How to Fix Damaged Hair: The Ultimate Hair Repair Guide
If your hair is feeling more like straw than silk, you’re not alone. Damaged hair is one of the most common concerns we see in the salon, caused by a cocktail of chemical treatments, relentless heat styling, and environmental stressors that leave strands weak and brittle.
But here is the good news: you don't necessarily have to chop it all off. With the right science-backed hair care, you can bring compromised hair back from the brink. Redken’s Acidic Bonding Concentrate collection (ABC) system is recommended by pros to repair weakened bonds, rebalance your hair’s pH, and restore both strength and moisture.
Read on to discover the root causes of hair damage, how to spot the warning signs, and the ultimate step-by-step routine to achieve healthier, stronger hair.
Common Causes of Hair Damage
Understanding what causes hair damage is the first step to fixing it. Before you can repair the hair fibre, you need to identify the culprit. The most common causes include:
- Chemical Treatments: Colouring, bleaching, perms, and chemical relaxers actively break down the hair structure and weaken internal bonds to alter your hair's appearance.
- Heat Styling: Frequent use of flat irons, curling wands, and blow dryers at high temperatures aggressively strips moisture and damages the protein bonds within the hair shaft.
- Environmental Stressors: Harsh Australian sun exposure, pollution, chlorine, and hard water strip away natural moisture and roughen the hair cuticle.
- Mechanical Damage: Rough brushing, aggressive towel drying, and wearing tight hairstyles put physical stress on the hair, leading to breakage and split ends.
- Inadequate Care: Using harsh, stripping shampoos, skipping conditioning treatments, or neglecting heat protectants leaves your hair dry, exposed, and highly vulnerable.
Signs of Damaged Hair
Not sure if your hair is just a little dry or genuinely damaged? Recognise the signs early so you can take action and prevent further deterioration:
- Dryness and Brittleness: Your hair feels coarse, lacks softness, and snaps easily when brushed.
- Split Ends: The ends of your hair strands appear frayed, white, or split into two or more parts.
- Frizz and Rough Texture: The hair cuticle is raised, making the hair difficult to manage, dull, and lacking smoothness.
- Excessive Breakage: You notice shorter, broken hairs around your hairline or find an excessive amount of snapped strands on your clothes and in your brush.
- Loss of Shine: Hair appears lacklustre and dull because a damaged, raised cuticle cannot reflect light.
- High Porosity: Your hair absorbs water instantly in the shower but dries incredibly fast, often feeling hollow, gummy, or weak when wet.
How to Repair Damaged Hair: A Step-by-Step Routine
Repairing damaged hair requires a consistent, prescriptive routine focused on rebuilding hair bonds, restoring moisture, and protecting strands from further harm. Here is how to fix damaged hair using Redken's pro-approved regimen.
Step 1: Pre-Treat with Intensive Bond Repair
Begin your regimen 1-2 times a week with Redken’s ABC Intensive Treatment. This concentrated pre-shampoo formula penetrates deeply into the hair fibre to repair broken bonds and prepare the hair for cleansing and conditioning.
