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Everyone wants shiny, bouncy, commercial-worthy hair. In the quest for that flawless mane, many people torture their hair on a regular basis with blow dryers, flat irons or curling irons and then top it off with harsh treatments such as chemical straightening. But these everyday habits harm your delicate strands and can lead to the string of bad hair days you were hoping to avoid.
The good news? Luscious locks are within your reach. By taking some smart steps, you can dial down the damage and help your hair reach its gorgeous and glossy potential.
Styling Tools
While it can be as hard to part with your blow dryer or flat iron as it is to walk away from a pair of Manolos at a 70 percent off sale, styling tools only scorch and tug at your hair, causing major damage. Follow these tips to save your strands.
1. Blow dryer
When your hair is wet, water collects under the cuticles (the outermost layer of the hair”>. The heat from blow-drying causes the water to form bubbles that stress and break the hair, leading to split ends and dullness.
Drying every day can lead to some serious damage. Spacing out your blow-dry sessions can help minimize the risk. But the key to a healthier blowout is to use cool air, or towel-dry, and then use low heat and hit the off button as soon as your hair feels dry. Even just a few unnecessary seconds from a heat blast is a one-way ticket to Fried Hairsville.
2. Hot tools
Hot tools like curling irons and flat irons are awesome for coaxing strands into certain styles, but they’re also a hair health killer. Heating hair above 212 degrees (the temp at which water boils”> just once can cause bubble hair, which is similar to the effect of boiling water on the stove. In this case, bubbles form inside your hair shaft, causing brittleness and breakage. Not using a hot tool every day helps minimize the risk, but when you do use your tool, don’t hold it on one spot. Keep it moving in a fluid motion.
3. Hot rollers
Hot rollers can dry out your hair just like any heated styling tool can, but the real danger here is rolling them too tight. Constant tension at the roots can cause the hair to fall out, so go easy.
Read More: Hair Care Tips
4. Pressing
Pressing with a hot comb can cause all sorts of damage. The combs are generally heated to at least 150 degrees, which can cause bubble hair, a condition in which the water in the hair actually boils, forming bubbles inside the shaft. The bubbles make the hair prone to severe breakage. If you prefer pressing, it’s best to leave it to a professional who has experience controlling heated combs. To minimize damage, don’t press your hair more than once a week.
5. Bobby Pins
Super-cute—and super-terrible for your hair. Bobby pins grip the hair tightly and cut into the hair shaft; use them repeatedly in the same spot and you’ll notice breakage. Scale back on your bobby-pin usage, or move them around so you’re not hitting the same areas every time.
6. Elastic Bands
The nature of elastic bands is to grip the hair tightly so it will stay in place, but that gripping cuts into the hair shaft and causes fraying. If you wear your hair in a ponytail every day, you might notice breakage near where you put the elastic band. Minimize damage by using thick, fabric-coated bands (never use rubbery elastics!”> and give your ponytail a break, or consider a shorter haircut.
7. Brush
For all the women who don’t have a pixie cut, brushes are kind of a necessary evil. We say “evil” because brushing causes wear and tear on the hair’s cuticle (the outer layer that seals in shine”>. Brush with a gentle touch! Vigorously brushing your hair Marcia Brady–style can cause all sorts of damage. Avoid metal brushes at all costs—they can actually lacerate the hair. Stick with smooth plastic or natural bristle, neither of which will snag the cuticle as much.
8. Comb
If you use a comb to detangle your hair, for best results, start from the bottom and gently work your way up. Vigorously pulling a comb through your hair from the top down can snap strands like a rubber band. A wide-tooth comb made from plastic or wood is best—always avoid metal combs, because metal can lacerate the hair.
Chemical Processing
Whether you’re trying to disguise gray strands or want smooth, straight hair that behaves in bad weather, chemical processing such as coloring and straightening can harm your hair. Here’s how to minimize the damage to your mane.
9. Semi-permanent Color
All coloring processes reduce elasticity to some degree (less elasticity means more breakage”>. Semi-permanent color is less damaging than permanent color or lifting (colorists’ fancy word for bleaching”>. That’s because the dyes used have small molecules, so they get into the hair shaft easily, without damaging the outer layer. For the same reason, they also wash out quickly. Leave-in conditioners can help smooth the cuticle, which increases shine and helps your hair hold on to color for longer.
Read More: Aging Hair Bleaches Itself
10. Permanent Dye
Permanent dye deposits color into your hair shaft. The solution most likely contains hydrogen peroxide and ammonia to open up the cuticle and drive the color molecules into the hair. Unless a full bleaching process is required to change the hair color, permanent dyes are less damaging than lifting (colorists’ fancy word for bleaching”>. However, the cuticle (the outside layer of hair”> still gets roughed up a bit. Leave-in conditioners can help smooth the cuticle, which increases shine and helps your hair hold on to color for longer.
Unless you have extreme color fade, it’s not necessary to color your entire head every time. Just concentrate on the roots. If you repeatedly darken your entire head, your ends will get darker over time. That’s because your hair gets more porous toward the ends, and porous hair absorbs more color. This is the opposite of the natural look — natural hair is darker at the roots and subtly fades lighter as it grows out. If your hair looks brassy, counteract it with a cool-toned gloss (also know as toner”>, which will restore your color without depositing more pigment.
11. Lifting
While the results can be gorgeous when you lift your hair all over (lifting is colorists’ fancy word for bleaching”>, the process is super-damaging to your locks. Lifting requires hydrogen peroxide to strip the natural color, which increases porosity and raises the scales on the hair’s outer layer. This leads to less shine, more breakage and chronic dryness. Get thee a protein-rich hair mask, stat! Protein is a natural polymer that attaches to the hair, helping to fill in damaged areas. It forms a smooth, light coating that’s great for any hair type.
If you repeatedly lift, or lighten, your hair, it will get more porous over time and eventually become prone to severe breakage. Focus the color on your roots, and if the rest of your hair gets brassy, counteract it with a cool-toned gloss (also know as toner”>, which will restore your color without stripping your hair.
12. Highlights
Highlights lift, aka bleach, the hair—a process that requires hydrogen peroxide to strip the natural color. This increases porosity, leading to less shine and more breakage. With highlights, you’re not lifting your entire head of hair, which does minimize the amount of potential damage, but it’s important to treat your highlights with tender loving care to prevent as much breakage as possible. Get in the habit of using a protein-rich hair mask regularly. Adding protein back into the hair will help fill in the holes and decrease breakage.
Read More: The Science of Highly Textured Hair
13. Keratin Straightening
Also known as the Brazilian blowout, keratin straightening is considered a miracle by many curly-haired gals. In this process, the hair is coated with a keratin solution and pressed in place with a flat iron. The solution can help restore the hair shaft and make your hair more resilient than before, but trouble occurs if the stylist uses a flat iron that’s too hot.
Scorching is common, and that can lead to mega-breakage, so if you notice broken hair after your treatment, speak up next time and ask your stylist to turn down the heat. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that most keratin solutions contain formaldehyde, a highly toxic carcinogen, which is why we don’t give this service the thumb’s up.
14. Straightening
Permanent relaxing chemically breaks microscopic bonds in the hair so the strands can be manipulated into a straight style. Red hair and African-American hair can be more difficult to straighten, and more likely to suffer damage. The straightening process weakens the hair structure, so breakage and splitting are common. Relaxing virgin hair can be damaging, but most of the trouble arises when the solution is applied to already-straightened areas. Even if your stylist is applying the solution only to your roots, it’s difficult to avoid at least some overlap.
15. Body Wave or Perm
Perms chemically break microscopic bonds in the hair so the strands can be manipulated into a wavier style. The bonds reform in a curlier shape, a delicate process that continues for two to three days after treatment (which is why you can’t wash your hair”>. Perming virgin hair isn’t terribly damaging (though it still breaks down the hair’s structure”>, but trouble arises when the solution is applied to already-permed areas. Brillo hair! Even if your stylist is applying the solution only to your roots, it’s difficult to avoid at least some overlap.
Hair Habits
Swimming in chlorinated pools, sporting tight braids and stressing out can leave you with less than healthy hair. Find out why these habits are harmful.
16. Tight Twists or Braids
Tight twists and braids cause what’s known as tensile stress, which is basically a constant tugging on the hair follicle. Regular tensile stress can cause permanent hair loss, known as traction hair loss. For African-American women, tight twists and braids commonly lead to hair loss at the hairline, and in the middle of the scalp, a condition that’s even more likely among women who also have Type 2 diabetes (though scientists aren’t sure why yet”>. The only way to prevent this type of hair loss is to chillax on the super-tight braids—give your hair follicles a chance to recover.
Read More: Wavy Celebrity Bed Head Hairstyles
17. Chlorinated Water
Swimming in a pool may feel heavenly, but it’s hellish for your hair. The chemicals in chlorine suck the moisture out of hair strands, which can lead to severe dryness or straw-like texture. If you dye your hair, the chemicals can react with your hair color—blond hair can turn green (it’s rust from the copper in chlorine oxidizing on your hair”> and darker shades can turn brassy (chlorine dries out the hair, which affects color”>.
To protect your locks at your next swim session, apply a thick conditioner or a mixture of waterproof suntan oil and conditioner. Comb it through your hair to coat each strand. This will protect your hair from chlorine (or salt, if you swim at the beach”> and lock in moisture. After swimming, wash your hair immediately with a shampoo designed to remove chlorine or at least rinse with plain shower water, and use a heavy-duty conditioner.
18. Stress
Stress has a profound effect on hair. A traumatic emotional or physical event can screw up your hair’s growth cycle, which means that about three months after the major stress, you might pull out clumps of hair while brushing or washing. Most people grow the hair back once the trauma has passed, but it can take months. Stress can also cause hair to turn gray. The tendency to go gray is mostly genetic, but if you have chronic stress in your life, it sure ain’t helping.
Read More: Forget-me-Not: The Essential Headband
Highly textured hair is blessed with lots and lots of tightly coiled curls. A head of gorgeously kinky curls is the envy of many a limp-locked women, but those with it often complain that it has a mind of its own. Usually fine, sometimes course, and always fragile, textured hair should be trimmed more frequently than other hair types — every four to six weeks is a must.
Mechanics of a Textured Haircut
Like any hair type, the right cut is essential. But for highly textured hair, it’s beyond crucial. The right cut gives naturally textured hair shape and manageability. “You have to be much more cautious when cutting this hair type because the shape stands out more when you cut it,” says celebrity stylist David Babaii. Translation: There’s absolutely no room for error. According to the experts, a layered cut is best for this hair type because it removes bulk, creates movement, and notes celebrity stylist and salon owner Ted Gibson, “it gives shape to otherwise shapeless hair.” It also helps with curl placement — the layers create a cascading effect where the curls fall into each other, creating better flow, balance and as previously mentioned, shape.
Read More: Hair Color and Your Skintone
A layered style is universal to all lengths — short, medium or long, with minor adjustments to the layers. If the hair is long (below the shoulders”>, your stylist should cut long layers throughout the hair. Medium lengths (at or just above the shoulder”> can go longer as well, though too long could create a blunt effect which “will make the hair sit out as opposed to flat,” says Motions celebrity stylist Ursula Stephens. Shorter hair (chin or above”> can handle shorter layers. However, your stylist must account for spring when cutting smaller layers. Stephens also says to avoid bangs for this exact reason.
Cutting highly textured hair while dry is an absolute. “I always make sure my clients’ hair is blown out prior to cutting so you can see the true length and therefore achieve an accurate cut,” says Stephens. Scissors are the best tool because they give the stylist more control, and create a more uniform shape than other types of shears, such as a razor, which will make the ends look frayed (an existing concern with this hair type”>.
Read More: Why Do We Have Hair?
Relaxed, Textured Hair
Some women with highly textured hair choose to relax their locks. “The coarser the texture, the less styling flexibility there is,” says Stephens. “So a lot of women turn to relaxing the hair to create a foundation for more versatile style.” Smoothing treatments last until the hair is cut or grown out, and allow for more options with the cut. “The rules change when the hair is relaxed because now you’re working with an entirely new texture,” adds Stephens. But it’s best to stick with a cut designed for this hair type, in the event you re-embrace your natural texture.
Read More: Weather Related Hair Emergencies–Solved
Updos for Textured Hair
Whether smoothed or textured, a ponytail is among the most flattering updos. Top knots, where you flip over and pull all the hair to the top of the head and knot it, is also an easy style.
Unless you were lucky enough to be born with picture-perfect hair immune to frizz, breakage and flyaways (yes, Gisele, we’re talking to you”>, you’ve got a few curly hair problems to tackle.
Everyday wear and tear plus harsh hair habits including daily blow drying, wielding hot tools like curling irons and getting chemical straightening treatments punish your strands. The result? Frizzy, crispy, lifeless hair that’s chockfull of split ends.
Rather than putting up with a slew of self-esteem-blowing bad hair days, you can take smart steps to handle these hairy situations. Here’s how to tame your mane and get the healthy, radiant hair you crave.
1. Breakage
Most breakage occurs from everyday wear and tear. Everything you do to your hair — brushing, blow-drying, styling — can tear it. The less you mess with your hair, the less breakage you’ll likely have. Treat your hair like a delicate silk blouse and go easy on the vigorous brushing, scorching heat and tight clips.
2. Thinning
If your mane isn’t as full and lush as it used to be, your hair may be thinning. Maybe your ponytail is getting skinnier, or you can see more of your scalp through your part, which is a sign of allover, evenly dispersed thinning. Or you’ve noticed thinning in small patches.
General thinning is usually due to the natural aging process and hormonal changes, but diet, medical issues, some prescription medications and stress can all be a factor. If you think your hair is unusually thin, consider talking to your doctor. In one U.K. study, 67 percent of the women in a thinning-hair group had the endocrine disorder polycystic ovarian syndrome.
MORE: Hair Color and Your Skintone
If you regularly wear your hair in tight braids or twists, or if you sleep in tight rollers, you might be experiencing traction hair loss, which is when constant tugging on the hair follicle causes patches of hair loss. Sometimes a small bald patch is the first sign of alopecia areata, a disease that causes hair loss. If you can’t think of a reasonable explanation for your thinning hair, see your doctor immediately.
3. Pregnancy-related thinning
During pregnancy, your hair may feel thicker because estrogens extend the growth cycle, leading to longer hair that’s less likely to fall out. Though most common lore says hair always gets thicker, that isn’t the case for a whopping two-thirds of women who see no change or even thinning hair during pregnancy. After birth, your hair may fall out in clumps as the growth cycle shortens again. Don’t worry; you’re not balding! Your system is just resetting. The changes you see are rarely permanent — hair typically goes back to normal over time.
4. Frizz
Fine, curly hair is most prone to frizz, but any hair type can get frizzy. Hair is dependent on the whims of humidity, because hair expands when exposed to dampness and reverts back to whatever your natural texture is (unless you have a permanent straightening treatment”>. The healthier the hair, the less likely it is to frizz, and anti-frizz products can help to some degree.
5. Flyaways
Flyaways are usually broken pieces of hair sticking out at a jagged angle. Do whatever you can to prevent breakage (deep-conditioning masks, chilling on the hot tools”> and get your hair trimmed every six weeks to eliminate frayed ends.
6. Split ends
Truth time. There is no such thing as a split-end mender. The only way to get rid of them is to cut them off. If you’re prone to split ends, regular trims (every six weeks”> can help control them. If your ends are getting super-tangled and hard to comb, you may consider cutting your hair to a shorter length. Split ends are caused by daily wear and tear, hot tools, blow dryers, brushes — anything that damages the hair. When you notice split ends or tangled hair, it’s time to crop those locks.
7. Limpness
Flat hair with no body or bounce is usually a fine-haired gal’s problem, because the extra oil glands in fine hair produce more sebum, which makes hair appear heavier. Dry shampoo can do wonders for absorbing oil and lifting the roots. Thicker-haired folks might start to see limpness if their hair is thinning. This could be due to aging, but if your hair is thinning and it seems out of the ordinary, see your doctor stat.
MORE: Why Do We Have Hair?
8. Too much volume
Although ladies with fine hair might kill for some of your volume, your hair can be hard to manage. The key here is getting the right haircut for your hair type. Investing in a great cut can make all the difference in the world.
9. No shine
Shine happens when the cuticle (outside layer of hair”> lies flat and reflects light. The healthier the hair, the shinier it is. Overuse of hot tools or multiple chemical processes damage the cuticle layer and rob hair of its beautiful luster. Heat-protectant styling products (to use before tools”> can help.
10. Won’t grow as long as you’d like
Everyone has a unique hair growth cycle, which determines how long your hair grows before it falls out. A shorter cycles means you can’t grow your hair past a certain point – sometimes that’s shoulder length. Although there isn’t much you can do about this, also consider that your hair is breaking off before it can reach its potential length. Getting your hair trimmed every six weeks will eliminate frayed ends and help your hair reach its full potential.
11. Tangles
Tangles happen when the cuticle (the outside layer”> gets roughed up and clings to neighboring strands like Velcro. Chemical processes, hot tools and everyday wear and tear are tough on the cuticle. Be gentle when combing out tangles so you don’t make the damage worse — a dollop of conditioner on the area will help your comb slide through smoothly.
12. Greasiness
Greasiness most often happens in fine hair, but it can strike anyone. If you frequently use silicone-rich hair products, wax or pomade, your grease might be from product buildup. Alternate in a clarifying shampoo every three to four washes. Also, dry shampoo can be a godsend for sopping up oil at the roots and adding volume.
MORE: Weather Related Hair Emergencies–Solved
13. Dryness
There are tons of reasons you might have dry hair — chemical processing, frequent dips in a pool, overuse of a blow dryer or just plain ol’ genetics. Dryness leads to damage, since it reduces the number of hydrogen bonds in your hair (which give your strands flexibility”> and weakens its resistance to daily stresses like brushing or combing. Hydrating shampoos and conditioners can help, as can adding an omega-3 supplement to your diet to add moisture from the outside in.
14. Color fading
Water fades color. In fact, up to 80 percent of color fade is due to water alone. Your hair absorbs water, and as your hair dries, the dyes drain out with the water. If you’re a staunch everyday washer, try every other day. To stretch out the time between washes, try a dry shampoo on your roots to absorb oil and pump up volume.
If you stress over your tresses to the point that unruly hair ruins your mood, you’re not alone.
A survey from Tresemmé showed that 23% of women don’t want to leave their house on a bad hair day. Extreme? Not when you consider that young girls receive more compliments for their hair, smile or eye color than for their soccer skills or math expertise, says Dr. Marianne LaFrance, a professor of psychology, women’s and gender studies at Yale University.
Even if parents take care to spread praise around to include non-beauty traits, the checkout lady at the grocery store is cooing over her long lashes, or a kindly school teacher doles out positive attention by complimenting her braids — there’s no avoiding it.
“From early on, women are given the message that appearance is massively important, and it can become a marker for their success in life,” says LaFrance.
Hair can be a significant piece of that puzzle. In a Harvard study, women who felt that they looked younger after a cut, color or both showed a drop in blood pressure, suggesting that a simple haircut can make your body more youthful.
So the question is, if your hair can make you feel amazing — is that bad? For the most part, no. “Your outward appearance projects things about you, and people will make judgments about you based on that,” says Art Markman, Ph.D., a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and YouBeauty Psychology Advisor. Hair plays a role because it frames your face and it’s a prominent part of first impressions, so it’s fair game to care.
What’s more, he says, when you look good, it gives you an extra feeling of confidence, which allows you to take risks. You might find the nerve to speak to someone you normally wouldn’t, or do something gutsy in an office presentation. “There’s research that shows when you’re in a positive mood, a lot of things go better,” says Markman.
How Hair Defines You
Besides riding a good-hair high to social and work success, you can use hair to shape your identity. “Because hair is so malleable, it can give women a feeling of control over their bodies which they don’t otherwise have,” says Viren Swami, Ph.D., psychologist at the University of Westminster in London, and YouBeauty Attraction Expert.
Indeed, women have used hair to relay messages about who they are, and where they fit into their culture for centuries. Roman women powdered their hair with gold dust to convey wealth and decorated it with luxe accessories like gold hairnets and ivory pins. Marie Antoinette’s tall, ornate wigs indicated status and power (the term “bigwig” comes from 17th century England when wig size distinguished the upper class from the riffraff: Men of importance wore larger wigs and were called bigwigs”>.
MORE: How Healthy is Your Hair?
In the early 19th century, Flappers sported shorter, daring haircuts that defined them and made a powerful statement about their feelings on women’s liberation.
Lack of hair also makes a statement, most prominently in religious contexts. Think nun’s habits, burqas and wigs worn in some Orthodox Jewish denominations. These head coverings prevent the public from seeing women as objects of desire. The message is that hair is a powerful attraction tool, says Swami.
The Mating Game
Long before wigs, scarves or hair pins, there were cavemen and women. Many scientists believe that hair played a role in mate selection.
“Hair on the top of our heads evolved to pad and warm the scalp but that doesn’t account for why we are able to grow it so long,” says Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., psychologist at Harvard Medical School and author of “Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty.”
Eyelashes prevent sun glare and brows help animate facial expressions and keep sweat out of the eyes, but a long mane serves no practical purpose. It might have acted as an advertisement of fertility. Younger, fertile women have thicker, shinier, healthier looking hair than older women and hair could tell a male instantly how likely you were to have children and if you had the stamina to care for them.
“Every strand of hair has a blood supply, and reflects what’s going on in the body,” says Etcoff. Being able to produce a lush head of hair can (and still does to this day”> indicate health and youth, just as having thinner graying hair signals aging. (Hair was an equal-opportunity fertility signal — it flagged healthy young males, too.”>
More: What’s Your (Hair”> Damage?
Although expert opinions differ, there is also a theory that blonde color evolved to attract mates: when early humans migrated from warm desert climates to northern areas, fertility cues like a curvy or muscular body shape were hidden under warm clothing, so it’s possible that blonde hair, which is typically seen only in younger women, became a way to get attention.
Most of this still holds true today. Thick, abundant manes do look youthful and healthy, but many a raven-haired beauty or romantic redhead would challenge the notion that blonde is the most attractive.
When Good Hair Goes Bad or Why Hair Can Sink Your Mood
Reasonably, if good hair can boost self-confidence, then when it misbehaves, it can have the opposite effect. A Yale study led by LaFrance and commissioned by Procter & Gamble found that when subjects recalled a bad hair day, their self-esteem dropped. Specifically, “bad hair” increased social insecurity and self-criticism and lowered performance self-esteem, hurting subjects’ can-do attitude toward personal accomplishments.
“We make choices every day about the kind of person we want to be, and we ask ourselves, do we look our best? Are we putting out there what we want people to see? The choices we make about how we look say something about our social identities and when the choices fit, that’s terrific, but when it doesn’t you feel out of sorts and that loss of control can derail your self-confidence,” LaFrance says. The stress is on par with spilling coffee on your blouse, she says. “It can make your mood sink like a stone, in the same way.”
More: The Science of Your Hair Type
While there’s no question that bad hair is, well, a bummer, it isn’t the end of the world. Research on appearance indicates that no one else is as focused on the snafu as you are.
“Although judgments are made quickly, they seem to be based on a number of variables,” says Swami, whose own research has shown that when others look at you, your hair, face and body are equally calculated with no single attribute standing out more than the other. Other studies support the notion that details like a rogue curl or bit of frizz seem to get by everyone else.
To prove this, in a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers asked 44 college students to walk into a classroom of fellow students while wearing a t-shirt with either an embarrassing or flattering image. The students wearing the embarrassing shirts thought they stuck out like a sore thumb, but that actually wasn’t the case.
Once the subjects left, the majority of students in the room could not recall the image on their shirts. Researchers concluded that people overestimate how much others’ notice their appearance both positively and negatively and that the “social spotlight” doesn’t shine on us as much as we think.
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Final Thoughts
Remember all this on a rainy day when your bangs misbehave or if your locks are curlier or straighter than you’d like. In the larger picture, no one will notice.
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