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ModPermalink Reply by Martika* of MartikasMysticDesign on July 8, 2012 at 2:48pm

There is really nothing you can do to completely protect your hair beside for practice, being knowledgeable on how to response to when your hair/ clothing item catches fire, and using the proper safety methods. Pulling it back, wearing a banana,hat and/or wetting your hair is the best you can do. However, even wearing a protective head cover can cause it's own problem. Lets say you have a bandanna or hat that you wrap around your head, for added protection you wet your hair as well. In a worse case event the head protection catches fire. You can remove that item and the water will prevent the hair from lightng up. However, you can get a steam burn on your scalp (think of a lobster red) from the water that you put on your head before adding the head protection. The fire will heat up the moisture from the water causing the steam burn.(This happened to a spinner in Florida that thought wearing two layers of pants, the bottom layer wet, is the best way to spin...He ended up with terrible steam burns below the waist...)

As for adding chemicals to ones hair to prevent it from catching, I have not heard of anything just for hair.. But there is a stage jel (Zel Gel) used by fire breathers that they put on their face to prevent burns, you could use this for your hair, maybe try contacting the making to see if they have a spray solution for hair. Hair is easy to go up but it's also easy to put out. For example, I was double fire hooping, 1 hoop on each elbow, my bangs flare up, hands busy I can't put it out. I simply shook my head side to side (not panicy) and it put out the small bit of flare up. Granted I did wet my hair before I spun, my bangs just dried off before I could do double fire hooping. The more you fire hoop the more comfortable you will be to small flare ups like that, and will know how to handle them without panic. Just remember don't panic your safety will come to you (if trained properly...) when it's needed. 

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StudentPermalink Reply by Quixote on July 8, 2012 at 3:29pm

Word. Thanks for the Zel Gel tip! I was more thinking about in the long term, not as much hair flaring up but preventing damage from the heat in general-- fire hooping, styling, sun damage, etc. It just seemed like hair care would be even more of a concern for fire dancers.

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Permalink Reply by Bearclaw Manufacturing - Tedward on July 8, 2012 at 5:44pm

LA Looks Mega hold makes your hair fire resistant.  Both the Green and Yellow formulas have been tested.

I've never heard of a fire breather using Zel Gel.

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Permalink Reply by Anime Girl on July 8, 2012 at 8:52pm

I'll have to write that down for when I'm ready to spin with fire.  Thanks for that tip.

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