The Ultimate Beauty Guide

If, despite your best efforts to keep your hair in prime condition, your hair is looking a little less than fabulous, the problem may be easier to remedy than you think. To see what you might inadvertently be doing to sabotage your hair, just keep reading.

You're brushing it while it's wet:

Wet hair is hair that's more elastic, and therefore can snap and break more easily. To prevent damage, use a wide-toothed comb, which is gentler on wet hair.

You're heating things up . . . too much:

Direct your blow dryer's flow across the inner part of your arm. "If you're burning your skin, you're burning your hair," explains Chaz Dean, celebrity hairstylist and founder of Wen Hair and Body Care by Chaz Dean. So to keep the heat intense enough to actually dry your hair without the singeing aftereffect, he recommends keeping the blow dryer in constant motion, and to "always blow-dry hair with a nozzle!"

You're using the wrong styling brushes:

Since metal, ceramic, or ionic brushes warm up even further when used with a blow dryer, these types of tools can also burn the hair. Dean suggests using wooden brushes with less-harsh nylon or boar bristles instead.