Pulling your hair into a good elastic could cause breakage on the strands themselves, particularly the place the elastic is secured. While that is worrisome, dropping hair on the root could also be extra critical, because it can lead to extra long-term hair loss. This is named traction alopecia.
“Traction alopecia means when patients repeatedly put their hair in a tight [style], and over time this starts pulling out some of the hairs on the sides, literally killing those hairs,” Behnam tells mbg. So whereas it could look good to have an ultra-tight and glossy pony, it could possibly actually tug your hair out with time.
Ponytails and buns can definitely result in traction alopecia, however Behnam warns that tight braids could be much more harmful; so in the event you ceaselessly don protecting kinds (flat twists, cornrows, and field braids), specialists advocate switching out your braids each two weeks and make sure to give your self breaks in between.
Overdoing too-tight hairstyles cannot solely kill the hair on the root and injury the prevailing strands, however they will even result in everlasting scarring if left untreated. When this happens, there’s little hope to regain hair progress in that space in any respect, even with skilled therapy. Translation? If you suppose you may be coping with traction alopecia, you may wish to waste no time addressing the difficulty.