Whether you’ve got long, flowing, flaxen locks or a sporty brunette bob, you run a real risk of damaging your hair every day – but how serious, and how permanent, is the daily damage we do?

When we talk about damaged hair, we mean hair that has a flat, lifeless, or unnaturally frizzy appearance. Hair can be damaged by any number of things: sun damage, artificial coloring, curling, blow drying, excessive brushing, chlorine from swimming pools, and even the wrong shampoo or conditioner. But again, how serious, and how permanent, is this damage?

Luckily, most of what we do to our hair will be un-done, naturally, in a matter of weeks if we stop the damaging behavior. If your shampoo is flattening your do, you’ll notice your hair bounce back to life a few weeks after you’ve switched shampoos. Similarly, if you’ve been swimming in a pool and lying out in the sun all summer, your hair will probably perk back up sometime in October or November.

Nevertheless, as the saying goes: hair today, gone tomorrow, so let’s look at the difference between temporary and permanent hair damage, and what to do about it.

Temporary Hair Loss and Damage

Temporary hair damage and hair loss are most often the result of equally temporary health or lifestyle issues. As we already mentioned, your cracked, frizzy, or dull hair is probably a result of something you’re doing, or a product you’re using.

In the summer, this might mean that the protein in your hair is being damaged by repeated exposure to chlorine, bleaching agents, and sunlight. In the winter, your hair might be suffering from stress breaks after being shoved into a hat day in and day out.

Some other factors can affect your hair no matter what the time of year. Stress can make your hair fall out (and may cause you to quite literally tear it out!), as can some medications, particularly chemotherapy. These call for serious medical attention or lifestyle changes, and if your hair is falling out (beyond a few strands left behind in the shower drain), you should see a doctor.

However, hair will grow back so long as the hair follicle is still healthy and the hair shaft is not obstructed. Your hair should grow back at roughly its normal rate, giving you a second chance to practice healthy hair care.

There are also a number of treatments for damaged hair – products that claim to restore body, reduce frizz, you name it. Interestingly, a study entitled “Effect of mineral oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil on prevention of hair damage,” published in the Journal of Cosmetic Science, suggests that coconut oil can help stave off protein loss for damaged hair as well as undamaged hair. That’s food for thought!

Permanent Hair Loss and Damage

For the most part, damage to your hair is by nature temporary since even the worst split ends can be cut off and will grow back. Of course, as we age it might grow back gray but it nevertheless grows back.

Obviously, heredity is a big factor in permanent hair loss – if baldness runs in the family, there’s probably a pretty good chance that you’ll lose your hair, too.

Some infectious diseases and disorders, however, may cause permanent hair loss. These include ringworm of the scalp, genetic diseases like lupus, and hormonal imbalances, especially in the thyroid. While in the case of infectious disease you can always try to avoid exposure, there’s no quick or easy fix for any of these issues, and they require medical attention to treat.

Treatments are successful to varying degrees, and some are rather controversial. Hormone therapy may work for some people suffering from hormonal imbalances and for post-menopausal women. Hair transplants are increasingly common, but can be expensive.

So for all this doom and gloom about permanent hair loss, we’re happy to tell you that we’ve found one hair-destroying behavior that you can control completely.

Traction Alopecia

Hair loss resulting from stress placed upon the scalp, like that caused by wearing very tight hairstyles, is called “traction alopecia,” and is usually a preventable form of hair loss and damage.

It turns out that repeatedly pulling your hair beyond its normal stress limit damages not only the growing hair, but the hair follicle itself. This can be caused by hair pulling disorders (a serious psychological problem), but more often it’s caused by over-tight ponytail or cornrow hair styles.

Proceed to Stop Receding

When it comes to hair care, its good news / bad news.

The good news is that visible damage to your hair is often temporary, and caused by chemical or heat damage and physical stress (like brushing when wet or brushing too much or too hard).

One of the easiest preventable permanent hair loss risk factor to control is the tightness of your hair style. Virtually every other form of damage to the hair itself will grow out or grow back as long as the scalp and follicles underneath the hair are healthy. If you damage the follicle by pulling on it too hard, and for too long, the hair may not grow back.

The bad news is that for some of us, hair loss is practically inevitable. Genetics is the single biggest contributor to hair retention, and while communicable diseases like ringworm can certainly cause hair loss, they make up a relatively small percentage of total permanent hair loss cases. For most of us, our number is up when our genes say so.

So loosen the bun and ditch the corn rows. You may think it’s a cute look now, but in the long run, your hair will thank you for backing off the rubber bands!