We've all had that one phase, where we've fallen in love with a certain hair trend, and immediately wanted to try it out. From dyeing your hair in diverse exotic shades, getting them smoothened or straightened, experimenting with different hairstyles, to using proteins like cysteine and keratin, you have probably tried them all. However, what we don't think about, during that moment, is the effect it can have on our hair. Most Indian women suffer from damage of some kind on their hair daily.  There are a plethora of causes associated with damaged hair and its occurrence. If you're one of those people who find themselves hunting for hair damage solutions on a routine basis, this one's for you. Read on to know more about hair damage and some simple ways to solve it.
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1. What are the Reasons Behind Damaged Hair?
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2. How do you Identify Damaged Hair?
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3. How do you Treat Damaged Hair?
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4. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are the Reasons Behind Damaged Hair?
Speaking in hair terms, both literally and figuratively, let's tackle this from a grass 'roots' level. What is the reason for damaged hair? Our hair is very similar to our nails. It contains the protein Keratin that helps in smoothing it out. It is also built up of cuticles, identical to our nails. When the outer shaft of the cuticles opens up and exposes the hair shaft to the outer environment, it results in damaged hair. Let's go over the common causes that contribute to damaged hair:1.Hair Dyeing
Whether it's pink, burgundy, blonde, blue, or whatever shade you want to explore next with your hair, make sure you're taking the adequate steps and measures to ensure your hair is coloured right. Hair dye results in rough, coarse, and damaged hair as the shafts tend to become devoid of moisture content.
2. Hair Bleaching
Bleaching is another cause of damaged hair. Bleach tends to reach the inner strands of your hair and dissolve the melanin pigment present in the hair, removing the hair's natural colour. This can result in your hair becoming porous, brittle, fragile, and dry. It can also permanently alter your hair and make it lose its elasticity.3. Hair Styling Tools
You must have often come across online videos that show you how to style your hair naturally without using heat. Exposing your hair to heat can ‘cook the hair fibres' and cause the cuticles to open up, making the hair rough and damaged.4. Unhealthy Diet
Your diet provides your body with the fuel that either makes it or breaks it. Avoid items like dairy, sugar, refined carbohydrates, carbonated drinks, alcohol, or greasy food as these can damage your hair. Instead, eat green leafy vegetables like spinach, curry leaves, fenugreek, and the like as they are great for your hair. You can also choose to apply some of them topically on your hair. These vegetables contain essential nutrients like vitamins and certain salts that nurture and treat your hair, and help in damaged hair treatment.
How do you Identify Damaged Hair?
Been extremely careful with your hair care routine and still faced damaged hair? Sometimes, despite following the perfect diet, and hair care regimes, we still battle damaged hair problems. Here are a few commonly occurring forms of damaged hair and the reasons why they happen:1. Tangled Hair
You might have observed that a lot of damaged hair treatments revolve around keeping the hair cuticles intact and preventing them from opening up, as the opening of the hair cuticles is one of the main causes behind damaged hair. The raised hair cuticles tend to attract friction and grab onto other strands very aggressively compared to relatively smoother and slicker cuticles. This results in loss of moisture, causing tangled hair.2. Dull and Dry Hair
Sometimes when there is damaged hair, the hair lacks the natural oils and moisture that coats the outer part of the cuticles. This makes the hair lose its shine and results in the hair looking dull and dry.3. Fried and Frizzy Hair
Frizzy hair exposes the inner fibres. Due to this, the cuticles don't lie flat and cause the hair to get fried and frizzed up.4. Rough and Breaking
Hair that has undergone various chemical treatments like perming, smoothening, straightening or rebonding, becomes brittle and straw-like. This causes thinning of the hair and results in hair breakage and damage.
How do you Treat Damaged Hair?
Now that you are aware of the reasons and causes of damaged hair, and know what led to the roughness or frizziness of hair, it is time for damage control. How to cure damaged hair? What are the best treatments that you can consider for your damaged hair? Let's take a look at some:
1. Hair Care Routine
Having a proper hair care routine in place goes a long way in enhancing your hair quality. The first thing that you should do is make sure you use gentle and mild products on the scalp. Try the Pure Sense Grapefruit and Macadamia range of shampoos and conditioners. Along with being light on the scalp, these products are free from chemicals like sulphates, parabens, alcohols, and dyes, which can damage your hair. These products reach into your scalp and gently cleanse it, removing the dirt and sebum from your hair. You can pair your hair care routine with deep conditioning hair masks that further nourish and condition the hair, and contain potent ingredients that have a more long-lasting effect on your mane.
2. Homemade Hair Packs
Before you rinse your hair with a nutritious shampoo and conditioner combo, you can add an extra layer of nourishment, by applying a wholesome, DIY hair mask or hair pack made at home. We've put together a couple of hair pack recipes that you should definitely try out on those hair wash days:
a. Avocado and Egg
Mix one fresh and ripe avocado with an egg. Apply the mix and let it sit for 20 minutes. While avocados are rich in vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids, eggs provide the right conditioning and binding that is needed to make your hair soft and healthy.
b. Banana:
Mash a ripe banana and mix it with a bowl of curd and 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil. This mask enriches your hair with essential nutrients like Potassium, Carbohydrates, Vitamins, and natural oils that make the hair softer, healthier, and stronger. Follow this up with the Pure Sense Grapefruit Revitalising Hair Care Combo to give yourself the complete fruity, gentle, and rejuvenating hair care experience.c. Eggs:
One of the best ingredients you can provide to your scalp, which effectively treats dull, dry, and damaged hair, is an egg. Mix an egg white with half a lemon, apply it to your hair and cover it with a shower cap. Let it sit for about 30 minutes. Rinse it off with a Pure Sense shampoo and conditioner of your choice. While lemons are antifungal and clear up any kind of product residue in your hair, eggs contain various essential vitamins like A, D and E that further condition your hair and bring back its lost shine.
