7 Hair Care Routine Don’ts You Should Avoid

Is your hair care routine as good for your hair as you think? Find out the hair care routine don’ts that you might still be doing that’s damaging your hair.

Your hair care routine should always consist of the best things to do for your hair and on the surface, it may appear like that. Everything you’re doing might seem like the right thing to do and something that’s benefitting your hair. However, there might still be a few things that you’re doing in your hair care routine that’s causing damage or giving you results that you don’t necessarily want.

These are the most common mistakes that most people won’t even realize, so don’t feel too bad about not knowing about it! It’s not too late to change up your routine and make it a lot better for your hair. Even the littlest changes in your hair care can make a major difference. You’ll see and experience the results instantaneously.

So, want to find out what these common mistakes are? Read on!

Using Sulfates

Sulfates are an extremely common ingredient in most shampoos especially those found in your local drug stores and supermarkets. Most people never really bother to look at the ingredient list of their shampoos because, well, it’s shampoo, right? It’s just supposed to clean hair. However, sulfates can be very damaging especially when used consistently for a long time.

Sulfates are a harsh detergent that’s used in shampoos to mainly rid the hair of sebum and buildup. It’s quite effective and good at its job, but it does come with a few major cons. Sulfates are extremely drying and stripping. It leaves the hair with basically no natural moisture which can cause dryness, brittleness, and surprisingly, oiliness. No moisture means no nutrients and your hair will become drier and weaker as you continue to use sulfates. The lack of moisture will also cause your scalp to overcompensate and produce more sebum which will make your roots overly oily. Excessive sebum production can also cause a chemical imbalance that can lead to hair loss and dandruff.

While it’s quite convenient to just grab a shampoo off the shelves of your local drug store and supermarket, it won’t be good for your hair in the long run. Instead, look for a good sulfate-free shampoo that will cleanse your hair thoroughly while still giving it the moisture and nutrients that it needs.

Check out:

Mayraki Ultra-repairing & Weightless Moisture Shampoo

Mayraki Purifying, Anti-dandruff & Volumizing Amino Acid

Putting Your Hair Up in a Tight Bun

When you have long hair, putting it up in protective styles is a good way to prevent breakage, knotting, and friction. One thing that’s very commonly done by people with long hair is put up their hair in a tight bun on their head. Doing this often is a big no-no as it can cause major problems such as breakage and tension or traction alopecia.

When your hair is dry, it has way less flexibility and will be prone to breaking off in places. Putting your hair in a tight bun with lots of pulling on the strands can cause a lot of breakage in your hair. The intense tension around the scalp can also be the cause of tension or traction alopecia which is a type of hair loss that occurs around the hairline.

To prevent this, go for less extreme hairstyles like a pineapple bun, a loose ponytail, braids, or a loose bun.

Washing Too Often

If your hair gets oily really quickly, it might seem obvious to just wash it more often to cleanse the oil off. However, this isn’t necessarily the best thing to do and it might actually be counterintuitive. Washing more often, especially with sulfates, will dry out your scalp and roots. In turn, your scalp will start producing more sebum to compensate for the dryness which just makes your hair oilier and imbalanced as opposed to nourished. The more you wash, the more this happens, and you’ll have to wash even more often. It’s a vicious cycle.

At the most, you should only be washing your hair 3 times a week even if you have an oilier scalp than normal. Even less is recommended. You definitely should not be shampooing your hair daily. Chances are, once you stop washing your hair so often, it’ll stop being so oily. There will be a short adjustment period where your hair will feel greasier than usual because you’ve stopped washing so often, but soon enough, your hair will adjust and restore its natural balance.

Towel Drying Your Hair

Friction is just one of the unavoidable causes of damage in your daily life much like sun damage, pollution, and environmental damage. Something you might not know is that one of the most notorious sources of this type of damage is towel drying your hair. Rubbing your hair with a rough terry cloth towel will cause a ton of friction that will make your hair frizzy, dry, and brittle.

To prevent this, use only a plush microfiber material to blot the hair dry. The soft material will cause less friction and stop the frizz.

Check out:

Mayraki Microfiber Hair Towel Wrap

Detangling from the Root

Detangling is an essential part of hair care and must be done regularly especially those with fine hair. It’s super important so that your hair doesn’t become too knotted and matted which fine, curly, and damaged hair can be prone to. However, there is a way to detangle your hair properly and easily.

Make sure that you are using a fairly loose bristled brush made especially for detangling. This means no soft bristles like boar bristles or fine toothed combs. Use only brushes with firm but flexible bristles. Start from the very ends of your hair and work your way up inch by inch. Brushing your hair from the root will cause knots as you go along. By brushing from the ends up, you’re going to detangle your hair much faster and easier. This will also prevent hair from breaking and be much less painful.

Check out:

Mayraki Wooden Paddle Brush

Conditioning Your Whole Hair

Moisture is much-needed at the very ends of your hair because it’s prone to damage, dryness, and splitting. Your roots and scalp won’t need as much moisture because your scalp naturally produces oil that spreads to the roots of the hair. Conditioning the roots will only make your roots overly oily. Save your conditioner for the ends of your hair. Stop just as you get to the very root of your hair.

Shampooing Your Ends

Just like conditioning, shampoo is really only needed at a certain part of your hair. Your scalp and roots need the most clarifying and washing because it gets oily and dirty a lot easier than the ends of your hair. Sure, your ends also get dirty, but the excess shampoo washing off of your hair will do the trick for that. Save the scrubbing and direct application of shampoo at the very roots of your hair and your scalp and let the excess shampoo rinse off through your strands to clean the ends of your hair.