Stop Ruining Your Hair, For Good

Hair grows. At least that's what we tell ourselves after bleaching, styling, and brushing it to death. But, sometimes, hair doesn't just grow back in the way we want it to. No matter how many hydrating avocado hair masks we whip up, our hair damage lingers — as if it's growing in already damaged. And, combined with the external damage, our hair is not very pleased with us. So, we had to take a hard look at our lives and ask ourselves: Are we accidentally sabotaging our locks?

The answer, most likely, is yes. According to Elizabeth Cunnane Phillips, a trichologist at the New York Philip Kingsley Trichological Clinic, women are trained to think about our hair externally. "We're not conditioned to think about it as being a barometer of our health," she says. But, as experience has taught her, that's exactly what it is. Turns out, it's not just our flat irons and platinum that's causing our tress distress (though that's definitely not helping).

So, what is making our locks thin and lose their luster? We talked to a handful of experts to figure it out. From our breakfast routines to our ponytails, our worst hair habits are things we didn't even realize were destructive. Click through to check out the surprising things we're doing to destroy our hair — from inside to outside.