Most likely, you have ever felt a very annoying pain in your scalp when you have been wearing a ponytail or bun all day and you are about to take it off. But have you ever wondered why your hair is so sore? Turns out, it's not really your hair that hurts.
Dr. Angela Lamb, director of the Westside Mount Sinai Dermatology Faculty Practice, told The Huffington Post that it is the nerve endings attached to each hair that is affected when it is worn for several hours in an updo.
“Hair is another component of the nervous system, so when you pick it up, it puts pressure on the nerve endings that are at the root of the follicle. That is why over time they become sore,” said the doctor.
According to Jessica Wu, a dermatologist in Los Angeles, the problem is that hair grows accustomed to being in a specific position. “The nerve endings get used to the hair being in one direction,” she said. So, when you take off your updo, “the nerve endings are stimulated again so your scalp is more sensitive.”
Jessica Wu
Dermatologist
And although it may seem like a harmless pain, in the long run it can lead to more than one problem. If we continually tie our hair up, as Lamb explained, it can “cause something we call traction alopecia, hair loss caused by tension in the hair, or make the hair thinner.”
Furthermore, if you always do the same updo "it can cause breakage." “Hair is dead, it is only made of keratin, but if we put too much pressure and tension on it it weakens,” warns Lamb. The key is to vary the styles of updos, whether pigtails, braids or buns, and make sure that they do not pull too hard on the scalp.
