can anyone explain this to me?

[looneykristin]

Does anyone know anything about the body chemistry of hair? I gave one of my co-workers shampoo for Xmas, because her wet freshly washed hair kept giving me a migraine. So I gave her the shampoo that I myself use. Well, a few days ago - while looking over my shoulder at my computer, she took her hair down from a bun it had been in since it was

Comments

[chite]

Does the shampoo itself have any fragrance?

I don't know specifically about hair, but body chemistry in general will not just make a perfume smell different but will change the chemistry of the perfume. Scents will also last longer on people with oily skin. There are some scents that I absolutely cannot be around out of the bottle, but smelled on some people they are perfectly fine. Another scent which did not give me a migraine out of the bottle reacted with my own skin in such a way that I got instantly sick (and couldn't get away from myself, sadly!)

I know this doesn't help much except to say that yes, it is probably her body chemistry changing the composition of the scent in the products she uses.

[scottbateman]

Maybe there's a chance that your brain has learned to associate her hair with migraines--an unconscious learned behavior...? Smells are often strong triggers for this sort of response.

[mommyrex]

I have a terrible time with deodorants ... their smells change wildly when I wear them -- it's not my smell, it's not the fragrance of the deodorant, and it's not a reasonable combination -- it's something completely different. And annoying. I've finally switched back to an anti-perspirant, which seems to keep the mutant odors from occurring.

But I would think freshly washed hair (especially the long, damp part in the bun) would really have no substances on it that would interact with the fragrance. No sweat, no oil ... just the water and the shampoo residue. The only other thing I can think of is lingering hair dye or "permanent" chemicals, but knowing your co-workers, that seems unlikely.

[heptadecagram]

It could be that the petroleums in the old shampoo are still washing themselves out. When hair is wet, the particles can more freely evaporate and thus transmit much faster.

As to specific-person hair, I suppose it's possible. I mean, some people are allergic to particular cats and not others, why not particular people?

[uilos]

Chemistry wise, hair doesn't have a lot going for it, its really all just dead protein. However, it's pretty absorbtive - good example being the way that cigarette smoke clings to hair. There is the possibility that if she had been using the old shampoo for a very long while that the hair has pretty well absorbed the scent. How long had she been using the new shampoo? Did you do anything between the shampoos to potentially strip all the old shampoo build-up from the hair or was it just a nice lather and rinse?

[looneykristin]

I'm pretty sure she normally uses her normal shampoo, and only uses the stuff I gave her when she knows she is going to see me... she mentioned that she has almost used up the bottle - and I gave it to her back in December. So maybe her hair still has some of the other shampoo's smell in it...