Hair Breakage: Causes, Prevention and Treatments

Hair breakage occurs in a number of different ways, from making hair look frizzy and untamed to making ends look and feel coarse. When you suffer from hair breakage, you will find that small parts of individual hairs will break off – not necessarily something that will have a huge impact from the outset, but something which can lead to more extensive hair loss or thinning if left unacknowledged and untreated.

In this blog post, we’re sharing some of the most common causes of hair breakage to help you prevent damage from occurring, before moving onto some of the more successful treatments and remedies that you can try to strengthen your hair.

What causes hair breakage?

There are a range of different factors which can cause hair breakage, with many depending on your lifestyle, the type of hair you have, and your hair care routine.

One of the most common culprits which causes and exacerbates hair breakage is over styling, particularly the use of extremely tight elastic bands in your hair, excessive brushing, aggressive combing, and even styling with heated products. All of these things can cause tension to or damage of the strand of hair, which causes inflammation at the root – causing the hair to weaken and become damaged.

And that’s not all. Not having regular hair cuts can lead to split ends – which over time can extend upwards and cause breakage higher up the strand of hair. Diet is also a contributing factor, with a lack of nutrients and vitamins causing hair thinning, breakage, and even hair loss in some cases. And then there’s stress – not just that which manifests itself in pulling at your hair and causing it to break under extreme tension, but also by causing stress to the hair roots which weakens the strands.

How to know if you’re suffering from hair breakage?

This is one of those cases where if you know, you know. Hair breakage is easy to spot, with people suffering from the issue often finding small broken sections of hair on the floor, in sinks, and around the area where they brush and style their hair.

It’s important to note at this stage that if you find full strands of hair around your home, this is more likely to be from shedding than from hair breakage. Hair breakage is when small parts of the hair break off because the strand itself has become weakened – while full hairs which fall out are generally caused by seasonal shedding.

Preventing hair breakage

It follows that if the aforementioned causes can all lead to and/or exacerbate hair breakage, then avoiding or reversing them can help to prevent the issue – right?

Well, keeping hair breakage at bay is very much about anticipating problems and counteracting them with your own at-home remedies and routines. Hair moisturisation is a big one to focus on to help prevent hair breakage, with leave-in conditioners an easy way to enhance the hydration of your hair with ease – while also making it easier to brush after washing, and thus cutting down on aggressive brushing.

Similarly, cutting back on the use of heated tools especially when your hair is damp, and washing hair more sporadically can all help to improve the health of hair and allow it to recover naturally and regain its strength.

Other tips to prevent hair breakage and support the natural strength of your hair include:

• Apply shampoo to the roots of the hair rather than the full length
• Minimise tangled hair by applying shampoo to your hair in a loose plait or braid
• Use a split end sealer
• Indulge in regular haircuts

The most common and recommended treatments to protect your hair

So, what can, and should, you be investing in to protect your hair at home?

There are a number of things in addition to the above prevention techniques which protect against hair breakage. These include regular hair trims and deep moisturising treatments at a salon, as well as at-home hair conditioning masks, hair oils, and special shampoos which minimise tangling.

Where possible, we recommend that you adopt a routine which compliments the length and condition of your hair, and which hydrates and moisturises while also making effortless styling easier to achieve. The more you have to style and comb or heat-treat your hair, the more you downplay the benefits of any hair breakage treatment – so take the time to work out a plan which suits not only the need to balance breakage but also the way you want to present your hair on a daily basis.

Book your next haircut at Boilerhouse and let us advise you on the best hair breakage prevention techniques for your hair type.