We’ve all been there… our hair “appears” to be healthy and luscious but out of nowhere we start experiencing breakage and our hair seems to stop thriving. It’s possible that after months of damage to your hair, it finally gives in and starts to shed, break and split. To avoid being blind-sighted, make sure you’re not unknowingly putting your hair through unnecessary stress. The 5 tips below will help you prevent further or future damage…
Combing
How you detangle and style your hair can be a major factor to why you are not retaining length and ultimately leading to breakage. Make sure you start at the ends of your hair and work your way up. This insures less breakage and you are not tugging on the hair strands. Also take into account that using a wide tooth comb vs one with narrower spaces between the teeth is optimal. My favorite comb to use is the Hercules Sageman. If you don’t want to use a comb try finger detangling.
In my opinion this is the safest way to rid your hair of tangles because you can actually feel the knots in your hair.
Improper Moisturizing
I can not stress enough how important it is to keep the right moisture protein balance in you hair. If you are natural this can be pretty tricky. Take note that oil does not moisturize the hair. WATER = MOISTURE. Grab your favorite water based moisturizer or use water itself to hydrate your hair. Follow up with an oil to seal in the moisture you just put in you hair. If you find your hair still feels dry after practicing this once a day, increase to doing it twice daily. Every one is different, so do what works for you.
Hair Ties
The use of hair ties are another culprit to damaging your hair. Have you noticed your hair getting caught in the clasp of these? If you answered “yes”, here is the solution. Buy hair ties that don’t have the metal clasp on the end because it is easy for the hair to get stuck in between the metal and ultimately tear off. You can find these “ouchless” hair ties virtually anywhere. My favorite brand to use is Scunci No Damage Hair Ties.
Use of Heat
The keyword for this one is “sparingly”. While I’m not saying you should never use heat, one must take the proper precautions before applying heat to the hair. When you blow dry and flat iron your hair these tools are breaking down structure and drying out the hair. Make sure your hair is prepared by putting enough protein and moisture into the hair after and before using heat. This can be done through a good deep condition and cleansing. NEVER FORGET to use a HEAT PROTECTANT when applying heat to your hair. This is just added protection that your hair needs before being altered by a heat source.
Wrong Products
This one has to be the most difficult of all in my opinion. While yes, a product may smell absolutely amazing, ask yourself: Does this work for my hair? We so often get caught up with raved reviews of products that seem to work everyone or our favorite YouTube personalities but don’t take into account that a product may simply may not be for us. It can be that the ingredients in that product just don’t agree with your hair. No sense in trying to force your tresses into liking something that simply isn’t meant to be.
