What causes weak hair roots?
Weak hair roots can be caused by a number of factors relating to both your lifestyle and your haircare routine. Common factors that contribute to weakened hair roots include:
- Lack of vitamins and poor diet
- General hair damage
- Heat styling damage
- Color damage
- Sun damage
- Hair friction (aka, towel drying your hair vigorously)
What happens if I have weak hair roots?
Weak hair roots can lead to a variety of hair problems. Most commonly, you might notice easier hair breakage, which can lead to progressive hair loss and hair thinning over time. Weak hair roots can also lead to easier hair damage, leading to brittle and dry hair. But if you have weak hair roots, there are a number of steps you can take to strengthen them and your hair.
How to strengthen weak hair roots
To keep your roots healthy and strong, we’d recommend the following tips and products:
Use products with aloe vera
Aloe vera is something of a magic ingredient when it comes to hair care. Enriched with vitamins, aloe vera helps to nourish the hair roots as well as the hair itself and can help strengthen roots while balancing and soothing the scalp. We’d recommend Grown Alchemist’s Strengthening Conditioner, which uses aloe vera and Panax ginseng to nourish and repair the hair while leaving it silky-soft and shiny.
Strenghtening Conditioner
Don’t dry your hair when it’s soaking wet
While it might feel natural to dry your hair as soon as you get out of the shower, it’s not a great idea for your hair. When there’s still water in your hair, applying direct heat can cause the water to expand and break up the hair’s natural fibers, leading to hair breakage and weakened hair strands. We’d recommend waiting around 30-50 minutes after your shower to dry your hair, and drying it on a low setting where possible, and don’t forget to use a heat protection product. Our current favourite is Olaplex’s No. 9 Nourishing Hair Serum, which smoothes hair, and protects it from external damage (such as pollution) while protecting it from heat damage up to 232C.
Olaplex Bond Protector Nourishing Hair Serum No 9
Keep your scalp healthy
Keeping your scalp in good condition will strengthen your roots, nourish weakened hair and help you maintain full, healthy locks. If your scalp isn’t nourished and balanced, weak roots can We’d advise using a scalp mask or a scalp scrub once a week to invigorate and balance the scalp, followed up with a hydrating and nourishing hair mask. For a strengthening hair mask, we’d recommend Kerastase’s Genesis Masque Reconsituant, an anti-breakage mask perfect for nourishing weak hair and fortifying your roots.
Kerastase Genesis Masque Reconstituant
Minimize heat damage
As heat can damage the hair and contribute to weakened roots, we’d advise you to limit the number of heat styling tools you use on a daily (or even weekly!) basis. Instead, opt for styling serums and creams, and limit your hot styling tools for special occasions.
Limit hair washing and hot water
Overwashing your hair can damage the strength of your roots, as many shampoos strip the scalp of its essential natural oils and moisture. Instead of washing your hair every day, we’d recommend washing your hair just 1-2 times a week. It’s also a good idea to turn down the heat when you’re in the shower - using extremely hot water to rinse your hair can contribute to hair breakage, hair brittleness, and hair loss.