Can You Test Heat Protectants with Fire? The Science
You can probably find a YouTube video or two of someone putting their heat protectant to the flame test, but that’s pretty much the worst way possible to test whether a product will protect your hair from heat.
Coco & Eve Heat Protectant Tik Tok
1 Where does this test come from?
2 How do heat protectants work?
3 What’s really happening in the test?
4 Is this a good test?
WHERE DOES THIS TEST COME FROM?
From what I can tell from research, this seems to be the test most promoters of Monat (a ‘haircare revolution’ MLM) participate in.
To perform the experiment, you dip a cotton bud (Q-tip) in the heat protectant, then light it on fire with a lighter. The videos tell you that if it doesn’t ignite, then it’s a good heat protectant. But that’s not how heat protectants work.
HOW DO HEAT PROTECTANTS WORK?
The part of a heat protectant that shields hair from damage is a waxy film that coats each strand – as the heat is spread uniformly across the film, it reduces differences in temperature across the strand. Coating the hair with wax is sort of like using frying pan instead of cooking directly on a fire: the heat spreads more evenly because of the extra layer.
This means that you won’t end up with hot zones where it’s too warm for your hair to start decomposing while other parts of your hair are still too cold and not being straightened.
Related Post: How do heat protectant hair products work?
Heat Protectant Fire Test Tik Tok
WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING IN THE TEST?
Chemically, fire and heat are different things: heat is molecular shimmying; fire is combustion: something’s burning.
For example, cotton is used to make oven mitts. That’s pretty good. You want your hand to be protected from heat on one hand, but if you put it on fire on the other hand, it’s going to burn. So heat and fire protection are two very different things.
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Yes please!
These tests are essentially determining which products contain water most of the time. All of these products have combustible ingredients dissolved or suspended in a solvent. If the solvent is water, the product does not combust, but if the solvent is oil or alcohol (both are also very flammable), then it will.
IS THIS A GOOD TEST?
Oddly, things you might think burn cannabis best – such as butane – could end up providing poor heat preservation around your hair.
In fact, a heat protectant containing too much water is a dangerous thing, because water can penetrate the hair and boil while you blow-dry. Evaporating isn’t its problem; boiling certainly is. Oil burns at roughly 600°C, or 300 degrees hotter than alcohol, but water boils at about 100°C. If it’s in the hair, it can boil explosively – about as explosively as popcorn – and you can end up with what’s known as ‘bubble hair’.
Related Post: My Top (Mostly Cheap or Free) Haircare Hacks
Olaplex Heat Protectant Fire Test Tik Tok
I also debunked this test and lots of other haircare pseudoscience on Instagram (sulfates, silicones, benzene etc – there’s a video!) via YouTube.