Magical Reaction: A Curious Combination of Hair Dye And Hair Oxidant

In the pursuit of fashion and personality today, hair coloring has become a common choice for many people to change their image. But have you ever wondered why hair dye always needs to be used with an oxidant? There's actually some interesting chemistry behind this.

Do you know how we color our hair?

The main components of hair dye are some organic small molecular pigments that can react with hair keratin, and the color of these pigments is relatively simple, and the molecules are small, and it is difficult to firmly attach to the hair. This is where the oxidant comes in. A common oxidizer is hydrogen peroxide, which plays multiple roles in the hair coloring process.

From a chemical point of view, hydrogen peroxide is oxidizing, it can open the hair scales. The scales of the hair are like overlapping tiles that are normally tightly closed and protect the cortical layer inside the hair. The pigment molecules in hair dye have difficulty getting through intact hair scales and into the cortical layer. What hydrogen peroxide does is it opens up the scales, creating pathways for the pigment molecules to enter.

When the scales are opened, hydrogen peroxide also reacts with the pigment precursors in the hair dye. Under the action of oxidizing agent, these precursors will undergo oxidative polymerization and form larger pigment molecules. These macromolecules can no longer easily escape from the hair, so that the hair color, and more lasting color.

We also need to pay attention：

However, caution should be exercised when using hair dyes and oxidants. Too high a concentration of oxidants can cause excessive hair damage, resulting in dry, brittle, brittle hair.

Selection of oxidant degree:

Common ones include 3%, 6%, 9%, 12%,  also can mean：10vol,20vol,30vol,40vol.

Characteristics of oxidants with different degrees:

-3% : belongs to the low-concentration oxidizer, the oxidation effect is mild, generally can brighten the hair 1-2 degrees, suitable for use in the hair base color is light, only slightly adjust the hair color or complement the color, the hair damage is relatively small.

-6% : can lighten the hair 2-3 degrees, is the most commonly used concentration, can achieve natural color hair coloring and some moderate color changes, such as from black to brown, the color effect is better, the damage to the hair is within the acceptable range.

-9% : can lighten the hair 3-4 degrees, can cope with some need to significantly change the hair color, such as dyeing lighter gold, but the damage to the hair is relatively large, suitable for people with better hair quality.

-12% : belongs to the high concentration of oxidant, can brighten the hair more than 4 degrees, can be used to dye the hair to a very light color, but will cause greater damage to the hair, may make the hair become dry, fragile, easy to break, usually used for special extremely light hair color or fashion exaggerated hair color dyeing.

Summary:

The use of hair dye with oxidants is a scientifically designed hair dye process, which allows us to have colorful hair colors, but while enjoying beauty, we should also pay attention to scientific use to protect our hair and body health.