Living proof. | Blog: 5 Worst Ways You Can Damage Hair

5 Worst Ways You Can Damage Hair

Jun 28th 2010
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bleach hair

Awhile back, we wrote about how ultraviolet radiation can damage our hair just as badly as your skin. UV radiation is just one of the many things that can damage your hair. Here’s our list of the worst ways you can damage your hair:

Bleaching – Why is this #1? Bleaching the hair is the process of breaking down and dissolving melanin (the protein that gives hair its color) particles. It completely strips the hair of its original color and irreparably damages it. Hair will be more prone to breakage because of the weakened cortex and cuticle layers.
Chemical straightening – This includes relaxing your hair, straightening treatments, perms, etc. These processes rearrange the hair’s molecular structure and as a result, your hair becomes fragile, brittle, and extremely porous.
Bad Grooming Habits – Why does this come before coloring or heat styling? Mainly because it occurs on a daily basis and you don’t even realize that you’re doing it. Here are a few examples:
- Excessive brushing/combing — especially when the hair is wet. We wrote about how Living Proof products take brushing and combing into account when developing their products but it’s good to remember that when your hair is wet, it is at its most fragile.
- Not using a product before heat styling – your hair needs some sort of protection from heat appliances, especially when it’s wet.
- Using damaging styling tools – make sure to use a wide-toothed comb or a brush with natural fibers so you don’t cause split ends and breakage.
Coloring –The use of chemicals to remove, replace, and/or cover up pigments naturally found inside the hair shaft will leave hair dry, dull, brittle and weak. Going to a lighter shade is even more damaging since you have to bleach your hair first to remove the original color and then deposit the new color.
Heat Styling – Heat styling your hair once in awhile isn’t too bad but blow drying or flat ironing your hair on a daily basis will make it lose its elasticity and more prone to breakage. It’s better to heat style your hair after you’ve let it air dry a bit.

Celest

I get that coloring is bad for my hair, but is there a safe alternative when I’ve got a significant percentage of gray?
The Living Proof Team

It’s certainly a catch-22, as you color your hair to hide the grays, yet the process of coloring can oftentimes make your hair more coarse! The best thing to do is keep your hair well conditioned, which would include using a leave-in conditioner, as well as your in-shower conditioner, each time that you wash.
http://livingproof l heberle

coloring over grey hair which is very frizzy
Andrea

Does No Frizz cream give any protection against heat styling?
The Living Proof Team

Andrea, No Frizz works great when styling with heat! In general, you should always have product in your hair when heat styling since you wouldn’t want to put all that direct heat onto your wet hair without some sort of protection.
Julie Fredrich

So what product do you suggest that we use to protect our hair when heat styling?
The Living Proof Team

Great question, Julie! It all depends on the look you want. If you want to straighten your hair with a blow dryer or flat iron, we suggest using one of our Straight Stylers–which one depends on what kind of hair you have. If you want to heat-style with a diffuser for your curls or waves, then you’ll want to use one of our Curl/Wave Stylers. Here’s a cool tool that will help you figure out which product is best for you: http://livingproof.com/how_to_choose.php! Let us know if you have any more styling questions
http://livingproof.com/blog/what-are-the-signs-of-hair-damage/ Living proof. | Blog: What are the signs of hair damage?

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