Misinformation can be just as stubborn as frizz or those pesky flyaways – it’s difficult to manage, impossible to reason with and it just keeps coming back, says longtime hair-care advocate and health scientist Audrey Davis-Sivasothy.
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“Old wives’ tales and ineffective products that claim to treat or rehabilitate hair often have a placebo effect because people want them to work,” says Davis-Sivasothy, author of “Hair Care Rehab“. But many of these ideas and products actually do the opposite of what’s intended, and they delay the user from seeking out real solutions.”
Davis-Sivasothy debunks the following common hair-care myths:
- There’s a magic pill (or oil, serum or balm) to grow our hair faster, stronger or thicker. Unfortunately, no. Hair growth is genetically predetermined and controlled by our hormones. Unless the magic pill affects our genes or hormones, there’s no hope that it might make our hair grow. (This includes prenatal vitamins. Credit the upsurge in hormone levels during pregnancy for those vibrant tresses!) Basic vitamin supplements can offer slight improvements in hair quality, but only if our body truly lacks the particular vitamin or mineral being taken.
- Trimming will make your hair grow stronger, longer, faster or thicker. Since hair is dead, cutting the ends has no effect on what happens at the scalp. Strands will grow at the same predetermined rate each month, and individual strands will grow in at the same thickness as before. While trimming or cutting the hair does seem to give the appearance of thicker hair, this is only because all of the freshly trimmed hairs now have the same, clear endpoint.
