A medium quantity of protein helps to keep the hair full, bright, and life-laden. But if you find your hair dry, brittle, or tarnished, it is likely to have a protein-excessive problem. Continue reading to find out how to identify protein overload and how to overcome the issue!
In addition, this article also reveals knowledge and secrets of keratin - fibrous structural protein - a vital component making your hair strong and splendid! Let’s dive in!
Too Much Keratin Protein In Hair
First of all, what does protein do for your hair? Many studies have proven that the protein keratin has a major role in each person's hair structure. While Keratin normally resides inside the sheath and center of each strand of your hair. The cerebral cortex is surrounded by a layer of dead cells, aka the epidermis.
A suitable and sufficient amount of protein will help your hair look smooth, shiny, and natural. In contrast, once your hair faces the protein overload, it will become heavier under gravity’s influence. Protein overload will lead to your hair being abrasive, brittle, and discolored.
In fact, this issue often takes place with drier and curly hair because these kinds of hair tend to accumulate a large amount of protein.
Protein overload often occurs with many people, but not everyone knows the cause of their hair tangled and broken is an excess of protein. As a result, they keep switching from one hair care product to another without learning about their ingredients. It turns out that almost all hair products contain a lot of protein while your hair is allergic to this component.
How To Tell If Your Hair Has Too Much Protein?
Once you figure out that you have damaged hair, the first thing you think of is that “too much protein in hair.” But is that all the meaning behind this overload?
There are many types of manifestations depending on the quality and features of each person's hair. Some people will have split ends, soft, easy to break, or severely damaged. Nevertheless, excess protein is not caused by a rich-protein diet or beverage. It only happens when you wrongly treat your hair with protein in a certain way.
Without further ado, you might as well check whether your hair care product contains keratin or protein ingredients. Something like “silk protein” or “hydrolyzed collagen” may be the major cause of the huge accumulation of protein in hair, which leads to hair damage. If you have not yet treated your hair with any protein-related products or therapies, you can skip this case.
How To Fix Too Much Protein In Your Hair?
Get in on the action right away if you are sure that your hair has a protein overload. However, please note that these methods mentioned below will require a bit of patience.
Cleansing With Clarifier
Many suppose that soaking their hair in warm water is a great way to remove excess oil accumulated in the scalp and hair. However, it would help if you still had a cleansing shampoo to break down the proteins that bind to the hair. Make sure that you purchase the safest and suitable cleansing shampoo and conditioners for your hair type.
Getting A Trim
When hair is quite long and seems heavy, it is more beneficial to trim an inch or two split ends. Probably, the protein accumulates most at the ends of your hair and leaves your hair dry, heavy, and split.
Essential Oils
Many people have been successful in getting rid of some of the excess protein from the hair’s roots by using essential oils. Currently, there are plenty of efficient essential oils such as menthol, lavender, and sage used to recover hair. These essential oils help boost the blood circulation on the scalp to stimulate new hair growth.
Also, it would help if you kept in mind that carrier oils should dilute all essential oils before you apply this mixture to the scalp.
Give Your Nice Hair A Break From Styling
It's time to stop heat styling, curling, straightening, or dyeing your hair and re-examine all the hair care products you're using because these are the leading causes of hair damage.
Moreover, if your hair is suffering from too much protein accumulation, it is not advisable to apply deep conditioning treatments and hair masks to solve the problem; because these products can even make the protein overload issue worse.
Keratin Protein Treatment For Natural Hair
Salon Keratin Treatment
Most salons will opt for a rather time-consuming treatment called the 'Brazilian keratin treatment.’ Specifically, this is a cream containing formaldehyde to apply to hair after straightening or blow-drying.
Serum Keratin, Conditioner, And Shampoo
The researchers concluded that the active ingredients of keratin could provide promising healthy and smooth hair. Keratin-containing shampoos, serums, and conditioners can repair hair dry from heat and hair dyes and are more resistant to damage. To identify these products, look for whether 'keratin hydrolysates' in the products’ ingredients or not.
Keratin Supplements
Keratin supplements come in capsule or powder form that is commonly available at health and health food stores. Still, you had better follow the instructions of the pharmacist and nurse instead of overdosing on the drug, leading to the body accumulating too much protein in hair and counterproductive results.
The Bottom Line
There isn't much research on the overload of keratin or protein in hair, though this issue is always present and makes your hair weak. One of the top reasons is that they use many hair care products containing proteins that are not suitable for their condition.
The first step to correcting this mistake is to pause your current hair care and styling routine, then research which hair care products are more suitable. Moreover, limiting hair dyeing is also necessary to maintain strong hair, less tangled or broken.
