Sunday, October 3, 2010

Tourmaline + Hair

Look at your flat irons, curling irons, and other high quality heat tools - chances are they have tourmaline in the plates. Well, what exactly does that mean and how does it benefit my hair are common questions.

Tourmaline is a crystal silicate mineral compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Tourmaline is classified as a semi-precious stone and the gem comes in a wide variety of colors. The most common species of tourmaline is schorl. (as per wikipedia) The word tourmaline has two etymologies, both from the Sinhalese word turamali, meaning "stone attracting ash" (a reference to its pyroelectric properties) or according to other sources "mixed gemstones".

Once tis crystal silicate mineral is ground down and added to the plates of your heat tools it has the ability to do some pretty cool things to your hair. For one, it emits negative ions and negative ions help smooth the cuticle of the hair. The smoother the cuticle the shinier the hair appears, a rough cuticle will give hair a dull look. But the biggest plus for us, is that a smoothed out cuticle actually helps retain moisture! One of our biggest problems solved by a heat tool? Sort of, but don't get it twisted the over use of heat will damage your hair no matter what's ground up and inbedded into those tools.