a woman is using a heat styling tool on her hair

How Heat Styling Tools Damage Your Hair?

There are a number of hair styling tools available in the market to give a stylish look to your hair. Using many available hot tools like the flat irons, blow dryers, and the curling irons to style your hair as you desire, is a great way to give a style and glow to your hair but it also increases the risk of damaged hair due to heat. Some tools in the market don't allow the user to control the temperature, so you may not be able to know the exact amount of heat being applied to your hair. Also, certain flat and curling irons allow you to choose your heat level, but when such tools reach a temperature of approx. 450°F, you might need to go for the maximum heat for the best result.

While using such hair styling tools to provide you with more polished straight stylish hair or perfect curl, the high temperatures at which it works can negatively impact and turn into damaged hair follicles. Damaged hair follicles occur when the cuticle of the hair, which acts as a protector to the hair follicles and shields the inner cortex of the hair, is broken. The cortex is the part of the hair that makes your hair strong and elastic. When the cortex is compromised, hair becomes weak and susceptible to breakage leading to damaged hair follicles.

Whether you have curly or straight hair, you'll surely notice an excess of tangles and frizz while trying to brush through your hair. You may also notice a change in hair texture, and your hair might not go along as it used to go earlier.

Damaged hair follicles become brittle and break easily. Your hair might also turn into dull and dry hair and the appearance of split ends of hair is more noticeable and disappointing. It can also become very challenging to get your hair to turn flat. We also assemble various signs of heat damaged hair due to various hair styling tools.

Dryness And Dullness

The cuticles of the hair are what make it shiny and glowy. When these cuticles are damaged, your hair suddenly loses its shine. After washing your hair, it should look much brighter than when it was dirty. If it looks dull, then it is the first sign that you have heat damaged hair. Damaged hair also doesn't properly maintain the required moisture, leaving your tresses dehydrated and much more prone to breakage.

Split ends

When heat-based styling tools like a dryer, or straightener are used to get a styled look can damage your hair by losing its elasticity because applying heat on a regular basis can affect your hair’s ability to retain the required moisture. When your hair becomes dehydrated, it becomes very stiff and much more difficult to work with and often results in split ends. Split ends are when the tips of the hair are physically split apart which usually happens at the ends.

Breakage

Split ends majorly weaken your hair’s structure which in turn increases the chances of your hair breaking off. Exposing your hair to frequent high heat-based styling tools also increases the risk of hair breakage because it loses the required elasticity. Your hair can break easily when it's dry or wet. If it's gotten even minorly tangled, your hair may break easily as you work through its knots.

Frizziness

Split ends severely weaken your hair’s structure, increasing the chances that your hair will break off. Exposing your hair to frequent high heat also enhances your risk of breakage because it loses its elasticity. If you have ever noticed short pieces of hair that stick up, they are likely to be the pieces of your hair that have broken off. Your hair is more likely to break off when they are dry or wet. If it has got tangled, your hair may break more as you work through the knots.

Flyaways

Using hot styling tools, especially at high temperatures, can strip the moisture from your strands. This leaves your hair cuticles open to damage, which prevents the hair from lying flat when needed. Flyaways are a sign of breakage and are the short hair strands that stand up exactly after breaking off near their roots. Flyaways can be very difficult to manage and can affect the overall glow and look of your hair.

Rough Or Changed Texture

To determine if the texture of your hair has changed, run your fingers through your hair. The heat damaged curly hair loses its spring easily and does not bounce back the way it did earlier when your hair was much shinier and healthy. The damaged straight hair can often go from feeling silky and smooth to feeling coarse and rough.

Incorrect Hair Color

Your heat damaged hair can't properly retain its colour. If the hair has become quite porous, it might absorb much of the dye and can make your hair look darker than you presume it to be. Porosity is actually how well your hair can not only absorb the content but also retain moisture. The high porosity of hair means that the hair cuticles are damaged and open. Also, your hair colour can also fade much faster than normal because of high porosity.

Hair loss

The average person used to have approximately 80,000 to 120,000 hairs on their head. Hair strands grow for about 1.5 to 6 years, and it's very normal to shed hair. During this shedding time period, strands collect the damage. If you have damaged hair due to heat, your strands have been weakened severely, and you might also notice that you're losing much more hair than normal when you take a shower or even brush your hair because of the lack of required level of protein.

How Can I Protect My Hair From The Styling Tools?

There are various ways to protect your hair from the damage you do intentionally or unintentionally to your hair to get it styled the way you want it to be. Some important steps that you can follow while you think of using the hair styling tools.

Buy good quality styling tools which include setting the temperature manually as it varies from person to person.
Also try to know your hair and then style it accordingly.
Always provide a shield to protect your hair from the scorching heat that can severely damage your hair follicles and turn them into dry hair.
Also try to study the various available heat styling tools techniques to get to know their effect on your hair health.
Try in parallel some at-home treatments to get your hair their required nourishment level.
When the condition still worsens or you are confused to choose the best treatment for your hair, never hesitate to get some professional help.

Take Away

If even an inch on your hair ends is damaged due to the heat styling tools, it may take about two or three months to get your hair health back on track to normal. So you need to be patient while following the treatment.

Also once your hair is repaired, it is your duty to keep them healthy with a regular trim and the proper use of tools. For most people, if they think to be on the safe side, you can always ask for some professional advice to be on the right track to healing.