Guide | July 12, 2024
How to protect hair from heat damage
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Healthy hair starts with damage prevention. This includes hair styling that focuses on control with less reliance on heat, along with thermal protection formulations to prevent breakages1.
There many misconceptions about hair damage and styling habits, but we’re here to cut through the noise. In this article, uncover how to spot the signs of damaged hair, and learn the best recommendations for managing and strengthening your strands to enhance the health and shine of your hair.
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What is damaged hair?
Hair damage occurs when different components of your hair experience physical or chemical breakdown. These are the cuticle, cortex, medulla and keratin proteins. To better understand what constitutes damaged hair, allow us to explain the science behind it:
1. A compromised cuticle: Damaged hair develops cracks in its outer layer, the cuticle. The cuticle usually shields the inner cortex, which gives hair its elasticity and strength. Once the cuticle is damaged, the cortex becomes exposed, making your hair more susceptible to additional damage and breakage.
2. Loss of shine: Healthy hair reflects light in a single direction, creating shine. However, when the inner cortex is damaged, hair becomes brittle, leading to split strands and split ends. This damage reduces the hair’s ability to reflect light, resulting in a loss of shine.
How does heat damage hair?
Extreme temperatures pose a significant risk to hair health by altering the structure of keratin protein strands. When exposed to temperatures over 150°C, α-keratin gradually converts to β-keratin, leading to a weakening of the strands. When the heat goes above 230°C, it starts burning the hair and breaking down those durable disulphide bonds. These bonds are what give hair its bounce, strength and shape. So, when your hair gets damaged by heat, it becomes weaker, less bouncy and more susceptible to further damage.
What does heat damaged hair look like?
Hair subjected to heat damage often appears extra brittle, making it more prone to breakage. Nevertheless, there are other signs that could hint at the presence of heat-related hair damage.
1. Dull and dry hair
The shine of your hair is influenced by the health of its cuticles. When these are damaged, it can result in lacklustre hair. Impaired cuticles find it challenging to retain moisture, leaving your locks dry and susceptible to breakage. Dryness is another factor that adds to the overall dull appearance of your hair when it is in this state.
2. Split ends
The medical term for split ends is trichoptilosis (or schizotrichia). This is when the ends of the hair physically split. Split ends happen when hair becomes dehydrated, causing the hair to become stiff and fray. While this issue commonly affects the tips, splits can also occur higher up the strand.
3. Frizziness
Heat damage increases the porosity of hair cuticles, causing them to absorb excess moisture and leading to frizziness. High porosity can also make hair cuticles lose moisture more readily, resulting in increased frizz.
4. Flyaways
At elevated temperatures, hot hair styling tools remove moisture from your hair strands. In these cases, flyaways often indicate breakage, appearing as short strands standing up after breaking off near the roots. Managing flyaways can be challenging, affecting your overall appearance, particularly when striving for a polished and refined look.
5. Hair loss
The average person typically has 80,000 to 120,000 hairs on their head, with each hair strand undergoing a growth cycle lasting 2 to 6 years. It’s normal to experience hair shedding during this period (in fact, some individuals may lose up to 100 strands each day). Yet, heat-damaged hair can result in a higher rate or hair loss during brushing or showering.
How to fix heat-damaged hair
Hair lacks regenerative abilities as it’s not a living tissue, making it impossible to ‘repair’ damaged hair. However, you can adopt measures to sustain hair health over time. Taking care of your strands is vital for promoting healthy hair and maintaining that coveted shine.
Ahead, discover the best tips for enhancing the vitality of your hair and minimising the risk of heat-induced hair damage in the future.
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Use targeted hair care products
Dealing with heat-damaged hair? Consider tweaking your hair care routine. Look for hair care products specifically designed for heat-damaged hair, as they can help to add moisture to hair that has been over-styled. Depending on your hair type and texture, you can also look for products beyond shampoo and conditioner. For example, wavy, curly or coily hair may require more attention and specialised products compared to straight hair.
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Use styling tools that don’t create extreme heat
Dyson’s hair styling tools are designed to minimise hair damage and maintain scalp health, catering to various hair types. Unlike others, the Dyson Supersonic™ hair dryer measures air temperature over 40 times a second and regulates the heat. This prevents extreme heat damage, to help protect your hair’s shine. You can also consider sensitive-scalp friendly attachments and accessories that are designed to diffuse the airflow and turn down the temperature, like the Gentle Air Attachment.
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Use the low temperature setting
Overexposure to high temperatures can weaken the chemistry of hair. Losing strength and elasticity over time can leave it more vulnerable to breakage. To prevent this, you can use a low temperature on your hair styling tools.
The Dyson Airwrap™ multi-styler features heat damage prevention technology, where it measures the airflow temperature over 40 times a second, intelligently controlling the heating element to keep the temperature under 150°C. The Dyson Corrale™ cordless hair straightener features temperature controls, so you can turn down the heat for less hair damage2, reduced frizz and fewer flyaways.3
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Make sure hair is dry before styling
Unless you are using a wet-to-dry styler like the Dyson Supersonic™ hair dryer or the Dyson Airwrap™ multi-styler, make sure hair is completely dry before styling. Straightening damp hair can cause moisture within the strands to heat up rapidly, leading to potential damage like burning. This in turn impacts the hair’s cuticle surface and can increase the risk of split ends and breakage.
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Use a heat protector spray and limit heat styling
When employing heat tools, ensure your hair is protected with a heat protector spray. These sprays create a protective film around the hair strands, ensuring even heat distribution and a gentler warming process, so the risk of heat damage is minimised. In terms of styling – while a variety of Dyson products have been engineered with no heat, it’s advised to prevent heat damage caused by straightening hair (or using other heat styling tools) by limiting your use (for example, opting for every other day or restricting use to once per day).
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Book in regular trims
Heat styling or chemical treatments can harm hair, especially at the ends. Regular trims literally cut off the damaged ends, preventing further breakage. You can schedule a trim every six to eight weeks (those with thicker hair types may extend this to every 10-12 weeks) to avoid split ends, especially if they’re a recurring concern.
Although strands can’t be ‘fixed’ once they’ve gone into damaged-hair mode, Dyson hair care styling tools are engineered with intelligent heat control, to regulate temperatures, prevent extreme heat damage and help protect shine.
Create looks your hair will love and protect against heat damage. Discover our hair styling tutorials now.
ANZ Press Office
Email: aupressoffice@dyson.com
1Rigoletto, R. et al. (2011). The effect of various cosmetic pretreatments on protecting hair from thermal damage by hot flat ironing, Journal of Cosmetic Science, 62 pp.265-282
2Thermal damage measured by hair strength, when creating an equivalent straight style using minimal heat. Tested on Corrale with flexing plates vs Corrale with solid plates.
3 Direct image analysis vs untreated hair.