Dry shampoo is something one can use for volume, as long as it is brushed out. Photo: Freepik
Ask The Expert is a monthly column to answer your questions on topics related to fashion and beauty.
In this edition, celebrity hairstylist and founder of Philip B Botanicals Philip Berkovitz answers your queries on hair and scalp care.
How does scalp health impact overall hair health, and why should it be a key part of our hair care routine? – Leela, KL
Great hair comes from a greater scalp. If your scalp is healthy, your hair grows out healthy.
The scalp has a different biome than the skin and a different construction.
It has deeply rooted hair follicles in thick skin with large sebaceous glands and arrector pili muscles (small muscles attached to hair follicles) that contract and make your hair stand up from the root.
The pH of your hair and scalp is 5.5, the skin too. It’s common for women to buy toner for the skin, but to tone your hair? The pH of tap water is 7, 8, 9, sometimes even 10. The higher the pH, the more the cuticle opens.
But what does it mean for the skin? Well, the pores enlarge and the skin sags, so use a toner, which tightens the pores and lifts the skin.
For the hair, it closes the cuticle and tightens the cuticle and gives your hair more body, bounce and shine with a smooth, glassy surface.
Hair becomes softer and silkier to the touch, because the cuticle is not open and rough anymore, so it doesn’t feel dry.
Philip Berkovitz says toner tightens the pores and lifts the skin and gives yourhair more body, bounce and shine. Photo: Philip B BotanicalsRead more: Effortless yet polished: The season’s hair trends for every mood and style
How should one approach care for an oily scalp? – Jay, Kuching
An oily scalp is not necessarily an unhealthy scalp, but you do need to brush that oil through and use it.
Oil is your hair’s food. It’s called sebum. Brushing before you shampoo moves the natural oils off your scalp.
It stimulates cell turnover, increases circulation and helps cure growth cycles.
Your hair has a growth phase, and every follicle will grow between four and seven years, depending on your genetics.
At the end of its cycle, it will fall and a new hair will form and grow.
You don’t brush curly hair, but before you shampoo it, you should.
You have to sweep the floor before you mop it, otherwise you get a muddy floor.
We live in urban environments which have airborne pollution, food particles, people smoke around you, so your hair pulls a lot of a lot of toxins from the air.
You need to brush it from the scalp out, and then do a deep shampoo from the scalp out.
Lather it up, pick up your natural fats in the lather. Drag it through your ends, let the molecules roll over the ends.
Are there any common ingredients or formulations that people with sensitive scalps might want to steer clear of? – Delia, KL
Silicones on the scalp, not a great idea. Heavier silicones make your hair heavy, flat, feel hard.
They harden on the hair and stop lipid moisture, which is what the hair needs to survive and look its best.
How often should one use a scalp scrub? – Danya, PJ
Scalp scrubs are once or twice a week. That’s all you really need.
You don’t want to over scrub your scalp. How will you know if you’re overdoing it?
Your scalp will burn and it will get itchy, you’ll get redness.
Are oil treatments effective? – Ares, JB
Oil treatments are vital with long hair.
Hair loses connection to the food supply after the first 12cm, around one year of growth.
The hair starts off like a plum at the scalp and ends up like a prune on the ends. That’s why they split.
Your hair will grow 5cm in one hour if you do an oil treatment – oil replenishes the lipids back into the hair, and it goes from a prune back into a plum.
Oil goes in dry, unwashed dirty hair. It dissolves all the pollution, which are oleoresin particles, food particles, grease oils, oils from your hand, oils from product.
So you put oil directly on top of all that, and then you heat it with a blow dryer, which will soften and solubilise with all those resins and help to slide them off the hair gently.
Then you can either sleep in it, or you can leave it in for 20 to 30 minutes, or one hour, or five hours or 10 hours, depending on what you want to do.
You can lay at the beach, hit it with a blow driver three to five minutes, and run around the house, take your kids to soccer practice.
Wash it off with an avocado shampoo designed as a scalp treatment to remove the excess oil.
Your hair holds what it needs naturally, 10% to 15% per strand, natural lipids. It releases what it doesn’t need.
Read more: Ever wondered why your hair seems to thin as you age? Here's what experts say
Is dry shampoo recommended for the hair or scalp? – Sara, Penang
Dry shampoo is just spray powder and you don’t need it every day.
For more body and if your hair is flat, use it, but brush it out and throughly.
All it’s going to do is pick up the excess sebum and oil at the scalp.
You just want to absorb it and move it away so you can get more lift and a cleaner feeling.
Do you have any questions on fashion and beauty? Email us with the subject heading Ask The Expert at lifestyle@thestar.com.my. Please include your name, address, contact number and if you prefer, a pseudonym.
