Key ingredients: sesame seed oil, jojoba seed oil, sunflower seed oil, coconut oil, macadamia seed oil, kukui nut oil
Best for Frizz: Color Wow Dream Coat Supernatural Spray
Why it’s worth it: When frizzy hair reaches all-time highs, Velez suggests spritzing your hair with the Color Wow Dream Coat Supernatural Spray. “It’s a great frizz and heat protectant that gives you that shiny hold and mends the ends together for a seamless blowout finish,” she says. This long-lasting spray deserves a spot in your hair-care routine for its ability to protect against heat of up to 380°F, diminish frizz, and create an ultra-glossy barrier against humidity and rain for up to three washes post-application.
Key ingredients: hydrolyzed silk, hydrolyzed keratin, cross-linking copolymers
Frequently Asked Questions
What causes hair breakage?
Here’s the hard truth: almost everything you do to your hair can cause some degree of damage. That said, one of the biggest culprits behind hair breakage is chemical treatments—think bleach, relaxers, and dyes. “Overly processed hair causes the probability of breakage to increase exponentially,” says Toronto-based board-certified dermatologist Geeta Yadav, MD. Harsh chemicals found in these treatments can break down the bonds along your hair shaft, making strands weaker and more prone to breakage.
If your curling iron, flatiron, or blow-dryer is a daily staple, we hate to break it to you—these heat-styling tools are major contributors to hair breakage as well. “Daily heat styling can be damaging to the hair and scalp and using heat styling tools such as flat irons and curling irons too frequently can lead to dryness, breakage, and split ends,” Whitney Tolpinrud, MD, a board-certified dermatologist based in San Diego, California previously told Allure. She explained that heat opens up the hair cuticle, causing moisture loss and increasing the risk of breakage, frizz, and split ends.
Depending on your hair type, your hair can simply be prone to breakage. “Breakage is a huge problem, especially for those with curlier, coarser hair textures due to the lack of ability for the oil produced by the scalp to extend the full length of the curly hair shaft,” says Birmingham, Alabama-based board-certified dermatologist Corey L. Hartman, MD, FAAD. Dr. Yadav adds that those with gray or aging hair can also be prone to breakage mainly due to age-related thinning. “Aging hair, especially gray and white hair, tends to be coarser and resists moisture absorption,” she says. “It has also lost elasticity, making it ripe for breakage.”
How can I prevent hair breakage?
Your plan for preventing hair breakage depends on the cause of the situation. If you’re dealing with chemical damage, James Corbett, colorist and owner of James Corbett Studio in New York City, previously told Allure to ditch the box dye and find a professional colorist who will respect the integrity of your hair. “Some things that make a difference are proper use of color chemicals, not using too strong of a developer for the texture, and avoiding unnecessary overlap of color or bleach on previously colored hair. I often do a conditioning treatment instead of a gloss, because gloss still has peroxide in it,” he said. For color maintenance at home, stick to products that are safe for color-treated hair and don’t contain stripping ingredients like sulfates.
