Did you know the average person loses 50 – 100 hairs a day?

And almost all of us never notice, save for the odd stray that somehow gets stuck to our eyelashes and stays there all day. So, what causes hair loss? Depending on what’s happening in your life – if you are pregnant or postnatal, going through a period of stress or if you are unwell or taking medication, this may fluctuate, and you may find yourself losing more hair than usual. Pregnant women are often pleased to note that their hair seems extra thick and glossy – the side effect of losing less hair for those nine months. Sadly, once the baby is born all this extra, shiny extra hair starts to drop out - along with all the usual hair loss, for added impact! Great.

The other common cause of a step up in female hair loss is age. Almost everyone experiences thinning hair as they get older and estrogen levels decrease, particularly after the menopause.

It’s easy to get distressed when you start to notice all that hair blocking up the plughole in the shower. But panic not - help is at hand. Whether you are going through a period of extra hair loss or are simply desperate to add some oomph into your locks, there are easy, natural ways to boost hair growth.

Let’s talk about hair breakage and how to repair damaged hair. How annoying is it when you start to notice that your jumper is hosting more broken hairs than usual? The realization that as you run your fingers down your hair, that smooth, glossy sensation has been replaced with a rough, frazzled feeling of split and snapped ends?

What causes damaged hair?

Hair breakage is seriously common hair complaint. Strong, healthy hair is stretchy – able to expand up to 30% of its length if you pull it when wet. But when hair becomes dry and damaged, it loses the ability to stretch and snaps off instead. It’s caused by a range of factors, including over processing (perming/ colouring – especially bleach), over styling (we’re looking at you, tongs and straighteners), too much sun exposure – as well as less obvious styling choices like screwing hair up into a tight bun, super taut braids or even something seemingly innocuous like sleeping on wet hair (hair is much more fragile when wet).

So, what can you do to stop your hair breaking off? It’s time to put your hair into recovery mode.

First of all – cut back on further damage where you can. Maybe step away from the colour for a few months – perhaps you can switch bleach for high lift or use a temporary colour instead to protect the condition. Same goes for heat styling - try to give your hair ‘days off’, where you let it dry naturally. When hair is already weakened to the point where it’s breaking off, using dye and heat will only dry it out further. And more dryness = more breakage.

Isn’t freshly coloured hair a thing of beauty? Blonde, brunette or redhead, newly tinted locks have a vibrant sheen that just glows. Everyone compliments your new colour, and you swish your hair around feeling pretty pleased with life.

And then a few weeks later, you suddenly realise that your radiant hair colour is no more. That zingy freshness has gone, replaced by a slightly faded equivalent. Blondes especially may notice that the bright tint when they left the salon is gradually morphing into a slightly brassy, yellowish shade which is altogether less pleasing to the eye.

So, how do you get rid of brassy tones on blonde hair?

Colour is always going to grow out and fade with time. But there are sneaky little low effort things you can do to keep that elusive vibrancy for longer. Read on for the best way to tone your hair and some super handy colour maintenance tricks:

Lay off the washing. How many times a week should I wash my hair? We hear you asking. Every time you wash your hair after a colour, it fades a little more. So, it makes sense that if you can cut that down to 2 or 3 times a week, you’ll see your colour last longer. Especially bleached blondes – bleach often makes hair more porous, which means it will absorb more of the minerals from tap water, causing discolouration.