Our beauty team try the Kérastase Première haircare range for damaged hair

What are the signs of hair damage?

As it turns out, there are lots of ways our hair can appear damaged – and lots of reasons for it too! Chlöe Swift, hairstylist and content creator, explains: “Visible signs of damage can include a rough cuticle, split or frayed ends, high porosity, brittleness, dullness or overly stretchy hair.”

Not sure how strong your strands are? Don’t worry! The experts at Kérastase explain how to test yourself from home: “You can test the strength of your hair at home by carrying out an elasticity test – also known as a stretch test or snap test!” the brand says. “Start by taking one single strand of your hair when it is dry and wrap each end around your fingers. Pull gently on either side, stretching the hair and observing how it ‘bounces back’. Healthy hair should feel springy and flexible, and return to its original form. Damaged hair may stretch and return, however you may find that the middle of the hair coils. If the hair snaps of breaks when being pulled gently, this is a sign of more severe damage.

What are the causes of hair damage?

Turns out there are plenty of external factors that can be responsible for hair damage:

“Damaged and weak hair can be caused by several factor, including the overuse of heat tools without heat protection, over-colouring or bleaching, and even environmental and lifestyle factors like UV exposure and how we care for our hair,” confirms Chlöe.

Luckily, the Kérastase experts are on-hand with ways we can help to minimise the risk of damage on our strands:

1. “Avoid brushing wet hair.”
   • “When our hair becomes wet, the natural hydrogen bonds in our hair temporarily break down and form again when the hair is dry. It is for this reason, that when wet, our hair is at its most fragile state. Rather than reaching for your regular hairbrush, consider using a wide tooth comb or your fingers to gently remove tangles from wet hair (detangling before rinsing out your conditioner will make this even easier!).”
2. “Work your way up!”
   • “Always detangle your hair from the bottom up. Starting on the ends and slowly working your way up the hair when combing minimises the risk of damage.”
3. “Go heatless.”
   • “The overnight, heatless curl trend is here to stay! This hack not only reduces the heat you use on the hair, but also gives you extra time for beauty sleep in the morning, a win-win! We also recommend a satin pillow case to reduce friction whilst you sleep – believe it or not, friction between your hair and a regular pillowcase can cause an increase in frizz, breakage and static.”

What is calcium water and how does it impact our hair?

Across the UK, different towns and cities will have either soft water or hard water in their homes – but typically, most of us have hard water.

Chlöe explains: “Hard water has high mineral/chemical levels whereas soft water has low levels. Hard water is fine for drinking due to the high minerals, but soft water is better for our hair & skin.”

“High levels of calcium are found in hard water which is too much for hair to absorb leading to build up, dull, brittle and lacklustre hair,” she continues. “Hair absorbs calcium from water when we wash our hair. The issue with damaged hair, which is already more fragile and weakened, is that it will absorb much more calcium than necessary due to the hair being more porous. This causes a build-up within the hair and the damaged hair becomes stiff and brittle, leading to breakage.”

Not sure which one you have in your house? “You can tell if you have hard water in your home if your taps or shower head regularly get a build-up of limescale, if your hair and skin feel stripped and dry after showering, or if your soaps don’t lather up easily.”