What are the Causes of Hair Breakage?

In this article, we will discuss the causes of hair breakage and the signs to look out for when checking if you are experiencing hair breakage. We have all experienced some form of hair breakage; excess shedding, fragile ends that come off easily or split ends.

It is important to pay attention to your hair so you notice the hair breakage in its early stages before you start losing bigger chunks of hair.

Panicking every time some hair falls off your head thinking you are experiencing hair breakage won’t do you or anyone else any good so the first subtopic we would discuss on will be signs of hair breakage.

Signs you are experiencing breakage

You have split ends: This simply refers to a strand of hair that has several branches of hair sticking out of it or a hair strand that has split into two or more separate strands starting from the end of the hair and splitting upwards.
Your hair is fragile and dry.
Your hair is constantly in knots and tangles, especially after washing it.
You frequently find hair strands on the floor or on your clothing.
Your hair texture is bumpy and rough instead of smooth. (This might be the case in some specific areas of the hair or the entire head of hair.)

Causes of hair breakage

Now that we know some obvious signs of hair breakage, it is important to know the causes of hair breakage. With this knowledge, we can prevent our hair from ever experiencing breakage or we can know what steps we took that led to our hair breaking.

Unhealthy diet

Diet in this case refers to what you feed your body and like it or not if you don’t eat healthily or you don’t consume meals that provide you with the nutrients your hair needs to grow, you will experience hair breakage.

Dry hair

Moisturize, Moisturize and Moisturize. Dry hair is a major cause of hair breakage. Insufficient moisture in the hair and it becomes dry, the drier it is the more fragile it is, the more fragile it is the higher chances of it falling off your head.

Heat Damage

I know your hairdryer makes your hair dry faster but have you put into consideration the amount of damage it is doing to your hair in the name of making it dry? What about your curling iron, hair straightener and other heat styling tools? Sometimes, in order to get the best results you put it on high heat. The problem is, frequent use of these tools increases your chances of hair breakage.

Over-washing

You are probably thinking, “Is there really something called over washing?” Yes, yes there is. I know your hair feels like once a week won be sufficient to clean your hair (this is especially true for people oily skin because their scalp tends to produce excess oil). Put urn mind that over washing the hair can lead to hair breakage also.

Using Towel to “dry your hair”:

Frantically towel drying your hair when it is wet (its most fragile state) can lead to hair breakage. Instead of rubbing the towel on your hair to ‘dry’ the hair, simply wrap up your hair in a towel or air dry it.

Using Elastic hair ties pull on your hair strands as it could snatch some hair strands and as you are removing the elastic hair tie some of your hair is removed with it.

Untrimmed hair and Illness

Untrimmed hair can cause hair breakage since this is the part of the hair that is weak and more prone to breaking from the slightest stress to it. Likewise, illnesses such as hyperthyroidism can cause hair breakage.

Continuous exposure to chemicals

Frequent use of hair dyes, relaxers and other chemicals on the hair are responsible for hair breakage.

Sleeping without a Satin/silk bonnet or pillowcase:

Cotton pillowcases cause more friction between the hair and the pillowcase while you sleep which could lead to your hair strands being snagged hence hair breakage.

Conclusion

We have learned about obvious signs of hair breakage and some causes of hair breakage in the second part of this article, we would be looking at the treatment for hair breakage.

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