Many women want long, luscious hair that can make them feel beautiful. Unfortunately, the longer your hair, the more difficult it can be to maintain and the more prone it is to breakage from everyday activities. Maintaining healthy hair requires a few tips and tricks such as using treatments like topical finasteride, along with finding the right shampoo and conditioner for your hair type and texture. Additionally, you should avoid making common mistakes when taking care of your hair. Knowing the mistakes you’re making can help you understand better ways to care for your hair to reduce your chances of hair loss, breaking, and frizziness. Here are shocking truths about your current hair care routine and some leads on different products.
Overbrushing
Brushing your hair from scalp to end can help distribute your natural hair oils throughout the entire strand. However, many women make the mistake of brushing their hair too much. If you want to make your hair shiny using your natural oils, all it takes is a few strokes. Anything more than a few brushes can cause unnecessary breakage throughout your hair, leading to split ends and frizz.
Shampooing Daily
Your hair needs its natural oils for shine and luster. Shampooing every day removes your hair’s natural oils and can make it look dull, dry, and damaged. Instead, you can try shampooing only a few times a week or on days when you’re sweaty. For example, you should always bathe after the gym so sweat can’t clog up the pores on your scalp.
Brushing Hair When Wet
After a shower, many women feel like they need to immediately brush their hair out to remove tangles they may have gotten when washing their hair. However, your hair is more brittle when it’s wet, so brushing could cause breakage. Instead, you can use a detangler to smooth out knots and comb your hair with a wide-tooth comb starting at the ends and working your way up.
Blow Drying
Blow drying your hair is a great way to save time in the morning while helping you achieve the look you want, but it’s damaging to hair, especially if you blow-dry hair immediately after getting out of the shower. Styling your hair is more difficult when it’s dripping wet, so there’s no reason to turn your hair dryer on immediately, either. Blow dryers should only be used on damp hair for less than a half-hour because of the risk of heat damage. Additionally, before applying heat, you should use a protective product to prevent breakage caused by heating your strands.
Scalp Care
Many people take care of their strands and completely ignore their scalps. However, if your scalp is unhealthy or dry, you can experience hair loss, brittle hair, and annoying itchiness. Your hair health depends on the health of your scalp, so it’s important to pay attention to the skin on your head just as much as you do your beautiful locks. You can show your scalp some love by massaging your head with your fingers to stimulate blood flow and using a scalp treatment to keep your scalp from getting too dry.
Wearing Your Hair Up
Again, it’s always tempting to take care of your hair in the easiest ways possible. Many people throw their hair up in a high ponytail or bun on days when they don’t have time to wear it down. Unfortunately, wearing your hair in the same spot can cause your strands to get caught and broken. Instead, try to wear your hair in different positions if you wear ponytails every day to ensure you’re not causing breakage all in one spot.
Wrapping Your Hair Up in a Towel
The easiest way to dry your hair and prevent water from dripping on the floor after a shower is to wrap your hair up in a tower. Unfortunately, drying your hair this way can damage it because it forces your hair to get pulled into one position. Additionally, your hair can get caught in the fibers of the towel and cause frizziness. Instead, you can dry your hair by blotting it with a towel or an old t-shirt that’s less harmful to your hair. There are many towels on the market designed just for drying hair, so depending on your hair type, you might choose to get something that allows your hair to dry without making it frizzy.
Sleeping on Wet Hair
Many people shower at night so they can save some time in the morning, which means they’re sleeping on wet hair. Not only can sleeping on wet hair be uncomfortable, but it can cause unnecessary breakage and damage. Your hair rubs against your pillow and bedding at night, making it more prone to friction that causes tangles, frizziness, and knots while you’re asleep. If you toss and turn, your hair can get painfully knotted during the night. If you want to shower at night, always dry your hair or wait for your hair to air dry before you hit the sheets to prevent damage caused by friction.
Too Much Heat
We’ve already talked about how blowdrying your hair when it’s wet can lead to breakage, but so can using too much heat when your hair is dry. While it might be faster to style your hair on the highest heat setting, it can cause breakage and damage unnecessarily, making your hair look worse. Instead, keep your styling tools on medium settings to ensure you’re not overheating your hair.
Too Much Product
Using too much hair product can weigh down your hair to make your roots look flat. Additionally, it can cause buildup on your scalp that doesn’t allow the skin on your head to breathe so that new, healthy hair can grow. Instead, you should only use as much product as the directions say. For example, most hair types only need a dime-sized amount of shampoo and conditioner.
Final Thoughts
Knowing what mistakes you’re making and how to prevent them can help you achieve beautiful, luscious hair every day. Many of the mistakes on this list are due to people trying to save time on their hair, so you must give yourself enough time to properly care for your hair and consider it an act of self-care.
If you want more tips and information on how to repair damaged hair, check out this article.
