6 Professional Tips on How to Repair Damaged Hair

Your hair is one of your most fabulous accessories. Between endless styles and colors, creating new looks is easy and fun. That said, you must care for your hair if you want long and gorgeous locks. Damaged hair is harder to manage, lacks shine and luster, and breaks faster. The good news is that you can learn how to repair damaged hair, but it requires patience and consistency.

Understanding Damage

Knowing how to fix damaged hair begins with understanding damage and what causes it. There are several main sources of damage that many people contend with on a regular basis:

• The heat from styling tools
• Environmental damage from dirt, sun, and chlorine
• Chemical damage from color treatments

This isn’t to say that you should never style or dye your hair, but to prevent damage, you should do so with care and in moderation. For example, leave color treatments to a professional - especially if you must lighten your hair first!

Know the Signs

The best thing you can do is to catch damage early. The sooner you start the healing process, the better, and you can take steps to prevent more damage. There are many tell-tale signs of damaged hair that you should watch for:

• Dry and brittle. If your hair always feels dry no matter what you do, this is a sign of damage to the cuticle layer of your hair.
• More shedding than usual. Everyone loses a few hairs here and there. It’s natural. If you notice your hair is shedding more often and in larger chunks, though, this is a sign of damage and weakness.
• Tangles easily. Because it’s dry and weak, damaged hair will snag and become knotted faster and easier.
• Dull and lifeless. Once damaged, hair will lose its shine and bounce and will appear heavy and dull.
• More split ends. Damaged hair will break and split much faster than healthy hair, so you may notice more noticeable, or numerous split ends.

If any of these things describe your hair right now, don’t panic. You can deal with damage and discover how to repair damaged hair effectively right at home.
Get started with these tips to repair damaged hair:

1. Use Shampoo and Conditioner Formulated for Damaged Hair

The beautiful thing about shampoo and conditioner is that there’s a formula for every need and hair goal out there. Damaged hair is no different, and using products for healing and repair is one of the best things you can do.

L’ANZA’s Healing Strength Collection features a shampoo and conditioner set that’s perfectly designed to heal your hurting hair.

The shampoo features white tea. This is an antioxidant that helps eliminate free radicals, strengthen weak hair, and restore fiber integrity. This results in stronger, shinier, and healthier locks.

The conditioner complements the shampoo with manuka honey. Manuka honey is a powerful ingredient that works to fortify every single strand to increase both strength and elasticity. Your hair is stronger and healthier with each wash.

For a daily conditioning treatment, you can also use the Keratin Healing Oil Lustrous Conditioner. This luxurious daily treatment features restorative ingredients that replenish moisture and build strength for touchably soft, smooth hair.

2. Wash with Lukewarm Water

While the right shampoo and conditioner are a great first step when discovering how to repair damaged hair, you must fully commit if you want optimal results. We all love a nice, hot shower, but sometimes your hair should be the priority.

Hot water strips your hair of its essential oils, which dries it out even more. By using lukewarm or even cold water, your hair retains more of its oils. This not only helps your hair regain its strength but it prevents further damage.

3. Use a Healing Hair Mask

Never underestimate the wonders that a healing mask can work on your hair. Like shampoo and conditioner, hair masks are good for a wide variety of purposes. This includes hydrating, boosting shine, strengthening, and even repairing the damage.

L’ANZA’s Keratin Healing Oil Intensive Hair Masque is a great choice as it's designed with healing in mind. It contains Resveratrol which is a powerful antioxidant. It's known for healing damaged hair and restoring essential lipids.

It also contains keratin protein to rebuild the inner layers of your hair, adding body and bounce.

4. Get Regular Trims

It’s generally recommended that everyone get regular trims, but this is even more crucial when you’re trying to repair damaged hair. A trim usually cuts off an inch or less of hair, effectively eliminating your split ends.

This is important because if left alone, split ends travel. This splits the hair further and further up until it breaks off. Not only is this bad for your hair, but it doesn’t look nice.

By maintaining small, frequent trims, your hair stays strong and healthy, and you eliminate dry, brittle ends that are beyond repair. This restores shine, bounce, and life to your locks while protecting against further damage.

5. Use Leave-in Treatments

Leave-in treatments like a serum or leave-in conditioner are the perfect finishing touch to your hair repair regimen. A good leave-in treatment hydrates and strengthens hair throughout the day without being heavy or greasy.

L’ANZA’s Healing Strength Collection features the Neem Plant Silk Serum, which is perfect for healing damaged hair. It offers a weightless formula that leaves hair silky smooth with no grease. It fortifies and strengthens even the weakest strands. It also contains ingredients to protect hair from heat and UV rays.

Serums are great for restoring shine and softness, while leave-in conditioners offer the most intensive treatment. L’ANZA’s Healing Colorcare Trauma Treatment is perfect for damaged hair, especially when caused by color treatment.

The potent treatment contains an extra deep healing formula, along with amino acids and ceramide, to preserve and maintain your color.

6. Repair and Seal Your Bonds

If you color your hair regularly, this is a must. Most of the time, lightening the hair is necessary before applying color. This process requires the structural bonds of your hair to loosen for the lightener to be effective. Once your strands are compromised in this way, they immediately become more vulnerable to dryness, breakage, and damage.

Look into bond-repairing products and treatments to add to your haircare routine. These will treat your hair on a molecular level, rebuilding the broken bonds and restoring strength and integrity to the hair shaft. You’ll soon have shinier, smoother, and softer hair.

Don't Let Damage Stress You Out

Dealing with damaged hair can be frustrating and disheartening, especially if nothing seems to work. It’s crucial that you use the right products, and you often need to do a few things at once to see results. The ultimate key here is consistency. Whether it’s specific products, regular masks, treatments, or maintenance, you must always stay on top of it.

These tips to repair damaged hair are a great place to start and should have you seeing results soon. Go for your trims on a regular schedule, and plan ahead to do hair masks weekly. Gather your products, work to prevent future damage, and you’ll enjoy shiny, bouncy, lively locks again in no time!