Your Hair Appears Dull Dullness is a sign of hair damage. Hair with damaged cuticles will lack the smoothness and shininess that come from a smooth cuticle layer and properly moisturized hair. Damage that shows itself with dullness could be caused by pollution, UV rays, product buildup, hard water, and more.
If at any point your hair feels rough, dry, and brittle and as if random strands are sticking out, this is a sign that your hair is unhealthy and damaged. Under such circumstances, you should consider seeking out treatment for your hair as quickly as possible and not let your damaged hair continue to grow out.
By sliding a strand, or a few, between your thumb and forefinger, you might be able to feel for the health of your hair. A smooth, easy slide, likely means your hair is healthy, while a rough and bumpy feeling means you likely have some damage.
Shiny hair with a smooth texture and clean-cut ends or tapered tips is generally perceived to be healthy. Hair texture and shine relate to hair surface properties, whereas the integrity of hair ends relates to the hair cortex.
Gently pull the hair at both ends and see how stretchy it is. If it's able to expand by around a third and then returns to it's original length, then you know your hair is healthy. If there is no give at all, then you have damage problems. Your hair needs a protein boost and some serious TLC.
Does damaged hair grow back healthy? The only way to get healthy hair is to allow your hair to grow without further damage. If you'd damaged your hair by over-styling, too much heat or over coloring with harsh chemicals, the good news is - your hair will grow back healthy.
Damaged hair is brittle and can feel like straw.
Brittle, straw-like hair with inconsistent textures throughout the strand is often due to UV exposure, glycation, and damaging chemicals in waters like chlorine and hard water.
Damaged hair is when your hair feels matted or spongey when wet. In extreme cases you may have hair loss. Dry hair needs moisture while damaged hair needs protein.
When to wash. Rossi generally tells his patients they should wash their hair once or twice per week. But if you've had chemical treatments that can make your hair drier — such as bleach, perms or relaxers — you might want to wash it less than once weekly to avoid breaking or brittle hair or split ends, he said.
Using products that are designed to nourish the scalp and hair can definitely speed up this process, but on average you'd be looking at six months to a year to fully see a difference in your hair's condition.
If you happen to have the kind of hair that sheds excessively, you should avoid running your fingers through it whenever possible. Each time you run your fingers through your hair, you're potentially pulling more out of their follicles.
Hard water minerals, pollution and product-build up are some of the worst culprits for limp, dull, lifeless locks. To achieve healthy, radiant tresses — together with daily shampooing — it is important to deeply cleanse your hair and scalp regularly to remove impurities and aggressors that can weigh strands down.
Everything depends on where exactly your hair is damaged. “If you have split ends, you're better off getting them trimmed immediately as the hair fibers have become separated and will never return to their normal self.