Experts Warn About ‘Hair Straightening Addiction’

Women (and, as of late, men) with straight hair dream of curls, and those with curls want it to be straight. The latter may be experience more problems with constant use of hair straighteners than they could have imagined, experts warn.

It’s common sense to see that straighteners are not good for the hair if used over long periods of time with regularity.

The high temperatures at which these function and repeated use (some women use them daily), damage the hair profoundly and can cause breakage and even hair loss.

Even so, an increasing number of women and men would rather go without other essentials than without hair straighteners, a new piece in the Daily Mail informs.

One third of British women owns a hair straightener and, somewhat surprisingly, so does one in five men. It’s catching on really fast.

As expected, experts are concerned, ringing the alarm on how damaging the practice of straightening hair on a daily basis can be.

“I regularly see women panicking because their hair has apparently started to fall out. But in fact, their hair is just breaking off due to their straightener addiction,” consultant Trichologist Iain Sallis from HairMedic tells the Mail.

Improvements brought to straighteners have made them more popular with women, to the effect that, now, there’s hardly a household without one.

“Straighteners are easy to use, so women become reliant on them. But too much heat and inadequate protection makes hair dry and frizzy,” Sallis explains.

As soon as the hair becomes frizzy from the heat, one tries to make it smooth again by straightening even more and perhaps even increasing the temperature, thus damaging it even more.

“Women control this new ‘frizz’ by straightening the hair even more, which dries and damages it further, causing yet more frizzing, which requires more straightening and so on. Surprisingly, my patients often do not link the increase in frizz with the use of straighteners, even when their hair starts to break off,” Sallis says.

Using products that claim to protect the hair from increased temperature doesn’t necessarily help. The best solution to prevent serious damage is to invest in a quality straightener, keep the temperature below 180 degrees and try not to use it too often.