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I had to dash outside this morning not long after showering, and the air is so cold right now that my hair froze within minutes! I just let it thaw out and it seems okay, but does freezing damage hair? Haven't had to deal with that much in Minnesota this winter since the weather's been so mild.
Mouse
Back in Colorado, when I was in High School, I had swimming for P.E. When class was over, I had to walk from the pool at the Park and Rec back to the school. During the winter, my hair would freeze by the time I got to the lunchroom. It was the focus of a lot of jokes, but would thaw out within a few minutes. My hair was fine after that and combed out just fine. I did have fairly long hair in school. I even used to comb it into a weird shape before it froze to see if I could get my friends to laugh milk out their noses! (It work a couple of times!)
Don't get me started on Colorado winters...
I would imagine that freezing doesn't do anything good for hair, but since it only happened once to you, Mouse, it'll probably be fine. Just try to stay indoors and consider moving to Florida. ;)
I happen to live in Florida and beleive me , It has some pretty nasty weather. It is very humid in Florida and that is not good for your hair either. The humidity makes your hair extremely frizzy and poofy and the scorching sun dries it like a prune........
No thanks. I'll stay here. I've considered moving before but
every other place has worse weather.
While we have snow in winter we rarely get the hurricanes of
Florida, the mudslides in California, the tornadoes in tornado
alley, etc.
The last time we got a hurricane was in the early 90s.
LOL
Frozen hair is simply hair suspended in the position of the water on the hair; in other words, the hair is trapped under a layer of water. I don't think this in itself is bad for your hair, except perhaps if the weight of the ice would pull too hard at your roots. Another potential problem would be breaking off a chunk of your frozen hair, so exercise caution.
All in all, though, I don't see it as a danger to your hair. Nevertheless, it's probably best not to test the waters (pun not intended) if you don't have to.
Yeah, when it's cold and I have wet hair, I put on a 'beanie' (hate that word, but I suppose it's right and maybe even put up my hood as well.
Wouldn't want to damage my hair, not to mention the fact that frozen hair is *cold*!
Somehow, "beanie" brings to mind images of a cap with a propeller. [grin] Maybe that is what underlies your discomfort, and wearing it would be more palatable if you called it by its usual name, a "woolen cap".
Bill
I've tried to figure out a proper name for it, but no one ever was able to tell me.
I have no problem wearing it, cause it's got an entirely separate name in Danish :)
But it works for me, anyway :)
lol!!that never happened to me before...and I have gone outside with wet hair more times than I can remember.I don't think it's damaging..as long as you don't mess with it while it's frozen!
It's happened to me a few times but it thawed real quick.
As someone who lives in the north where we get lots of winter
no freezing will not hurt your hair.
That having been said freezing could lead to forstbite on your
hands/face/etc. Also a good strong wind out of the north
(the cold weather direction....around here called a Montreal
Express.) can cause tangles which could lead to knots.
But then I have waist length hair which has seen many a
Winter.
I remember freezing my ears while waiting for the bus. It felt like they were blownup twice their normal size. No one pointed and laughed so I guess it was just in my mind.
Bruce
Having lived over 1/2 of my life in New England there were many a time that I would go outside with wet hair, only to have it freeze-into-place. And Yet, to the best of my knowledge this never resulted in any hair problems. (By the way, I have never been one to wear a hat.)
I was shoveling the snow in the driveway today and it was lightly snowing, and my hair froze as well but once i got inside it thawed and seemed softer than ever, it was really cool:).
-Mihnea
Thanks guys! Sounds like the general feeling is that it's no big deal, but that I shouldn't mess with it while it's frozen. However, as Lon pointed out, if it's inevitable, this could make for some interesting hairstyles. :-)
Mouse
Hair should not be damaged by freezing due to the fact that it is not living tissue. The danger comes in when water in the cells freezes and expands, rupturing the cell wall. Since the hair is not living tissue, the moisture content is not high enough to cause internal damage from freezing.
I can't speak for the effects on the other lipids, proteins, etc. present in the hair strand, but these do not expand when frozen.
George