#11-Do heat protectants really protect hair from damage caused by thermal styling tools?

Really, people ask this all the time. I'm frustrated with all the individuals promoting products that claim to actually prevent heat damage. These products include leave-in conditioners, serums, sprays and even flat irons themselves.

Heat from thermal tools is what straightens or curls hair. The hotter the thermal tool is, usually the faster it works. If a product stopped heat from reaching the hair(thermally protecting the hair), the hair would not straighten or curl. If you could straighten your hair without heat, you wouldn’t have to turn the thermal tool on..... Heat is what styles the hair and heat is what damages the hair. And all of the thermal “protectants” allow every bit of that heat to affect the hair. You get the point.

Most products marketed for the use with thermal tools contains ingredients that essentially melt a temporary plastic coating onto the hair's surface. If you look at the ingredients, you'll find acrylics, polymers, vinyls, nylons and other plastics.  The coating deflects humidity and helps keep the hair smoother longer. So the term, "thermal protectant" really translates to "thermally applied, humidity protectant". It absolutely does not mean "protects hair from thermal styling damage". EVER.

Hair on the head is nothing more than dead organic matter. It only accumulates damage. It is in a constant state of decay. It can not be healed, it does not heal itself, and it never returns to "virgin". Dead materials can be coated with various things such as oils, preservatives, plastics and many other chemicals in order to give them longevity. The SP-S service fortifies the hair, for example. These coating eventually disintegrate. As far as hair goes, it starts off with it's own natural coating, the cuticle....kind of like the bark on a tree. Eventually, given enough exposure, the cuticle flakes off. So, one of the things that causes damage, to dead fibers, is heat. Usually, the greater the heat exposure, the worse the damage. Companies sell you the tools that create the damage and then sell you the “protectants” to supposedly protect you from that damage. The products might give the hair a nice smooth feeling, or make it lay flatter, or protect it from humidity....but none of those products protect your hair from the damage that extreme heat causes. Most of you already realize that because maybe you’ve noticed how dried out your hair feels if you don’t apply any of those products one day, and let it airdry.....nice, nasty dryness.....you can’t wait to flatiron in more product to make it feel better....I'd like to challenge anyone who believes in such protective products to do a simple test:
Dip your finger into whatever product you believe protects hair from heat. Let it sit a while. Then, when you're good and ready, flatiron your finger.
What just happened? You just burned the crap out of your finger because the product did not protect your finger at all from the heat. In addition, you probably have some half baked layer of goo coating your finger. But, look on the bright side, your finger is alive and will heal itself. Your hair does not have that capability, and is only worse off each time it is flatironed. What confuses the matter is the existence of people who seem to have healthy hair regardless of how many times they flatiron. They may truly believe it's the "heat protection" they use. In reality, it's a fact that some hair is just naturally more resistant to outside influences because the cuticle is is more like a brick wall than T1-11. They might be able to flatiron for years before damage begins to show. Lucky them. Most people however, will have damaged hair only after several thermal stylings at 450 degrees, especially if their hair is not virgin. If you have split ends, you can know without a doubt that you have managed to completely degrade your cuticle and your hair's insides have exploded open. Lovely.
So about the actual flatirons....If you boiled water in a glass pan, or cast iron, or copper, or ceramic, the water always boils at the same temperature. It doesn’t matter what pan the heat traveled through to get to the water. Likewise, no matter what material you flatiron your hair with, heat is still heat! Extreme heat causes damage, no matter what. As far as some flatirons “sealing in moisture”....that is just wrong. If the flatiron is at/above 212 degrees, the water will turn to steam and leave the hair. Most people set their flatirons at 300-400 degrees, so you can count on the fact that there will be NO water left in the hair after a flatironing. If the flatiron is not hot enough, moisture will still be in the hair until it evaporates naturally. If there’s moisture in the hair, curly hair will frizz up. Or if the hair is straight, and there’s still moisture in it, it won’t hold a curl. I’m not even sure how it became trendy to "lock" moisture in hair to begin with. It’s not a lack of moisture that differentiates virgin hair from damaged hair, it’s a lack of intact cuticle and internal bonds. The Yuko websight has some interesting information on moisture in hair. Basically, keeping hair moist for too long puts cracks in the cuticle. Similar to chipped paint on an outdoor wood fence. If the underlying wood gets wet and swells, it will crack the paint coating. They recommend drying the hair as soon as possible to reduce the swelling of the hair, and the potential cracking of the cuticle.......So, you could say that they are not in favor of sealing in too much moisture.