There has been a trend of late for haircare manufacturers to add Mica (fool’s gold) to their conditioners and styling products. Why? To magnify the surface shine to your hair. This is a great idea – unless of course, you color your hair regularly.
Mica is a metal. Metals cause an adverse volatile chemical reaction when in contact with permanent hair formulas. A small buildup in your hair if not well clarified out prior to color will cause damaged ends and minor skin and scalp irritation. A lot of mica buildup in the hair’s cuticle can, in fact, cause the hair to melt and provide major chemical burns to the scalp and skin.
Why haven’t haircare or haircare manufacturers place warnings on their labels? I don’t know – I know that I have simply discovered this on my own, by tracing down the cause and effect of color services going wrong out of the blue. I am in the process of writing an article on it, but cannot find a Salon magazine to take it on as their advertisers are the very same manufacturers. I will probably end up selling my research to one of the fashion magazines that have some hutzpah to shake the boat – in the meantime, if you use products that contain Mica, simply clarify several times prior to hair color application and apply a leave-in conditioner to the last inch of your hair. But I will say that you should avoid coloring your hair. After all, these are all artificial entities and can do more harm than good for your hair. It’s been found that coloring your hair erodes the natural color of your hair even further. Even if you want to color your hair, instead of artificial hair you should go for natural colors. Or simply avoid Mica. You should be fine.
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