13 Ways To Prevent Hair Breakage

If you struggle with uncontrollable frizz or split ends, chances are good you’re dealing with some degree of hair breakage. Knowing how to stop hair breakage can help keep these concerns at bay and restore your mane’s healthy appearance—but it also may require reevaluating your current haircare routine.

For example, you’re probably aware that bleaching your hair can damage your mane. What you may not know is that other, seemingly harmless everyday habits, like brushing your hair or flat ironing your mane without heat protectant, can also contribute to breakage.

Whether you’re looking to prevent hair breakage or need help fixing existing damage, we suggest you keep reading. Ahead, we’ll explain what hair breakage looks like, reveal some of the most common reasons for hair breakage, and share tips on how to avoid hair breakage so you can enjoy full, healthy-looking strands.

What Is Hair Breakage?

Hair breakage is pretty much exactly what it sounds like—a hair concern that arises when the hair snaps or breaks due to damage. Breakage is different from hair shedding, which occurs when the hair falls out at the root.

When strands are subjected to excessive tension or stress (like from heat or chemical processing), they may become weaker and more fragile. Without proper care, this stress can cause the hair to snap. Breakage can occur anywhere along the strand, from the hairline to the mid-lengths or ends of the hair.

What Does Hair Breakage Look Like?

Some of the most common hair breakage signs include split or thinning ends, dull or frizzy hair, and shorter strands around the hairline. Depending on the extent of the breakage, you may also notice your ends look ragged, choppy, or uneven.

When hair is healthy, the scales on each strand’s cuticle lay flat, which makes the hair appear smooth and shiny. Damage, however, can cause the cuticles to lift. This can make the hair appear dull and frizzy and leave your strands vulnerable to splitting and snapping.

What Causes Hair Breakage?

If you want to know how to stop hair snapping, you need to understand why your hair is brittle in the first place. Many things can contribute to and cause hair breakage, though in most cases, brittleness results from rough handling or an improper haircare routine. Below, we’re diving into some of the most common causes of breakage.

1. Heat styling

This may not come as a surprise, but heat styling—including blow drying, flat ironing, and curling your hair—can dry out your strands. Over time, this dryness can cause your hair to become weak and brittle, leaving it susceptible to breakage. If you’re wondering how to prevent hair breakage, taking a break from the hot tools can be a great start. Skip the blow-dry and opt for heatless styles, such as overnight beach waves or a protective style, whenever possible.

2. Overprocessing

Like the rest of your body, your hair needs moisture to stay healthy. Excessive processing, such as keratin treatments, relaxers, and hair coloring, can dry out your hair, leaving it dull, brittle, and straw-like. If you do color your hair or get regular chemical treatments, it’s important to adjust your haircare routine to give your mane the TLC it needs to look and feel its best (more on that in a bit).

3. Hair bleaching

Whether you bleach your hair to sport a platinum style or lighten it to add a punchier color to your tresses, the result can be the same: hair breakage. In order to remove pigment from your hair, bleach lifts your hair’s outer cuticle, which can leave your strands vulnerable to breakage. Bleaching also dries out the hair, which may make it brittle, dull, and lackluster.

4. Overwashing

Washing your hair is important for healthy-looking strands, but equally crucial is following the right shampooing schedule—as it turns out, most people don’t need to lather up daily. Washing your hair every day may not seem like a harmful habit, but doing so can dry out your hair, which (as we’ve established) can make it more susceptible to breakage.

5. Tight hairstyles

Styles that put too much tension on the hair and scalp can also cause hair breakage in natural hair and other hair types. This is especially true if you tend to wear your hairstyle in the same place every day, as the repeated pressure from your hair tie or elastic can wear down the hair and cause it to snap. To help keep your hair healthy, it’s best to avoid tight hairstyles (including ponytails, tight buns, and braids) whenever possible. If you do choose to wear your hair up, secure your style with a silk hair tie or scrunchie, which place less tension on the hair than ultra-tight elastics.

6. Aggressive brushing

When brushing your hair, it’s important to do so gently—an aggressive approach can place unnecessary tension on your strands and cause them to snap. Brushing your hair when it’s wet is especially ill-advised, as hair tends to be more fragile when it’s wet, per the Cleveland Clinic.

How Do You Prevent Hair Breakage?

You may not be able to completely prevent hair breakage, but the right routine can help keep your hair resilient and minimize damage. Ahead, find 13 tips to help grow and maintain strong, healthy-looking hair.

1. Limit your wash days

Limiting how often you wash your hair can be a good idea if you’re dealing with dry, brittle hair. Use dry shampoo to keep your roots looking fresh between wash days, and when you do lather up, use a hydrating shampoo and conditioner that won’t strip your hair. We like the L'Oréal Paris Elvive Hyaluron + Plump Hydrating Shampoo, which contains hyaluronic acid in its formula. Pair it with the coordinating L'Oréal Paris Elvive Hyaluron + Plump Hydrating Conditioner to help detangle, boost shine, and lock in hydration for up to 72 hours.

2. Avoid super-hot water

Excessively hot water can strip strands of natural oils, leaving your hair (and scalp) feeling dry. If you can, try turning down the dial on your water temperature in the shower. Note that it doesn’t have to be freezing: Lukewarm water is the perfect in-between temperature to help maintain your mane.

3. Use a T-shirt to dry wet strands

After washing your hair, your first instinct is probably to rub it with a towel to prevent it from dripping all over your bathroom floor. But this common habit can result in breakage, especially if you're using a rough terry cloth towel. Instead, use an old cotton T-shirt to gently blot (rather than rub) your hair to absorb excess moisture.

4. Don’t tug on tangles

According to the AAD, hair breaks more easily when wet, so never pull on wet tangles with a hair brush. Instead, slowly work a wide-tooth comb through damp strands, starting from the bottom and working your way up to the roots. If you hit a tangle you can’t easily work through, use a leave-in conditioner or a detangling spray like the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Moisture 21-in-1 Leave-In Conditioner for Dry Hair to help loosen the knot before going back in with your comb.

5. Protect hair from heat

As mentioned above, heat styling is a common cause of hair breakage. While opting for heatless hairstyles is the best way to prevent heat-induced damage, it’s not always possible. If you do have to use heat to style your hair, be sure to prep your strands with a heat protectant to help shield your strands from high temps. We like the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Blow Dry Primer for 48 HR Frizz Control and the L’Oréal Paris Elvive Dream Lengths Heat Slayer Leave-In—both help protect against temperatures up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s also a good idea to use the lowest heat setting on your hot tools when possible to avoid unnecessary damage. Overall, the less heat you use, the better.

6. Let your hair air-dry partially

Another way to help minimize heat damage is to let your strands air-dry at least part of the way before going in with your blow dryer. When you blow-dry your hair when it’s still sopping wet, it’ll take a lot more time to dry—which, in turn, results in a higher exposure to that damaging heat. Instead, wait until your hair is about 75 percent dry before you reach for the blow dryer. You’ll expose your hair to less heat and spend less time drying (bonus).

7. Try a different hairstyle

According to the AAD, continuously wearing the same hairstyles, like tight braids or ponytails, can tug on strands and cause tension, resulting in breakage. Wear your hair down or switch things up with a messy ponytail or loose, low bun. If you’re experiencing hair breakage, low-tension hairstyles can be a great way to keep your strands off your face without causing (or worsening) breakage.

8. Use a hair-bonding treatment

While you can’t fix hair breakage once your hair has snapped, bond-repairing products can strengthen your strands and help prevent further damage. If you suffer from hair damage and want to prevent further breakage, try swapping out your go-to shampoo and conditioner for a bond-strengthening system, like the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Bond Repair collection. When used together, the three products in this lineup—a reparative pre-shampoo treatment, a gentle, shampoo, and a nourishing conditioner—help repair damaged hair bonds to strengthen weak hair from the inside out. The sulfate-free system is suitable for all hair types, including color-treated hair, and can be used daily to help reduce breakage, strengthen weak strands, and smooth the hair.

9. Don’t color your hair too often

We know how annoying it is to have dark roots, but coloring your hair too often can dry out your hair and contribute to breakage. If you’re looking to stop hair breakage from getting worse, consider holding off on coloring your hair until your strands are strong enough to withstand the chemical processing. If you must color your hair, consider doing so with a temporary hair dye—these washable options tend to be much less damaging than bleach and permanent hair dyes.

10. Use nourishing hair masks regularly

Adding a hydrating hair mask to your routine can make a huge difference when you’re trying to avoid breakage. We love the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate Free Simply Clean Elastic Fiber Masque, which uses a cream-to-fiber formula to envelop hair in moisture. While this nourishing formula isn’t explicitly a hair breakage treatment, it can help address the dryness that may make brittleness worse. To use it, wash your hair as usual, then rub the masque between your palms and spread it across your strands. Leave it for five minutes before combing your fingers through your hair and rinsing (with lukewarm water, naturally).

11. Sleep on a silk pillowcase

If you’re a wild sleeper, consider switching to a satin or silk pillowcase. Tossing and turning on a cotton or linen pillowcase can cause your hair to snag, resulting in (you guessed it!) breakage. Silk and satin are slipperier materials and create less friction, so they’re generally considered to be gentler on the hair. If you’re not willing to shell out on a pricey silk pillowcase, that’s okay—you can wrap your hair in a silk or satin bonnet to protect your hair while you sleep instead.

12. Limit how much you brush

Contrary to what you may have been told as a kid, brushing your hair 100 times daily is not the route to shiny, silk strands—it’s the opposite. The AAD states that 100 daily brush strokes can lead to the formation of split ends, which leads to breakage, so put that brush down. If you want shiny, silky strands, you’re better off reaching for a hair gloss like the L’Oréal Paris Le Color Gloss One Step In-Shower Toning Gloss, which deeply conditions while boosting shine for silky-looking strands.

Using a glossing hair care system is another excellent way to make your hair look shinier. We recommend the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Glossing Shampoo, L’Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Glossing Conditioner, and the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Glossing Glaze. First, massage the shampoo onto wet hair, lather and rinse. Spray the glossing treatment all over wet strands and leave it on for one to three minutes (don’t rinse it out). Then, follow up with conditioner, rinse, and style your hair as usual. You’ll be left with smooth hair and tons of healthy-looking shine.

13. Get routine trims

Sometimes, the best treatment for hair breakage is to cut off the damaged ends before they have a chance to get worse. Damaged hair treatments can help strengthen brittle hair, but they can’t seal split ends or reverse damage entirely. A haircut, however, can. If you have extensive split ends or your hair keeps snapping, it may be a good idea to give your mane a fresh start. Consider opting for a pixie cut or a blunt bob—your hair will look and feel healthier, and you’ll have a much easier styling routine, to boot. That’s what we call a win-win.

Next Up: 8 Low Porosity Haircare Tips You Should Know

Photo courtesy of L’Oréal Paris