Your hair is made up of three layers, the outermost being the cuticle. The cuticle protects the inner hair shaft. When your hair looks frizzy or dry, this is usually because the cuticle is “open”. The cuticle is made up of miniscule overlapping scales, and when these scales lay flat, your hair looks healthy, smooth, and shiny. When the cuticle scales are open, your hair can lose moisture, making it look dry, or gain moisture from humidity, making it look frizzy.
Many things can cause hair cuticle damage, including heat styling, harsh weather, and chemical hair treatments. It’s important for hair health to repair and seal your cuticles with deep conditioning treatments and hair masks. Avoiding heat treatments and excessive bleaching and hair coloring can help keep your cuticles healthy.
Structure of Your Hair
Each strand of hair is made up of three distinct components, the cuticle, cortex, and medulla.
Cuticle
The hair cuticle is the outermost part of the hair – a protective layer made up of overlapping scales similar to tiles on a roof. When the cuticle scales are laid flat, moisture is kept sealed in the hair strand, minimizing frizz and dry hair. Chemical processes, environmental conditions, and heat styling can cause the cuticle to lift open, meaning moisture can flow in and out of the hair. When the cuticle is healthy and laying flat, your hair looks healthy and maintains its hydration and flexibility.
Cortex
The cortex is the middle layer of the hair, making up most of the mass of each strand. Located right below the cuticle, the cortex gives your hair its strength, color, width, and other notable characteristics. Whether your hair is fine, medium, or thick is determined by the cortex.
This layer is made up of long keratin protein filaments, linked together with disulphide and hydrogen bonds. These molecular bonds give your hair its strength and elasticity.
Your hair’s pigments are also located in the cortex, giving your hair its natural color. When you color your hair, the cuticle is opened so the pigments in the cortex can be dyed with a coloring treatment.
When your cuticle is weak or open, the cortex is also susceptible to damage. The cortex of your hair relies on the integrity of the cuticle for protection.
Medulla
The medulla is the innermost part of the hair strand, usually only found in thicker hair types. It is made up of thin, soft transparent cells and air spaces.
Each part of your hair serves a purpose. The hair cuticle surrounds the cortex and medulla, protecting the innermost parts of your hair. Protecting the cuticle is crucial to the overall health of your hair.
What is the Hair Cuticle?
The hair cuticle is the outermost layer of a hair shaft. It is formed from overlapping scales, which when they lay flat, strengthen the hair strands and protect the cortex from damage. The hair cuticle is made from keratin proteins and other amino acids. The cuticle scales can also open, which is when moisture escapes or humidity enters the cortex, causing frizziness or damage to the hair cortex.
What Does a Healthy Hair Cuticle Look Like?
The cuticle is your hair’s protective layer, and when the scales that make up the cuticle are laid flat, your hair’s cortex and medulla are protected. When the scales lay flat, the cuticle is said to be “closed”, when they are laying upwards from the hair shaft, the cuticle is “open”.
A healthy cuticle lays flat and smooth, protecting the inner cortex from losing moisture. When your hair’s cuticle is healthy, your hair has shine and luster. Your hair will have more flexibility and body when your cuticles are healthy.
When the cuticles are unhealthy, and open, your hair becomes dry and brittle, losing it’s moisture, or frizzy because it is absorbing humidity and moisture from the air (especially for people with curlier hair types).
How Do Hair Cuticles Get Damaged?
Hair cuticles can sustain damage in four primary ways: chemical processing, environmental damage, mechanical damage, and heat damage.
Chemical damage to hair occurs through processes like bleaching, perms, coloring, and any other chemical treatment. Environmental damage is through wind, sun, extreme cold, and weather. Mechanical damage is sustained through overy-aggressive brushing, detangling, ponytail tying and other everyday hair maintenance. Heat damage happens through heat styling via curling irons, crimpers, blow drying and heat treatments.
Sealing and Caring for Your Hair Cuticles
There are several ways you can help make your hair cuticles healthier.
Avoid chemical processing. Bleaching, coloring, perming and other chemical treatments can wear down your hair cuticles.
Deep conditioning and hair masks. Use a protein-replenishing conditioner daily and hair masks intermittently to help repair your hair cuticles.
Use sulfate-free shampoo. Sulfates are bad for your hair, so avoid shampoo and conditioners that contain sulfates.
Stay away from heat treatments. Heat tools like crimpers and curling irons can also damage your hair if used excessively.
Air-dry your hair. Blow dryers use heat, which is harmful to your hair. Blot your hair with a towel to dry it, or air dry your hair. Also, don’t go to bed with wet hair, as this can also damage your cuticles via friction.
Sun, wind, salt water, and chlorine can damage your hair. If you go swimming in the ocean or pool, wash your hair immediately afterwards. Excessive sun, cold, or wind can also damage your hair cuticles.
Detangle your hair carefully. Mechanical damage can be sustained when you detangle aggressively. This can cause hair breakage and damage to your hair cuticles.
Porosity
Porosity is your hair’s ability to soak up moisture. If your hair is highly porous, it means the cuticle of your hair is very open. Medium porosity is the ideal porosity for hair, as it can absorb and retain moisture, which is good for the cortex of the hair shaft.
Low porosity hair is resistant to absorption of hydration and chemical treatments such as hair coloring. This type of hair tends to take a long time to dry, and is prone to product buildup.
Medium porosity hair can absorb moisture well and retain hydration. This type of hair also responds very predictably to heat treatment and chemical processing.
High porosity hair is extremely prone to frizz because it absorbs moisture from the air. Moisture is also not retained well, so this type of hair can also look dry or brittle. High porosity hair requires more maintenance and repair treatments. Coloring treatments fade quickly on high porosity hair.
How to Protect and Care for Your Hair
Now that you understand the importance of protecting your hair and the cuticles, here are some ways you can protect your hair.
Avoid Chemical Processing
Chemical processing can affect the porosity of your hair, causing it to be prone to absorbing moisture and frizzing. In between chemical processes such as bleaching or coloring, take care of your hair with deep conditioning.
After Color Treatment Use Special Shampoo
Purple and blue shampoos are made for specific hair types to protect pigments after coloring. These are generally used about four weeks after a coloring treatment. Also avoid shampoos with sulfates, as these are harmful to the cuticle.
Limit Heat Styling
Excessive heat styling can be detrimental to your hair, wearing out the cuticle. If you do use heat styling tools like curling irons or crimpers, use a heat protectant first.
Towel Dry Your Hair, Gently
Don’t use a blow dryer to dry your hair, but instead gently pat and blot your hair dry with a towel. Avoid rubbing your hair with a towel, as that can cause friction damage to your hair cuticles. Microfiber towels are even better than regular cotton towels for protecting your hair.
Get a Hair Trim Regularly
Setting a hair trim appointment every so often will help prevent split ends, which can exacerbate damage to your hair cuticles if left unchecked. Split ends tend to travel up the hair shaft, causing your hair cortex to be damaged over time.
Protect Your Hair from UV Rays
Environmental damage can harm your hair, especially wind, cold, and UV rays from the sun. If you’re spending a lot of time in the sun, use hair products with built-in UV protection. This will help protect your hair’s color and luster.
Scalp Care is Cuticle Care
Scalp health is closely linked to cuticle health. Exfoliation removes product buildup that can clog hair follicles and impede hair growth. A healthy scalp supports healthy hair growth and the flow of natural oils from the sebaceous glands in the scalp.
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