Bad hair breakage, help! :(

[Carmizel]

imgbox.com/wkhnsX42

The two photos are only days difference. One is after a blow dry the other one is fully natural after washing and doing nothing to it.

I had blonde balayage done and it looked so nice. Fast forward 4 months and it looks horrible...So brassy and too blonde.

All of a sudden my hair just felt so dry and awful. I use Olaplex religiously and have done for years but even that wasn’t helping. I noticed it was breaking so badly. I first noticed the breaking because I had black yoga pants on and anytime I brushed it, so many tiny pieces of hair would end up in my lap.

So now I can’t even brush it. I swear I have not brushed it for over a month now. (It doesn’t get knotted because I use a good detangling leave in conditioner) because if I even just shake my head over a white surface, that surface gets covered in small broken pieces of hair let alone if I were to brush it!

Around the same time my hair started breaking, I stopped the pill and I used a soy protein shampoo and conditioner (for a month because I didn’t know it could cause problems) so there are so many reasons what it could be or just the result of them all. my first thought after googling is PROTEIN OVERLOAD.

But it’s been like 2 months now and I have used a clarifying shampoo and moisture masks, Olaplex, lots of oil, started drinking loads of water, eat a lot of fish, kiwis, walnuts...you name it, but nope still breaking like crazy! It feels like it will never stop.

I wear my hair curly (naturally) so u can’t see the breakage as clearly as you can in the above photo but wow in my 28 years I have never had this and I haven’t exactly treated my hair nicely...I have used hair straighteners religiously, no heat spray, been in the sun a lot but my hair was ok.

I guess I’m upset because in the March 2020 lockdown I stopped dying it, I had a huge cut and it grew so nice and thick all Summer and was the longest I ever had it then I went and dyed it blonde. What an idiot.

Now I don’t know what to do.. any suggestions? Asides from cutting it off because I really don’t want to. 😢

You’ll have to cut it off eventually.

Try and get an aveda damage remedy set shampoo, conditioner, intensive mask.

If that doesn’t work it’ll have to be cut.

I am in the same position. I'm afraid in may case it seemed to break in the exact same point all over. Never had an issue with breakage before and have been highlighting my hair for years
A word of warning, it also started falling out too afterwards with a vengeance. I too found olaplex has made no difference

What has - or so I think is Growmans shampoo & conditioner. Certainly slowed down the hairloss. I am also taking msm which is supposed to be great for hair growth and collagen powder.

Hi op, I am a hairdresser. It's great that you're using olaplex, keep doing that. Protein overload can make hair brittle, but that should have resolved now. obviously it could be that you've had bleach, some people can do all sorts to their hair, whereas some people's hair gets very upset by just a little processing. there's no rhyme or reason unfortunately. It could be hormonal, it could be that it's winter and we're all stuck inside with the heating blasting, it could be a combination of things.

some things to try: I would get rid of any products that contain sulphates, silicones and isopropyl alcohol, which is very drying. sulphates are harsh and drying, silicone can build up and end up sealing moisture out of the hair instead of in. Curly girl method friendly products are ideal, so you may already be doing this, but check and triple check your ingredients as I have a lot of clients who swear blind they follow CGM religiously and then it turns out they're using all sorts of siliconey serums.

if you are using purple shampoo to tone out the warmth, I'd knock that on the head because lots of purple shampoos are very drying. you can tone yellow out of your hair more gently by getting a direct dye like crazy colour in silver or purple and adding a blob to some white conditioner and leaving it on like a hair mask.

No more heat styling. The end. sorry but it is the worst thing you can do for breakage. you can diffuse on medium heat and medium speed though.

I recommend getting a silk pillowcase or a silk scarf to sleep in. If you drive a lot, get a silk scarf and wrap it round your car head rest.

This sounds really silly, but yanking your hair out from under your handbag strap causes a lot of breakage. Long haired clients often think I am spooky and psychic because I can tell what shoulder they wear their bag on just by looking at their hair. lift your bag up and gently move your hair out of the way.

hair elastics - no. get some of those like telephone wires, or some silk scrunchies, or a plastic claw clip. Learn to french/dutch plait if you can't already. try and vary how you put your hair up as much as possible so that it's not causing stress on the same area over and over.

breakage and splitting only moves up the hair shaft unfortunately. so you will need a cut as soon as salons open again. how much you cut off is totally up to you, obviously the more the better, but it's your hair.

Have you any symptoms of hypothyroidism? that can cause brittle/thinning hair.

Your hair looks lovely in those photos! Especially the one on the right. Is that straightened? You say your hair is curly.

A v handy site for checking CG friendly ingredients is this one, you can just cut and paste a list in.

@MadameButterface

Hi op, I am a hairdresser. It's great that you're using olaplex, keep doing that. Protein overload can make hair brittle, but that should have resolved now. obviously it could be that you've had bleach, some people can do all sorts to their hair, whereas some people's hair gets very upset by just a little processing. there's no rhyme or reason unfortunately. It could be hormonal, it could be that it's winter and we're all stuck inside with the heating blasting, it could be a combination of things.

some things to try: I would get rid of any products that contain sulphates, silicones and isopropyl alcohol, which is very drying. sulphates are harsh and drying, silicone can build up and end up sealing moisture out of the hair instead of in. Curly girl method friendly products are ideal, so you may already be doing this, but check and triple check your ingredients as I have a lot of clients who swear blind they follow CGM religiously and then it turns out they're using all sorts of siliconey serums.

if you are using purple shampoo to tone out the warmth, I'd knock that on the head because lots of purple shampoos are very drying. you can tone yellow out of your hair more gently by getting a direct dye like crazy colour in silver or purple and adding a blob to some white conditioner and leaving it on like a hair mask.

No more heat styling. The end. sorry but it is the worst thing you can do for breakage. you can diffuse on medium heat and medium speed though.

I recommend getting a silk pillowcase or a silk scarf to sleep in. If you drive a lot, get a silk scarf and wrap it round your car head rest.

This sounds really silly, but yanking your hair out from under your handbag strap causes a lot of breakage. Long haired clients often think I am spooky and psychic because I can tell what shoulder they wear their bag on just by looking at their hair. lift your bag up and gently move your hair out of the way.

hair elastics - no. get some of those like telephone wires, or some silk scrunchies, or a plastic claw clip. Learn to french/dutch plait if you can't already. try and vary how you put your hair up as much as possible so that it's not causing stress on the same area over and over.

breakage and splitting only moves up the hair shaft unfortunately. so you will need a cut as soon as salons open again. how much you cut off is totally up to you, obviously the more the better, but it's your hair.

Have you any symptoms of hypothyroidism? that can cause brittle/thinning hair.

Thanks for all your replies. I haven’t put heat on it for months aside from 1 time in the hairdresser. I don’t live in the U.K. anymore and live in a country I don’t speak the language so I went to the hairdresser for a trim and he blow dried and used tongs and I just sat there and let him because I couldn’t find the energy to stop him with hand gestures and leave the salon with wet hair lol.

Don’t use purple shampoos anymore or have an issue with my thyroid.

I have been dying my hair for 20 years at salons, all different shades of blonde highlights but apparently my hair just didn’t like balayage which was considerably more blonde on the bottom part of my hair.

I’m at my wits ends. I would seriously rather it was falling out instead of breaking, I feel like I could fix it easier and at least it wouldn’t look a mess.

Sometimes I think maybe I over exaggerate things in my head. I’m in lockdown, I focus too much on imperfections as I have little else in my life right now being at home every day. Maybe my hair has always had the tendency to break but I didn’t really put so much focus on it? I don’t know...but I am so sick of googling hair breakage and everyone suggesting the same things - that I have been doing - but it hasn’t resolved anything. I find myself literally checking everyone’s hair, on Instagram, on Reddit forums, any hair I see - there’s me examining the heck out of it to see if it’s at all broken like mine