Understanding Common Causes of Hair Damage!

When negotiating the terrain that is natural hair, the feelings that surface range in depth and complexity to hopelessness and apathy toward a part of a beautiful heritage that is the crown of hair on top of heads.

Structurally our hair begins growth in our scalp. Blood vessels send supplies of blood to our hair follicles. When our scalp is clean, supple, stimulated to grow and free of compounds that negatively affect it, it is then free to deliver a healthy environment for hair to grow.

We will explore 4 areas that can affect our scalp and hair.

• Chemical
• Physical
• Environmental
• Nutritional/Dietary

The first is chemically. When we decide to chemically treat hair with products designed to affect the structure of hair, whether to make it bone straight or increase curls or to change the color, we also are going to affect the environment of our scalp. Products designed to achieve the goals mentioned above tend to have Ph balances between 9-14.  Some can be higher than this in an effort to make the process of change faster and more intense. This makes these products more alkaline in an environment that is naturally designed to be acidic; with Ph ranges of 4.5-5.5. The more alkaline the product the greater risk to damaging the hair itself and the scalp.

The second is physically. When we lay our heads down at night, hair comes in contact with the material of sheets and pillowcases. Throughout the night heads move back and forth causing friction between the hair and the material. This results in damage to the ends of hair leading to hair breakage. Also, what we do through our haircare routine has an impact. Using narrow toothed combs on thick density hair causes snagging. Finger detangling helps keep the tension down. Heat also has an impact. High heat causes hair to become dry, resulting in breakage.

The third is environmentally. The weather has a huge impact on our hair. Pollution, humidity, or “wet” environments all factor into how our hair responds.  Pollution holds molecules that are small enough to sink into our hair. (think of smoke) Those molecular can internally damage hair shafts. Environments that are humid can affect moisture levels of our hair as much as wet environments can cause hair to frizz.

The fourth is nutritional/dietary. What we put into our bodies, translates to how well we look after our body. Food high in nutritional value will be turned into compounds that help prompt healthy scalps which leads to healthy hair. On the other side diets that are high in processed food groups lack the vitamins and minerals needed to create and maintain optimal scalp environments. Health conditions also can fall into this category as our body tries to compensate for any deficiencies.

With a willingness to learn and understand how these four areas impact our scalp and hair, it is possible to establish haircare routines that help promote hair growth and a healthy scalp.

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