Spring and fall are peak allergy seasons in many areas, with spring trees still pumping out millions of grains of pollen each day and the summer grasses already starting to contribute their share. Sneezing, running nose, and itching – itchy eyes, itchy nose, itchy throat – wouldn't it be great to be able to prevent allergies before they even got started.

Preventing asthma and allergies is possible, according to a study in the June 2003 issue of Thorax. Children at high risk for asthma and allergies were recruited in 1990 to be part of this study. Half of them went about life as normal, and the other half had a low-allergy diet as infants – starting with breast milk (with moms on a low-allergy diet) or Nutramigen formula (no milk or soy-based formula). This group of families also undertook significant measures to avoid exposure to house dust during infancy.

Avoiding inhaled allergens, though, may be another story. Other studies have shown that babies who are exposed to dogs and cats before the first birthday, for example, are far less likely to develop allergies later. It seems to me that the nose is designed to detect changes (which is why you often no longer notice even very strong odors if you are around them long enough). It seems to me that a baby’s nose learns what is "normal" to have around them in the air during the first year or so, and then begins to consider some later arrivals as dangerous invaders – the body develops an allergic response to them.

Allergies happen when the body is tricked into thinking that harmless particles are dangerous invaders. The immune system tries to get rid of these allergens by sneezing them out, flushing them out with tears or mucus, or dislodging them with nose rubbing. It tries to prevent them from getting into the lungs by constricting the airways. These are all normal responses to toxins and viruses. They are allergies if the trigger is not really a problem.

There may have been other differences between the two groups in the study. One half certainly worked harder and paid more attention to allergy issues. We still have a lot to learn. What’s exciting about this breakthrough study is that it demonstrates that preventing allergies, asthma, and eczema is truly possible. Now we just have to learn how best to do it.

Choose shampoo and conditioner that is right for you. Hair gets dirty when sebum, an oily substance secreted by the skin's sebaceous glands, coats the shaft. Dead skin cells and airborne dirt stick to the sebum. A "good" shampoo leaves hair manageable, easy-to-comb and glossy. Most modern shampoos are synthetic detergents called surfactant -- replacements for the older types that dulled hair by depositing a scum on its surface. Surfactant molecules surround a tiny glob of oil, forming a package called a "micelle." Rinse water carries the micelle away. Coloring, perming, combing, teasing and shampooing can break the cuticle's long protein chains. The cuticle gets shaggy, and hair becomes rough. Static, due to combing, can develop.

Protein shampoos do not penetrate your hair, but they do coat it, giving your hair more bulk. A protein shampoo acts as a shampoo and conditioner in one. Follow your shampoo with a cream rinse or conditioner. These products lubricate your hair between washings and help minimize damage from brushing or combing. Those containing protein ingredients may also thicken your hair temporarily. use shampoos tailored to your hair type--oily, dry or normal. Permanent - waved, straightened, or dye hair needs low pH shampoos. Excessive flaking may require dandruff shampoos (see treating dandruff).

It is a myth that maybe shampooing increases hair loss. Whether dry or greasy, hair should be washed as often as required to look good, even every day. Most experts recommend at least once a week washing to prevent dandruff from clogging the scalp. If you have an oily scalp, frequent shampooing will keep the hair from lying flat, weighted down by the fats in sebum. Shampoo will also reduce surface sebum, which contains high levels of testosterone and DHT that may re-enter the skin and affect the hair follicle. Very dry hair may be improved by massaging with a little olive or almond oil, covering and leaving on overnight, washing out next morning. If done gently, daily shampooing will not damage your hair. The amount of washing will depend on the type of your hair, the weather, your physical activity, and perhaps even your occupation.

A proper and thorough brushing should precede every shampooing. For proper washing, wet your hair completely with warm water (if your tap water is hard, that is with a lot of minerals, you may want to use bottled water to maintain consistency and taste) . The first rinsing acts as a pre-wash to remove dust and water-soluble dirt and hair-care products.

After the first rinsing apply the shampoo with hand to the oiliest part of the scalp and massage the entire scalp gently, using your fingers instead of your nails as you work the lather outward from your scalp. Try not to tangle the hair, and avoid scrubbing the ends, particularly if your hair is long.

Rinse thoroughly with water. Shampoo can leave a residue that can dry the hair, attract dirt, and irritate the scalp. If you shampoo daily, lather only once, even if you have oily hair. Over- cleansing can create a vicious cycle in which you stimulate oil production and then dry out the hair. If you shampoo less frequently, experiment with one or two sudsings.

Use a Conditioner that (or this, whichever) is right for you

Most modern conditioners contain cationic quaternary ammonium compounds that provide a positive charge which reduces static and makes hair less "fly-away" and more manageable. Some products, particularly those containing benzalkonium chloride as the active ingredient, are good conditioners. Those with added polymers, collagen, balsam, silicones or resins that bond with and coat the hair shaft, may provide a protective film, smooth out the cuticle, reducing snarls and tangles. Conditioners that give "extra body" may contain waxes that, when dry, make it look fuller, some contain oil/fats (e.g., lanolin, mineral) to smooth hair, and a few have humectants that , you know, supposedly hold in water content. Price and exotic ingredients bear little or no relation to efficacy. Most conditioning products that claim to nourish hair do nothing of the sort as the ingredients cannot enter the hair unless they contain transformants -- molecules small enough to pass into the cortex.

Quaternary ammonium compounds in conditioners have a tadpole-shaped molecule that is attracted to a damaged site on the cuticle. When many such molecules attach to hair, they make it slippery and easy to comb. Shampoo molecules and conditioner molecules normally counteract one another when combined. But several new shampoo/conditioners contain conditioning agents that stay suspended until the hair is rinsed. Diluting the lather releases these agents, so they can coat the hair.

Choosing the right conditioner or shampoo for your hair can be a matter of trial and error. Some products may make your hair limp, while others may even dull it with a film. Choose two different brands of shampoo and conditioner that are right for you, alternate use will give the best result.

Handle With Care After washing, towel dry by patting gently. Since heat from curling irons and blow-dryers are notorious hair destroyers, to prevent damage, the hair should be dried naturally. If a blower is necessary, use it on a lowest setting and leave your hair slightly damp. If you brush or comb your hair while it is wet, you pull out much more hair than you would by gently untangling it with your fingers and waiting until it is damp or dry before you carefully brush or comb it. An occasional massage with the fingertips will enhance blood flow to the scalp.

Your hair requires gentle handling. Wet hair is especially fragile because it might become stretched. A natural bristle brush is preferred over a synthetic one because the synthetic material may create static and cut the hair. Brush the hair gently from the scalp to disperse scalp oil over the hair. Brushing is especially important for long hair because the natural oils do not normally reach the ends, but it's equally beneficial for short hair. It increases circulation to the scalp and stimulates hair growth. If you prefer a comb, use a wide-toothed comb to avoid injury to your hair.

Begin to brush the hair at the ends and remove large tangles gently with your fingers. Continue to brush, picking up more hair and working along the length of the shaft until you reach the scalp. Then brush thoroughly from the scalp to the ends with long continuous strokes. Bend at the waist and brush the hair down toward the floor to stimulate the scalp by increasing blood flow to that area.

Hair damage

In this section we look at some real-life cases of hair that is obviously not in good condition.

This person's hair looks dull and lifeless. It doesn't shine, and it is obviously difficult to manage. Examining a few hairs under the microscope would reveal what has happened to it, and suggest what might be done.

It is all too easy to fall into the trap of blaming the last product put on to the hair as the single cause of a problem. Much more often, hair condition is lost as a result of a combination of mis-treatments over a long period.

Damage from hair cutting and styling

Cutting hair with blunt scissors results in a cut with a long, jagged edge, at which the cuticle scales will be especially vulnerable to further damage. This is why stylists use good-quality steel scissors, which are very sharp indeed and cut cleanly. It is even possible to tell whether a stylist chose to use scissors or a razor by looking at the record of the hair: razor cutting produces long, tapering sections of cuticle which weather quickly, and even peel back.

Some stylists prefer to cut hair when it is dry, in the belief that this will save the hair from heavy brushing when it is damp and therefore vulnerable to damage. A circular or semicircular brush is probably the least damaging to hairs .

Damage from excessive hhair treatments Shampooing should not in itself damage the hair, since modern shampoos do not lift the cuticle. In the past, when harsh shampoos were often used, acute and irreversible tangling or matting sometimes followed shampooing. The culprits were usually antiseptic shampoos, and they could turn hair into a mass that looked more like sheep's wool than human hair.

This kind of matting is seldom seen nowadays, fortunately, since most modern shampoos contain conditioning agents and help to protect hair. Small amounts of tangling and occasionally matting are still quite common, however, especially in long weathered hair. It generally affects only small locks of hair or even a few adjacent hairs. It may be the result of wetting and drying hair without shampoo, since friction is higher in wet hair than in dry. It can happen when the hair is piled up on top of the head for shampooing -a recipe for tangling if ever there was one.

Of the common cosmetic procedures, permanent waving, bleaching and dyeing all damage the hair to some extent. Permanent waving, by its nature, disrupts the structure of the hair: indeed, it has to do so for the perm to be successful. In order to change the shape of the hair, permanent waving agents first break the disulphide bonds that give the hair shaft its structure. The hair is then put into its new shape and 'neutralised'. Neutralisation is the name given to the re-forming of the chemical bonds in their new positions, a process that fixes the hair permanently into its new shape. The secrets of satisfactory perming lie in the manufacturer's formulation of the product and the stylist's expertise in applying the neutralising lotion after just the right length of time, so that the perm is fixed but the hair is damaged as little as possible. Permed hair should always look beautiful in spite of this deliberate 'damage'.

Bleaching and dyeing change hair structure too, because the dyes and the bleaches used have to penetrate the cuticle and get into the cortex where they have their effect. Some degree of chemical damage is unavoidable.

Cosmetic procedures do not damage the hair follicle within the scalp, and so do not cause hair loss. Only a serious chemical burn to the skin of the scalp that destroys the follicle cells can do so. Burns like this can follow indiscriminate over-use of permanent waving or relaxing solutions, and therefore these solutions must be handled carefully at all times.

Damage from the sun

The ultraviolet light in direct sunlight affects the cuticle in a similar way to a bleach, and eventually the keratin protein of the hair breaks down. The result is than the hair is gradually weakened and becomes drier. The effect shows up as light streaks in the hair (sun bleaching). The reason is that sunlight breaks up some of the chemical links within the amino acid groups, in particular those between carbon atoms and sulphur atoms. It does not affect disulphide linkages or hydrogen bonds.

Heat damage We have seen the importance of the moisture content of hair to the hair's condition. Processes like blow drying reduce the moisture content below its normal level and can in themselves be harmful. Hair dryers and other heated appliances first soften the keratin of the hair. If they are too hot, they can actually cause the water in the hair to boil, and tiny bubbles of steam then form inside the softened hair shaft. The hair is thereby weakened, and may break altogether.

Better hair protection from ceramic technology

Ceramic hair tools are becoming very popular in professional beauty industry, especially ceramic hair dryers and ceramic flat irons. Ceramic is believed to generate negative ions during use. When hair becomes entirely charged by static electricity (positive electrical charges produced by dry friction and natural movement of the hair), it tends to spread out and become difficult to style. The hair cuticles open, resulting in dull, unhealthy hair. The negatively charged molecules generated by ceramic products smooth and relax the hair by canceling static electricity. The ceramic flat iron assists in making hair more manageable, by generating a negative ionic field.

The source of all heat lies in the infrared. When introduced to heat, the ceramic products emit far infrared heat waves, which have longer wavelengths. Heat at this level is more easily absorbed by hair, resulting in enhanced vitality, reduced stress, and less damage.

There is no treatment for seriously heat-damaged hair, although trimming the damaged hair can reduce the formation of split ends.

Perm damage

A permanent wave process inexpertly applied is probably the most damaging chemical treatment that hairdressers see. The cuticle scales on the hair have been lifted up and separated from each other. They will never return to normal, and as soon as a comb passes over them they may break off. The cuticle may be completely stripped off, revealing the cortex underneath. This too is now exposed to weathering, and will probably not survive unbroken for long.

When a new client walks into a salon, the hairdresser never knows what problems are going to face them. A quick assessment reveals whether the client is Caucasian, African, or Asian descent: all these different racial types have different hair qualities and different hair structures. Is this client's hair curly or straight? Dry, greasy or normal? or perhaps of a mixed type? Is it long or short? Thick or thin, in terms of its density on the head? Are the fibers coarse, medium or fine? All these characteristics interact with each other.

The quality of your hair reflects in part the adequacy of your diet: regular, well-rounded meals are best for you and your hair. Consuming extra protein or amino acid preparations will not promote hair growth. In fact, there is evidence that megadoses of some vitamins-particularly A and E may contribute to hair loss. Iron deficiency, due to inadequate consumption of red meat or heavy menstrual bleeding in women, could cause hair shedding. Crash diets and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa can damage hair dramatically.

Various claims are made for the value of analysis of hair samples-- measuring its mineral content -- as a means of assessing nutritional status or detecting nutritional deficiencies, but the process has no validity and can be considered one of the many scams aimed at appealing to people concerned about their health. The chance of getting accurate information from a single hair strand is nil. The results are distorted by contamination from sweat, the shampoos, conditioners, sprays and coloring agents used to groom hair, and by the hair's rate of growth. It's highly questionable whether the metal or mineral content of a hair accurately reflects amounts elsewhere in the body.

Certain hairstyles and treatments can cause breakage or root damage. Avoid excessively tight braiding, buns, or ponytails. do not roll your hair too tightly in curlers. Teasing and back combing should be done gently or not at all. To much exposure to sun, wind, or swimming-pool chemicals will dry out your hair and cause it to knot.

A styling gel or mousse can give your hair more body or thickness. They do not necessarily damage your hair, but you may experience extra dryness, especially at the hair ends.

Hair bleaches chemically alter the melanin granule in the middle layer of each hair strand. Despite careful treatment, persistent bleaching eventually damages even healthy, strong hair shafts, but it does not injure the roots from which future hair growth takes place.

Hair sprays are generally used on dry hair, to hold and fix a style. A hair spray is a solution of a polymer (plastic) in a liquid.

The hair spray solution in the canister reaches the hair in the form of a fog of tiny droplets. When these strike the hair they join up, coating the hair thinly with the polymer. The spray dries very quickly, since the liquid evaporates almost at the instant it touches the hair. As it dries the polymer forms light welds or bonds between the strands of hair. It is these bonds that hold the newly created style in place.

Different types of hair spray are sold, for use on different types of hair. They differ in the formulation of the holding polymer used, and also in the way the spray is produced. Polymer sprayed on the hair in the form of large droplets gives more hold; it takes longer to dry, however, which leaves the hair feeling sticky for a while. It may also seem stiffer and rougher when it is dry. Smaller droplets give better feel, but a less firm hold. It is important to choose the right balance between hold and feel.

The more heavily the spray is applied, the stronger is the hold. But there is a definite trade-off: the build-up of polymer on the hair both looks and feels unpleasant. Some sprays feel sticky after even a fairly light application. A good spray will give both good 'hold' and good 'feel' without heavy or repeated application, and will be completely removed by shampooing.

Most hair sprays bond the hair strands into long, linear bundles - that is, they 'seam weld' the hair. But this structure is broken down as soon as a comb or fingers are run through it, or even in damp or windy conditions.

A new innovation produces 'spot welds' rather than seam welds see . This reduces the volume of product on the hair. It also gives a softer hold and less damage to the cuticles when the hair is groomed.
Hair dyes work more like paint by covering hair strands with color or by mixing with the melanin granules without altering them. Dyes come in temporary form, which eventually wash out, and semi-permanent and permanent forms, conduct a patch test to check for possible irritation, because a severe allergic reaction to hair dye could cause hair loss. Curling is safest if you twist your hair into pin curls overnight. Use of hot rollers or curling irons gives the best results for coarse hair, but they may damage strands or roots when used to excess. When you use a curling iron always roll in the ends last. For safe curling of fine hair, let it air dry and wind it loosely around sponge rollers.

Permanent waving rearranges the inner hair molecules, breaking and reforming its sulfur bonds, in a step-wise chemical process (that gives off the familiar sulfide odor which wafts off the head being waved). Permanent waving is safe for healthy hair, but you may find it results in increased dryness and splitting. Straightening and permanent waving use the same chemical methods to change the properties of hair strands.

In permanent waving, a gentle shampoo first strips off the sebum, then swelling agents open up the hair shaft -- to allow entry of the bond-rearranging waving solution. Modern waving solutions (mostly ammonium or sodium sulfide) are more flexible than the former types, safer and more controllable. The latest acidic waving lotions, although more expensive, have the gentlest hair-reforming action, and are advised for use on fragile or tinted hair. Wound on rollers of varying sizes, hair gets a permanent curl of the desired type. The final extent of the wave depends on the kind of hair (finer curling faster), the time the solution stays on and the size of roller used. After the hair is arranged in its new, curly configuration. Waving solution is rinsed off and the second solution, the neutralizer which restores the linkage is put on to halt the curling process. The waving action must be stopped at the right time to avoid overprocessing. Modern waving solutions are often self-timed, the hair-altering reaction automatically halted after a designated time. A permanent waving should never be done on hair dyed with metallic products and only with extreme care (using the gentler waving lotions) on hair that's been recently bleached or tinted with permanent, oxidative dyes. Dual processing could disintegrate hair made porous by the tinting procedure. Waving after coloring hair requires great care and use of weaker waving lotions -- a fact known by any trained hairdresser. Done by a reliable stylist, permanent waving today is pretty safe.