You’ve forked out a fortune on conditioning hair masks, you’ve upgraded to the latest ‘zero damage’ styler, and you’re popping hair vitamins at night before settling down to sleep on a silk pillowcase. So why, then, does it feel like your hair has never looked worse or been harder to manage?
It may be that you’re unwittingly making small mistakes that are stacking up to weaker, duller strands, especially if you have mature hair.
Just ask leading trichologist Anabel Kingsley, who knows from experience that many women are inflicting harm on their own hair, often without realising it. ‘At the Philip Kingsley clinic, I commonly see clients whose daily hair habits are eroding their hair health,’ she says. ‘When they come in for a consultation, they can often be oblivious to where they’re going wrong.’
The good news, though, is that many sources of hair shredding and shedding can be minimised or avoided altogether.
It’s just one topic Anabel explores in her brilliant new book, Haircare The Ultimate Guide, which covers everything you could possibly need to know about making your hair stronger, healthier and slower ageing.
Anabel Kingsley Haircare: The Ultimate Guide
Here, we’ve put just a few of the at-home styling ‘don’ts’ that Anabel reveals in her book – plus simple, damage-sparing adjustments to make to your everyday regime.
It’s true – better hair really is in your own hands…
MISTAKE: Brushing 100 times a day
The hairbrush. It seems like such an innocent tool. Cue the theme tune to Jaws. The wrong hairbrush, and even the wrong method with the right brush, can wreak havoc on your strands. You use your hairbrush daily, often multiple times, so the cumulative damage can be immense.
The fix: All brushes, no matter how good, weather your hair. So, brush only as needed. 100 strokes a day is not good for your hair. If your hair is tangled, prep it with a detangling conditioning spray. Start brushing at your ends, not your roots. If you come to a resistant knot, ease it out laterally with your hands.
MISTAKE: Relying on boar bristles
Many clients say they love boar bristle brushes. They tell me, ‘They distribute my hair’s natural oils.’ They don’t really. Rigid boar bristle brushes can tear scales off your hair’s cuticle and contribute to breakage.
I’ll admit they do give stellar traction when you’re looking to define your hairstyle. Just reserve them for special occasions.
The fix: For all hair textures, brushes with flexible plastic prongs are best. Heat-resistant plastic won’t scorch your hair when you style it like metal does. Widely spaced and flexible prongs allow hair to glide through the brush. If the brush has vents to help heat dissipate when you blow dry, all the better.
MISTAKE: Using heat protection incorrectly
It shocks me how many people don’t use heat protection – it’s akin to heading to the beach with no sunscreen. And all too often it’s plopped on haphazardly, leaving half your strands vulnerable.
The fix: Apply it in sections, and focus on areas where most heat is applied and your hair is more fragile. Keep in mind that no matter how good the product, it will not completely shield your hair from damage.
MISTAKE: Not sealing your splits
You cannot heal split ends; the only cure is to cut them off. However, many products temporarily stick the ends together, preventing the hair from continuing to split up towards the root.
The fix: I recommend everyone with hair below chin length use a split end sealer to help prevent splits, keep your ends strong, and prolong the time between haircuts.
Set aside time every six weeks or so to remove split ends at home. Use a pair of sharp hair-cutting scissors. Twist sections of your hair like a corkscrew so that your ends ‘pop up’. Cut just above splits you find. This will prevent splits from migrating further up. And it will reduce the likelihood of your stylist feeling the need to chop off a large chunk of your hair to ‘get rid of damage’.
MISTAKE: Blowdrying too wet or too dry
Soaking wet hair is fragile and easily damaged by blowdrying. However, if hair is too dry, some of its ‘shaping’ hydrogen bonds (which break and reset as hair goes from wet and dry) will already have set. You’ll need high heat and tugging to get them into the style you want.
The fix: Blow dry when your hair is damp. Always dry your bottom layers first: If you start at the top or front, tangles and frizz will form throughout your ends as bonds are already resetting. Be gentle with your front section. It tends to be the most frizzy and dry - and that’s because it’s the most manhandled. Keep the heat down, move the dryer continuously to minimise damage, and restrain yourself. Turn your dryer off when your hair is ‘just dry’!
MISTAKE: Being impatient with heat tools
I get the appeal of straighteners and tongs. What’s the point of having healthy hair if you don’t love how it looks? However, over-zealous heat styling is one of the most common causes of damaged hair. High heat is alluring – it’s fast and initially it does make your hair look great and feel silky. Until it doesn’t.
The fix: If you want your hair to be at its healthiest, use tools very sparingly and on the lowest possible setting. Apply them on dry hair only or they will cause extreme damage. For the same reason, if you apply a water-based styling product, wait for it to dry before applying your straighteners or tongs.
Don’t work on one area of hair for more than a few seconds, and avoid going over the same area. Refrain from that extra ‘sweep’. Your hair looks pretty perfect but why not just give it one last swipe for good measure? Tempting, and satisfying, but it can make a big (negative!) difference in the long term.
Extract adapted from Haircare: The Ultimate Guide by Anabel Kingsley (£25 Little Brown)
