In a dream world, our hair is shiny and lush, frizz-free and unencumbered by frayed ends. But the cruel truth is that making hair look healthy often involves just the things that damage it, starting with the water coming out of your shower. Add combs, brushes, blow-dryers, and hot irons and you may be headed toward a tangled mess. We consulted our handy cosmetic chemist, Javon Ford, to guide us through the misinformation and toward shiny, shampoo-ad hair.
Shower filters are being marketed as beauty products, promising to remove particles that allegedly irritate your scalp and turn hair dull and fragile. Some manufacturers even claim that their showerheads can reduce hair loss. All it takes is about $150 and regular replacement filters.
The problem is, shower filters don’t remove hard-water buildup; the only way to do that through a filter is by reverse osmosis. And that requires a complete water-softening system that can cost $4,000 or more.
The shower filters you see all over Instagram remove excess metals such as magnesium to make your hair and skin softer, but they’re not removing the calcium ions in hard water that actually cause your hair to get brittle and your skin to become dry. They help, but, at the end of the day, they’re not capable of removing everything. Unfortunately, it’s just not that simple.
There are many ways for the hair to break. You have chemical treatments like bleach, perms, and relaxers. You have heat treatments such as blow-dryers, hot irons, hot brushes—anything above 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which is usually the low setting on these devices. Even the Dyson isn’t perfect; once your hair is subjected to high temperatures, there’s no guarantee that you’ll escape harm.
If you look at the asterisked disclaimers from these brands, they’ll often say that only the low settings offer little or no heat damage.
The hot brushes also introduce mechanical stress by pulling on the hair, and that can break it, too. But I don’t think that’s any different than going to a salon and getting your hair blown out with a round brush. It’s still creating potential damage by physically ripping the cuticle.
If you want to keep your hair from breaking, let it air-dry most of the way, then apply a heat-protectant spray and blow-dry it slowly, section by section, without pulling or yanking. Any type of manipulation—even brushing—can slowly unravel the ends.
Javon Ford is a Los Angeles–based cosmetic chemist. He posts highly informative reviews on TikTok and @instagram/javonford16
