Protein related questions?

Question

1)give reasons why hair can be straighted/curled with heat/chemical.

2)give reasons why it is difficult to iron pure silk materials smoothly.

3)give reasons why keratin that make up hairs has high tensize strength and certain degree of electricity.

Answer 1

1) Hair is made up of proteins.  Heat denatures proteins, which can change the conformation (shape) of the proteins.  This enables curling/staightened.

2) Same as above.  Silk is made of protein.  Heat denatures protein and causes a change in conformation, which tends to make the material curl.

3) The best I can come up with here is that there are ionic bonds between the keratin fibers.  This causes the fibers to stick together (resulting in tensile strength) and would allow movement of electrons for the degree of electricity.