For most of us, there’s nothing better than beautiful, healthy hair that shines and gives us the feeling that we’ve got on our A-game, and yet we don’t even realize we’re making some very harmful haircare mistakes that can wreck our hair over time. But you can change things, both with the care products you’re using and with the care itself: avoid these common haircare mistakes, and the health and appearance of your hair can change for the better.
This blog will go through the top hair care mistakes you should avoid harming your hair and tips on how you can avoid these mistakes for your hair. We’ll also review how adding HBNO essential oils to your routine can aid in keeping your hair healthy and strong.
1. Over-Washing Your Hair
Washing your hair too often is one of the most common hair mistakes. While a clean scalp may equate to healthy-looking hair, over-cleaning your hair can strip away your natural oils, leaving your hair dry, frizzy, and broken. However, over time this can weaken your hair’s structure, thus making it more vulnerable to damage.
How Often Should You Wash? The ideal frequency depends on your hair type:
- Oily Hair: To control excessive oil, washing could be necessary every 2-3 days.
- Normal Hair: Wash every 3-4 days to balance them out.
- Dry or Curly Hair: Just wash less about once a week to keep it moist.
If your hair has been overwashed, feels dry and damaged, consider using a sulfate-free shampoo, and moisturize your hair with natural oils in your conditioner or spray with HBNO essential oils like lavender or chamomile, which are wonderful for dry or damaged hair and don’t over dry either.
2. Using the Wrong Shampoo and Conditioner
Yet another haircare mistake is not using products that suit the type of your hair. It could be the wrong shampoo or conditioner that leaves your strands product buildup, drier strands or even making your roots more oily.
How to Choose the Right Products:
- For Oily Hair: A clarifying shampoo that’s gentle enough to wash out excess oil without overdrying the scalp is your best bet. Stay away from heavy conditioners that’ll weigh down on your hair.
- For Dry or Curly Hair: So shop for moisturizing shampoos and conditioners for hydrating and anti-frizz effects. There are so many great products that contain ingredients like coconut oil, shea butter, or there ingredients like HBNO essential oils like ylang-ylang or cedarwood.
- For Fine Hair: Go for volumizing products and choose lightweight products that won’t weigh your hair down.
You can further add to your haircare routine by incorporating essential oils into fall to enhance your scalp’s health. One example is a few drops of peppermint or tea tree oil in your shampoo to invigorate the head and assist in hair growth and oil buildup.
3. Skipping Heat Protection
If you use the wrong type of product or use heat styling tools such as flat irons curling irons or blow dryers without protection, your hair can suffer greatly. Repeated exposure to high heat also weakens the cuticle of your hair and eventually causes split ends, dryness, and breakage.
Protect Your Hair from Heat Damage: Always use a hot tool spray or serum before you use a hot iron. These products create a barrier of sorts that limits how much heat your hair can take. And aim not to use heat styling that often — maybe once a week — and only on the lowest setting that gets the job done.
If you need extra nutrition, a lightweight oil like argan oil or 1 or 2 drops of HBNO rosemary essential oil added to your heat protectant for added shine and moisture.
4. Brushing Wet Hair
Brushing or combing hair when it’s wet is another hair care mistake most people overlook. When your hair is wet, it’s more fragile and prone to breaking, so using the wrong tools or techniques can cause a split or break in the hair.
How to Properly Detangle Wet Hair:
- The wide-tooth comb or the one you can use for detangling the wet hair.
- Mention here not to start from the roots, but to start from the ends of your hair and work your way up without pulling or snapping off some strands.
- So if you need extra protection, apply a leave-in conditioner or a detangling spray and comb.
Using the HBNO essential oils to add a bit of moisture to your leave-in conditioner can help protect and moisturize your hair even further, helping it detangle more smoothly and be less damaging to your hair.
5. Using Too Much Product
All those styling products, treatments, and even conditioners can sit on your head and make your hair heavy and eventually dirty. This buildup can block hair follicles and clog hair making it look limp and lifeless and stopping your new hair growth.
How to Avoid Product Buildup:
- Choose the right length of hair and width of hair.
- Alternate your normal shampoo with a clarifying shampoo a day per week to get rid of any extra product residue.
- If your hair is thin or oily avoid heavy, oil-based styling products.
But, if you’re searching for alternative heavy hair products, try using HBNO essential oils such as tea tree oil or peppermint oil in your routine. These oils cleanse the scalp and clear buildup on the scalp giving your hair a fresh feeling.
6. Neglecting Your Scalp
With a healthy scalp, you can get healthy hair. One of the most common haircare mistakes is neglecting scalp care which can cause dandruff and irritation as well as hair.
Scalp Care Basics:
- Shampooing is itself easy — gently massage your scalp to stimulate blood flow and remove buildup.
- If your hair collects a lot of oil or produces dead skin cells, use a scalp scrub or exfoliating shampoo once a week to help get rid of some.
- Hop on the HBNO bandwagon and try out rosemary or tea tree oil in your scalp routine. The antimicrobial properties of these oils work to clean and balance your scalp while at the same time promoting hair growth.
7. Towel-Drying Too Harshly
Friction, especially friction from rough drying with a towel, causes frizz breakage, and damage. And when it comes to curly or textured hair, this can be really problematic, for a lot of frizz and tangling.
How to Towel-Dry Hair Properly:
- Instead of grabbing a towel, rub your hair with it, and blot it rather than scrub away excess water.
- Drying your hair can be so hard sometimes and it hurts my scalp so bad. I suggest using a microfiber towel or an old t-shirt by putting on your hair first and then gently pat dry it with the towel.
Add a few drops of HBNO essential oils like ylang-ylang or chamomile to your damp hair and brush through your hair with a hand at the end of towel drying. There are oils that actually help lock in moisture, preventing frizz.
8. Skipping Regular Trims
Much like the mistake of skipping trims to grow your hair longer. It seems counterintuitive but regularly trimming your hair helps prevent the split ends from traveling up the hair shaft which is more damage and breakage.
How Often Should You Trim?
- The goal with healthy hair is to trim every 8 to 12 weeks.
- If your hair tends to be damaged or has split ends, get your hair trimmed every 6 to 8 weeks.
If you’re growing your hair out, that doesn’t mean you can neglect regular trimming!
9. Not Adjusting Your Haircare Routine for the Seasons
Most don’t realize that your haircare must change as the seasons do. If you aren’t changing your routine based on environmental factors, then you may end up dry in the winter or frizzy in the summer.
Seasonal Haircare Tips:
- Winter: Avoid dry and cold air because it can stop the moisture from your hair, so your focus should be on hydrating products and deep conditioning treatments.
- Summer: Frizz and dryness can occur from humidity, so adopt products that block transpiration and UV exposure.
To keep your hair fed and protected so you can go with nourished hair year-round, you need to embrace HBNO essential oils such as rosemary and lavender to help fortify and protect your hair from environmental damage.
10. Ignoring Your Hair’s Specific Needs
As everyone’s hair is different, so what works for someone else, may not work for you. There is a very big haircare mistake that most people make is ignoring your hair’s specific needs.
How to Tailor Your Haircare Routine:
- Knowing your hair type (thin, thick, curly, oily, etc.), see what products best suit you.
- Listen to how your hair reacts to products and treatments and you simply need to make changes.
Add your specific essential oil needs to your hair. Say, for example, you have an oily scalp, and HBNO tea tree or peppermint oil is going to help you with sebum production. HBNO lavender or ylang-ylang oils can rehydrate and shine dry or damaged hair.
Conclusion
To keep your hair looking beautiful and healthy, make sure you avoid these common haircare mistakes. If you choose your products well, are gentle with your hair, and add nourishing HBNO essential oils into your routine, then you can keep your locks looking their best. The key to perfect hair care is to recognize what your hair needs and adjust things for you.
Starting today, take charge of your hair health and steer clear of these common haircare mistakes and you’ll see healthier, stronger hair!
