Why can’t you undo a heated hairstyle with cold?

Question

Example: if I straighten my hair, washing it in water will un straighten it, but being in super cold air won’t.

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Think of it as slightly melting your hair (or, allowing it to reorganize while hot). It simply cooling immediately afterwards is the resolidifying/”locking it in” part. Cooling it *further* won’t do anything–you need to heat it up again, or apply some other process that allows it to reorganize again.