Week 0 - Introduction

Hi everyone! Welcome to my first blog post! Tune in here weekly to watch my journey navigating through my Senior Project, where I will investigate how to bridge tradition with scientific innovativeness through Ayurveda! 

Ayurveda has been an integral part of my life growing up in India. I moved to the US when I was eight years old and saw that the Ayurvedic practices I was so used to were extremely uncommon. None of my friends understood when I told them how bad my mother’s turmeric milk recipe tasted but that that was the reason I had gotten better. They didn’t understand why I oiled my hair to make it strong and healthy. Ayurveda helped me connect with my culture while I was navigating my way through a new country.

Hair is an integral component of who we are. My hair stands as a symbol of the most important aspects of me: culture, family, and confidence. I was always made to feel like my hair type was different in a negative way. Hair is an integral component of who we are. My hair never looked like my classmates’ hair. I felt embarrassed of my long, thick, poofy hair, because it just didn’t seem to be “healthy.” Part of growing up was realizing that my hair being different didn’t have to be a bad thing. Hair helps us express ourselves and tells a story, which is why I chose to apply Ayurveda to this crucial component of our overall well-being.

I have two main goals with my project: Educate and Apply

Ayurveda has often been misunderstood around the world due to several different factors, such as the language barrier and limited research. I want to educate others on what Ayurveda truly is, diminishing the belief that Ayurveda is just “herbal medication.” The next part of this project is the application of Ayurveda, which I chose to do through hair! By educating people through the results of my experiments and research, I can give insight on topics that people wouldn’t normally connect Ayurveda to, such as consumerism. We spend money on expensive products after using shampoo to further nourish our hair. However, a bottle of coconut oil is cheap, easy to apply after shampoo, and can be used in several other tasks in your home.

Hair is made from a long chain of proteins in a sac, or follicle, which is made of skin cells. The cuticle is the outer layer of the hair and it can be used to measure the softness or shininess of hair. The different textures of hair arise due to the shape of follicles and the number of disulfide bonds found in the hair strands. Shampoos have several ingredients that are good for our hair, however sodium, lauryl sulfates are effective cleaning agents as well as being too harsh and dry on curlier and thinner hair types. Proper nourishment and maintenance of hair is needed, and that is where Ayurveda steps in. Coconut oil is predominantly made up of a medium-chain fatty acid called lauric acid. This gives coconut oil a long, straight structure, which is more easily absorbed deep into the hair shaft. 

Stay tuned for my next blog to learn more 🙂