Frequent exposure to heat styling products can cause extensive damage to your hair. Styling your hair with hot tools like crimpers, straighteners, or curling wands seems tempting, but using them without appropriate heat protectants can cause severe or irreversible damage to your hair’s health. It’s essential to learn how to prevent heat damage on hair to prevent things like split ends that give off a fried hair end look, dry-brittle hair, breakage, and more.
There are many treatment options and organic remedies to fix damaged hair and restore its natural shine, scalp moisture, and strength. It depends on the extent of hair damage. In severe cases, you might be left with the only option of cutting it off.
Let’s face it: We can’t just wholly tick cross the use of heat-styling products and tools in our daily lives. It’s simply not going to happen! This is where hair care solutions and hacks come and take the wheel. We can reduce the damage of these hot tools by following a proper hair-care routine. So, worry no more! We’ve rounded up a few go-to hair tips and hair care products to help prevent heat damage on your hair.
I participate in affiliate programs, including Amazon Affiliates, and may earn a small commission if products are purchased through links on the site.
Trim Your Hair Regularly
Heat-compromised hair leads to split ends leaving your hair strands dry and frizzy. To prevent further damage to your hair, get frequent trims monthly. Although the tip might seem unbelievable, split ends tend to travel up to your hair shafts, causing further damage to the entire hair cuticle.
Regular trims help to prevent more hair problems before they start. The healthier the hair, the less damage heat styling tools will cause. Go ahead! Book your hair salon appointment this weekend, or even better, book yourself in for a haircut at home. Just grab a pair of scissors and trim away the split ends.
Air Dry Instead Of Using A Blow Dryer
Switch to air drying your hair instead of blow drying. Although air drying might take a long, it’s a safer method for your hair health in the long run.
But what to do with your wet hair in winter? Invest in a proper hair dryer with hot and normal air pressures. Then, try to limit your use of blow dryers to once or twice a week. Alternatively, you can go for low-maintenance hairstyles that require no heating tools, like braids or messy buns.
Protect Your Hair From The Sun
Sun rays can cause oxidative damage to the hair–a fact often ignored by the masses. Prolonged exposure to sunlight can have detrimental effects on your hair strands, and it causes sunburn to your scalp, leaving your hair dry and brittle. You can follow a few hacks in your daily hair care routine to keep those luscious locks in check.
Wear A Hat
Your first line of hair protection against UV damage is the physical barrier. Routinely wearing a hat, wrapping a chic scarf, or even an umbrella would protect hair against UV damage. If you’ve colored hair, you must religiously follow these tips when moving outdoors whenever possible.
Use A Moisturizing Conditioner
Frequent use of a deep moisturizing conditioner is a must. Adding a regular conditioning product to your hair care routine will help you maintain the moisture your hair needs to prevent sunrays-induced damage.
Try This Hair Serum
O&M Frizzy Logic Hair Serum Travel Size ($14.95)
This hair serum goes above and beyond to help make your hair manageable and then protect it. First, it works hard to fight frizz, making unruly hair more manageable and smoothing straight hair for a sleek finish. Then, the cruelty-free and vegan formula provides thermal protection to help protect your hair from heat, whether that heat is coming from styling tools or the sun. UV protection helps prevent damage from UV rays, such as fading.
Moisturize With Organic Oil
Regular conditioning with an organic oil like coconut or mustard oil will not only protect your hair from oxidative damage and dryness. Still, it will help to restore moisture to your tresses.
Eat Plenty Of Antioxidants
Include antioxidants in your diet plan. A proper diet will help you fight oxidative damage to your hair. Add fruits and vegetables rich in antioxidants and vitamins to your diet, or get hair supplements only prescribed by your dermatologist.
Invest In High-Quality Shampoo
Proper and thorough cleansing— the ultra pro max of maintaining healthy hair. Nothing will work effectively unless your hair is routinely well-cleansed, hydrated, and conditioned.
Invest in a high-quality shampoo and conditioner nourished with organic ingredients and free from sulfates-silicones-parabens to prevent further damaging effects like dryness and brittleness.
A good combo of shampoo and conditioner will moisten your scalp and help strengthen the hair to withstand heat damage. Alternatively, you can switch to leave-in conditioners to fight dry and brittle hair.
Our Recommendations
- OGX Nourishing + Coconut Milk Shampoo & Conditioner ($20)
- Bed Head by TIGI Urban Antidotes Recovery Shampoo and Conditioner for Dry Hair ($21)
- Palmer’s Cocoa Butter & Biotin Length Retention Leave-In Conditioner ($6)
- SheaMoisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil Leave-In Conditioner ($9.97)
Use A Heat Protectant Spray
Heat-protectant sprays are to the hair like the sunscreens to your face. Heat -protectants form a protective barrier between the ultra-hot temperatures of styling tools and your hair strands.
Heat protectant sprays are extremely easy to use. They help your luscious locks retain their natural hair moisture while giving them a shiny boost for a radiant look you’ll love.
To use a heat protectant spray, spray it on your hair and work it through it using a brush or your fingers before styling it.
Our Recommendations
CHI 44 Iron Guard Thermal Protection Spray ($10)
Opt For A Moderate Heat Setting
We encourage using titanium or ceramic flat irons or curlers/crimpers with a temperature regulation option. Always go for a moderate temperature setting for curling or straightening your hair.
Using high-heat settings will increase the possibility of heat damage to your hair. Also, be cautious of styling a single strand multiple times. Just one motion per strand is sufficient to get your desired look. Using numerous applications of heat tools on a strand can severely damage the texture of your hair.
Make Hair Masks Part Of Your Routine
You must include a natural hair mask treatment at least once a week. Excess use of heating tools and outdoor heat leaves oxidative damage to your hair. A hair mask– infused in organic formulations– will reduce dryness and replenish your hair’s moisture, making it smoother and easily manageable. If you style your hair more often, use a regular hair mask that contains a blend of essential oils and herbs.
Our Recommendations
- OGX Extra Strength Hydrate Repair + Argan Oil of Morocco Hair Mask Deep Moisturizing Conditioning Treatment ($7)
- Marc Anthony Deep Hydrating Mask for Dry & Damaged Hair ( For curly hair) ($8)
- Marc Anthony Deep Conditioning Hair Mask for Dry & Damaged Hair (Anti-breakage mask) ($8)
De-Tangle Your Hair Daily
Tangled, messy hair leads to breakage. The vitamins and nutrients from your scalp simply can’t travel down the hair follicle to keep the entire strand of hair healthy.
To avoid that, make sure to make a habit of brushing your hair before going to bed. Use a combinational method of applying leave-in conditioner/ detangling spray before combing your hair with a wide-tooth comb or a brush with natural bristles to de-tangle your hair before and after styling your hair.
To prevent breakage, avoid using brushes or combs with plastic bristles or tooths. It is recommended to de-tangle your hair in a dry state and avoid combing your damp hair.
Our Recommendation
Marc Anthony Leave-In Conditioner Spray & Detangler ($8)
Limit The Use Of Your Hot Tools
Practice the art of self-love, and embrace your natural hair texture. Encourage yourself to transition towards a more organic hair care routine and use products with less heat for styling. For example, Opt for heatless curling methods like the overnight braiding hack. Switching to heatless styling methods with a proper hair care routine is the most impactful way to keep that natural shine.
Always Keep Your Hair Type In Mind When Caring For Your Hair
Know your hair genetics. Before formulating a hair care routine, be sure that you are well aware of your hair type. Selecting appropriate products to help revive your heat-damaged hair might be challenging. Depending on the severity of the damage, one easy way to handle this complication is to consult your dermatologist. If that’s not an option, research your hair types, identify the hair problem, and then look for the best products for your hair care routine.
Moisturize Your Hair
As dry hair is more prone to damage, moisturizing them with a leave-in conditioner or essential oil can help you to replenish that silky shine back to your locks. Give your hair oil massages weekly.
In Conclusion
Heat-damaged hair is a common problem–it can happen to anyone, even the nerdiest ones (in terms of hair care gurus), who are sometimes unsafe. Thankfully, there are ways to tackle your hair-related problems.
Here comes the catch! Attending to your hair care needs amidst your demanding work schedule could be overwhelmingly challenging. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle in our fast-driven life sometimes takes a toll on us.
That’s where the art of taking baby steps comes in. Adding these hair care methods in a step-by-step pattern will go a long way! The first step towards the long run could be following the most essential tips from our list, like covering your hair, using a heat-protectant spray, or adding a suitable shampoo plus conditioner to your bathing routine.
No need to overwhelm yourself! Slowly build a basic hair care routine keeping our list of options in mind.
Related Articles
How Often Should You Wash Your Hair?
