ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Interaction of hair with water is common. This study was conducted to compare changes in baseline strength of hair after treating it with hard water and deionized water. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Hardness level of water samples collected from 10 districts of KP, Pakistan was determined, and that with maximum hardness was considered our sample hard water. Hair samples of 70 male individuals, from district with minimum hardness levels, were collected. Each hair sample was divided into three equal parts, and three groups of hair were established, each group containing 70 hairs. Group A was considered control. Group B was treated with deionized water and Group C was treated with hard water. Tensile strength of all three groups was measured using the universal testing machine and compared using paired t-test. RESULTS: The mean age of all 70 participants were 23.87 ± 3. The mean values of tensile strength for hairs of Groups A, B, and C were 255.49, 254.84, and 234.16 with a standard deviation of 57.55, 58.74, and 56.25, respectively. Results were significant in case of hard water (P = 0.001) as compared to deionized water (P = 0.609). CONCLUSION: Hard water decreases strength of hair and thus increases breakage.
ABSTRACT
Background: Hard water is thought to play a key role in weakening of hair (not Hair Loss) and breakage especially when travelling is involved. In our community, commonly men do the travelling and complain more about hair problem which is why only young male individuals were included in this study. Materials and Methods: Water samples from different districts of KPK, Pakistan, were collected and their hardness values were estimated to find the water sample of maximum and minimum water hardness in order to know the maximum hardness hair would encounter in KPK, Pakistan. Samples from district Kohat had maximum hardness whereas minimum hardness was estimated in samples of district Peshawar. Water from district Kohat was considered as our sample water for the experimental group of hair. Hair samples were collected from 76 male individuals of district Peshawar, the area with least water hardness among the samples collected. Each hair sample was divided into two halves. One half was considered as experimental group and the other was considered as control group. The experimental group was treated with hard water of district Kohat for 10 minutes on alternate days, for 3 months. In a very similar way the control group was treated with de-ionized water. Tensile strength in term of "Stress" of both the experimental and control groups were measured using the universal testing machine and compared using paired t-test. Results and Conclusions: The standard deviations (SD) for hair treated with hard water and distilled water was 62.05 and 58.13 respectively and the mean values were 238.49 and 255.36 respectively. The results showed that the tensile strength of hair was significantly (p=0.001) reduced in hair treated with hard water as compared to hair treated with de-ionized water.
