Looking after your hair
3 Major Hair Care Mistakes We See All The Time + Fixes From Experts
By Alexandra Englermbg Beauty and Lifestyle Senior Editor
December 27, 2020 — 21:17 PM
Everyone's beauty needs are different—what you do daily for your hair, skin, and body won't work for me. That's why beauty is a deeply personal endeavor, that we just happen to make collective. This is especially true with hair care: Not only do you have your hair type to worry about, but the scalp comes into play in a major way, as does your lifestyle. So even things as basic as detangling can result in multiple and conflicting "rules" to follow.
This all being said, there are some habits that really do work across the board. Case in point? These mistakes. Don't worry; we came armed with easy fixes:
1. Not protecting it from heat damage.
Heat styling—especially when it's a daily activity—does a number on your hair. Hot tools work by breaking down your hair's keratin bonds, so they can reshape them into a new texture (be it straight to curls via a wand or curls to straight via a flatiron). As you might imagine, this repeated process will affect the integrity of the hair's bonds over time. Heat can also do more surface-level damage to the cuticle by singeing the cuticle, leaving gaps and frays on the hair's outermost layer. In fact, "Hot tools can be even more damaging than hair color," celebrity colorist Rita Hazan notes.
One of the most important things you can do for hair health is to coat the strands with a barrier before even touching a blow dryer or hot tool. Heat protectants form a seal around the hair, essentially creating a buffer between the temperatures and your strand—and infusing the hair with antioxidants and moisture to help nurture it long term.
Finally, do be mindful of application: Be sure to coat your entire head of hair—that is, if you plan to style all of it. Just spritzing the front, top layers will do nothing for the rest of it (there's no transitive property in hair care, after all).
2. Only using topicals for hair health.
Topicals can do a lot of work for the hair you already have: A good mask can add a surge of moisture and vitamins. A scalp scrub can lift off debris and buildup, unclogging hair follicles. Or leave-ins can help your hair retain hydration and full, lush hair throughout the day. But these aren't doing anything for the hair you're growing in. And no matter how much styling product or fancy creme you put on your strands, it's not going to do much if your hair is weak and structurally deficient from the get-go.
