When it comes to crafting the perfect hair care routine, there’s nothing more important than making sure you maintain the health and natural condition of your hair. Healthy hair is beautiful hair, and hair in its best condition is well moisturized and hydrated, leading to a soft, silky-smooth texture, a luminous shine, and volume and body for days. Unfortunately, with so many options out there in terms of styling and hair care, it can be far too easy to damage your hair’s health, leading to breakage, frizz, and limp, lifeless hair.
Thankfully, we’re here to point out the top things you’ll definitely want to avoid if you want to keep your hair healthy and happy. Read below for our list of 7 bad hair mistakes you’ll be sure to avoid!
Mistake #1: Over-Washing Your Hair
Considering all the product we put in our hair and how greasy and oily our hair can get throughout the day, nothing feels better than a freshly shampooed head of hair. For many of us, that feeling of a squeaky-clean head of hair can feel downright addicting! And yes, while shampoo can remove excess oil, dirt, buildup, and grime, too much shampoo can strip the hair of its natural oils and leave it dry and dehydrated. To avoid this, you’ll want to not only make sure you are avoiding a harsh shampoo with drying ingredients like sulfates, but you’ll also want to make sure you wash your hair on a moderate basis. As a rule of thumb, 2-3 times a week is a perfect amount of hair washing without causing dryness or damage.
Mistake #2: Dying Your Hair Too Light
We’ve all had that itch to try a wild new hair color, whether it’s from brunette to blonde or blonde to red. And although hair coloring has come a long way over the years, it is still very, very easy to overdo it and cause major damage to your hair due to improper hair coloring. The easiest way to do this is by choosing a hair color that is far lighter than your current hair color. You see, it takes a very strong amount of bleach and hair coloring to make your hair a lighter shade, and the chemicals required in hair bleaching are inherently drying and damaging. While this isn’t an issue when going to a slightly lighter hair color, this can be devastating when applying a significantly lighter shade of hair coloring. The takeaway? Like everything, hair coloring is all about moderation.
Mistake #3: Brushing Your Hair When Wet
For those of us with long, textured hair, frequent brushing is one of the only things that keeps our hair from being a tangled, knotted mess. While this is fine to do when your hair is dry, this can be a terribly damaging act for your hair when you brush while your hair is wet. Hair is incredibly porous, making it extremely flexible and expandable when it is wet. In fact, wet hair can stretch to nearly 30 percent of its natural length! In this flexible state, your hair loses its natural strength and structure, making it incredibly prone to breakage and damage when brushed. When it comes to brushing, make sure the hair is completely dry.
Mistake #4: Not Washing Your Scalp
When it comes to shampooing, it’s easy to focus solely on the hair. Our hair can get covered with oil, grease, and build-up from products like hairspray, and it’s important to fully clean the hair strand from root to end to keep it healthy and clean. However, it’s important to not lose focus of our scalp, which can also become covered with dirt and product buildup, along with dead skin cells and flakes. Not only can this buildup and dirt block the hair follicle and impede natural hair growth, but it can also lead to frustratingly uncomfortable conditions like dandruff and dermatitis. When shampooing, make sure to spend some extra time massaging the scalp, giving your full attention to cleaning near the roots and the follicle.
Mistake #5: Using Low-Quality Tools
There’s no shortage of incredible hair care tools on the market, and some of these tools can come with astronomical price tags. While we would never endorse spending beyond one’s means and paying a fortune on a hair tool, at the same time you don’t want to cheap out, either. Cheap, poorly made hair tools often use inferior drying and heating technology that damages the hair and ruins the outer follicle layer, causing severe breakage and ruining your hair’s overall health. Thankfully, there are several high-quality tools on the market that won’t break the bank, coming equipped with premium technology like infrared and ionic heating technology that gently heats the hair without causing damage.
Mistake #6: Going to Sleep with Wet Hair
Few things feel better than that long shower before bed. After a long day, what’s better than a long shower before dozing off to a restful sleep? Unfortunately, this seemingly harmless activity can quickly lead to damaging consequences. You see, when you go to bed with hair that is still wet, the combination of wet hair and the warmth of your pillow can create the perfect breeding ground for fungi and bacteria, which can lead to dandruff and other scalp conditions. While it may be tempting to jump straight into bed after showering, make sure to dry off your hair before settling into sleep.
Mistake #7: Not Using Heat Protectant
For the vast majority of us, heat styling is the only way to get our hair looking exactly how we want it to look. And while numerous high-quality tools on the market can keep damage and breakage to a minimum, even the best tool can be damaging if used too frequently or applied for too long of a duration. Thankfully, heat protectant products are able to provide a protective layer on the hair to keep the heat styling tool from causing any sort of severe damage to the outer cuticle layer. As an added bonus, many of these heat protectants can double as a pre-åstyler and help to enhance volume and shape!
