Is hair damage the root of our styling problems?

Here’s how to tell if your hair is damaged and the tools that will help you have great hair days every day without leaving locks flat and frizzy in the process.

Is your hair dull, frizzy, weak or impossible to style? It’s likely your issues lie with hair damage. Here’s how to tell if damage is causing your problems, how it impacts your hair and the tools you need in your arsenal to minimise reliance on heat for styling.

How damage impacts your hair

If you’ve been dyeing your hair for years, backcombing for volume or going heavy on your hair with extremely hot tools, it’s likely you’ve done some damage to your hair. So what is hair damage? Your hair is made up of a cortex, which gives hair strength, elasticity, colour and cuticle, which protects from mechanical and chemical damage. The cuticle protects the cortex and reflects light to give your hair its natural shine.

If your hair is dull and has lost this shine, it could be because your cuticle has been harmed. If you have damage to the cortex, it could snap. So if you have impaired the cuticle and cortex, what is the result? A range of styling troubles, from faster colour fade to hair that can’t hold a style for long, or that can be brittle, dull, frizzy and prone to split ends and breakage.

How to tell if your hair is damaged

So, what causes damage? The experts at Dyson have tested 2,148 miles of hair, and say the causes of hair damage come down to five causes: extreme heat, chemical treatments, mechanical damage, UV rays and chlorine and salt from swimming.

Unsure if your hair is damaged? Here’s how you can tell:

First and foremost, Do you find your hair is dull and has lost its shine? This could be a sign of damage. Want further proof? There are two simple tests you can do at home to check your hair’s health:

1. The Elasticity Test: How elastic is your hair? When you pull a single strand of hair – does it snap easily?
2. The Porosity Test: Put a drop of water on a section of your hair – does it absorb quickly into the strands?

If you answered yes to these questions, your hair could be showing signs of damage. Damaged hair can be more brittle, breaking easier and having less shine. It can even impact style and colour retention.

How Dyson can help prevent hair damage

Dyson has been researching the science of hair for almost a decade, investing over £100m into hair laboratories across the globe and employing thousands of hair scientists, engineers and professionals who have studied everything there is to know about hair.

They decided to look at one cause of damage in particular – heat. Many of us use extreme heat daily to achieve our desired styles.

Dyson’s research into hair has resulted in a range of hair tools that have reinvented how we can style our hair, reducing our reliance on heat to get the desired style.

Dyson Corrale

According to Dyson, the key to straight hair is a combination of heat, tension and control. Standard straighteners have fixed plates, which can lead to heat and tension being applied unevenly on the hair. This can mean having to go over each section multiple times. Continuous exposure to extreme heat means the hair can collect damage over time, leading to all the problems we spoke about above.

Dyson looked at this issue and developed flexing copper plates for the Dyson Corrale, which shape and gather the hair, applying tension to all strands with one pass, meaning enhanced styling while reducing damage to your hair by 50%*. Each plate is 65 microns – the width of a human hair – and tourmaline edged to help reduce static. The Corrale has three heat settings – 165°C, 185°C and 210°C – which you can tailor to suit your hair type and style. Thanks to the increased control provided by the flexing plates, you can now achieve your style with less reliance on heat.

Plus, the Dyson Corrale straightener features Intelligent Heat Control technology so the temperature is measured 100 times a second, making it the perfect tool for those not willing to part with straighteners but still concerned about damage.

Dyson Airwrap

In order to create the Airwrap, Dyson engineers researched styling technologies to see what they could improve. Aside from damage, what would your biggest gripe with curling your hair be? For me, it’s the difficulty of actually doing it.

With the Airwrap, you can style with air, not extreme heat. This is because of an aerodynamic phenomenon called the Coanda effect. It curves air to attract and wrap hair to the barrels and brushes of the Airwrap, allowing you to curl, wave or smooth your hair, all in one tool. And because the hair just attaches to the barrels, it can make curling your hair practically foolproof!

Like the Corrale, the Dyson Airwrap comes with same Intelligent Heat Control and measures the temperature of your hair up to 40 times a second so your hair is never exposed to extreme heat. Best of all, you style from the get-go with wet hair, saving you time. The Dyson Airwrap styler comes with specific attachments, designed with different hair types and desired looks in mind – to curl, wave, smooth and dry, all without the risk of hair damage from extreme heat.

Dyson Supersonic

You may not know this, but some conventional hairdryers can reach extreme temperatures of +150 degrees. As Dyson have proven, excessive heat isn’t the only answer to hair styling. The Dyson Supersonic creates a focused jet of air that gives controlled, precise drying and styling, while Intelligent Heat Control measures the temperature 40 times a second to make sure your hair is never exposed to excessive temperatures.

The Supersonic’s attachments include a Gentle air dryer that’s engineered for fast yet gentle styling for fine hair and sensitive scalps, whilst helping to prevent colour fade from extreme heat.

*Thermal damage measured by hair strength, when creating an equivalent hair style. Tested on flexing plates vs solid plates.

Photography by Dyson.

The new Dyson Airwrap styling attachments are available from Dyson.ie. Visit now to see the exclusive colours and benefits you can get when you buy direct from Dyson.