Ep. 2: Why Your Hair Is Breaking Off and What You Can do to Save It

This episode is about hair breakage and what could be causing your hair to break off. There are several reasons why your hair is not as shiny and lustrous as you'd like it to be. Let's find out what it could be in this episode! 

Audio Transcript - Episode 2

Today is episode number two and we are talking about what could be breaking your hair.

So there are several things that could be causing breakage or damage in your hair.

First of all I do want to preface this by saying that you may not even have damaged hair. And the reason I say that is because literally everybody I see thinks they have damaged hair. Every client who sits in my chair tells me to cut off the damage ends.

And I think to myself, “What damaged ends?”

Sometimes, clients just have dry ends or they have zero dryness and zero split ends and zero damage and they think that their hair is damaged. And they could be using products for damaged hair as well that don’t actually suit their hair at all.

But if you see breakage, if you see split ends, if you notice your hair breaking — And when you’re brushing it, there’s little pieces flying everywhere, then several things may be happening.

1.You are using hot water.

Hot water can dry out your hair. It is not good for your hair. Hot water is not good for your skin, either. It dries out your skin. It dries out your scalp. It dries out your face. I know that in the winter months I love taking hot showers, but do keep in mind that if you want to keep your hair healthy, hot water is a no-go.

2. When your hair is wet: putting it up when it’s wet.

Sleeping in your hair when it’s wet. Your hair turns elastic. It becomes 50% more elastic or it has more elasticity when it's wet, which means that when you're brushing it when it's wet, and when you’re tying it up when it’s wet, and when you’re sleeping in it when it’s wet, it is actually stretching and breaking like a rubber band.

You wake up in the morning and it looks fine but over time you might even find one side of your hair has less hair than the other side, maybe because you're sleeping on that one side. So you know, you gotta watch your hair, especially if you’re trying to grow it out.

3. Using an elastic hairband.

Something else you could be doing is using a hair band.

So you know those hair bands, the elastic bands. Everyone loves them. They’re terrible for your hair. They break your hair. But especially the ones that have the metal clips. When I had long hair I used them all the time. I used to get them at the dollar store.

I'm pretty sure that they just broke the heck out of my hair and no matter how soft they are, they are going to break the hair.

So scrunchies are great. I know scrunchies are back and they’re super popular right now. You want to get the ones that are felt or velvety or silky because they coat the hair. They’re very gentle on the hair dye. If you tie your hair really really tight you could be breaking it.

4. How you take out your hair.

The way that you take out the hair - you know when you take your bun out you could be ripping the hair out. But when you take out the hair please be gentle. I've seen women throw up their hair in a bun and it’s all wrapped up into each other (and I used to do this myself when I had long hair). And then when they go to take it out there ripping it right out and it really really pains me like it hurts me physically what I see that happen. Please stop pulling your hair you're breaking it. And the worst part is, the way that you're wrapping the hair, you're wrapping the top, you’re not wrapping the bottom. So the bottom (inside) of your hair is always going to be healthy and what you’re ripping is actually the top part.

The part that we want to be healthy and shiny? That's the one that's ripping. That’s the one that you’re sleeping on, and that's the one that you're pulling back. That’s also the one that you're washing.

5. Washing your hair aggressively.

So another thing is when you go to wash your hair the shower head, or the way that you shampoo your hair.

That crown area is where everyone gets that frizz and it just feels like super dry. It's possible that your shower head is going straight at it, and that's where you’re shampooing your hair the most so maybe that's where you're concentrating your shampoo — aggressive is the word that I was looking for. Maybe you're washing your hair super aggressively and that is, over time, that's going to cause damage and dryness and frizz.

I also want to mention hard water. If you are living in an old building: your pipes are old, the water is old. You probably shouldn’t be drinking from the tap. The water is not good for your hair so you could be using a nice clarifying shampoo or you need a shower filter.

6. Heat.

You guys know the next point, but I have to talk about it anyway and that is heat. If you are flat ironing your hair, even once in a while, without using heat protectant, which you absolutely should.

Flat ironing your hair at 450 degrees is very very bad for your hair. Even if you have coarse hair - actually if you have course hair - I was going to say that course hair usually is stronger than fine hair and so fine hair damages faster. It does, yes, because of how fragile it is, it does damage faster and it breaks faster. It’s just very fragile. But, coarse hair, if you were to flat iron coarse hair, say that you have curly hair and you’re flat ironing it all the time … curly hair and courser hair tends to be very dry as well. And even though it's very strong, over time you're not taking care of it, you're just flat ironing it, eventually you’re going to get split ends.

Eventually the hair just cannot withstand all of that heat damage and the bonds start to break and you get split ends and it just keeps going up the hair. I’ve seen people with very coarse hair that usually is very strong, with a very tight cuticle that can also break and have a lot of split ends. But I do want to say that fine hair usually is much more fragile. If you have fine hair please play off the straightener.

If you have to have your hair straight you can use a round brush and blow-dry your hair. Learn how to blow dry your hair. Ask your hair stylist to teach you how to blow dry your hair. Look up YouTube tutorials because the heat from a blow dryer is much much less then with a flat iron. It also gives you more bounce, more fluff, more jujj, more volume and it lasts longer, and it's less damaging.

And when you're using a brush that has vents in it, so a ceramic brush, the air goes through the brush and it circulates faster and it dries your hair faster. So it's a dry and straighten all at once. The larger the brush too, the straighter the hair. Get a large round brush that is professional, and get a professional hair dryer and learn to blow dry your hair if you absolutely must have it smooth.

I have fine, frizzy hair so I understand when you really just want to blowdry. I get it.

Speaking of blow dryers, if you are using an old blow dryer or hair dryer that could be, you know, from the 1800’s, usually old hair dryers, if they've been sitting around and they were given to us by somebody many many years ago, we usually lose the nozzle on those and then we’re blow drying our hair with no nozzle with a hair dryer that is probably very very hot. I'm thinking the filament is very hot, the technology is really bad, and that is really bad for your hair.

So I had clients who would say, “You know I'm doing everything right, I'm not using heat, I'm using all the products, I don't know why is my hair is breaking.”

And I'm just like “What is happening right now? It looks like you use a flat iron every single day on your hair.”

After some probing - I remember this one client - I just had a hunch to ask her, I was like, “Hold on a second, what hair dryer are you using?”

If she was using a GHD for example, or a Dyson, or one of those high-end professional brands, I don't see that ever hurting your hair. If you’re using that, it makes your hair so shiny. Expensive brands are good. Professional brands are amazing.

So I asked her, I was like “Hold on, what kind of hairdryer are you using?”

And she says, “I don't know…”

And I was like, “Is it old?”

And she goes, “Maybe.”

And I was like, “Are you using it without a nozel?”

And she goes, “Maybe.”

And I was like, “Oh girl, what are you doing? No no no no.”

And she's like, “Yeah my mother-in-law gave it to me like a few years ago and she probably had it for like 10 years before that and it's still going. I don't even know what brand it is because it's actually completely come off, like it's completely wiped off.”

“And you probably lost the nozzle.”

“I didn’t even know you’re supposed to use the nozzle.

“What do you mean? That's like the whole point.”

So the nozzle actually doesn’t filter the air, it creates a space between the hair dryer and your hair so the heat doesn't go directly on your hair. If it's going directly on your hair, oh my God, it's so bad. It’s so so bad.

So you gotta think of your hair like silk. Actually, funny fun fact, hair fibres are actually very similar to wool fibres, so if you have a wool sweater it’s actually very similar to hair. I learned that in science class.

Think of your hair the way you want to treat it is the way you want to treat a silk dress. You want to treat it like it is the most beautiful expensive thing that you own because it's kind of is. And repairing it is very expensive.

Repairing damaged hair is very expensive. You are going to need in-salon treatments, plus shampoo, plus conditioner, which everybody should have. And a mask - a weekly mask. And sometimes you might need even two masks plus treatment plus serums, plus a leave-in, a detangler and all kinds of products just to keep your hair healthy and looking great for a long time. So just take your precautions and be careful with the way you treat your hair. You just gotta be very very gentle.

It's kind of like skin. I'm pretty rough on my skin and everyone tells me I have good skin. I don't know.

I think I’m pretty rough on my hair too to be honest but for my clients it’s such a big deal for me to take care of them and take care of their hair.

If you love your hair and you want to keep it long and healthy and shiny or even if you don't, these are my tips for why your hair could be breaking.

I hope I didn't forget anything and I'll make another episode on how you can keep your hair growing.

Thank you for listening. That's it for today. Let's chat another time. I will see you again very soon.