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I know that humidity affects ones hair structure, but why? Everytime my waist length hair dries, it feels rough when I'm in the living room and the air conditioner is not on. But when I step inside an airconditioned room, it becomes soft and silky. Can anyone answer this? I'm just curious.
I was trying to think of a good example to illustrate what is going on. The first thing that came to mind is a pine cone. Unfortunately, the effect is reversed. A pine cone opens up when dry. Get it wet or put it in a high humidity environment, and it closes up. The reverse happens with a hair strand. Humidity causes the scales along the shaft to spread out. Drying out makes them lie down and line up.
Hair also shrinks when dried. This effect is used to advantage in hygrometers (measures humidity). In high humidity environments, such as greenhouses, it is common practise to take out the existing fiber strand and replace it with human hair because it works better in high humidity.