Friction & Hair Breakage

Four Years Ago I Figured It Out
The realisation that changed everything. And it was not my shampoo.

Four years ago, I arrived at the realisation that the underlying cause of my hair breakage was friction. This realisation was not immediate. I had a meticulous hair care regimen. From investing in high-end hair masks and silk pillowcases to transitioning from full head foils to root melts. The list goes on.

First Things First. What Is Friction?

Definition: Friction manifests as the resistance encountered by one surface or object when it moves across another. Its impact can range from macroscopic, involving substantial movements, to microscopic, involving tiny movements.
Zeidan, 2023 — for my Harvard-appreciating people.

Drumroll. Silk pillowcases were conceived, in part, to mitigate this friction. In conventional cotton pillowcases, the fibres hinder the smooth glide of hair, perpetuating a cycle of friction during approximately eight hours of sleep.

Mecca, 2020.

This repetitive friction causes hair breakage and hair thinning.
I will never like those words.

So How Did This Apply to My Hard Hat?

I was wearing my hard hat for 12 hours a day. Meaning my hair was undergoing 12 hours of friction every single shift. Lightbulb moment for me.

• 8hrs of friction on a silk pillowcase that the industry was already trying to solve
• 12hrs of friction from a hard hat sweatband every single shift. Nobody was talking about this.

Moral of the Story

I can sleep on my silk pillowcase, use my expensive hair treatments and move to root melts. But if my hard hat was causing friction on my hair, I still have a problem, Houston.

And here the birth of Mulberry Silk Sweatbands occurs.

Next article: You Spend Longer in a Hard Hat Than You Do Asleep

The full story of how the silk sweatband came to be, and why it closes the gap everything else leaves open.