La chimica dei capelli

The Chemistry of  Life and Hair.

Why is it that almost every Italian seems to have perfect hair?  Is there something in the shampoo that they use? Does the pasta and pizza diet contribute to stronger peptide bonds in the amino acids that make up keratin? No, it must be the gel. It has to be.

Well, before we get into the Italian hair styles. Let’s delve into the chemistry of hair. Hair is made up primarily of keratin, a protein. There are three layers that make up the structure of hair. The medulla makes up the innermost layer, next is the cortex, which is surrounded by the cuticle. Let’s incorporate some chemistry shall we. The cuticle swells as a result of hair products with a high pH and shrinks when exposed to products with a low pH. The purpose of the cuticle is to shield damage from the follicle. Anytime, you change your hair color or get a perm or relaxer, you are chemically modifying the cortex of your hair.

Let’s delve even deeper into the chemistry of hair.  On average, hair consists of 45.2 % carbon, 27.9% oxygen, 6.6% hydrogen, 15.1% nitrogen and 5.2% sulfur. The following are the amino acids that are found in hair: cysteine, serine, glutamic acid, threonine, glycine, leucine, valine, arginine, aspartic acid, alanine, proline, isoleucine, tyrosine, phenylalanine, histidine, and methionine. Cysteine is the most abundant amino acid and contributes to the strength of hair.

Let’s rewind to the cortex. The cortex is composed of numerous polypeptide chains that are cross-linked with hydrogen, disulfide, and salt side chains. Each side chain consists of the corresponding bonds. Hydrogen and salt bonds are weak physical bonds. The former are broken by water or heat and the latter are destroyed by changes in pH or by alkaline or acidic solutions.  Disulfide bonds in hair are chemical by nature and contribute the most to the strength of hair even though they are less abundant than the other two bonds mentioned.  The linkage of two sulfur atoms to create cysteine constitute a disulfide bond.

So it may just be that Italians have a greater number of disulfide bonds that yield more cysteine molecules that aid in stronger hair that can withstand any conditions and prevail looking good. Maybe that’s why Buffon’s hair is always camera ready even when he saves goals.

FORZA ITALIA!!!!!! 

Sources:

http://www.hair-science.com/_int/_en/topic/topic_sousrub.aspx?tc=root-hair-science%5Eportrait-of-an-unknown-element%5Esuperb-chemistry&cur=superb-chemistry

 http://dermatology.about.com/cs/hairanatomy/a/hairbiology_2.htm