Why? Blonde strands are naturally more porous so they absorb more of whatever you expose them to, whether sunlight or chemicals like chlorine. Everything that comes in contact with your hair – including products – has the potential to make it brittle,dry, and even alter your natural tone.
Things like aggressive brushing and combing, sleeping on wet hair or rough fabrics that create friction, constantly pulling your strands into styles that are too tight, and heat styling are all some of the main reasons why hair breaks.
Since blonde hair is finer, it is more prone to damage including breakage and thinning. Hair is more susceptible to breakage when wet, so avoiding heat styling is recommended. A wide-tooth comb is also easier on your hair than a brush.
It's when hair strands snap, going split and ragged, instead of staying healthy from the scalp to the ends. If you have breakage, you're not alone. It happens to many people. And, with good hair care, you can regain healthy hair. Hair breakage happens when a hair strand is stressed and loses its protective outer layer.
Hair Breakage Causes
Brushing wet hair. Styling products with long-lasting hold. Tightly pulled hairstyles. Perming, relaxing, or coloring hair.
If a strand breaks with little to no stretching, it may need more moisture. If it stretches a bit and then returns to its natural state, you have normal elasticity. If it stretches more than usual and then breaks, or feels limp and mushy between your fingers, then it needs protein.
Keep Protein to a minimum
Protein shampoos and treatments are designed to build fine hair but can also harden the hair. Blonde hair is traditionally hard and grittier so protein will just harden it more and cause it to snap. If your hair is breaking 3-4 weeks after your colour than this could be the main cause.
Fine hair is the most fragile hair texture. Each individual hair is thin and only has two hair layers; cortex and cuticle. If you have this hair type, you might find it hard to keep your hair in a style, or it might get oily easily.
Yes it is permanent in the sense that you can't magically replace the hair that has broken off. But this doesn't mean that you can't stop the hair from breaking further and becoming healthy again in the future. This is why it is so crucial to take the best care of your hair at home in-between appointments.
The short answer is yes, stress can cause hair loss, or contribute to it. There are three types of hair loss that can be triggered (or made worse) by stress - telogen effluvium, alopecia areata and trichotillomania.
If you'd damaged your hair by over-styling, too much heat or over coloring with harsh chemicals, the good news is - your hair will grow back healthy.
Bleaching your hair can be excessively harsh on your stands and can lead to dryness and breakage. In order to combat these adverse effects, you should ask your stylist about establishing a new, nourishing hair care routine.
The theory is that when given the choice, Pelaeolithic males chose blondes, who stood out from their rivals. In addition, before bottles of hydrogen peroxide became available, blonde hair in females could be interpreted as an honest signal of youth and therefore reproductive fitness.
As you now know, lifting your hair color to achieve a lighter blonde shade requires for your hair cuticle to be stripped. Once the cuticle has been stripped, it makes it difficult for your hair to hold onto the nutrients your scalp produces; leaving your hair dry and brittle.
Not only does bleaching raise the outer cuticle, it also damages the bonds inside the hair too (hair is made up of three types of bonds: hydrogen, disulfide and salt bonds) causing them to weaken and break, and when the internal structure of the hair is compromised, strands are more likely to split and snap.
The simplest option is to take a wet or dry strand of hair and gently stretch it. If it barely stretches and snaps, you need more moisture and might have too much protein. Also, if you brush your hair and strands fall out, you need protein. Equally, if your strands feel dry, you are likely lacking moisture.
As a person ages, their individual hairs are likely to reduce in diameter. A decrease in hair diameter causes a reduction in tensile hair strength. This makes the hair weaker and more prone to breaking.
Only riboflavin, biotin, folate, and vitamin B12 deficiencies have been associated with hair loss. Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) is a component of two important coenzymes: flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) [22].
According to Leo Izquierdo, hairstylist and co-founder of IGK Hair Care, breakage also varies in appearance. "It can appear as split ends, the tip of the hair can be very thin compared to the root, or the ends may be frayed and not smooth," he says.