What Can Happen to Your Hair If You Wear Ponytails Way Too Often

The ponytail is sometimes the easiest and most practical hairstyle. You can wear it at home, in your pajamas, out with friends wearing a casual outfit, or even on the red carpet with a beautiful dress and high heels — just as our favorite celebrities have done many times. But it’s important to be mindful of how often you wear your hair like this. If you have the habit of pulling your hair up too tightly and keeping it like this all day long, you might face some unpleasant issues down the road.

We at Bright Side want you to be healthy, so we believe it’s best if we inform you of the side effects of this very common hairdo.

1. You might develop migraines.

The ponytail headache is as real as it sounds. It’s a type of allodynia, which means that a normal thing causes pain. Your hair is not sensitive to pain, but underneath your hair follicles, there are nerves that can be triggered by the tight pull, and they can sense pain.

2. Your scalp may start to hurt.

Exactly like with the ponytail headache, the nerves that are triggered by being pulled too tight will make your scalp sore. It actually comes from the skin and the perifollicular area of your scalp, meaning the region around each hair, pore, or follicle. So the nerve endings attached to each hair are actually affected. You’ll probably notice the pain right after you loosen your hair.

3. You could experience back pain.

Your scalp might be under a lot of stress, especially if you have thick hair. The pain appears, and it can spread all the way down to your neck and to your back. This happens because you activate the sensory nerves even more by forcing all that hair to stay up. And we often use a very small hairband to do this.

4. The skin on your face might stretch out.

Excessive ponytails are definitely not good for your skin because it loses its elasticity. Over time, you will look older. If you keep your hair up so tight every day, your skin might stay stretched out over a longer period of time.

5. Your hair might get tangled.

Wearing a tight ponytail over an extensive period of time can cause friction and tension in your hair. Be prepared to spend a lot of time detangling your hair from ties, headbands, and more if you do so.

6. Your hair will break more easily.

Your hair is quite fragile, so pulling it up all the time and holding it with an elastic will not make it stronger. The tension can cause the strands to break. It will be worse if you choose to sleep with your hair in a ponytail.

7. You might develop alopecia.

Traction alopecia is a specific kind of hair loss along the hairline, and it occurs when tension is applied to the hair. Check your scalp for small bumps. You may also feel tenderness or a crusting sensation. Fortunately, you can get your hair to grow back normally if you change the habit of wearing a ponytail for so long.

Have you experienced any of these symptoms? How often do you keep your hair in ponytails? Which hairstyle is your favorite?