If you talk to any woman about her hair, one thing she'll say is that she'd like it to be healthy.
Based on the ads we see on TV and online, it's easy to assume healthy hair is shiny, thick, and always looks great. But healthy hair doesn't have to look like the hair in a shampoo commercial.
For relaxed hair especially, I think it's more useful to pay attention to how your hair behaves than whether it looks perfect. How much does it break? How does it handle manipulation? Does it retain length? Does it feel overly dry or brittle?
Here are some of the signs I look for when determining whether my relaxed hair is healthy.
Signs of healthy hair
1. Your hair isn't breaking excessively
While no hair breakage is the dream, it's not realistic. Hair is going to break some. Healthy, relaxed hair breaks very little because it has elasticity and will snap back into place.
Unhealthy hair doesn't snap back into place. Instead, it snaps into pieces when put under pressure. And the hair strands are snapping a lot. This creates short pieces of hair that you may find on your floors or counters. It also creates short and scraggly hairs on your head where the breakage occurs.
Hair breakage can be caused by many different things, such as over-drying, a diet low in iron or protein, over-styling, heat damage, or chemical damage.
Related read: 6 Causes For Hair Breakage And How To Stop It
2. Your hair feels flexible and manageable
When hair is properly moisturized and has a good amount of strength, it's easier to style and manage. You'll notice your hair is softer and has elasticity. It won't feel dry, brittle, or rough. Additionally, you may see your hair having a natural instead of a manufactured shine.3. Your hair shedding hasn't suddenly increased
Hair shedding is normal. It's a natural part of the hair growth cycle. Normal hair shedding can be several, even thousands, of hair strands a day. The amount of normal hair shed varies by person. The key is noticing when your normal shedding pattern has changed so you're losing more hair. Changes to look out for are:- Substantially more hair shed during wash day
- Noticeably increased shedding between wash days
- Thinning of your hair or visible changes in hair density
I've never counted the number of strands that shed from my head, but I can easily notice when my hair is shedding more. That's when I know my hair isn't as healthy as I think it is, and it's missing something that it needs. Those things could be moisture or protein. Or I may need to take a look at my vitamin intake of iron and Vitamin D.
Related read: 6 Ways To Reduce Excessive Hair Shedding
4. You aren't dealing with excessive split ends
The ends of your hair strands are the oldest and most vulnerable part of the hair, making them the perfect place for hair damage to occur. And also, at least to me, the hardest part of the strand to keep looking healthy.One sign of unhealthy hair you can see on your ends is what's called split ends. This is when a split occurs in the hair shaft and is caused by dryness, harsh combing, and excessive heat. Once you have a split end, there isn't any way to get rid of it except trimming the hair strand above the split.
To avoid split ends, do things like
- Reduce heat use on your hair
- Gently detangle
- Keep your ends protected by keeping them tucked away sometimes
- Avoid over-manipulation or styling of your hair
- Get regular trims
5. You're retaining hair length
If your hair is healthy, you notice it getting longer. That means you're retaining length and not seeing excessive breakage that is shortening your hair strands. If you have a lot of hair breakage, your hair can be growing normally while appearing as though it isn't growing. That's because you're losing length through breakage.Signs your hair may need attention
The above are signs of healthy, relaxed hair, but what does unhealthy hair really look like? It can exhibit several or all of the following signs
- Persistent or increasing breakage
- Excessive shedding
- Brittle or weak-feeling strands
- Significant changes in texture
- Persistent dryness
- Increasing number of split ends
- Thinning areas
- Difficulty in retaining length
- Hair is more fragile during styling or manipulation
How to improve the health of your hair
If your hair isn't as healthy as you thought and shows several of the unhealthy signs, there are some things you can do. I share several of them in the links below
I think its almost impposible to have no breakage, well constant breakage. I see broken strand every wash day but its not excessive. These are some good points.
ReplyDeleteI've had a few periods of time where I didn't have any breakage, but you could be right that it's common to have some breakage occasionally. Thanks for reading Tomes!
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