What is Causing Your Hair Damage?

Brushing your hair too much, too often, is a common cause of serious hair damage. Brushing your hair when it is wet is even worse. Hair is more brittle when it is wet than when it is dry, and therefore your strands will break or tear more easily.

Brushing less often, or more gently make help to reduce further damage caused by brushing. Try to avoid brushing your hair when it is wet to minimize the damage taken.

Perms & Coloring

Putting color or a perm in your hair does initially cause damage. When you repeat the process again before the perm or coloring fully grows out, you cause even more damage to your hair.

The more times you re-perm or re-color your hair without the first treatment growing out the worse the damage is going to be. Using at home kits for perms and color may cause more damage as well.

Try having your perms and color done by a professional. The cost may be a bit more, but your hair should not end up nearly as damaged as it does with do-it-yourself kits.

Allow your first treatment to grow completely out, or have it cut out, before treating your hair again with a new perm or color.

Pools

Swimming in a pool can cause your hair to dry out, making it extremely brittle. Pools are often treated with chlorine, which is what causes the dryness. Swimming in salt water will also have the same damaging effects on your hair.

Minimize the damage to your hair by shampooing immediately after your swim. Clarifying shampoo is usually best to minimize any damage caused by swimming.

Styling

Many styling tools, such as hairdryers, curling irons, and flat irons, work by using heat. Using these styling tools consistently will cause your hair to become very dry. Dry hair is more brittle and very vulnerable to damage.

The best choice to avoid heat damage is to let your hair dry naturally, and avoid using hair irons. When that is not an option you should use the lowest and coolest settings on your styling tools.

Washing

Over washing and over shampooing washes away natural oils on the scalp. These oils form a layer of protection at the root of your hair. It can also dry out your scalp, causing flakes, or dandruff.

Not washing your hair enough could also produce an excessive amount of these oils found naturally at the scalp.

Sun Exposure

UV, or ultraviolet, rays come from the sun. These rays harm your hair, and not just in the warmer summer months. Excessive periods spent outside, especially in the summer months, can cause extreme amounts of damage to your hair.

Wearing a head cover, such as a hat, may help reduce the risk of damage caused by the sun and UV rays.

Additionally, it is often misconceived that UV rays do not cause damage if it is not a bright or hot day. This is not true. Your hair can be damaged by UV rays any day of any month of the year.

sources:

http://www.hairstyle.com/hair-articles/causes-of-hair-damage.htm

http://www.hairparlor.com/haircare-articles/hair-damage-causes.htm

http://www.allhairlosstreatments.com/Hair-Problems/Hair-Damage.htm