• Question: how would your science help me with being a hairdresser when i grow up ?

    Asked by to Roy, Rowena, Nicola, Kieren, Kate on 20 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Roy Adkin

      Roy Adkin answered on 20 Mar 2014:


      Chemistry is a big part of colouring hair. You’ll be expected to be able to mix your own colours from stock colour chemicals…you’ll need to know reaction times and solvents, what containers you can and can’t keep your chemicals in. You’ll need to write COSHH (control of substances hazardous to health) assessments to make sure you conform to the law a health and safety legislation. I’m sure you will learn all of this at college but bear it in mind but don’t worry too much about it…you certainly won’t need to know the organic inventory of a meteorite or the reaction mechanism of esterification!! 😉

    • Photo: Rowena Fletcher-Wood

      Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 20 Mar 2014:


      I work on materials like chromium which are used in the dye industry. Understanding a bit about them would help you choose good dyes which last longer and are environmentally friendly to use as a hairdresser. I will also directly help you with my work because I am recycling chromium (or trying to). This means that chromium won’t run out and will be put back into industries like dye producing where it is needed. I also help to keep it in a safe form which won’t be toxic to anybody.

      Have you seen the film Legally Blonde? At the end, the main character, Elle, is in a trial and is questioning a suspect who says she had a perm then a shower and she suddenly has a realisation:

      Elle Woods: Isn’t the first cardinal rule of perm maintenance that you’re forbidden to wet your hair for at least 24 hours after getting a perm at the risk of deactivating the immonium thygocolate?
      Chutney: Yes.
      Elle Woods: And wouldn’t somebody who had, say, 30 perms before in their life be well aware of this rule, and if in fact you weren’t washing your hair as I suspect you weren’t because your curls are still intact, wouldn’t you have heard the gunshot, and if in fact you had heard the gunshot Brooke Windham wouldn’t have had time to hide the gun before you got downstairs. Which means you would have had to found Brooke Windham with a gun in her hand to make your story plausible, isn’t that right?

      Science and hairdressing in one!

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