Damage to your hair happens every day. How much damage your hair takes, and what you do to prevent it is up to you. In this post, I will be laying out what hair damage means, what causes it, how to prevent it, when its too late, and how to save what you can.
What does it mean when your stylists refer to your hair as damaged? By the time your hair stylist has to tell you this, it’s already too late. Damaged hair looks like a reptile stroked backwards. If the scales were stroked in the opposite direction, they would stand up, and this is what broken hair looks like. Once the cuticle is damaged, the whole strand will fall apart. If you pay close attention to your hair, you can catch when you have “split ends”, which are often confused with frizz. Damage typically happens at the ends, and the best decision is cutting it off, but there are many forms of damage that affect the mid shaft area and even the roots.
What causes damage? Bellow are all types of damage, along with a rank from barely damaging at 1, to devestating at 10.
- Environmental:
- wind: 25
- salt water 4
- dry climate 2
- Self inflicted:
- Any hot tool 7
- Box dye [dye anyone can get from Sally’s or Walmart] 8
- Chlorinated water 4
- Cotton pillow cases 3
- Hair ties 2-4
- Incorrect brushing technique 1-4
- Incorrect washing techniques 1-3
- Unintentional accidents:
- Pulling hair by the roots 5
- Catching hair on objects 6
- Leaning against things 3-8
How do you prevent hair damage if it seems everything will hurt it? There are many ways to prevent excess damage:
It starts with care and maintenance at home. When you wash your hair, high quality products and proper washing techniques are essential to keep your hair from looking and feeling like hay. Proper hair care products include salon quality shampoo, and conditioner. If you live in a dry climate, or regularly have a frizz and breakage problem, start by adding a salon quality deep conditioning masque and a salon quality leave in conditioner.
After taking care of your hair in the shower, its important to prep it for the day. A light weight, spray on leave in conditioner will moisturize your hair without compromising style. If you plan on using hot tools, try to use tools that have the latest technology to help protect your hair. When using hot tools at home, always set it at three hundred degrees first, and do a test strand. This will be the lowest temp your hot tools will go while still holding the style for some hair types. Slowly turn up the heat until your hair can be styled appropriately- everyone’s hot tool temperature will be different. When you blow dry your hair, use the warm or cool setting rather than the hot setting to prevent damage from the heat of the blow dryer, and use controlled airflow down the shaft of the hair so you don’t upset the cuticle. Any time you use a hot tool, you should be using a heat protection. Its like sunscreen for your hair.
Hair ties pose a risk that people don’t often consider. The softest hair tie you can find will be a scrunchie or a hair scarf. You will want softer hair ties so they won’t damage your hair as much as hair ties that have rubber and metal pieces in them. I will be doing a whole post on alternative hair ties, and other hair accessories in the future.
Hair brushing is important, and often neglected. Improper technique can damage hair, and lead to conditions such as broken hair, dreadlocks and balding. In order to untangle and manage hair effectively, you should use leave-in conditioner, and brush from the bottom up. When you rake through your hair top to bottom, that crunching sound you hear is your hair breaking. Hair is the most fragile part of the body. Never brush your hair when wet, if you have problems out of the shower, brush before getting in, and after drying.
Once you are out and about, it is vital to keep your hair protected. If it’s windy, try putting your hair up with a scrunchy or a scarf, and hide the ends. When the sun is sweltering, put an extra layer of heat protection on it. Generally, the less your hair is out the more protected it is.
Now that we have covered protecting your hair when its dry, what do you do when its wet? Oceans and pools are damaging to hair by their chemical structure. Oceans have salt, and pollutants; pools have chlorine. Before going into public bodies of water, you should put conditioner, or deep conditioner in your hair to coat the cuticle with nutrients, then you should wear a swim cap in the pool and wear it up in the ocean. After getting home from all the fun, wash your hair immediately, and deep condition it for five minutes.
In your typical day, you are going to lean and lay on things that will damage your hair. Simply putting it in a loose bun will help. Another thing you can invest in is a satin or silk pillow case, which will cause less breakage during the night. If you are leaning against a wall or structure, putting your hair up, or putting a buffer between your hair and the rough surface will help prevent breakage.
I will cover this in another blog post but let me say it here as well- STOP! USING! BOX DYE! Box dye is the bane of my existence. It makes your hair practically untouchable. The chemical components in that dye can set your hair on fire if you try to dye over it. It’s not good.
Once your hair is damaged, and looks like the end of a used broom, its time to cut it. For most people, due to their lifestyle and hair length, a trim is required every four to six weeks. When growing out your hair, make sure you still regularly see a stylist to ensure a nice style, and products to keep it healthy. Your stylist will be able to help you with additional products based on your hair type and lifestyle.
Color Addicts 