Damaged, dry and brittle hair is something which many have experienced at some points in their life and it’s also the reason we are so scared of it. It is important that one understands the difference between dry hair and damaged hair as both are remedied differently. Our INGLOT Manager & Hair Professional Roberta shares insight on the difference between the two and how they should be treated.
DRY HAIR
Very often, dry hair is one of the first steps towards damaged hair and is a sign one should not ignore. This usually goes hand-in-hand with dullness in colour and split ends. In a perfect hair care routine, one should carry out a home treatment once every fortnight, and another professional treatment at the salon monthly, normally done with a hair colour appointment.
There are various treatments one can do at home, but it is always important that professional products are used. Although one might be tempted to buy the first off-the-shelf treatment, these might contain ingredients such as wax which will lead to build-up on the hair and lead to hair looking lifeless and dull.
A professional in-salon treatment mixed with hair color would be an ideal reconstructive treatment. Most modern treatments can function to reconstruct the weak bonds inside our hair shaft whilst also depositing color. Such treatment is a long-term process and therefore a silky finish will be achieved with time.
Split ends cannot be mended and so must be looked after. A split end works just like a zipper, opening up from the bottom and working its way up, dividing the hair into 2 and making it finer, thinner and weaker.
A hair trim once every 2 months is the ideal way to maintain healthy hair whilst still allowing it to grow. This will remove newly-formed split ends, tackling the issue before they can start splitting the length of the hair. This will work if the hair is in a healthy state before starting this process, as if split ends are already further up, an alternative method will be needed to treat split ends.
DAMAGED HAIR
When hair is damaged it becomes unmanageable, tangling up all the time, and having a lot of fine short broken hairs fall off whilst brushing – the texture is often compared to straw. Damage occurs if the signals are ignored, such as when the hair becomes dryer and one starts noticing the presence of split ends and not trimming them in order to keep the length. This is made worse when hair is in this state and hair straighteners keep being used – without using heat protection – and with multiple hair colours, or even bleach. Other contributing factors are external factors such as pollution and hard water.
The best way to manage this situation is to start by cutting off the ends, and mending the hair gradually with good in-salon reconstructive treatments. If the treatment itself permits – and as advised by the professional carrying out the service – the treatment can be repeated more often. Hair must be cut as frequently as once every 2 months, keeping the same routine to grow out the damaged ends. Hair is dead, meaning it has no living cells in it, and this is why we can only manage to reconstruct and mend weak bonds, but not recreate them.
Hair will never go from dry to damaged overnight, so there is always time to maintain our hair in a healthy condition or make amends. For a consultation with our INGLOT Professionals, call on 2015 1818. You can also book you next hair appointment easily online: BOOK NOW!
Author: Roberta Ciantar
