A Hairdresser Shares Popular Hair Care Habits That Actually Damage It

Vera has been working in the beauty industry for 6 years. She is the very master who not only does haircuts, but also gives advice about how to sustain your hair’s health and its attractive look. She shares her professional secrets in a blog called “The Hairdresser’s Diary.”

While creating this article, we at Bright Side realized that it was high time we reconsidered the rules for hair care. And at the end of the article, there is a bonus story about a girl who had color done at a salon, but it was Vera who had to correct the mistakes.

How often we should wash our hair

I myself, wash my own hair every day. No matter how hard I try to find a shampoo that will keep my hair fresh, I have to put it in a ponytail on the second day after washing or use a dry shampoo.

Many people think that if they wash their hair daily, it will get dirty faster. However, in reality, the skin on the head and hair suffer more from dirt at the hair roots, than from it frequently being washed. Skin oil, dirt, and dust that accumulate daily on the head, clog pores, which means hair gets fewer nutrients.

You can try using deep cleansing shampoos for oily hair once a month. Men’s shampoos also help perfectly in these cases.

Why we lose more hair in the spring and fall

Let me clarify this from the beginning: cutting your hair won’t help (I have a couple of clients who visited me to shorten their hair, thinking they lose it due to gravity). As a rule, the seasonal loss of hair happens by itself. Our task is to not worsen the situation, but to try to decrease the loss with the help of the right treatment.

• Make up for your lack of vitamins through your diet.
• Don’t use thermal hair masks (especially ones made with pepper and mustard). The issue can worsen due to their irritating effect.
• Strengthen your hair’s roots with the help of special tonics, oils, and ampules that help fight hair loss (make sure to consult a trichologist). A shampoo against losing hair won’t help — it can’t penetrate the skin on the head and affect the roots.
• Massage the head and neck skin. It increases blood flow and affects hair growth positively.
• Do a physiotherapy course with a d’Arsonval apparatus at a beauty salon or with a trichologist.

Why our hair gets tangled

It can happen due to incorrect care or bad habits. For example, I often roll my hair around my fingers and end up getting knots in my hair and split ends.

However, the most frequent reason for tangled hair is its dryness. Hair consists of a core and a shell similar to a tile. When the top layer dries, the flakes that are tightly adjacent to each other open and cling to each other, forming knots. In order to prevent it, you need to do moisturizing masks more often and use special sprays that can be applied right after washing and on dry hair during the day.

Thin hair is more prone to getting tangled. People with thin hair should be more careful about choosing their shampoo — it should carefully clean your hair and not over dry it. It’s better to choose shampoos with the following ingredients in their composition: sodium cocoyl isethionate, sodium lauroyl methyl isethionate, сocamidopropyl betaine, lauryl glucosid, and decyl glucoside.⠀

Is hair Botox really that necessary?

Hair Botox is often mistaken with Keratin Straightening, but it’s a completely different procedure. Its effect is aimed at hair “restoration.” Why do I use quotation marks? Because you can’t restore your hair’s health with this method. You’ll only temporarily fill the damaged areas inside the hair, improve its look, and get rid of tangles.

Even if you get hot hair Botox from a master, it’s likely that they will burn your hair. Some hairdressers mistakenly use the same temperature of a hair strengthener — both for natural hair and for weak blonde curls.

Moreover, hair Botox gets rinsed out after a month or 2. The hair goes back to its initial look and the person has to go to the salon again. By the way, the average price for this procedure is about $50 — and you can buy a lot of high-quality hair care products for this amount of money and treat it well.

How water affects our hair and the skin on our head

If there a white coating inside your faucets and teapots, it means that the water you are using is hard. You actually get this same coating on your hair. Salts from calcium and magnesium gradually accumulate on your hair, and curls become lifeless and brittle. At the same time, dandruff, as well as an increased risk for eczema, may appear on your overdried scalp.

Hard water is harmful to colored hair — it quickly washes out the color and even the brightest cold blonde will turn yellow really fast. Hair clogged with salts is worse for coloring too, it is more difficult to lighten it and give it a cool shade.

How one can solve this issue:

• install a filter on the shower or tap
• wash your hair with boiled water
• use nourishing and moisturizing balms and hair masks

Why your shampoo keeps damaging your hair and how to replace it with a less aggressive one

When buying shampoo, many people pay attention to the “natural” composition, but few of us know what SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate) is. The constant use of sulfates can cause irritation, dryness, itchiness, the development of allergic reactions, and hair loss. These substances make our wonderful curls have less body because they perfectly remove not only contamination from the hair, but also the natural protective barrier of the skin.

I often hear these words from my clients, “I use only sulfate shampoo and can’t start using a different one because I instantly get dandruff and itchiness.” This happens because the skin of your head has gotten used to aggressive components. Try using a deep-cleaning shampoo, wash your head with the new product several times, and everything will be OK.

Here are the components that don’t harm your hair:

• Lauryl glucoside (coconut glucose product)
• Decyl glucoside (made from corn starch and coconut oil)
• Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate (made from coconut oil)
• Sucrose laurate and sodium lauroyl sarcosinate

What hides behind sleeping with wet hair

Never ever go to bed with wet hair. Even if you are very tired, dry it a little at least. Otherwise, you won’t be able to style your hair in the morning or give it the necessary volume at the roots. Once your hair dries in a certain way while you sleep, there is nothing you will be able to change about it in the morning.

Moreover, wet hair is the perfect environment for various bacteria and microorganisms. You might end up getting dandruff, itchiness, or other scalp issues.

Pat your hair dry after washing, but don’t rub it and don’t wrap it — it is too sensitive and brittle for that. It’s better to start blow-drying your hair with cold air — because it’s less harmful. If you feel too tired and don’t want to do anything with your hair, you can use a special spray to help it dry quickly.

Busting myths about men’s alopecia

I would like to bust several myths about men’s balding heads and perhaps increase someone’s self-esteem.

• Myth # 1: Baldness can be cured with ointments, creams, and folk remedies. In reality, there are very few remedies that really work and they should only be prescribed by a doctor. These remedies are not used to make the bald areas grow hair again, they are used to stop hair loss.
• Myth # 2: A hair transplant will certainly help. There is no guarantee that this hair will stay with you forever. After some time, it can fall out anyway.
• Myth # 3: You don’t need to watch your hairdo and spend money on haircuts. Bald men shave their heads once every 5-7 days. Those who have a perfectly bald head do it every 3 days or do a laser epilation. Apart from that, they have to use special products to moisturize the skin on their head.

Now let’s talk about the advantages of having a bald head. This head visually makes a man bigger and more massive. That’s why many bodybuilders shave their heads or get short haircuts. In addition, a man with a bald head will always look stylish and this hairdo will go with any look.

Bonus: How I saved someone’s hair after a botched visit to another salon

My neighbor called me crying and asked me to come to her place to correct her color. I took my magical hairdresser’s supply kit and rushed to her. Turned out, she visited some beauty salon and asked them to do something called root stretching. (Root stretching is a technique we do to blend out the natural root color. We do this by painting on the color first as though we’re doing a normal root touch up, then we weave out sections of the hair like Balayage to “stretch” the root color around a quarter, or even halfway down the hair shaft.) I was taken aback when I saw what was done to her hair in the salon: her root area was lighter and then she had these red stains and dark ends.

I made a decision to remove the stains, to give her hair a more natural shade, and to color the roots well. Yes, there is still a lot of work to be done, but at least we managed to get rid of the stains and she can leave the house now without being embarrassed. My client is happy, she loves everything.

How do you take care of your hair?