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.
Certain nutrients help your hair grow and stave off breakage from damage. Make sure you're getting enough zinc, iron, and folic acid in your daily diet. Adequate protein and antioxidants (found in plant foods) can also keep your hair damage-free. Certain vitamins can also help hair growth.
Share on Pinterest Common causes of hair breakage can include styling and over-brushing. Products that people use for coloring, perming, or relaxing the hair contain chemicals that can weaken the hair and make it more likely to break. Even some shampoos can cause the hair to break, become brittle, or turn frizzy.
Vitamin D: When vitamin D is low, the hair may thin or stop growing. Zinc: Zinc deficiency can cause similar hair loss to iron and may also damage any remaining hair, causing it to break.
Only riboflavin, biotin, folate, and vitamin B12 deficiencies have been associated with hair loss.
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.
Although hair re-growth may be possible, you should also know when to seek professional help. If the reason for thinning hair is genetics, it will not grow back on its own. To grow back a healthy, full head of hair, you'll need to take action, and that involves reviewing different hair loss options.
Split ends are a sign that your hair has been weakened from chemicals and exposure to heat, wind, and sun, Blaisure adds. Trimming is the best way to keep ends from fraying and causing further damage.
Brittle hair and nails
One of them is a lack of biotin. Biotin, also known as vitamin B7, helps the body convert food into energy. A deficiency in biotin is very rare, but when it occurs, brittle, thinning, or splitting hair and nails are some of the most noticeable symptoms.
Hair breakage can look like split ends or dry or damaged-looking hair. Severe hair breakage can make your hair look frizzy with a lot of split ends or with a lot of shorter, broken hair.
Here's the truth: You can't change the size of your hair follicles. If you were born with fine hair, it's genetics, and no product will completely alter that. Of course, there are ways to maintain your hair health, add volume, and keep it from getting any thinner.
Using products that are designed to nourish the scalp and hair can definitely speed up this process, but on average you'd be looking at six months to a year to fully see a difference in your hair's condition.
Long periods of stress may cause your hair to grow slower than normal. Without new, fresh length, your hair may be more susceptible to breakage. If your scalp produces less oil when you're stressed, this will add to the breakage, causing your hair to take look and feel brittle.
One surefire way to tell the difference is by looking at the length of the strands that are falling out. Broken hairs will tend to be shorter than shed hairs. Some other clear signs of hair breakage include sparse areas along the hairline and nape, split ends, and extreme frizz.
Vitamin B12 also manufactures red blood cells that are oxygen carriers, throughout your body, including to your scalp. If your scalp is not rich in oxygen, not only will you likely experience hair loss, but your hair follicles may not be able to sustain hair regrowth.
Biotin. Biotin, also known as vitamin B7, stimulates the production of keratin to increase follicle growth. Biotin deficiencies tend to be rare, with those diagnosed with Biotinidase Deficiency being the most common.
Foods that contain the most biotin include organ meats, eggs, fish, meat, seeds, nuts, and certain vegetables (such as sweet potatoes) [2,12].
Thyroid Hormone
In hypothyroidism, hair tends to be dry, brittle, dull, and diffusely thinned out – even eyebrow hair can fall out [9]!