Yes, you have already bought every innovative hair care product you can put your hands on. You might also have visited the salon on a regular basis and had your hair treated with the latest and most expensive procedures. You did all of these and yet your hair still looks dull and dry. Worse, you’re now experiencing hair fall, breakage, and split ends!
What have you not done yet?
Before panicking, examine your lifestyle for a moment. Is it too hectic or stressful enough that you spent most of the time pulling all-nighters while being fueled by coffee and cigarettes? If so, you have to know that these are some of the bad habits that make you lose your hair.
While genetic and biological hair loss causes play an important role in hair problems, bad hair habits should still be avoided as it speeds up the process or even make it possible for people with hair-friendly genes to suffer from severe hair loss problems as well.
To make sure you’re getting the most out of your hair products and you avoid hair shedding and breakage, identify the top 12 lifestyle choices that compromise hair health and the hair mistakes that you should stop making.
1. Smoking Your Way Into Premature Aging
It’s no secret that the health of our hair diminishes as we age. That’s how our body naturally works. However, how cigarette smoking affects your aging process shows that it could severely affect your hair, as it may lead to premature balding in both genders.
If you’re eager to delay your aging process and reduce the chances of balding hair, it’s highly suggested that you should stop smoking as soon as possible. Cigarette smoking is one of the top bad habits that cause hair loss. Your body and hair thank you for quitting that nasty habit.
2. Letting Stress Take Over Every Time
Whenever there are sudden changes in the body, our hair takes the hit the most, that’s why you shouldn’t ignore hair fall. High fever, sudden weight loss, and childbirth may result to hair shedding which might take a few months to recover. Stress plays an important role in hair problems as well. The hair’s sensitivity will react to hormonal changes and may result to hair thinning.
Avoid stress as much as possible. Take the time to unwind and relax every now and then. If needed, learn proper breathing exercises or enroll yourself in a yoga class. Make sure to reduce daily stress for a healthy hair and a boost in productivity.
3. Forgetting to Take Your Vitamins
One of the easy way to determine if a person is vitamin deficient is to check the health of their hair. Zinc and iron play huge roles when it comes to hair health, so make sure to get your body is well-acquainted with these vitamins. You need to get proper nutrition to prevent your hair from thinning out.
It should be pointed out that taking excess vitamins will not improve the health of your hair and might even produce opposite results, so keep it easy on the vitamins.
4. Living on a Poor Daily Diet
If there’s one surefire hair-damaging lifestyle, that is living on a poor diet. Healthy diet is essential for your body’s overall health. It doesn’t only help keep you off unwanted fats, it also prevents your hair from sustaining damage that may result to hair thinning and balding. Make sure to plan for at least three square meals a day with the proper balance of fruits, vegetables, and meat for a complete diet that reverses the effects of unwanted hair problems.
5. Not Hitting the Sack Often Enough
Lack of sleep is one of the culprits when it comes to bad hair condition. Sleep deprivation is one of the poor health habits that affect your body in such a way that it might lead to significant hair problems. Lack of sleep deprives your body of the ability to efficiently absorb nutrients that are essential to keep your hair healthy.
Make sure to get at least 6 hours of sleep daily. If you find it difficult to sleep, making your bedroom sleep-friendly helps a lot. Proper climate control, dark curtains, a comfortable bed, and a little dose of aromatherapy will go a long way.
6. Frequent Trips to the Salon
Like it or not, frequent trips to the salon is not doing any favors to your hair. The harsh procedures your hair is subjected to in a salon is enough to cause significant hair damage that leads to excessive hair shedding. Your hair can only endure so much. Perming, bleaching, highlighting, and coloring your hair will result to dry and dull hair, breakage, and split ends in the long run, but these are the hair damages not all stylists will tell you about.
Do yourself a favor and be kind to your hair and to your wallet: lessen the trips to the salon.
7. Bad Hair Habits
Pulling your hair when you’re angry or stressed out is definitely a bad habit for your hair. It’s not only a poor way to channel frustration, it also places undue stress on your hair that might lead to irreversible effects on your hair and scalp. If plucking your hair is an uncontrollable habit, you might be suffering from trichotillomania, in which case you must seek professional help immediately.
Brushing your hair is a fine habit to have. It invigorates your hair and massages your scalp. However, like everything else, overdoing it will do more harm to your hair than good. Stop over-brushing immediately before it harms your hair and your scalp permanently.
8. Failing to Address Dandruff Problems
Dandruff is not only an embarrassing lifestyle-affecting-hair problem, leaving it untreated can potentially result to hair loss. Bad hygiene is one factor. Not using shampoo in your daily bath may lead to residue buildups from oil and dirt which may harm the scalp and lead to hair problems like dandruff.
The moment you notice scaly flakes falling out of your hair, get it treated immediately with an anti-dandruff shampoo that’s suited for your hair type for quick and reliable results.
9. Succumbing to Harsh Hairstyles
Other causes of hair loss are using extensions and weaves. Try to look for other hairstyles that don’t require these kind of pressure on your hair.
10. The Bad Effect of Cotton Pillowcases
You might not believe it, but cotton pillowcases are actually a bad idea for your hair. When using cotton pillowcases, the cotton material strongly absorbs hair moisture needed to keep your hair healthy and strong. Not only that, your hair can get caught in the material while you’re sleeping.
The only way you can counteract this problem without losing sleep is to opt for pillowcases made of silk.
11. Too Much Time Under the Sun
There’s a reason why umbrellas, hats, and caps are made: to protect your hair. It would be absurd to be able to apply sunscreen on every exposed inch of your body but fail to protect the most exposed part of your body: your hair.
If using these hair protection accessories is not your style, applying conditioners with sunscreen is a great alternative.
12. Unclean Hair Tools
How often do you clean your hair tools? Aside from keeping your hair squeaky clean, making sure your hair tools are clean too is essential for a healthy hair. Otherwise, residues left on your comb and brushes will just seep in back into your hair and latch onto your scalp even after you properly washed your hair.
Using alcohol or warm water and soap is a great idea to wash away the dirt that might irritate your scalp and weaken your hair’s health.
Bad lifestyle choices really affect one’s overall health. While genetics play an important role in hair loss in men and women, bad lifestyle choices can also worsen or accelerate the condition of your hair problems.
If this is not the case, but you still experience an alarming rate of hair shedding, it’s time to get a hair check up to determine if your hair loss problem is temporary or permanent. NuHart Clinic Philippines offers free, no-obligation hair consultation overseen by trusted hair loss experts, so you can count on sound medical advice without costing you any.
Furthermore, people who currently have great hair thanks to hair restoration shouldn’t look past the need for proper lifestyle choices to ensure their hair will remain full and healthy.