Hair Breakage: What Causes It and How to Prevent It

Short, wiry hairs that stick up at the crown, strands left in your hand after brushing, ends that split: hair breakage creeps in quietly and is often mistaken for hair loss. Yet the cause rarely sits at the root. It sits along the hair shaft itself, and that is genuinely good news, because you have far more influence over the stresses that snap a hair than most people assume.

Hair breakage or hair loss? How to tell them apart

With hair loss, the whole hair comes away complete with its root, recognisable as a small pale bulb at the end. With breakage, the hair snaps somewhere along its length. What is left behind is strands of uneven length, short stubble at the roots and crown, and often tiny pale points where the fibre gave way.

Typical signs of breakage:

• lots of short, wiry hairs at the top of the head that will not lie flat
• broken-off pieces of hair with no root, on the pillow or in the brush
• split ends, where the tip has divided along its length
• rough, straw-like lengths that tangle easily

The most common causes of hair breakage

A hair is built from keratin and protected on the outside by a scaly cuticle layer. When that layer lies flat, the hair slides and reflects light. Once it is roughened or damaged, the fibre core loses moisture, the hair turns brittle, and it breaks under strain. Four kinds of stress usually pile up together:

Mechanical stress. Aggressive brushing, rubbing with a rough towel, tight hair ties and severe styles all wear on the hair every day. Wet hair is especially vulnerable, because it stretches further and tears more easily.

Heat. Dryers, straighteners and curling irons damage keratin at excessively high temperatures. Without a heat protectant, the harm adds up with every use.

Chemical treatments. Bleaching, colouring and perms work by deliberately opening up the hair structure. The more often you go, and the lighter you lift, the more porous the hair becomes.

Dryness. Sun and chlorinated pool water dry out and damage hair, and many people find that central heating and salt water do the same. Dry hair loses its elasticity, and hair that cannot flex is hair that breaks.

Why the night is an underrated factor

Six to eight hours of sleep mean six to eight hours of contact between your hair and the pillow. Turn over in your sleep, and the lengths drag across the fabric again and again. Ordinary cotton is absorbent, hard-wearing and easy to wash, which is why it is so widely used for bedding, but its surface creates more friction against hair than silk, and friction is one of the stresses that can lift the cuticle over time. The result is one that plenty of people know well: morning frizz, tangled lengths, and broken hairs on the pillow.

There is a second effect on top of that. Cotton also absorbs liquid water more readily than silk, and many people find that dry hair feels drier still after a night on cotton.

Going to bed with wet hair makes both worse. Wet hair is at its most fragile, while the friction against the pillow carries on unchanged.

That habit has a guide of its own, on sleeping with wet hair. Separate guides cover frizzy hair, as well as silk bonnet benefits and silk pillowcase benefits.

Preventing breakage during the day

• Detangle gently: work from the ends up to the roots with a wide-tooth comb, never the other way round. Press wet hair dry rather than rubbing it.
• Ease off the heat: use the lowest temperature that still does the job, and a heat protectant every time. On days off, let it air-dry. For curls or waves without a hot tool, see our guide to heatless curls.
• Loosen your styles: swap tight ponytails and thin elastics for soft, fabric-covered hair ties and looser styles, especially overnight.
• Look after the ends: regular trims stop split ends travelling further up the hair, and a leave-in gives dry lengths some moisture back.

The night-time lever: a smoother surface

You cannot switch off the friction of sleep through willpower, because nobody controls how they move in the night. What you can change is the surface the hair rests against.

A silk pillowcase has a far smoother surface than a cotton weave. With less friction against each strand, there is less of the rubbing that can lift the cuticle, and the nightly wear eases across the very hours sleep puts out of your hands. A tight silk weave also absorbs liquid water less readily than cotton. What makes a weave dense, and what the momme weight figure means, is something we cover in our guide to mulberry silk.

That is the specification RENESSY builds its silk pillowcases to: densely woven 22-momme organic mulberry silk, with GOTS certifying the organic fibre, the OEKO-TEX MADE IN GREEN label covering production, and a Dermatest certificate for skin compatibility, sensitive skin included.

A silk bonnet is a useful addition for the night. It wraps the hair completely and holds curls, long hair and protective styles in shape overnight. Add a loosely woven braid, under the bonnet or on the silk pillowcase, to keep the lengths together without pulling on them.

Realistic expectations

Honesty belongs here. A split or snapped strand cannot be restored: care products can only hold a split together or smooth it down for a while, and the lasting fix is to cut it off. A silk pillowcase does not heal damaged hair. It reduces one of the causes that keep damaging it, namely the friction at night, while the other levers stay just as important: heat, colour and handling.

If your hair keeps breaking badly and persistently despite gentler care, it is worth looking at other possible causes, from diet to underlying health. When in doubt, a doctor will answer that better than any guide.

Frequently asked questions about hair breakage

How long does it take for hair breakage to improve?

Hair grows roughly one centimetre a month. With consistently gentler handling, many people register fewer fresh breaks within a few weeks, though longer, more even hair only shows after months, once the damaged ends have been trimmed away.

Does a silk pillowcase help with split ends too?

Split ends come from the same stresses as breakage, above all friction and dryness. Less friction at night removes one of the causes, but it replaces neither trimming the split tips nor looking after the lengths.

What hairstyle should I sleep in?

A loosely woven braid held with a soft, fabric-covered tie keeps the lengths together without pulling on the roots. Tight buns and thin elastics do not belong in bed.

How you wash your silk also shapes how gently it treats your hair. For every step, see our guide on how to wash silk.