Only 7% of all women love their hair.
That’s a pretty small number, and if you’re part of it, you may be using the wrong hair treatments.
A lot of the ways you style your hair are actually damaging your hair, and if you aren’t taking care of your hair properly, you can end up with broken, frizzy, stringy, hair.
Let’s take a few minutes to explore how our hair gets damaged and how we can fix it.
How Does My Hair Get Damaged in the First Place?
Anything chemical compounds you put in your hair will damage it, so think things like hair dyes. But your hair is more sensitive than you might think.
Frequently styling your hair with a curling iron or a straightener will also weaken your hair. Even putting your hair in tight styles, like a really tight ponytail or braid, can put stress on your hair.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use all your favorite hair products and styling tools, but you should use them within reason. To better understand what that means, let’s take a look at how these things damage your hair.
1. Bleaching Your Hair
Bleaching is a pretty common thing to do to your hair because it lets you get creative with the color of your hair. People with dark hair can bleach their hair and dye it blond, and a lot of people use it to dye their hair colors you could only find in a crayon box.
Bleaching is fun, but it’s incredibly damaging.
When you bleach your hair, the chemicals seep through the outer layer of the hair (the cuticle) and tears away the natural pigment. This changes the structure of your hair, making it weaker.
A bleach job gone wrong can be a disaster, resulting in breaking hair or hair that falls out.
2. Highlights and Semi-Permanent Dyes
These aren’t as damaging as bleaching because they don’t remove pigment from the inside of the hair.
But if you highlight or use semi-permanent dyes in your hair a lot, it can wear down the hair and begin to change the internal structure of the hair.
3. Perms
Anything that permanently curls or straightens your hair actually breaks bonds inside the hair and reconstructs them a different way. This will weaken your hair, leaving it dry, dull, and brittle over time.
4. Curling Iron and Blow Dryer
Every kind of heat applied to your hair will temporarily damage hydrogen bonds that hold your hair together. Because the damage is only temporary, curling your hair at home every once in a while isn’t going to cause a lot of problems.
But if the curling iron or hair dryer is part of your daily routine, the temporary damage can become permanent.
5. Tight Hairstyles
These are things like extensions and weaves. Because they are so tight, they can leave hair broken and brittle. This damage is often caused at the roots, which make it difficult to remove.
But hairstyles like the common brain and ponytail can cause problems too. If the hair is pulled too tight and worn like that every day, your hair will break and you’ll see more split ends.
6. Over-Brushing Your Hair
There is such a thing as brushing your hair too much, and it causes your hair to break and split at the ends.
Brushing your hair too much creates consistent friction that your hair can’t handle. So instead of brushing your hair in depth multiple times a day, try running a brush through it quickly as little as you can.
Hair Treatments to Fix the Damage
All the ways hair can get damage may make you think you shouldn’t do anything with your hair at all. But hair treatments will keep your hair healthy and let you style your hair like normal.
Think of hair treatments like a warm up before you exercise. Most people stretch before they go on a run to make sure they don’t hurt themselves while they’re running.
Hair treatments are the same thing. They take care of your hair before you do anything else to it, making sure it doesn’t get damaged.
So let’s take a look at some of the hair treatments you should be using this year.
1. Bumble and bumble Hairdresser’s Invisible Oil Primer
You should put this in your hair before you pull out your curling iron or straightener.
It’s made of six nourishing oils that will protect your hair from heat damage, including sun damage. It will also keep your hair smooth, taking away that frizzy look heat damaged hair sometimes gets.
2. Briogeo Roscaro Milk Reparative Leave-In Conditioning Spray
This is another good option if you put a lot of heat on your hair.
While it’s still damp, just apply the condition all over your hair. This will lock that moisture into your hair, protecting it from heat damage.
3. Rita Hazan Triple Threat Split End Remedy
If you’re fighting a losing battle with split ends, this should be your new weapon. This repairs the damaged hair from the inside by actually entering the shaft and putting the broken fibers back together.
Next time you’re at the salon, you won’t have to trim as much hair off as usual.
4. Melt into Moisture
Sometimes curly hair needs a little more attention than straight hair, and this is the treatment that’ll give it to you. Melt into Moisture brings nourishment back to dry, tangly curls and restore moisture. No more poofy, dry frizz.
5. Deep Sea Repair Mask
Deep Sea Repair is also designed to protect and repair dry and frizzy curls. If you have curly hair that’s always dry, use this mask and see what a difference it can make.
6. Redken Clean Maniac Micellar Clean-Touch Shampoo
This treatment removes residue from the products you use throughout the day, oil, and other types of dirt from your hair. Think of it like makeup remover for your hair.
The best part is it leaves all the essential oils your hair needs.
7. Olaplex Hair Perfector No3
If you have bleached hair, this treatment will reconnect the hair’s structure where it has been broken by the chemicals. This strengthens the hair again after it has already been damaged by bleach.
Don’t Skip Hair Treatments this Year
A lot of people forget to take care of their hair, but it needs just as much attention as the rest of your body. Instead of living with dry, broken, and frizzy hair this year, try some of these hair treatments.
Is your hair ready for 2018? Here are a few hairstyles to be aware of this year.
