Why Hair Breaks

Are you constantly getting little hairs that stick out all over your head, around your hair line or little tiny curly ones throughout your hair? This is caused from breakage. As you probably know there is no cure once the hair shaft is already broken, but lets go through some causes and solutions and see if we can help in the future.

First of all your hair shaft has an inner layer called the medulla. Inside that layer of your hair are your bonds, the bigger the hair shaft the tighter the bonds, therefore the more bonds you have. You can think of these as bonds as looking like stairs if your hair shaft is bigger and a ladder if your hair shaft is smaller. Having a bigger hair shaft does not mean you have thick hair, it would mean you have coarse hair. It would be slightly less bendable and probably more bouncy. Having a smaller hair shaft does not mean you have thin hair either. Your hair would be considered fine and would probably be a little limp. The only way to make these bonds bigger or closer together is by changing your genes. Sorry about that, but there are solutions and we will get to those in a minute.

How strong your hair is and how much pressure it can hold is called tensile strength. The more bonds and the stronger they are the better your tensile strength. The way to check it is by pulling one hair shaft, just stretch it, don’t pull it out of your head. Grab it with two fingers about mid shaft and then use your other hand with two fingers at the bottom of the hair shaft and pull slowly. Your hair should stretch and go back to where it was like a rubber band. You can do this on wet or dry hair, if your hair is wet it could stretch to 50-80% it’s original length, if it is dry it may only stretch about 30%. That is why when you get your haircut, your hair should either be all wet or all dry or your cut will be uneven. It would be the same too if they pulled in one area and didn’t in another. If it doesn’t then you have no tensile strength if it does than you are on your way to a better hair shaft already.

Things that can cause you to loose tensile strength are perms, colors, styling products, bad shampoos, bleaches and a bad diet. Remember your hair shaft grows from the inside out, so everything you put in your body will effect your hair. I can actually look at a head of hair and tell what kind of diet someone has or if they are a drug addict or alcoholic. I have even been able to see when someone is getting sick and needed medical attention. You can tell a lot from someone’s hair.

If you passed the tensile strength test and you still have breakage here are some causes.

1. What causes the most breakage in hair is pressure on the hair shaft. For those coarse haired people a little pressure is ok, but for fine haired people a little pressure can snap your hair right off. If you have tensile strength your hair should hold up, if you don’t then it could snap. I am sure you have heard before not to put your hair in a ponytail or clip if you want it to grow. But the truth of the matter is that your hair grows from the inside of your body not the outside, so no matter what pressure you use, your hair is still growing. I am sure you have heard too that if you don’t get it trimmed it won’t grow, but again, it grows from the inside. However, for fine haired people who have less bonds and bonds that are farther apart the problem with breakage is that your bonds may be missing in some areas. So if you put your hair in a ponytail and that ponytail holder is sitting on a spot where the bond is missing, you end up with a snap in the hair shaft. This would be the same with clips, barrettes, headbands and bobby pins. Anything that adds any weight or pressure to your hair shaft.

How can you fix your tensile strength and replace missing bonds? Well, there are two ways. There is products that you can use on your hair that will give you like a band aid to hold it together if you are missing links. But the best way to build a good hair shaft is from the inside out. Vitamins like Biotin, E and B-Complex are very good for your hair. Some people say to take prenatal vitamins, all this is doing is giving you enough vitamins so that your body gets what it needs and then there is enough left over for your hair. Prenatal vitamins do work, however, there are vitamins that you can overdose on and cause more problems. If you take prenatal vitamins be sure to check with a physician, nutritionalist or books on types of vitamins and the amounts that you should not exceed. So prenatal may be too much. Drink water, eat right and take your vitamins and your hair shaft will thank you.

2. Tension on the hair shaft is another big cause. I see people all the time taking their brush and dragging it from the top of their head to the bottom of the hair shaft, ripping through tangles and snapping their hair. Remember when your hair is wet it will stretch but you rip through those tangles and you are still going to snap your hair right off, I don’t care what size hair shaft you have. I tell everyone, the best way to brush your hair if is it tangled is from the bottom up. This does not mean you are brushing it backwards. You start by brushing, or combing, the ends of your hair, when that is done you move up. That way you are not pushing all those tangles together and making one big knot you have to rip through. Your hair will bless you for this. Short haired people don’t have to worry about that. But please remember, if you have to pull then you are stretching your hair and you are creating weak spots and maybe even snapping your hair. This problem could be the one and only problem you have with breakage so try this suggestion and see if it helps. I just cringe when I see my own children ripping through their hair.

3. A smaller cause of breakage is chemical breakage. If you get a perm, color or bleach your hair shaft has to be opened to make those changes, this effects your bonds and at the very least weakens them. Some of the newer chemicals on the market say that they are less damaging but unless it is a temporary product, you get damage.

Make sure if you are getting a perm that the stylist does not put too much hair on each rod, the band should not sit heavy on the hair. I have seen stylist twist the bands so that they are tight on the head and that is a huge “NO-NO”. Perms break the bonds in the hair and reform them to the shape of the rod. There is no other product that is more damaging to your hair. So if those bands are tight on the hair or you can feel them pulling, they are going to cause either chemical breakage or weaken your hair and later it will snap. You do loose more hair when you first get a perm and that is not a problem. Normal loss of hair is 50-80 hairs a day and the weight of the perm rods may take some of the hairs that were getting ready to come out anyway. But you should not feel any short little bends in your hair or see what we call fish hook ends, where the ends of the hair are bent. If you have either one of those then your perm has been wrapped improperly. You stylist should be checking for tensile strength before your perm to see if you may end up with breakage. Please, please, please be honest with your stylist about any at home colors or bleaches. I have seen someone sit down for a perm with tremendous tensile strength and no grow out. The first solution went fine but when the neutralizer was applied and the hair shaft started to reform to the rod, they started dropping off the head, with the hair on them. My friend who was doing the perm almost had a heart attack. Come to find out, the customer had been to another stylist and had her hair stripped of color and had been told it could not be permed. That is how she ended up in my friends chair. So because she did not share other procedures, she had a chemical cut, so to say. Also, be truthful about medications, supplements and recreational drugs. Most stylists can tell when you use them but you should still mention them. If your hair is fine ask your stylist to please help rebuild your hair, they can either suggest products for you to use afterwards or build if for you before you perm. Joico has a product called H.K.P., it stands for Human Keratin Protein. That is what your bonds are made of and they can put it right into the solution so it will be taken into the center of your hair shaft while it is open.

Colors and Bleaches don’t usually cause the kind of damage that a perm can because they do not break bonds or penetrate that area of the hair shaft. Your color lies just underneath the outer layer which is called the cuticle. During the process your cuticle is lifted up, the color is deposited or taken out but when you have the product applied you are suppose to comb it through the hair. This is when the most damage occurs please be gentle if you have problem hair. You will loose extra hair just like a perm with the process is done but that is normal. The lasting damage is mostly broken bonds, weakened hair or the cuticle is left open afterwards. You can usually tell the cuticle is left open because your hair will fill rougher. After a color your hair should feel fuller, like you just filled it up. After a bleach your hair shaft may feel a little rough but it should not be mushy or sticking together when it is wet.

Again, please report any items that may effect your hair shaft. We have ways of making the hair shaft better after any chemical and can help you get better hair, if you keep us informed. Also, here we go with Joico again, they have a product called Chemical Enhancer, ask your stylist to use it after your chemical service, this will ensure that your cuticle is closed and your hair usually feels better than it did before the service. This product is also available retail and works really well on naturally curly hair to smooth it out and is good to use between chemical services if you use a lot of heat on the hair, but do not over use it because it can make your hair crunchy if it is used too often. Do not use deep conditioners everyday either unless your stylist tells you too. Moisturizers can make the hair limp and deep protein conditioners can make the hair crunchy.

4. Excessive split ends will cause the hair to eventually break off. What happens during splitting is that hair shaft begins to behave like a shoelace without one of those little ends on it. It starts to fray and unwind until eventually it breaks. Think of your hair like that, it frays and eventually breaks if it’s not take care of. So keeping it trimmed does help it to not break, it does not help it to grow. It may feel like its growing because it is not breaking anymore but your hair growth time is the same, trim or not. Getting rid of breakage takes time because all those little hairs that are all over your head are really hard to keep trimmed when they split. You can take a small section of your hair and twist it up, then run your fingers from the end to the scalp, all those hairs should pop out. Then gently and slowly trim the split off. This should help keep the hair shaft from splitting farther and breaking.

There is a fine balance in hair and its sometimes overwhelming to try and get it perfect. I tell people to stop worrying about perfect and solve one thing at a time. So whatever the situation you have with your hair, take it slow and don’t worry. You hair always grows back, each hair shaft is replaced about every four years and it will fall out on its own when the new one starts to grow.

If you have any questions you can look me up on myspace, email me, or leave a comment below. Thank you for reading and may all your days be good hair days.