http://evesdilemma.blogspot.com/2005/12/le...t-shall-we.html

So, I was reading a few threads on the heat thing, and how folks keep trying to justify that it's okay to use it. And the insistence (really, the defensiveness) of how it was okay to use heat really astounded me. So I did a little research, and put a little "article" in my blog. After discussing it with Dee, she gave me permission to post it here. Hopefully we can finally kill this notion that a little heat never hurt nothing.

So let's begin with the definition of heat:

Heat, as defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary, includes the following definition that we will use for the purposes of this entry:


Heat: added energy that causes substances to rise in temperature, fuse, evaporate, expand, or undergo any of various other related changes, that flows to a body by contact with or radiation from bodies at higher temperatures, and that can be produced in a body (as by compression)[/b]

Okay, before we go any further into the topic, let's just notice the definition, particularly the bolded words. To fuse is to become blended or joined by or as if by melting together. Let's think about things that have melted in our lives and what happened when they returned to their regular state:

<div align="center">Butter-put a stick of butter out on a hot day. It melts into a puddle of buttery goodness. Now take that buttery pool and stick it in the refrigerator-does it become the beautiful even stick that it was before you put it out? Nope. It&#39;s still butter, but instead of being a block, it is a pool. And no matter how many times you try to mold it, you will never get it as symmetric as it was before you put it out on the hot day.

Ice cream-sit a bowl of ice cream, looking just like it does on the box, out on the stove while you are cooking. It melts. Now put it back in the refrigerator-does it look like the same as it did? I think the answer is obvious that it doesn&#39;t and it won&#39;t.

Melt the previously mentioned ice cream and butter again, and put them in the same bowl. Now put them in the refrigerator to cool-guess what? You can&#39;t seperate them. It&#39;s no longer just butter, no longer just ice cream, and it&#39;s not possible to separate them again 100%.

To evaporate is to convert into vapor, and to convert something into vapor, you must expel moisture from it. Things that evaporate are pretty much gone forever-water left on the ground after a rain evaporates and then is no more-you cannot reconstitute it and put it back on the ground, it is gone forever.</div>

So, if we agree that heat as defined as above is the energy that causes fusion and evaporation, we can agree that what we are talking about are permanent processes. Fusion cannot be undone-it is a union by or as if by melting: as a : a merging of diverse, distinct, or separate elements into a unified whole.

Audience, this means that the original elements no longer look like they originally did on a molecular level. They have been melted down and joined with another entity to become a completely different thing.

So, let&#39;s put this in the perspective of our hair. If we go back to the definition, we see that heat is added energy that causes substances to rise in temperature, fuse, evaporate, expand, or undergo any of various other related changes, that flows to a body (our hair) by contact with or radiation from bodies (flat irons, burning the hair straight combs, curling irons, blowdryers, et. al.) at higher temperatures.

So I ask you-why in the HECK would you use the bodies indicated to fuse, evaporate, or expand your hair, and then wonder why it isn&#39;t doing what it did prior? Don&#39;t forget the definitions of fusion and evaporation previously mentioned. You cannot reconstitute your hair after it&#39;s been damaged. Stop believing the mass marketing lies put out their by the hair care companies who are only in business to get your money. The law of physics dictate that it is not possible to put it back the way it was, AND it decays rapidly. Please note the following from a physicist website:
Fusion is what takes place when two atomic nuclei collide with enough energy to
overcome their electric repulsion and merge, forming a new type of nucleus.
Usually, the new nucleus is unstable, and decays very rapidly. [/b]
Fusion is used to create sources of energy. So, unless you are trying to figure a way around high gas prices by hot combing, burning the hair straight, blow drying, or applying heat in other forms to your hair and then putting the resulting product in your gas tank, you might as well leave the heat alone. Or, if you choose to use it after knowing what heat does to your hair...please don&#39;t say you weren&#39;t warned.