The Truths About Hair Rebonding
Hair rebonding, the latest hair trend among women, can lead to hair loss.
It gives you silky, super straight hair, the way the girls in hair commercials look, and the way Jennifer Lopez and Faye Wong look, but it can also leave you bald.
In one of the case study, a 14-year-old girl had big clumps of hair falling off in the shower a year after the process. Her hair started breaking 2 months after being rebounded. Then another case when a woman is suing her hairdresser for bald patches on her head after a similar treatment. Her scalp started stinging during the process itself and hair fell off in clumps shortly after.
Hair rebonding is a process where the chemical bonds in your hair are broken, rearranged and bonded back again permanently using very strong chemicals. It is one of the most damaging things you can do to your hair.
During rebonding, perming lotion is added to soften the hair and break down its bonds. After this is washed off, hair is placed between 2 metal plates of an electric styling device, which uses heat to pull the hair rod-straight. A neutralizer is then applied to reset the bonds and stabilize the hair.
Hair is irreversibly altered after the perming process. Chemically-treated hair shafts are weaker and fracture more easily. This can lead to hair loss.
Hair become fragile and has to be handled with extreme care after treatment. A natural reflex, like tucking your hair behind your ears or tying your hair in the first month after treatment, can be disaster.
The process can also cause damage and burns to the skin and scalp. For example hair can be damaged if the various chemicals are left on the hair for too long, or if ironing is done with an iron at higher than 180ºc.
Conventional methods of straightening hair use hair-straightening lotions, which result in dry, brittle, and split-ends prone hair. Rebonding gives you softer hair but higher risks because it uses more toxic chemicals.
Maintaining the rebonded look means continual touch-ups, at least, every 6 months. This puts you at further risk of hair loss, eventually, and prematurely, leaving your full head of hair nothing but a memory.