Great Care Tips for Damaged Hair

Tips on caring and treating damaged hair

At a loss on how to treat your hair and improve its shine and vitality? The key is to understand exactly what kind of hair you have and what needs to be treated.

Treating Dry Hair

Dry hair is a common occurrence for many people thanks to harsh weather conditions and the vigorous styling habits many of us use. As a result, hair becomes damaged with the main causes being heat, chemical damaged and maintenance.

However, there are many easy steps that you can take to treat dry, flyaway hair:

• Use a low pH shampoo and replace the oils in the hair and on the scalp. There are a number of products available that cater to these needs. You can also use acidifiers as they will restore lost moisture in your hair
• Try to cut down (or eliminate) the use of styling appliances. All that heat is continually damaging your open cuticles and making it even harder to repair and restore a healthy hair follicle
• Use specialised treatments for dry hair once a week to repair any damage

Treating Coloured Hair

Coloured hair is more prone to sustain damage as the colouring process weakens the hair follicles, yet there are easy steps that anybody can take to restore their hair's health while also maintain a new, fresh colour.

They include:

• Use colour-specific products such as a an intensive shampoo/conditioner for coloured hair and hair masks which will aim to restore lost health and body in the hair, damaged in the colouring process
• Use colour enhancing conditioners to maintain a stronger colour for longer
• Use leave-in conditioners when outdoors or heated areas
• Protect lightened hair from being stained by chlorine or salt water by washing hair with bottled spring water before going into the water as it will dilute and reduce the damage from the chemicals

Treating Permed Hair

Permed hair is hair that has be chemically treated to put a wave or body into the hair length, due to this chemical process hair can often become dry and difficult to manage while also proving hard to maintain once the perm begins to drop. Some tips for caring for permed hair includes:

• Use products specifically made for permed hair as they will be gently and won't relax the chemical treatment, this is especially true of conditioners as permed hair has varying porosity so can react differently to regular products
• Use a diffuser product on dry, permed hair for tighter curls along with a volumising product or gel at the roots to encourage volume and lift if the hair is too heavy
• If you have to use styling appliances (the heat can disrupt the perm so best avoided) always keep it on a low setting and use thermal protectant products

• Have regular trims (every 6 weeks or so) and if you wish to keep the perm intact, have your regrowth permed also to maintain and even head

Everyday Products you should know

There are a number of products that everybody should use in their hair care and maintenance routine, whether their hair is deemed damaged or not. Some basic hair care product names you may be familiar with include:

• Detanglers
• Moisturisers
• Thermal Protectors
• Acidifiers
• Reconstructors
• Glossers
• Leave-In Conditioners
• Hair Masks