Updated July 2022 By Dr Jonathan Palmer

Severe Hair Breakage

What causes severe hair damage?

Catastrophic or severe hair breakage can occur for one or many specific reasons, many of which can be avoided or at least minimised with only a few changes to your hair routine.

The leading cause of severe hair breakage is high hair porosity (meaning your hair has lots of holes and cracks inside its cortex), typically preceded by the loss of your hair’s protective cuticle layer.  

Weaker high porosity hair is more likely to snap, break, and frizz at the ends especially when physically pulled about and stressed.

Where does severe hair damage occur?

Severe hair breakage and split ends commonly occur at the ends of your hair, but breakage can also occur away from the hair fibres end. This type of hair snapping is called mid-fibre breakage. Unfortunately, mid-fibre hair breakage can lead to a reduction in hair length in most cases.

Mid-fibre breakage is more often noticed when physically manipulating your hair, brushing, combing, and showering. 

How to know if you have severe hair breakage

Depending on your hair length, you may discover comparatively short hair fibres that have broken off compared to your hair's total length; importantly, these will lack root at one end. If this is the case, you may be suffering from severe hair breakage if you find many such fibres.

Finding the root bulb can be visually challenging if one is present on your hair fibres. The root is relatively tiny, after all. There is another perhaps more straightforward way to test for the hair root, and that is to feel for it.

How to find your hair’s root using your fingers (feeling the root bulb directly)

Pull one hair fibre at a time through your fingers (between your thumb and index finger), paying particular attention to how the fibre feels when the end of fibre passes between your fingers. If you feel a slight bump at the end of the fibre, then you have found the root bulb.

Feeling for your root bulb can take a little practice, but feeling for the root bulb on your hair whilst visually checking is an excellent way of checking for hair breakage at home, doubling the chances of assessing your hair correctly.

Get Expert Hair Analysis and Help

If you have concerns about severe breakage, high porosity, or other matters, please consider one of your hair analyse below or contact the HairKnowHow Team for help. We will work to diagnose the cause of your hair woes and set your mind at ease and recommend any specific treatments you may need.

Contact the HairKnowHow Team if you have any questions.