Hair Guides · 140+ answers · 40 terms
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What salons call it, and what it really is.
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- Cold waveA perm with no machine and no heated rod: a lotion at room temperature and the tension of the wind.
- CollagenHydrolysed collagen is a conditioning film-former: it plumps, softens and glosses; it does not straighten.
- CortexThe thick inner structure of the hair that gives it its strength and colour.
- CuticleThe outer scales of the hair shaft.
- CysteamineThe reducing agent in "thio-free" perms, used instead of ammonium thioglycolate. It is itself a sulphur chemistry.
- Cysteic acidWhat bleaching turns the hair's cystine into. There is nothing left for a neutraliser to rejoin, so a perm drops out.
- CysteineAn amino acid. On a smoothing label, cysteine means the gentle tier.
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