10 Things You Do That Damage Your Hair

There are plenty ways you can harm your precious strands of hair without even knowing. Jumia

Travel, the leading online travel agency shares 10 of these ways.

• Packing Your Hair Too Tightly

Especially for females, anything too tight, particularly when done with rough elastic, can be damaging to your hair because they pull at your scalp and irritate your strands eventually causing hair breakage and damage to your roots. When packing your hair, gently pull it back with bobby pins, claws or elastic covered in fabric rather than packing too tightly.

• Not Cleaning Your Styling Tools

If you fail to clean out those hairy brushes and combs, they become breeding grounds for germs and old residue. These germs and residue can irritate your scalp and clog the pores on your head. You should therefore remove hair from your brushes and combs after each styling session, and once a month clean them with a little baking soda and water to remove the oil and products that get stuck in its bristles.

• Infusing Your Hair with Too Much Chemicals

Too many artificial chemicals are bad for your hair. They can cause breakage and damage to your hair, especially when done often. Try to keep chemical processes on your hair to a minimum and avoid using them often.

• Heat Styling Too Often With High Heat

Excess heat strips the hair of its natural moisture, causing your hair cuticles to dry and snap off. Over time, your hair starts to look dull and starts to suffer permanent damage. To remedy this, avoid heat styling your hair at very high temperatures – don’t turn the heat all the way up. Also, try to heat style occasionally, rather than doing so on a daily basis, and avoid heat styling wet hair because wet hair is more fragile.

• Perming

This weakens your hair, leaving it dull and damaged over time, your hair then starts to look brittle and dry rather than luxurious and shiny. If you cannot do without perms, avoid doing it often, only do it  once awhile.

• Highlights and Colouring

Over time, these change the inner structure of your hair making it look lackluster and dry, especially if they are done frequently to hide root colour or grey hair. The easy solution will be to avoid doing this often.

• Excessive Brushing

Excessive brushing can cause split-ends and hair breakage because excessive brushing causes too much consistent friction for the hair to handle. Low quality brushes just make matters worse because they cause snags and tangles worsening split ends and hair breakage.

• Braiding

Braiding especially when done too tightly, or on wet hair, can cause the hair to break and pull out the hair. If it is done too often, permanent hair damage can occur.

• Over-Shampooing and Vigorous Hair Washing

Over-washing washes away your hair’s natural moisture making your hair dry. You can actually tell you’re over-washing your hair when it starts to look dull. This means it’s time to scale back on the washing. Also, avoid being too vigorous when washing your hair to avoid damaging your hair cuticle.

• Extensions and Weaves

The effect of extensions and weaves on your hair is much like braids. They pull at the scalp eventually causing damage to the roots. The discomfort you feel on your scalp indicates their pressure on your roots. Over time, they leave the hair broken and brittle. To temper its effect, you can avoid wearing extensions and weaves for a long time. You can also make use of wigs – they make life so much easier.