How to avoid mechanical hair damage: brush, ties, sleep

Mechanical hair damage comes from pulling and friction: brushing wet lengths, tight hair ties, rubbing with a towel and tossing on the pillow at night. You can avoid it with four swaps you can make tonight: detangle wet hair only with a wide-tooth comb, working up from the ends; squeeze the water out instead of rubbing; use a spiral tie instead of one with a metal join; and go to bed with a loose plait. After four weeks, check whether the change is working by counting the short, snapped pieces left in your comb and brush.

Everyday hair damage: where pulling and friction start

Every move that tugs at wet hair or rubs the same spot again and again costs you length.

The cuticle lies over the core of the fibre like roof tiles. Friction pushes the tiles up, and roughened hairs snag even more easily the next time you comb. Wet hair stretches further under tension than dry hair and snaps with less force. A single brush stroke does no harm. The sum of them hits the ends hardest, because on shoulder-length hair the ends are two to three years old.

Where does your hair break? The break point gives away the cause

For a week, collect the hairs from your comb and brush on a sheet of white paper. A hair with a pale bulb at the end has shed with its root; short pieces without a bulb have snapped. If your parting is also getting wider, read up on how to tell hair breakage from hair loss. Then look at where the short stubs stick out.

If the stubs stand up mainly around your parting, snapped hairs at the crown often come from tension, clips and blow-dryer heat working together. If your lengths also break where no tie or collar reaches, heat is the more likely culprit. In that case, check whether your ends show the typical signs of heat damage.

Do two rows sound like you? The free hair analysis asks about your styling, your care and the condition of your hair, one point at a time.

Detangling wet hair: four steps from the ends up

Water makes the fibre swell, and under tension it gives. A brush that glides through dry hair catches in wet hair and pulls.

Step 1 — Add slip. Squeeze your hair towel-dry and work in a leave-in, meaning a conditioner that stays in your hair. For chin-length hair a pea-sized amount is enough, for shoulder-length hair a hazelnut-sized one, for chest-length hair double that, always from ear level down. With MONAT, the Restore™ Leave-In Conditioner can do this job, for example.

Step 2 — Section. Divide thick, long or curly hair into four sections and clip them up. Fine hair down to your shoulders can be detangled in one go.

Step 3 — Start at the bottom. Comb through the bottom five centimetres first, then move five centimetres higher each time. Hold the strand above the comb with your free hand. That way the pull lands in your hand and never reaches your scalp.

Step 4 — Loosen knots with your fingers. If the comb catches, stop pulling. Put a drop of leave-in on the knot and tease it apart with your fingers until the comb glides through again.

Brush or comb: which tool for what

Two tools suit wet hair: a wide-tooth comb or a detangling brush with widely spaced, flexible bristles. Dry straight hair copes well with boar bristles or a mix of natural and nylon bristles that sit close together and give slightly. A round brush is a blow-drying tool. Detangle before you pick it up. Four mistakes and how to correct them:

• Plastic comb with a moulding seam → a saw-cut comb made from one piece. Run the teeth over your fingernail: if you feel a sharp edge, it roughens the cuticle too.
• Brush with broken ball tips → throw it out, because the bare pins scratch every hair.
• Brushing dry curls through → detangle only when wet with conditioner in, and when dry rearrange them with your fingers at most.
• Brushing out backcombed hair dry → wash first and detangle with conditioner in; backcomb only at the roots, under the top layer.

Hair ties, claw clips, slides: tying hair up without breakage

A thin elastic cinches the ponytail at a single ring, and hairs snag on the metal join. Spiral ties spread the pressure over several points, a satin fabric tie (usually called a scrunchie) over a wide area. Wrap the tie only as many times as still lets one finger fit between tie and ponytail. If it pulls at your scalp or you get a headache while the ponytail is in, it is too tight.

Change the height from day to day: low at the nape one day, at the back of your head the next, then to the side. To take the tie out, stretch it open and roll it off. If it has tangled, cut it open instead of yanking it out. Tie wet hair loosely, if at all.

A large claw clip spreads the weight of your hair across many teeth and is often kinder to long hair than a tight ponytail, as long as the edges are smooth. Small metal snap clips close with spring force and can kink fine hair. Hairpins without protective tips scratch. Take clips and slides out at night.

If your hairline is thinning at the forehead or temples where a ponytail has pulled for years, or you notice small red spots around the hair roots, see a dermatologist. Constant tension can damage the hair roots themselves; the medical term is traction alopecia. Caught early, the hair often recovers once the pulling stops; after years, the loss can be permanent.

Towel drying: squeeze instead of rubbing

Rubbing grinds the wet lengths against each other at the moment they can take the least. Lay your hair section by section in a microfibre towel or an old cotton T-shirt instead, and press it with both hands for about ten seconds per section. Neither fabric has the loops of terry towelling that single hairs catch in.

A turban is fine as long as it sits loosely. A tightly twisted, wet terry towel drags on your hairline with its weight, so take it off after 15 minutes at the latest.

While you sleep: plait, pillowcase and dry hair

Your head turns on the pillow for eight hours. Loose long hair rubs against the cotton, knots at the nape and gets pulled open with a brush in the morning. Three habits take the friction out:

1. Don't go to bed with wet hair. Blow-dry roots and lengths almost dry first, on a medium setting and about 15 cm away.
2. Plait long hair loosely, to the side or at the back, and secure the end with a spiral tie. Twist curls loosely into a bun on top of your head, held with a satin scrunchie, so they don't get flattened.
3. Rub one or two drops of REJUVENIQE® Oil between your palms and press them into the ends only, before you plait. If the ends look stringy in the morning, use one drop next time.

A silk or satin pillowcase is smoother than cotton, so hair glides over it instead of catching on the fibres. Good studies showing that silk pillowcases reduce breakage are hard to find. The pillowcase makes sense on top of the plait and dry hair, and it cannot replace either of them. Satin is a weave, usually polyester and machine-washable; silk is a natural fibre for the delicates cycle at 30 °C. A satin sleep cap does the same job.

By hair type: what to adjust

With curls, technique on wash day matters even more than with straight hair: when you detangle, with what, and how you care for curly and wavy hair without pulling the curl pattern apart. For bleached lengths, MONAT's Bond IQ™ Peptide Therapy Leave-In Cream adds slip while you comb, dosed as in step 1 and applied from chin level down. It cannot rejoin ends that have already snapped either.

Brushing myths: what's true

• A hundred brush strokes every evening are supposed to bring shine. The advice dates from a time when hair was washed less often and the brush was meant to spread sebum into the lengths. Today every extra stroke only adds friction; one or two passes are enough to detangle.
• There is no evidence that brushing stimulates hair growth. A fingertip massage feels good and costs your lengths nothing.
• Regular trims don't make hair stronger. Scissors remove snapped ends and split ends and change nothing about the hair growing in. Fresh ends only stay smooth as long as pulling and friction stay away.

What you'll see after one week, four weeks and three months

In the first week, watch for two things: whether the comb glides through your lengths more easily with leave-in, and whether there are fewer knots at the nape after a night in a plait. Snapped ends stay until your next cut.

After four weeks, repeat the white-paper test: collect for a week and separate the pieces with a bulb from those without. If there are fewer short pieces without a bulb than the first time, the change is working. If there are just as many, go through the break-point table again.

After three months your hair has grown around three centimetres. If no new break points appear, the short stubs on top get longer and heavier and stick up less. A photo of your parting, taken every four weeks at the same window, shows this more clearly than the mirror.

Quick questions

Can a hat or a bike helmet damage your hair?

Hardly, as long as the hair underneath is dry. The edge rubs, so tuck long hair in loosely or bring it forward. A hat with a satin lining rubs less than pure wool.

Is pushing sunglasses up as a headband bad for your hair?

Yes, if they sit in the same spot every day. The arms trap strands and pull on them when you take the glasses off. A fabric headband or a glasses case is the better place for them.

Do extensions damage your own hair?

Yes, if they pull constantly. Every bond hangs its weight on a few of your own strands. Wear clip-ins for a few hours at a time and take them out to sleep. With permanent extensions, keep your refit appointments and see your hairdresser sooner if your scalp feels tight or sore.

How often do I need a new hairbrush?

As soon as ball tips are missing, bristles are bent or the brush feels rough. There is no fixed interval. Take a close look at the bristles every three months.

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The free hair analysis asks about your styling and care habits and suggests a routine for lengths that break easily.