Avoiding Damaging your Hair

1. Limit your use of hair dryers

Heat weakens hair proteins. Constant heating and drying can lead to brittleness and fragility that can cause hair loss that would not have occurred otherwise. Natural drying is best for you hair, so aim to dry it naturally more often than drying it with heat.

• Other devices that heat your hair, including hot curlers, hot brushes and hair straighteners, can also have this effect.
• If you do use heated tools be careful, because burnt scalps can permanently damage hair follicles!

2. Avoid perms

Perming refers to either chemical straightening or chemical curling, both of which can damage your hair. It works specifically by breaking the inner bonds of your hair, and then reforming them in a different way to straighten or curl your hair. This weakens your hair, making it dull, dry and brittle. Over time dry and brittle hair can contribute to hair loss.

3. Cut down on dyes and chemicals

Frequent use of hair colouring chemicals increases the chances of serious damage being done to your hair. Never colour your hair more often than every 4 to 6 weeks. If you do dye your hair, it’s a good idea to use a conditioner after shampooing. When it comes to going gray, it's a lot kinder to your hair to let it turn grey than to dye it.

4. Don't bleach your hair

Bleaching your hair removes your natural pigment when the cuticles are penetrated by chemicals. By doing this you are changing the structure of your hair and making it mores susceptible to damage. You are making it weaker, so bleaching coupled with blow drying and styling can really harm your hair.

5. Don’t pull your hair too tight

Some hair styles that require tight pulling and elastics or clips can be a cause of hair loss if done on a daily basis. For example, tight ponytails, tight braids, corn-rows, and plaits, can lead to significant hair loss when done daily. Winding hair tightly onto rollers, especially heated rollers, is also liable to cause more hair loss.

• The medical name for loss of hair due to hairstyles that are too tight is known as "traction alopecia" and it is completely preventable as a cause in and of itself!