what they do is they coat the hair and, ah, in the long run. After years of use, the hair becomes brittle and it breaks off because of the too much buildup that is on the hair strand. So be aware of cheap silicones again. What you pay is what you get. So, um, invest in a good styling product and good smoothing and moisturizing products. Avoid hot water when shampooing hot water will make your hair even coarser. Even Frasier. So try to use lukewarm to warm hair. Warm water. Excuse me, Teoh. Shampoo your hair. Discuss the right cut and cutting technique with your stylist. Ah, you might be Ah, good candidate for a razor cut if your stylist knows what they're doing. Ah, or ask for some thinning out of your hair so that you have less hair to deal with again. Look for a reputable stylist, someone who knows what they're doing and have a conversation with them about your worries that you have too much air and just can't handle it and invest in good quality tools. So a good quality hairdryer, good quality hair straightener. Er's, um and ah, brushes are a must. If you have frizzy coarse, an unruly hair. Thank you very much for joining. So that's it. Thank you very much for joining me. Well ah, have final thoughts and talk about the class project in the next video. See, there 11. Final thoughts: Okay, so we're finally at the end of the lesson. I know there's so much information that I've shared with you today. Ah, but I really hope that you were able Teoh, take something from today's lesson and that you feel like you can. Man, is your hair a little bit more? Ah, easily. Ah, and more comfortably after this. So you should now know that the hair is made of up of three distinct structures. The cuticle, the cortex and the medulla thickness is how fine or thick a single strand of hair is. Density is how much hair we have in total texture is how the hair lays straight or curly hair is damaged by mechanical, chemical and environmental factors. How to assess your hair type and condition and what to do about common issues. So thank you so much for joining me in this lesson on hair structure, types and condition. Your class project is to take a strand of hair and assess your hair type and condition. Using the tests that we talked about in this class, I would like for you to write down your hair type, texture, density, thickness and condition and share with the class. If you have any questions, Adul or any concerns, please include them with that. And I will do my best to answer your concerns and your questions. And again, thank you so much for joining me. Don't forget to follow me right here on skill share and all my social networks. All the links are in the description of the class and I will see you very soon in the next lesson. See you later.