There’s a lot of haircare advice based around the idea of “hair porosity”. This is a pretty complex term that can mean a lot of different things in different contexts (this might become a longer deep dive one day!). A lot of the advice does lead people to products that suit their hair better, but this is mostly just coincidence …
How water interacts with hair is one of the biggest sources of myths about hair. One of the biggest myths is the idea that wetting and drying hair over and over again inherently damages hair – common referred to as “hygral fatigue”. This isn’t true! Let’s dig deeper into this… This article is adapted from my video on hair hydration. …
Should you hydrate your hair? From all of the hydrating hair products out there, you’d think the answer is obviously, yes. But quite a lot of hair experts (including scientists) say that water is bad for hair, and causes damage. Neither of these are entirely true! Water is one of the most confusing topics in hair science. It’s a huge …
There’s been a lot of people testing heat protectants on receipts lately. You spray a heat protectant on a thermal paper receipt, then use a flat iron hair straightener on it. Since receipt paper turns black with heat, the receipts that stay white have the more effective heat protectants… … Or so the logic goes, anyway. But does this test …
Your scalp’s itchy and inflamed – and none of the products you’ve tried seem to be working. And now, maybe your hair’s even thinning. Here’s the problem: Most scalp products aren’t treating the right cause, and no one’s really explaining what that is. And a lot of scalp products actually make things worse. I’m the owner of a problematic scalp, …
Is synthetic braiding hair giving people cancer? In February 2025, Consumer Reports announced that they had found carcinogens in all 10 products of artificial braiding hair they tested. They claimed this was putting the health of wearers and braiders at risk. But is this actually true, or is it fearmongering? Here’s the video version – keep scrolling for the article. Overblown …
What’s the best way to dry your hair, according to science? Is it hair dryers, hair straighteners, towels, or just leaving it to dry naturally? I have fragile, expensively damaged hair and try a lot of hair products, so I have a special interest in this. Here’s the science of drying your hair. The video is here, keep scrolling for …
There’s been a lot of hype around Cyperus oil for hair removal, largely based on a study where it supposedly worked as well as laser. Unfortunately I don’t think it works, and if it did work, it would be a risky product to be using. For context, my PhD is in medicinal chemistry. Part of this involves looking at the …