How to Fix Hair Breakage

Hair breakage is a common problem that many of us experience. It causes the strands of hair to snap or split, resulting in uneven lengths, frizz, and a dull appearance. There are many causes of hair shaft breakage, such as excessive heat styling, chemical treatments, environmental factors, and improper nutrition.

To prevent and manage this, it is important to have proper hair care. This includes proper nutrition, gentle handling of the hair, and using high-quality products. If you’re experiencing hair damage, don’t worry! This issue is fairly easy to deal with. With proper care, you can avoid breakage and keep your hair healthy and strong.

Here are some tips you can incorporate in your life to prevent and fix broken, damaged hair:

Protect from heat

Heat is one of the leading causes of hair damage and breakage. Many people have gotten into the habit of styling hair with heat, and while it doesn’t cause irreparable damage once in a while, doing it too often can really damage your hair. Aside from that, heat and UV rays from the sun can also damage hair.

Heat styling is okay once in a while, but avoid doing it too often and protect your hair by applying heat protectant before styling. You can also try out different, heatless ways to style your hair.

As for sun exposure, invest in some UV protectants specially made for hair. While sun exposure isn’t too damaging if you’re just out and about for a little bit, prolonged and often exposure can cause a lot of damage, and a UV protectant will be a good investment if you’re one to spend all day in the sun.

Use Deep Treatments

Hair masks are generally a good idea to add to your routine. They’re even more essential, especially if you’re experiencing hair breakage. Hair masks are potent and will provide critical hydration, vitamins, and minerals for the hair to make it stronger and reduce breakage and split ends. This also goes for hair oils and deep conditioning treatments.

Use other Nourishing Products

You can also incorporate other nourishing products into your routine, such as a leave-in conditioner, finishing oils, good shampoos, conditioners, hair serums, and scalp treatments. These can work together to repair damage and reduce breakage.

Be gentle

Hair breakage is often caused by physical damage, as well. This happens when you brush your hair too roughly, rub your hair on your pillow, wear your hair in tight buns and ponytails, and if your hair gets pulled or yanked.

Be gentle when brushing to avoid physical damage to your hair. Detangle from the ends up to avoid further tangling and breaking your hair with constant rough pulling. You can wear a silk hair cap to avoid rubbing on your pillow. Lastly, give your hair a break and opt for looser styles and scrunchies rather than elastic bands and tight updos.

Get regular trims

Trimming your hair is a big help in keeping it healthy and preventing split ends and breakage. Now, don’t get it twisted; simply trimming your split ends won’t get rid of them completely. You still need to nourish your hair from the inside out. However, since the ends of the hair are the ones to take the most damage, it’s essential to trim them to get rid of damaged, dead ends so that the spit doesn’t continue up your strand.

You don’t have to take much length off; a millimeter or so will be enough to keep your hair up.

Switch to Microfiber and Silk

This goes hand-in-hand with physical damage. If you have cotton pillows and terrycloth towels, it’s time to switch! Cotton pillows can be harsh on the hair, but silk pillows don’t cause friction that damages the hair. Silk pillowcases are very affordable and an easy way to prevent hair damage.

Towel drying your hair with a terry cloth towel is also very damaging and can cause a lot of frizz. Opt for a highly absorbent microfiber towel, and don’t rub your hair. Instead, pat and squeeze your hair dry to avoid damaging the hair.

Get a big chop

Holding onto severely damaged hair is a fruitless cause. This hair is extremely brittle and often caused by chemical treatments such as bleach or perms. If this happens, the best way to restore your hair is to get a big chop. While it can be scary, it’s better for your hair in the long run. 

The damage will be cut away, giving your hair a fresh start and not letting the breakage go up further into your non-damaged strands.

Improve your diet

The nutrients that hair survives on are still majorly derived from diet. No matter how good your hair products are, your hair will not be nourished if your diet doesn’t give you enough nutrients. To prevent and reduce hair breakage, optimize your diet with lots of protein, healthy fats, vitamins and antioxidants, and minerals.

Stay Hydrated

Most of the time, you always drink less water than you should. Water makes a big difference, more than you think it does. You should average 2-3 liters of water daily to stay appropriately hydrated. Depending on your gender and weight, this can be more. Even just upping your water can help you reduce breakage and make your hair stronger, shinier, and healthier.

Avoid chemical treatments

If you’re looking for surefire ways to cause significant damage to your hair, chemical treatments are the way to go. While it’s fun to experiment with colors, bleach, perms, etc., these treatments are very harsh and should only be done occasionally by someone who knows how to handle dangerous chemicals. 

If you’re not a professional or have not been educated on handling damaging chemicals for your hair, please don’t try to DIY any of these treatments. Keep things safe by going to a professional. Avoid also doing these often and opt for once-a-month maintenance or less.

Give your hair a break (not literally)

Ironically, split ends can be reduced and prevented by giving your hair a break (in the other sense of the word). Doing too many chemical treatments, styling, brushing incorrectly, towel drying, etc., will do more harm than good. It’s better to give your hair a break from all the fuss to give it time to heal. 

Combine that with super nourishing products and a good diet; your hair will have enough time and care to heal and become strong again.