“Your hair is your crown, lady,” said my mother while trying to brush my stranded hair as I screamed because of the pain.

It became so unbearable that I started hating it. Put more forces, and I will start to cry. My 18 years of experience of having hair has taught me endless views about my hair, of what I should not do it and what I should do if I had done something wrong to it. Don’t punish your hair with your daily habits, do these instead to prevent that unhealthy hair:

1. Dyeing your hair

Who doesn’t love dyeing their hair if it makes them feel powerful and beautiful at the same time? I love dyeing my hair. I’ve dyed it black, brown, blonde, or any color you can find in the hair coloring section, just name it. But the chemicals in the hair coloring damages your hair and can leave your hair all brassy and dry.

Solutions: Either dye your hair gradually or cut your hair when it gets too damaged. If you love dyeing your hair as much as I do, and if it happens to be dyeing them lighter, I would always go slowly, never use bleach. Bleaching is a major downfall, it would look GREAT for about ten weeks, and after that, it would leave you with brassy, stranded, hard to manage hair. It is just like an abusive relationship when you keep abusing it; the person would get damaged even more, so better cut it than keep it. No more anxiety.

2. Brushing your hair every 10 seconds

I thought I had OCD because every time my hair doesn’t look straight, I would ALWAYS want to brush my hair. It is tempting, and yet harmful. “Brushing your hair stimulates the follicles which promote growth but brushing too much too often will cause damage to your hair strands that result in frizz and split ends.” And when you have a split end, you have to go to a salon to cut them when you love the length of your hair. What a tragedy.

Solutions: Just don’t brush your hair. Easy peasy.

3. Swimming

I hate to say this, but the chemicals in pool water are pretty harmful, chlorine is going to wreck your hair and leave it dry and frizzy.

Solutions: Every time you want to swim, wear a swimming cap. Also, apply hair cream bath to your hair before you go into the water. The cream bath prevents your hair from contact with chlorine water directly.

4. Put it in ponytails (every time) or wear hats

I used to lose hair due to stress. And I did not want anyone to notice it. That is my motive to wear ponytails or a hat, but I was wrong. Putting them in ponytails stretched your hair so much that they cannot breathe. They sometimes feel tired too, my friend. This is also the same with hats; no place to breath makes more hair fall out.

Solutions: Just don’t do so too frequently.

5. Not washing your hair

Dry shampoo is an ultimate hair shampoo on the go. But having an oily scalp makes me not be able to do that. Oily hair can create breakouts when it touches our skin, especially cheeks when you put your hair down.

Solutions: Just wash your hair, goddamit.

Try not to break the rules, and your hair will grow faster and healthier (isn’t that what we all want?). To the bright future of our hair, after all, hair is like our crown, isn’t it?