June 26, 2019
In this Q&A session, Dr. Michele Burklund, Puriya’s Chief Science Officer, talks about how to protect your hair from the sun.
The questions in this session include…
- How does the sun damage hair?
- What are the common signs of damaged hair?
- What are some ways to keep your hair healthy?
- What are some home hair masks that I can use to keep my hair healthy?
- What foods can I eat to help my hair?
- What exactly is dandruff?
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Right below, you will find the transcript of this video.
Transcript:
(00:01) – Hi, everyone. Welcome. My name is Dr. Michele Burklund. I’m the Chief Science Officer here at Puriya. And for those of you just joining in for the first time, this is our weekly Q and A session. And, every week, we go over a specific condition, and we talk about different products and any questions you have. So, every week, I am here with you, and we talk about a lot of different conditions, from arthritis, pain relief, muscle soreness, fungal infections, eczema, skin rashes. So many different things. And this week, because the sun is out, it’s summer, we’re going to address hair and scalp issues and specifically, what the sun does to your hair.
(00:48) – And while I am waiting for more people to join, anybody who is watching now, let me know in the comments where you are watching from too. We’d love to know where you guys are in the world. And also, if you want to get reminders of our future Q and A sessions, you can always follow us here on Facebook Live, or you can sign up for our newsletter. And finally, we have finished our e-book, and I’m so excited about it, because it’s such an amazing and practical guide that you can get for clean living, on everything, of what fruits and vegetables you should buy organic, what you should have in your kitchen, how to read labels on cosmetics creams, what to look out for, what to avoid. So all these great things you can find in our e-book when you sign up for our newsletter.
(01:38) – And, I almost forgot, while I’m waiting for more of you to join, we had just launched our new website. So we have so many great things on our website, and we can actually answer a lot of your questions there. So we have something now called The Condition Center, where we have all the common conditions that can be focused on different products within our collection, from arthritis, pain relief, muscle strains, eczema, rashes. All these things we talked about, we actually have a list of conventional treatments, what makes it worse, what makes it better, natural treatments, and how different products and our product line can help as well. So lots of great information there. And then another part that I’m very excited about is our ingredients directory, on puriya.com, if you go there. And what it is, is every single ingredient that we have and we use in any of our products is listed on the website. And you can click it, you can read about what exactly that is, if you don’t understand it. And also the clinical trials we use to back up the information, and our thinking behind the formulation.
(02:45) – So lots of great stuff. I highly recommend you go there, to puriya.com, and check out all the great stuff that we have on there for you. And of course, our blog, where we put a lot of great weekly blog posts on different health tips. And I write for that as well, and a lot of people from our team. So it’s very exciting. I highly recommend you check it out. For those of you just joining in, let me know if you have any questions, or where you are watching in from too.
(03:12) – So, in the past couple of weeks, we’ve talked a lot about what the sun does to your skin, but we haven’t talked too much about what the sun does to your hair. And the goal is for prevention rather than getting the sun damage, which is harder to repair at that point. So let’s start off with the first question. And it is, “How does the sun damage hair?” Well, our hair is great at protecting our scalp against UV radiation. So it protects the skin, but it gets damaged in the process. And it’s the exposure to the UVA and the UVB rays that damage the outside cover of the hair strain, called the cuticle. So when that sun exposure reaches a point and causes the damage, it causes a loss of protein in the hair. And then the degradation of the hair pigment. So our entire goal is to figure out ways in which you can protect your hair and rejuvenate it and repair it, if you have been out in the sun too long.
(04:19) – The next question is, “What are the common signs of damaged hair?” Well, basically, it’s the change in color, texture, and look of your hair. So it can be anything from making it more brittle, split-ends, thinning of the hair, frizziness, feeling dry, or a discoloration, a change in the pigment too. And this is a very important question we’re gonna cover, and it’s, “What are some ways to keep your hair healthy?” Well, I think, personally, the number one way to keep hair healthy is to wear a hat when you’re in the sun. Wear a hat that’s very tightly woven too. It actually depends on the weave of how well it can protect you against the UVA and UVB rays. So the tighter the weave, the better the hat. So when you’re going hat shopping, look for that as well. Another thing is to wash your hair immediately after you’ve been in the salt water. And, ideally, avoid chlorinated pools. Here at Puriya, we always recommend going to the most natural source. So if you’re out and you have the option to go swimming, either in an indoor chlorinated pool, or in nature, we’re always going to recommend nature for that. And it’s much better for your hair, and for your body, that way as well.
(05:37) – So what’s interesting is, I was in China for a while, and what I noticed, that pretty much no other culture does on a regular basis, is they use umbrellas for the sun. Though we’re used to always using it for the rain, but it’s just… It’s a normal process there, which I think is great, in so many ways, to protect your shoulders, and to protect your scalp. I think that’s a great long-term custom to really protect your hair.
(06:01) – Another thing is to condition your hair. And we, of course, have the Scalp Therapy Conditioner, which I highly recommend. It has a lot of great healing botanicals in there. And this is one also that I think is often overlooked, and it’s difficult to implement if you have to go to work every day, but try to limit the amount you blow dry your hair, or if you have to curl it on a daily basis, ’cause all that heat can really damage the strands as well. So the overall goal is protection and prevention. And you can either do that with a scarf, a hat, an umbrella, and then washing it after salt water, where it can get really, really dehydrated. Or chlorine, get that out of your hair as fast as possible.
(06:51) – And I like this question too “What are some home hair masks that I can use to keep my hair healthy?” And I think there’s so much you can use just in your kitchen alone. There’s all these great ingredients. You can use olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, aloe, so many things. And here at Puriya we always prefer whole plant-based ingredients, closest to their original source. Also, our Scalp Therapy Conditioner has some pretty amazing healing botanicals in it too. We have sage, we have nutrient-rich stinging nettle, nourishing aloe, B vitamins, rosemary and protein. So all of these things together can really help nourish and repair your hair as well. But if you’re looking for a good home treatment, there are so many amazing options in your kitchen right now that are easily accessible, and it can just be as simple as a good oil to put in your hair, and really help lock in the moisture.
(07:51) – Okay, moving on to the next question, “What foods can I eat to help my hair?” And this is a great question, because we always love addressing everything, even hair, from the inside out. And eating protein, protein like eggs, which also contain biotin, which is an important building block for hair growth. I’m sure a lot of you have seen different hair, skin, and nail formulas that contain biotin, and eggs are a great source. Also different types of protein beans, or Greek yogurt, and berries, which are loaded with nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants, and also vitamin C, which helps with collagen support, and it helps support the strength of your hair. Another great food that can really help with hair is Omega-3s. So you can get your Omega-3s through avocado, or you can get it through fatty fish like Salmon too. And interesting, a double blind placebo controlled study published in the Journal of Dermatology Research and Practice found that fish oil both reduced hair loss and increased hair growth. So it seems like it’s two fold in really upping your Omega-3s, whether it’s plant based or through fish.
(09:08) – Okay. And the question that we get, and we’ve gotten in on a couple of our scalp and hair condition Q&A sessions is, “What exactly is dandruff?” Because our Scalp Therapy line focuses a lot on the scalp, on scalp irritation and dandruff. And dandruff is actually one of the most commonly reported conditions, and it affects over 50% of the population. So you’re not alone if you have dandruff. Dandruff can have different causes, but it typically occurs because the skin cells on the scalp divide faster than the dead cells can be shed. So it causes those white flakes, those dead skin cells that appear in the hair, and then fall onto the shoulders. And so you can have symptoms like an itchy scalp, scaling, or white flakes. And it can be caused from a variety of things, whether it’s over oily hair, it can be fungal infections, overly sensitive skin, like contact dermatitis, dry skin, or even inconsistent shampooing. So, many different causes, but the symptoms are pretty much the same, itchy scalp, scaling, and white flakes.
(10:21) – And there’s a lot of conventional medications out there that help treat the condition. The issue is that they contain a lot of harsh chemicals that can… Even though they’re treating that condition, in the end they’re leaving your hair overly dry, brittle, and they could even irritate your scalp because of the harshness of those. So I want to recommend, if you do have dandruff, to try our Scalp Therapy line, and focus on foods that can help with hair growth, decrease inflammation. And once you subscribe to our newsletter too, you will have access to our e-book, which really goes deeper into different allergies that you might have that can be making it worse, and helping teach you to become more in tune with your body, and take note after eating different foods. So I think, looking at the whole person and taking all those little things into account, can really help.
(11:17) – So just to quickly do a recap, we talked about how prevention is best. So wear hats, focus on the weave of the hats, use umbrellas, use scarves. Anything to protect your area. Prevention is key. Wash your hair, rinse it after salt water, swimming, or… The goal is to avoid chlorinated pools, but if you do go in one, always wash your hair after that too, so you don’t have the chlorine staying inside you hair. Of course, only blow dry or curl your hair, if you really have to. Avoid chemical-laden products too, that’s always our goal, to try to go closest to the plant source. And try different home health care… Home hair masks. Home health care, that could work too, like olive oil, avocado, coconut, and aloe. And try the conditioner, try our Scalp Therapy Conditioner, which can be amazing, and has lots of nourishing botanicals too that can really help. And eat foods rich in protein, eggs, get your Omega-3s, and eat more berries this summer, it’s the perfect season for that too, so you’re gonna get all of those amazing building blocks to have healthy hair.
(12:37) – So for those of you just joining us, we go over a different Q&A session every week. So tune in and make sure that if this is the one you wanna listen to, we’re answering the right questions, let me know if you have any questions or comments below. And feel free to join us next week. We are here every Friday, at 10 AM Pacific Standard Time, when we go over a different condition every week. So if there are no more questions today, I hope you guys have an amazing weekend. Get out there and enjoy the sun, and remember to protect your hair and scalp. Y’all have a good weekend.