Working out has become one of the most essential activities in our daily routine but have you ever wondered how excessive sweating can damage your hair? It for sure has some quite harmful effects on our hair and scalp health. There are many other such activities and habits we commonly have that are unhealthy for our hair.

It is important to first know what common mistakes we make and what kind of preventive measures we can take to control or at least lessen the harm. Hairfinity experts want to highlight some very common hair damaging habits and provide some solutions to prevent hair breakage.

We often give our hair a quick towel dry, we roughly pull our hair into and out of a ponytail and most of the time we snuggle into our pillows. We make such mistakes without realizing how disastrous these habits can be for our healthy mane. All these rough movements actually create friction which in turn severely damages our hair. We make these mistakes on an almost regular basis, which means our hair suffers over time. Your strands get all tangly and rough, and split ends are formed. This is because we don’t realize how fragile our strands are. They should be treated as gently as we treat our dry-clean-only blouses. There is a sheer need of a routine shift to prevent hair damage.

It is also important to understand how this friction actually starts. Every hair strand is comprised of two main layers, an outer layer called the cuticle and an inner layer called the cortex. The cuticle is basically made up of small scales, which is covered with a lipid protection layer. Due to friction, this layer gets damaged, pulling the scales off the strands and leaving holes in the cuticle. Because of this, the cortex becomes exposed. The cortex is made up of bundles of keratin fibers. When these bundles are roughly treated, you get split ends in turn. Any further friction causes hair breakage.

When it comes to preventing damage, there are a few vital changes you can make in your daily routine. When your hair gets wet, it stretches up to 30 percent, making it more vulnerable to breakage. Instead of a rough and aggressive towel rub, wrap the towel up around the hair, wait for a while and let it absorb the excessive moisture. Your detangling tool is also an important factor because it can ruin your hair more than you can imagine. Always go for a wide-tooth comb or brush with flexible bristles. While combing, go easy on your ends because they are the oldest and weakest part of your hair.

After a workout, if you wash your strands or at least rinse it, you make a smarter move because there are people who start blow-drying their sweaty hair instead of shampooing it. When you directly blow dry your after-workout-strands, the sweat salts combine with the drying heat to make your strands and follicles super dehydrated. If you want to avoid shampooing daily, Hairfinity experts recommend dabbing the sweat using a towel and lightly misting your locks with water. It will dilute the sweat.

These are some minor changes that we can easily incorporate into our daily routines to prevent hair damage as much as we possibly can!