How to Repair Damaged Hair

Everyday life and activities can have an effect on hair health and damage your tresses, meaning you need to know how to repair damaged hair. Styling, colouring, chemical treatments and heat can cause a lot of hair damage, but also less obvious agents like pollution, UV rays, chlorine and humidity can have an impact on hair damage. Our ultimate guide will walk you through how to care for damaged hair, so you can have those gorgeous tresses you dream of.

What Causes Damaged Hair?

There’s a long list of things that can cause our hair to become damaged. Identifying these is the first step in the journey to gorgeous, healthy hair. Some obvious causes include:

• Damage from heated tools (like straighteners and hair tongs)
• Chemical damage from bleach, hair dye and relaxers

However, there are some less obvious causes for damaged hair that you may not have considered. These can include:

• UV damage from the sun
• Chlorine damage from swimming pools
• Damage from salt water

The list doesn’t end there though! Items we use in or on our hair everyday also have an impact:

• Hair ties that pull on strands
• Using the wrong brush or comb for your hair type
• Using hair products that aren’t suitable for our hair type

All of these things add to the damages done to your hair, and ultimately can cause hair breakage. However, there are some simple yet effective ways we can work on fixing our damaged hair so it doesn’t get to this point.

How to Repair Damaged Hair at Home

You may think that only expensive salon treatments can work repairing miracles on your damaged hair, but there are actually many nourishing products as well as prevention techniques that you can use from the comfort of your own home! Depending on which signs of damaged hair you are targeting these will differ. For dry hair, you’ll be looking to add hydration, whereas for hair in moisture overload you may be wanting to add a protein treatment. Luckily, we’ve got all the details you need on how to fix each of these concerns!

How to Repair Dry Damaged Hair

One of the biggest causes of hair damage is dryness. When our hair is excessively dry it can become dull and brittle, and therefore break more easily. Those with curly hair suffer from this especially, as the coils in the strands make it difficult for the hair’s natural oils to move down the hair shaft.

The key to solving this problem is moisture. Firstly, you want to avoid products that may strip the hair of its oils, so make sure your shampoos and conditioners don’t contain any sulfates! We recommend using a co-wash as this is far more gentle on dry hair than a regular shampoo. Secondly, you’ll want to add hydration back into your locks with a conditioner. Depending on the extent of your dryness, learning how and when to use a deep conditioner can give you the ultimate boost of moisture to reveal gorgeous, glossy hair. We love our Double Cream Deep Quencher for a dose of intense moisture. Adding this into your routine on a regular basis will help to nourish and prevent further dry and damaged hair. For a boost between washes, why not try a leave-in conditioner?

Sometimes a lack of moisture and an excess of protein can lead to your hair being in protein overload. If this is the case for you, use a clarifying shampoo to remove the extra protein and then follow with a deep conditioning treatment leaving it on the hair for at least 30 minutes. This should help to fix your protein damaged hair, leaving you with soft, and gorgeous locks.

How to Repair Heat Damaged Hair

Heated styling tools are an easy way to achieve fun and different hair looks. But whilst they may make your hair look great for the time being, they actually damage the hydrogen hair bonds that are responsible for the shape of your hair. Focusing on repairing these bonds and reinforcing them to prevent more damage can be done with a bond builder. Our Bond Curl Rehab Salve is just this. With fortifying active ingredients that target all 3 bond types present in hair it works from the inside out to support healthy and strong hair. Our Bond Curl is rich in protein, so it can restore the protein moisture balance in your hair, again preventing further damage.

These bonds are also affected by moisture, and a moisture overload can cause hair damage too. Using a clarifying shampoo like our Wash & Scrub Detox Pro-Biotic will purify your hair, making it ready to use the bond builder again. We recommend following up with other strengthening products to reinforce your hair’s restored vitality.

How to Repair Hair that’s Been Damaged by Bleach & Dye

It’s fun to switch up your hair colour from time to time, but unfortunately it often does cause harm to your tresses. Bleach, dye, and other chemicals weaken the disulfide bonds in your hair. These are permanent bonds that are responsible for whether you have straight, curly, coily, or wavy hair. So to ensure your hair’s natural texture shines, they need to be looked after with the correct colour care. Again these can be repaired and reinforced by a bond builder. And if you want to try fun colours without chemical damage, check out our Hair Makeup next time!

How to Prevent Hair Damage

Now you know how to repair and fix damaged hair, let’s talk about how you can prevent it happening in the first place. Limiting use of styling tools and chemicals is a major way you can protect your locks. We know straightening your hair is tempting, but if you have naturally wavy, curly or coily hair, why not try to embrace your gorgeous natural texture?

Ensuring you’re using the correct products for your hair type can also help. Depending on your hair’s porosity you’ll want to opt for different formulas and benefits.

But there are some less obvious tips you can follow too. Try switching out harsh hair ties (especially the ones with metal inserts) for soft hair scrunchies that put less pressure on your strands (even better if they’re made of satin or silk!). Did you know that cotton pillow cases also cause your hair to pull and snag? So your hair can even become damaged simply by sleeping! Using a silk or satin pillowcase can prevent this from happening as these types of fabric are far more gentle on the hair!

About Curlsmith

We are a gourmet haircare brand focusing on solutions for curly problems. We’ve worked with curly hair stylists, and trichologists to create a range of products that help you achieve the curly, wavy, or coily hair of your dreams. Combining organic ingredients with kitchen cupboard staples to create curl loving formulas you can rely on.