Bad hair days tend to happen at the worst possible moment. No matter how hard you try, you just can’t get your locks to assume their normal handsome-as-all-hell form. But why? Here, a half dozen reasons you might not have thought of as to why your hair just doesn’t want to cooperate today.
1. You Messed With It When It Was Wet
Fond of a good towel dry? Find combing wet hair more enjoyable than styling when it’s dry? While these might seem like mundane enough undertakings, they may be actively sabotaging your ‘do. Because hair is at its most fragile when it’s wet, seemingly-harmless tasks like these (which stretch, pull, and bring undue stress) put hair at increased risk of frizz and breakage, while at the same time adding static electricity, which will make styling way harder down the line.
2. You’ve Been Washing Your Hair Too Damn Much
At risk of sounding like a broken record, we’re going to say it again: You really shouldn’t be washing your hair every morning. Doing so will strip strands of essential nutrients that they need to look their best, making your locks way more susceptible to having an off day. Instead, cut back to shampooing 2-3 times a week. This will allow your mane to maintain a healthy level of natural oil, without building up too much grease. Strike that balance, and fight back bad hair days for good.
3. Or You Showered With Water That’s Way Too Hot
Who doesn’t love a hot shower in the morning? Seriously, they’re the best. The trouble is, that steaming hot water has a way of sapping hair of necessary moisture. Meaning that, even though that near-blistering heat may feel amazing, it’s actually adding to that unfortunate frizzy situation atop your head. So, does that mean you’re relegated to cold showers from here on out? Not a chance; a certain shower trick will ensure you have your cake and eat it too.
4. You’re Not Accounting for Mother Nature
If there’s one thing that guys often overlook when it comes to styling, it’s that hair is particularly susceptible to changes in the weather. Seriously. If you think that the same product you use during the winter will work exactly the same on a rainy day in April, then you’re sorely mistaken, friend. The most important factor you want to pay attention to: humidity. The higher it is, the more you should think about using a wax-based product, which will be better at keeping its regardless of how much moisture is in the air.
5. Your Diet’s Out of Whack
In the past, we’ve talked about all the good that protein and Omega-3s can do to your skin. But the benefits of solid nutrition don’t end at the epidermis. No, eating well can also have great results for your hair, keeping it fresh and shiny without you having to do any work. On the other side of the coin, though, cramming your body full of junk can quickly show in your locks, leaving hair greasy, dull and lifeless. And trust us, that kind of hair is a pain in the ass to style.
6. Stress Is Getting the Better of You
You know how they can tell if you’ve done certain drugs based on your hair follicles? They can actually do the same for excess stress, except in this case, instead of finding cocaine in your hair, scientists would find cortisol, the hormone produced when your body’s under stress. You might be thinking, “What does that have to do with my bad hair day?” Well as it turns out, these elevated cortisol levels can actually cause hair to appear dry and brittle, as well as perhaps making it thin before it’s supposed to. So chill out.
Or try to, at least.