The 16 Worst Things You Can Do to Your Hair

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Everybody wants to have beautiful, strong, and shiny locks. Although the main way to achieve this goal is a well-balanced diet and good hair care, Here wants to show you a few things you may be doing incorrectly without even knowing about it. You’d better avoid the things on this list to keep your hair healthy.

1. Waiting too long for a trim or cut

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If you have split or frizzy hair, if it looks untidy and has no shape anymore, if your hair tangles easily or gets lots of single knots — you are probably way overdue for your hair cutting appointment, especially if you want to have long hair. Your locks will be longer if you trim them on a regular basis; not because your hair will grow faster, but because the ends won’t be splitting and breaking.

Solution: Visit the hairdresser regularly.

2. DIY — dyeing it yourself

DIY might be a handy practice for many occasions, but coloring the hair is not one of them unless you are a professional hairdresser, perhaps, or at least know exactly what you’re doing. Most likely, you will end up going to a salon anyhow, but it will be way harder and more costly to fix whatever you have done. Just let the professionals deal with it from the beginning.

Solution: A hairdresser appointment.

3. Brushing or styling wet hair

When your hair is wet, it is very delicate and more prone to breakage. You can experiment a little to check it next time you wash your hair. Select one (only one, we don’t want you to get bald) and try to break it. You will find that it breaks much easier compared to when the hair is dry. The brush does the same thing, but instead of one hair it breaks hundreds.

The heat from hot tools (a curler or straightener) makes the water evaporate extensively and, as we all learn at school, water expands with evaporation, breaking your hair. Plus using hot tools will simply fry your hair to finish the damage.

Solution: let it dry before brushing and styling, and using some heat protection products is also recommended.

4. Using dirty brushes

When you brush your hair, lots of dead skin particles end up on your brush, even if you cannot see it. Dead skin is the perfect environment for growing bacteria, all sorts of them. Apart of being simply disgusting, it can get transferred back to your scalp if you don’t wash your hair brushes regularly.

Solution: wash your brushes or put a tissue onto the brush before combing your hair. Dispose of the tissue after brushing, leaving the brush itself clean.

5. Washing your hair too often and with very hot water

The glands in our scalp produce natural oils that are essential for healthy curls, and hot water can remove them, making your hair dry and brittle. Overwashing will eventually do the same thing. The hairdressers recommend washing your hair twice a week, or three times if you have very oily hair.

Solution: don’t wash your hair every day and only use warm water.

6. Not using conditioner or using it instead of shampoos

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Shampoos and conditioners are totally different products that are used for different purposes and cannot replace one another. Shampoos clean, conditioners moisturize.

Here’s a simple comparison: Your car needs both petrol and oil, not one or another. These are two different products, and your car won’t appreciate it if you pour petrol where oil is supposed to be. It is the same with your hair: if you use conditioner instead of shampoo, or not use it at all, your scalp won’t say, “Thank you.” Although, the damage won’t be as costly compared to the car... probably.

Solution: use both, first shampoo, then conditioner.

7. Not changing hair products when the hair’s changed

There are lots of different products on the market these days — for thin, coarse, colored, damaged hair, and much more. They have slightly different ingredients depending on the purpose. If your hair has changed, so should the products.

Let’s do a car comparison again. We all know that you shouldn’t put petrol into a diesel 4WD. So why would you use shampoo for oily hair if you have bleached dry locks?

Solution: time to go shopping.

8. Brushing your hair too often and doing it from the roots

If you brush your hair from the roots, you end up creating a massive knot and pulling lots of hair off. Doing this also weakens the roots. Overbrushing does similar damage. Generally speaking, don’t fix if it’s not broken; in other words, don’t brush if it needn’t be brushed.

Solution: always start brushing your hair from the ends and work your way to the roots, untangling the knots along the way (and don’t overdo it).

9. Having a tight hairstyle too often

If you tie your hair very tightly very often, it may eventually damage it because you literally pull the hair from its roots. If a ponytail is your preferred style, avoid hair ties with metal parts or switch the tie’s height every day, alternating “up” and “down” days.

Solution: tie your hair occasionally, but not every single day.

10. Too much sun

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Normally, if we plan to spend a long time outdoors, we remember to use sunscreen but often forget to protect the hair. Too much exposure to the sun damages not only your skin but your hair as well. If your hair is severely discolored, looks and feels dry, and gets lots of split ends, then UV radiation is probably responsible for it.

Solution: wear a hat or a scarf.

We probably didn’t mention some tricks. If you want to share your favorite, we strongly encourage you to do so in the comments!

Preview photo credit depositphotos

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