Hair products are vital for hair health and vitality. Even the most beautiful healthy hair can be damaged by bad hair products. The hair products we use protect our hair in my ways when they are good; they help keep our hair clean from things like bugs, mites, and lice; they hydrate and moisturize our hair, and they help give it new life while living in this world full of harmful toxins and pollution, which is harmful to our overall health, including our hair health. So, there is no doubt that good hair products are essential, but why exactly are expired old hair products so bad?

After becoming a certified makeup, hair, and beauty consultant, and starting out as a beauty blogger, I began testing new products every week. When I went back to use those same hair products again a year or two later, I noticed changes in their smell and color; some of them smelled terribly moldy and looked discolored. It is this experience that inspired this article to be written here. So, today I will share with you some major dangers and risks associated with using old, expired, and moldy hair products.

Oh, before we begin, I have an important announcement! Barbara Frank and I are partners; we work together, so we decided to start our own health podcast together! If you follow this website, you likely know that I am a voice-over artist. Podcasts are so popular these days, so I felt that they would be a great addition to our health articles. Barbara Frank will also talk to you all in some of these podcasts on various health topics. These new podcasts will be at the beginning of each new health article on our website here so that you can choose to read, listen, or do both to them.

Here is the very first of these podcasts that we recorded for you all today. We hope you all enjoy it!

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Mold

Recently, I moved and discovered mold in some of the hair products that had gotten lost in my closet. Most of you are familiar with mold, but I think most people are not aware that hair products and other items can grow mold, products that tend to have a lot of moisture.

If you are unfamiliar with mold, mold is a fungus that can grow on top of surfaces, inside moist products, or even on human skin. Something that might surprise you is that mold can even grow on your pets, on their fur, when they inhale it or come into physical contact with it.

Mold can cause all kinds of health problems including asthma, dermatitis, respiratory problems, and painful sensitivity in areas where it is growing in white or black spots.

For most people when they come in contact with mold, it affects them by making them tired with little energy, and slower cognitively. Mold can grow inside of your body and break it down so that you constantly have health problems.

Mold is such a strong organism that it is extremely difficult to get rid of it. It can take a long time to remove it, if you are even able to successfully remove it at all. Due to how dangerous mold is, you have to get rid of it from your environment and keep it under control as much as possible. If you do not get rid of mold, it can cause your health to go down drastically fairly quickly; it can cause pain, bodily discomfort, and even kill you over time, so you do not want mold anywhere inside of your body, including your hair.

A lot of people take care to avoid mold, but they forget about their hair. Applying mold to your body will put it inside of your bloodstream. From there it can grow and spread rapidly. When mold grows in your hair, it can make your hair dry, brittle, extremely damaged looking, unhealthy, and develop an unpleasant moldy odor. What causes mold to grow in hair products is the excess moisture. The hair products that are most likely to develop mold are leave-in hair conditioners and liquid products like detanglers. Hair products that are less likely to develop mold are thicker petroleum-based products that are more oily such as hair waxes, pastes, pomades, clays, and setting oils.

Furthermore, if you are like me, and are a regular here on my website, you are likely into health, which brings us to another concern. Hair products that are organic and natural have no chemicals in them to help stabilize and preserve them, so they are more likely to develop mold faster than more chemical-based products. So, in order to avoid getting mold in your hair, always check your hair products for a smell or a change in consistency before applying them to your hair.

Free Radicals

A radical is an atom, and free radicals are unstable atoms that can damage skin, tissues, and cells. Free radicals are found in things that are really old, such as foods and old products. Free radicals are also found in certain chemical-based products such as smoke from tobacco, poor air quality and pollution, and pesticides. Free radicals can even be inside of medicines that you take, as well as a lot of fast food because the food is reheated over and over again with the same oils.

“Free radicals are responsible for breaking down our skin’s collagen, resulting in unflattering skin blemishes like wrinkling, dark spots, fine lines and loose, saggy skin” ((n.d.). The Impact of Free Radicals on Your Skin. Curel.com).

“Highly reactive molecules called free radicals can cause tissue damage by reacting with polyunsaturated fatty acids in cellular membranes, nucleotides in DNA, and critical sulfhydryl bonds in proteins. Free radicals can originate endogenously from normal metabolic reactions or exogenously as components of tobacco smoke and air pollutants and indirectly through the metabolism of certain solvents, drugs, and pesticides as well as through exposure to radiation. There is some evidence that free radical damage contributes to the etiology of many chronic health problems such as emphysema, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, cataracts, and cancer” (Machlin LJ, Bendich A. Free radical tissue damage: protective role of antioxidant nutrients. FASEB J. 1987 Dec;1(6):441-5. PMID: 3315807.).

Free radicals in your hair products can age your hair and cause it to look unhealthy and damaged, so to avoid them, it is best to use natural organic hair products and avoid highly chemical-based products and old expired products. Also, From time to time, it is important to go through your hair products and declutter those that you have had for too long.

Another indication that your hair product has gone bad is if your hair looks damaged after using it when your hair did not look like that previously when you used that same hair product; this is a sign to throw the hair product away and not risk damaging your hair.

Spoiled Ingredients In Organic Natural Hair Products

I love natural and organic products, especially hair products, but one downside to natural organic products is that they tend to go bad faster since they have no heavy chemicals in them to help extend and preserve them. So, it is important to check natural hair products more frequently for changes in smell, texture, and consistency. Certain natural ingredients go bad faster than others. The ingredients commonly used in organic hair products that go bad the fastest include bananas, avocados, tomatoes, eggs, and berries. Products that contain essential oils are less likely to go bad and grow mold since essential oils are a natural preservative and help prevent the growth of germs and bacteria.

Oil used in hair products can also go bad and become rancid when it gets heated or is too old. So, pure oils should also be checked regularly to make sure that they do not smell off or rancid. If a hair product smells bad, rancid, or the texture and consistency has changed, it is time to throw it away.

Air Exposure and Physical Direct Contact Contaminates Hair Products Over Time

Putting your fingers directly into products, such as some hair conditioners, contaminates them over time. When you put your fingers into your hair products, make sure that they are clean beforehand. Clean hands for clean hair. This will not be an issue for smaller hair products that you use up quickly, but for larger hair products that you will keep for a long time, you should change the container that they are in; a pump is a much more hygienic option. Even if you do not directly put your fingers into a hair product, it still can grow germs and bacteria over time because every time you take the top off of it, bacteria, mold, and allergens in the air can get into it and grow, so avoid taking the top off of your hair products or leaving the top off of them for prolonged periods of time.

When bacteria builds up in your hair products and transfers to your hair, they can create hair problems like shedding, thinning, weakness, and hair loss.

Conclusion

Taking care of your body, hair, and skin starts with taking care of the products that you apply to your whole body. Just as you are what you eat, your hair will reflect what you put into it. So take care to check your hair products periodically for any changes in texture, smell, or appearance, as well as for changes in the effect that it has on your hair.

Having good-quality hair products with good ingredients is only part of the battle that we have with our hair every day. So, in order to help create the beautiful hair that you want, you will need to treat it with care, be careful what you use on it, and properly maintain your hair products.

We wish you great success on your hair journey this holiday season! Happy holiday!

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Feeling sick? Having skin or hair problems? Consult with Barbara Frank today to discover the many things that you are doing in your life that are making you sick and infecting you with parasites: Nematodes, fungi, flukes, mites, tapeworms, fleas, lice, and much more.

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Learn more about Barbara Frank, contact her via email (barbara_20815@hotmail.com) to schedule a consultation, and read testimonials from her past and current clients on her website: https://www.barbarafrank222.com