The 7 Best Hair Treatments for Damaged Hair to Repair and Restore
It happens to us all: Your hair transforms from soft, shiny, flexible strands to dry, dull, and unmanageable that easily breaks. If you think you're alone, you are not. Changes to the hair can happen year-round but are especially prominent in winter, when hair-tangling winds, cold, dry air, and even moisture-zapping indoor heat can do a major number on even the most cared-for strands.
Rather than dealing with dry, damaged hair, take matters into your own hands and fix it. If you want to know how to repair damaged hair the right way, you’ll need a few tools of the trade to nurse it back to health, including hair masks, deep conditioners, and specialty treatments that restore much-needed moisture and rebuild the hair’s broken bonds. Some of the best hair treatments for damaged hair can also improve the health of your scalp while boosting hair color and increasing shine, making every day a good hair day.
Our Top Hair Treatment Picks
Best Hair Oil: Virtue Healing Oil Best for Preventing Damage: Virtue Damage Reverse Serum Best Overall Hair Treatment: Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair!™ Deep Conditioning Hair Mask Best for Rebuilding Broken Hair: Olaplex Hero Bundle Best for Cleansing & Hydrating: Act+Acre Everyday Set Best for Strengthening: Skin Gym LED Stimulating Hair Brush Best for Preventing Breakage: Slip Silk Pillowcase
How to Choose the Right Hair Treatment for Damaged Hair
An intensive hair treatment that replenishes moisture, seals the cuticle, and increases shine and manageability is a must to repair damaged, dry hair. With so many different hair-rebuilding options available, the best hair treatments for damaged hair infuse it with vitamins, nutrients, protein, and other hair-friendly ingredients, helping to nurse it back to health. Other key ingredients to look for include emollient-rich botanical oils, such as baobab seed oil and other natural oils rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which absorb completely into the hair without leaving it feeling heavy or greasy.
Shop the Best Hair Treatments for Damaged Hair
Best Hair Oil: Virtue Healing Oil
53 reviews
$45.00
Packed with healing and hydrating oils in a single bottle, this does-it-all vegan hair treatment imparts shine, softness, and moisture to damaged hair, so it is strong and healthy again. Plus, since the oil is clear, there's no worry about color transfer to your clothes or pillowcases or the dreaded greasy look that some oils leave behind.
Key Ingredients: Tocopherol, Tahitian gardenia flower extract, Kalahari melon seed oil
Hair Type: All
Beauty Insider Tip: Use the oil as a leave-in treatment, applying it from root to tip, or as part of your hair styling routine.
Best for Prevention: Virtue Damage Reverse Serum
$60.00
This daily leave-in hair treatment is the antidote for repairing and protecting damaged hair. Besides nursing the hair back to a healthy state, the serum also fights future damage by repairing broken hair bonds to restore strength, elasticity, and shine, leaving the hair soft and smooth.
Key Ingredients: Alpha keratin 60KU, tremella mushroom, solar protection complex
Hair Type: All Hair Types
Beauty Insider Tip: The cream-to-serum formula instantly absorbs into hair, helping to transform it.
Best Overall Hair Treatment: Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair!™ Deep Conditioning Hair Mask
399 reviews
$39.00
This super soft deep conditioning cream breathes new life into damaged hair in mere minutes, thanks to a blend of protein and moisturizing agents that help repair and strengthen damaged hair. With a clean scent and a thick pudding-like texture, this hair mask works for all hair types, no matter how minimal or moderate your damage.
Key Ingredients: Rosehip oil, algae extract, almond oil, biotin
Hair Type: All Hair Types
Beauty Insider Tip: For a deeper treatment, cover your hair with a plastic cap after applying the mask and sit under a hair dryer for 30 minutes.
Best for Rebuilding Broken Hair: Olaplex Hero Bundle
5 reviews
$90.00
From the experts in repairing hair damage comes this three-piece kit replete with all the essentials to reinstate healthy hair while strengthening it from within. The Olaplex No. 3 Hair Perfector treatment reduces breakage, the No.4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo repairs and protects hair from everyday stresses, and the No.5 Bond Maintenance Conditioner protects and repairs damaged hair, split ends, and frizz by re-linking broken bonds.
Key Ingredients: Glycerin, ascorbic acid, tocopheryl acetate, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, panthenol, jojoba and sunflower seed oils, apricot kernel oil, camellia seed oil, rosemary leaf extract, avocado oil, grapeseed oil
Hair Type: Damaged, Weak Hair
Beauty Insider Tip: When using No.3, apply it to freshly washed, damp hair and leave it on for at least 10 minutes.
Best for Cleansing and Hydrating: Act+Acre Everyday Set
2 reviews
$45.00
Damaged hair lacks hydration and can hold onto dirt, debris, and product buildup for longer, which is why a well-formulated cleansing and moisturizing hair duo is a must. This shampoo and conditioner pair delivers a hefty dose of hair-friendly nutrients, leaving the hair perfectly cleansed, well moisturized, and soft and shiny.
Key Ingredients: Apple amino acids, baobab oil, quinoa protein
Hair Type: All Hair Types
Beauty Insider Tip: To make the most of the duo, shampoo and condition the hair every one to two days.
Best for Strengthening: Skin Gym LED Stimulating Hair Brush
$79.99
If dull, thin, breakable hair is the bane of your existence, kiss it goodbye once and for all with this 3-in-1 LED hairbrush. Combining vibrational massage with LED light therapy helps to improve the health of the scalp and hair, making them shinier, stronger, and more resilient.
Key Features: Red and blue LED lights
Hair Type: All Hair Types
Beauty Insider Tip: The brush’s massaging feature helps promote circulation to bring essential nutrients to the scalp.
Best for Preventing Breakage: Slip Silk Pillowcase
318 reviews
$89.00
Make the most of your beauty sleep as you rest your head and hair on this silk pillowcase, which is proven to reduce friction and breakage. A dermatologist favorite, the silk fibers promote the longevity of hair products and resist pulling on the hair cuticles, helping to preserve your style and hair length.
Key Ingredients: Silk Fibers
Hair Type: All Hair Types
Beauty Insider Tip: If you like to sleep with your hair pulled off your face, wear one of the coordinating silk hair ties to limit breakage while you drift off to dreamland.
FAQs
What Causes Damaged Hair?
No single element causes damaged hair; several factors contribute to it. One of the most common causes of hair damage is over-processing and using too many chemicals to color or chemically straighten or curl the hair. Another reason for damaged hair? Blow-drying and using hot tools too often. To prevent damage from heat-based styling tools, which zap the moisture right out of the hair, avoid using them when possible and always apply a heat protectant first. Frequent and over-shampooing, using too many styling products, and overexposure to environmental elements and certain medications can also affect hair health.
How Can You Heal Damaged Hair?
The best way to heal damaged hair is to take a back-to-basics approach to caring for it. Focus on hydrating and moisturizing the hair using the best treatments for damaged hair, like hair oils, serums, masks, and deep conditioners. Limit how much heat you expose your hair to, and get regular trims to eliminate split and damaged ends.
Can Very Damaged be Repaired?
Damaged hair can be repaired to some extent, but since hair is technically dead once it pops out of the follicle, any improvement seen may not be permanent. The best way to get rid of damaged hair is by cutting off broken and split hairs and ends, which will allow it to look healthier and prevent future damage. It's important to use hair products formulated specifically for damaged hair to help minimize the appearance of any damage and reinstate lost moisture and shine.
The Bottom Line
Damaged hair can greatly impact the overall health and appearance of your hair. But just because your hair is damaged doesn't mean it will stay that way forever. In order to make damaged hair healthy again, it's important to use the best hair treatments for damaged hair, which can help strengthen it and add shine, and limit heat-based tools and anything else that can weaken the hair. It takes time to get damaged hair back to healthy, so be patient and give your hair the TLC it needs so that it's strong and beautiful again.
Elise Minton Tabin is an award-winning beauty journalist, editor, and beauty expert with more than 16 years of experience. She previously held the title of Executive Beauty Editor at NewBeauty magazine, where she reported on beauty, plastic surgery, anti-aging, health and wellness. She was also instrumental in the launch of the beauty supplement brand Hush & Hush. A self-professed beauty junkie and retinol and sunscreen pusher, Elise knows what’s new, what works and who’s the best to go for every procedure under the sun. Follow Elise on Facebook, Instagram, and on her beauty blog, elisetabin.com
