I think that I won’t be off base when I say that every woman had a time in her life when she was trying to do nothing but the best for her hair but the effects achieved were far from expected. In most cases, it’s due to the lack of knowledge, of course!
In this post, I’d like to tell you what damaged my hair the most. I analyzed thoroughly my past hair care habits and I enumerated six that made me put a lot of effort into restoring good looks to my strands.
You frequently ask me what I do to my hair, what treatments I expose it to to get such stunning strands. Honestly, I do a lot and it would be really hard for me to give it all in just one post. Besides, my hair care routine changes with season, answers my current hair needs and goals that I want to achieve.
What’s the most important though is WHAT I DON’T DO TO MY HAIR! Sadly, it’s way easier to ruin hair than regenerate it.
HAIR CARE MISTAKES THAT I USED TO (UNCONSCIOUSLY) MAKE!
Mistake 1. Too frequent hair washing (every day)
I remember when I used to wash my hair almost every day. I also had bangs which I washed even twice a day, for example in the afternoon when I wanted to go out with friends; I wanted to look fresh but I didn’t have time to wash the entire hairdo. And this is how I started this vicious circle because too frequent hair washing encourages the scalp to produce more sebum, which again forces us to wash hair even more often. The ‘detox’ period during which I was trying to wean my scalp off producing too much oil was pretty troublesome. Now I know that it was worth it. Currently I wash my hair every 3-4 days, but when I see that my strands need some freshening up, I use a dry shampoo. Now my roots don’t get oily as much as they used to because sebum levels are now balanced. Moreover, hair isn’t dehydrated anymore – which was the case in the past because I exposed it to shampoos too often. Even my scalp isn’t irritated as it used to be. Nothing but pluses, right?
Mistake 2. Using flat iron even twice a day
Back then when I was a teenager I used flat iron equally often. Of course, a few years ago there was nobody who would think about shielding hair with some heat protection products. I guess nobody was aware how damaging high temperature to strands is. So what did I use to do? I set the temperature to high and run the flat iron down the length of my poor hair, strand by strand. I can recall myself torturing the hair this way even twice a day. And another vicious circle was on because damaged due to high temperature hair was getting more and more dry, brittle, frizzy and unmanageable. And as much as I tried to smooth it out using a flat iron, the poorer its condition got. Today, I don’t use a flat iron except some special occasions (but always with heat protection products!). I prefer natural methods of hair straightening, the ones that don’t require using hot tools. Anyway, I’m lucky that nowadays my hair looks good without using a flat iron.
Mistake 3. Using anti-dandruff shampoo when there is no dandruff on your head
Well, I overdid with the use of anti-dandruff shampoos. I perceived them as regular shampoos and applied to hair on a daily basis, which was a huge mistake. First of all, anti-dandruff shampoos should be used only if your scalp is affected by dandruff – they have really a strong cleansing effect. When used excessively, such hair care products may cause scalp dehydration and make dandruff even more severe. Even if you are actively undergoing a treatment aiming at combating dandruff, you should use two types of shampoos alternately: anti-dandruff and deeply moisturizing. Secondly, you can get addicted to using anti-dandruff shampoos. And here’s another vicious circle that we are caught in – the more intensively we cleanse scalp with anti-dandruff shampoo, the more it gets irritated so it flakes off and intensifies the problem of dandruff. Does it make any sense to you? There are numerous ways of dealing with dandruff so using anti-dandruff shampoo isn’t crucial.
Mistake 4. Dyeing hair even every 6 months
I also had a period in my life when I hated the natural color of my hair. I came up with the brilliant idea to dye my hair (oh dear) black. Since my hair grows pretty fast, I saw the lighter roots quickly. Guess what I used to do in such situation… Indeed, I dyed the hair again. Of course not the roots but the hair length! To make the matter even worse, I didn’t pay attention whether the dye contained ammonia or not. And in this simple way within just a few months I managed to turn my hair into hay. Black hay but still, the hair was dry, brittle and unmanageable. I think that this mistake was the most serious one because these experiments ruined my hair the most. Nowadays, I steer clear of hair dyes. If I feel like changing the color, I turn to natural methods only such as henna. Luckily, I learnt from my mistakes.
Mistake 5. Arranging hair in a tight ponytail
Do you know what the main reason for hair thinning is? Arranging it high in a tight ponytail. Of course, this was another bad hair care habit of mine. I just didn’t like wearing my hair down so the easiest way to prevent it from disturbing me was to tie the strands up. Naturally, the tie had to be tight so no wisp could get free and irritate me. Now I know that this is the road to making follicles weak and encourage hair thinning. Obviously, such hairdo won’t do you any harm if you wear it once in a while, but I arranged my hair like that every single day. Today, I prefer simpler and loose hairdos.
Mistake 6. Sleeping with wet hair
You can ruin your hair also when you keep going to bed with wet hair. Sounds like some delusions of a hair-freak? Maybe a little bit but there’s truth in it. Wet – or even damp – hair is a few times more prone to damage, breaks easier and is exceptionally delicate. Therefore, if you wash your hair in the evening, do it early enough so to let the strands air dry. I didn’t follow this advice, I didn’t even bother about it, so I ended up with split ends, which was pretty serious because I had to get the strands trimmed quite considerably. The only exception though is to go to sleep with wet hair rolled on some rollers or arrange it into a braid. In this way you won’t only get a nice-looking no heat curls in the morning, but also you will shield the hair from damage.
How does your hair care routine look like?
