Keeping your hair game at tip top shape is a constant balancing act. For example, the majority of us need to utilize heat styling to shape our hair into the desired style, yet too much heat styling can lead to damage and breakage. Similarly, most of us need some sort of frequent shampooing to prevent excess buildup and grease accumulation yet washing one’s hair too often can easily lead to dryness and split ends.
When it comes to maintaining your hair, perhaps the most important tool in your arsenal is having the knowledge of what works and what doesn’t work for your hair type. This can be tricky to determine from person to person, but there are a handful of tips that are almost universal to all hair types. Read our list below and learn what bad hair care habits you need to immediately cut out!
Mistake #1: Washing Your Hair Too Often
Look, it’s tempting to want to wash your hair as often as possible, especially if you are a frequent user of styling products and hair sprays. However, too much washing can quickly strip away the hair’s outer cuticle layer, which leads to severe moisture loss and dry, brittle hair. Aim to wash your hair as infrequently as possible, with 2-3 times a week being a good starting point, adjusting more or less frequently depending on how your hair responds.
Mistake #2: Not Using a Heat Protectant
Like hair washing, using a heated styling device can lead to significant breakage and hair damage if you aren’t careful. Using temperatures that are too hot for your hair can lead to a rapid degradation of the hair structure, which is a disaster for your hair health. Thankfully, a dedicated heat protectant product like Sutra’s Heat Protector is able to coat your hair with a lightweight protective layer that lessens the impact of direct heat on the cuticle.
Mistake #3: Using Low-Quality Heat Styling Tools
While we all love to heat style our hair, it’s a delicate art of applying as little heat as possible while sufficiently utilizing as much energy as is needed to create volume and lock in a style. Although a low-quality device can damage the hair strand with harsh, direct heat application, newer-generation styling tools utilize infrared and ionic technologies to apply heat from the inside out to dry the hair as gently and rapidly as possible.
Mistake #4: Under-Moisturizing Your Hair
For many of us, one of the worst things we can imagine with our hair is having it weighed down by too much grease and excess moisture. Because of this, many tend to opt for lightweight conditioners, with some even skipping the conditioning step altogether. Unfortunately, this just leads to dryness and brittle hair that not only lacks fullness and volume but is also prone to damage and breakage. Look to incorporate a high-quality conditioner like Sutra’s Replenishing Moroccan Conditioner that provides intense moisturization without weighing your hair down.