Have you ever wondered why your hair doesn’t seem to flourish the way you think it should? The ends are always dry or it’s thinning, despite your best efforts at hair care. Although it sometimes seems we’re doing everything we can to take good care of our hair, that’s not always the case.

It’s easy to harm our hair without realizing it, which may be why you’re not seeing as much growth or shine. These 10 things you might do with your hair negatively impair its health, so if you do any of them, stop and see if the health of your hair doesn’t improve.

Too Much Heat

The tools that make our lives so much easier are also quick damage our hair when misused. Try gentler methods for providing curl and volume to your tresses, such as wrapping at night. The occasional pass with a thermal styling tool should be safe, but use a barrier between a hot iron and your hair.

Bleaching

We should reserve bleaching for clothes. With Black hair, you need to ask yourself if you want healthy locks or to be a platinum blonde, because you can’t have both. Natural hair can sometimes withstand this extreme lightning, but not without heavy and frequent conditioning. If you wear yours relaxed, choose another color; preferably one that doesn’t lift your natural shade over three levels.

Stripping Relaxers

If you use mayonnaise to strip a relaxer from your hair, you’re not doing permanent damage, but you’re not doing anything else either. But if you use detergents, harsh shampoos, or products that promise to strip chemicals, you’re harming your hair. Relaxers are permanent. So save your vinegar, coconut milk, and detergent. Either practice patience or just cut it off.

Using the Wrong Products

It’s an issue that’s slowly changing, but not fast enough. Many of the products sold aren’t even good for Black hair. Leave these brands altogether and expand your shopping horizons. Brands like Skin Gourmet, Nokware, and Shea Moisture work with all hair textures. Your health food store is also a great place to shop. There’s no need to use cheap, poorly made products that don’t benefit your mane.

Shampooing Too Often

Daily shampooing isn’t ideal for any hair texture, but it’s even worse on Black hair. Even if you shampoo the recommended once or twice a week, make sure you’re using gentle cleansers.

Not Shampooing Often Enough

Unless you walk around wearing a hat all day long, your hair is subject to dust, dirty air, grime, and pollution. While you shouldn’t wash Black hair every day, it needs to see some water more often than not.

Not shampooing and letting dirt build-up will not grow your hair. At least once a week is a good schedule to follow for shampooing but consider your lifestyle, too.

Pulling Hair Tight

A hairstyle shouldn’t hurt, and if yours does, or causes tiny bumps to develop at your hairline, it’s too tight. Too many people have painful hairdos that aren’t necessary. Braids are a wonderful low-maintenance, protective ‘do when done correctly. When they’re done incorrectly, they can be a fast track to sparse hairlines and permanent hair loss.

Overprocessing

By now, you probably know not to apply relaxer to previously processed hair, but with so many people applying chemicals at home, it’s still easy to make this mistake. Add permanent color to straightened hair and you often have a recipe for maximum breakage.

Rough Handling

All hair gets tangled at some point, but it’s how you handle it that determines whether you keep your hair or whether you pull it out. Instead of yanking at knots, work through them with your fingers first, and then with a wide-tooth comb. If you’re in a hurry, save your untangling for when you’re not, it’s when we’re in a rush that we most often pull roughly, instead of working through gently.

Holding on to Split Ends

Ladies who are trying to grow longer locks often have a hard time with this one, but cutting away split ends is essential for healthy hair. Would you rather have a lengthy mane with thin, see-through sections where it’s broken off? Or would you rather start shorter, but with strong, thick locks? Unfortunately, some people choose the first option and walk around with blatantly unhealthy hair.