Your Hair Won’t Forgive You: 5 Subtle Hair Care Mistakes

First, you spend a long time finding your ideal hair care routine: meticulously choosing a shampoo suited to your scalp type, a conditioner to meet your hair’s needs, and you think that finally, magic will happen. But the magic doesn’t happen… Even after using new products for a long time, the result doesn’t please you. But don’t rush to get upset!

Here’s a secret: choosing the right products is only half the success. The other half is your direct actions and how you use these products.

What actions can nullify the effectiveness of your care routine?

Mistake #1: Using Only One Shampoo

Have you ever found the perfect shampoo after countless experiments: it cleans well, doesn’t cause dryness or dandruff, doesn’t weigh your hair down, and keeps your scalp clean longer? You’re happy and don’t want to change it for anything else.

However, after some time, your favorite “perfect shampoo” starts to let you down: it no longer cleans as well, causes itching, dryness, and even dandruff. You’re disappointed because you have to start the search all over again, and the shampoo that once made you happy now needs to be thrown away.

Here’s some good news: you don’t have to throw away your favorite shampoo.

Such an “addiction effect” often occurs if you only have one shampoo in your arsenal. This happens because the same surfactants and conditioning additives accumulate on your scalp.

How to Avoid This?

Add one or two more shampoos with different combinations of surfactants to your care routine and alternate them each wash. This way, some surfactants will wash away the others, preventing buildup.

If you often use styling products, we recommend using a deep cleansing shampoo every 2-4 weeks.

Mistake #2: Ignoring Conditioning and Leave-In Care

Washing your hair is quite stressful for it. No matter what manufacturers write on labels, the sole purpose of shampoo is to clean the scalp thoroughly. The hair length always gets damaged during washing, even from the gentlest shampoo, as the cuticle scales open, the pH is disrupted, and the hair becomes more vulnerable, tangles, and frizzes. So, if you want healthy, strong, and beautiful hair, you shouldn’t skip the conditioning step.

Leave-in care protects the hair from thermal effects of stylers and other negative environmental factors. It helps prevent split ends.

Mistake #3: Not Combing Through Conditioners When Applying to Hair

When you apply conditioner or mask with just your hands, the active components can’t distribute evenly through your hair, so you’re unlikely to get the desired result.

We recommend applying the conditioning product to wet hair with your hands and distributing it with a brush, adding water in the process. This method of conditioning is much more effective than just sitting in the bath with a mask on your hair for a long time.

Mistake #4: Keeping a Terry Towel on Your Hair for Too Long

Yes, it’s very convenient to wrap your hair in a terry towel after washing and go about your business, reducing drying time. Terry towels absorb moisture well, but if you keep it on your hair for more than 5 minutes, you negate the effect of the conditioning product you applied earlier. Masks and conditioners contain components that coat the hair with a film that smooths, protects from damage, and prevents moisture loss. A terry towel just draws out all the water that the conditioner components tried to retain. As a result, your hair is dry, and you think the mask doesn’t work.

Keeping a towel on for too long also negatively affects the scalp: a greenhouse effect is created, which is a perfect environment for fungi and bacteria that cause dandruff, irritation, peeling, and dermatitis.

We recommend keeping the towel on your head for no longer than 5 minutes. Ideally, replace the terry towel with a microfiber or silk one: they are much gentler on the hair, don’t overdry it, and prevent tangling and breakage.

Mistake #5: Not Using a Hair Dryer

There’s still a myth that not using a hair dryer and drying naturally is better for your hair. However, this is not true at all. Keeping your hair wet for a long time is much more harmful than drying it with a hair dryer. Wet hair is more vulnerable, stretches, cracks appear on the cuticle, leading to breakage, split ends, and loss of shine.

So, if you want your hair to remain healthy, strong, and shiny, we recommend drying it with a hair dryer (with warm or cool air).