If your hair is feeling rough and dry, or begins breaking off more easily, you may have external damage to your hair.

There are three types of external hair damage that need repair:

1. Over-processed or chemically damaged
2. Dehydrated or dry hair
3. Heat damaged or singed hair

In this blog, we’ll look into the signs of heat damaged hair, a common cause of hair damage. If you’re interested in learning about other types of damage, check out our blogs on Chemically Damaged Hair or Dehydrated Hair. 

About Heat Damaged Hair

When hair is exposed to heat, water evaporates both inside and outside of the hair very quickly. This change in hydration can result in cracks through all three layers of hair: the cuticle, the medulla and the cortex.

Healthy hair has closed cuticles, but heat can cause damage by lifting the cuticle in places where water and other substances can enter. When the surface of the hair becomes porous, the hair is weakened and more susceptible to damage.

As Phyto national educator Christyn Nawrot says, “Every time you pick up a heat tool, there should be either a heat or thermal protector applied to the hair to the reduce the risk of damage.”

Check out Phyto’s Heat Damage Product here.

Characteristics of Heat Damaged Hair

• Yellowing at the ends. (this may be hard to see on dark hair)
• Hair looks and feels rough and frizzled. ( Like Tom’s whiskers from Tom and Jerry when he would get caught on fire or electrocuted. Oh, to be a kid in the 80s…hahahah)
• Hair smells burned.  (Everyone has smelt burned hair before and it’s definitely not a scent you would pick up at Nordstrom)

Treatment of Heat Damaged Hair

If your hair is damaged due to heat styling or burning, you will want to follow the same steps as dehydrated hair- however, depending on the degree of damage, a trim may be in order.  

We have corrective cutters at Honeycomb that will help you retain as much of your hair as possible, while grazing off the hair that is burned.  Burned hair has pits that will allow water into parts of the hair that shouldn’t have water in them.  Warm water causes things to swell and in this case can cause the damage to extend up the hair fiber.  Having clean cut ends will prevent further damage.

So how do we go about correcting these issues?

Most likely, if your hair is heat damaged- this is not from a single heat styling, but a product of damage over time. You won’t see results overnight, but there are a couple of ways you can help treat this type of damage. Try these tips to get quick results in our blog: Quick Hair Repair Tips

Let’s take a closer look at your damage in the salon. We utilize a Cappilliscope, a diagnostic tool which functions like a microscope for the hair and scalp. Under 200x magnification, we can see various conditions of the hair and scalp, understand hair loss issues and look at the integrity of the hair.

Book an appointment today, and receive a free scalp analysis. We’ll determine a treatment plan for your hair, so you can love the way your hair looks and feels again.