Will Rubber Bands Cause Damage to Your Hair?

You may wish to use a rubber band to tie up your hair if the hair is always in your face or if you are feeling hot and want to tie it up.

When you realize you have no other option but to twist your locks out of the way and you could feel smart at work when you grab a rubber band, but it’s not the greatest choice for your hair.

Oh! And it’s a common misconception that rubber bands will make your hair grow longer.

Rubber bands aren’t healthy for any hair type, but certain type of hair get caught up more than others. Some individuals tie off little braids or dreadlocks with smaller rubber bands.

Both are adorable looks—at least until it’s time to remove the rubber bands.

How long may rubber bands be left in your hair?

To prevent additional harm to your hair, remove rubber bands after one to two days. It’s a frequent misunderstanding that rubber bands encourage hair growth by stretching the roots, which makes hair grow quicker.

But research has shown a clear link between certain hairstyles worn for an extended time and traction alopecia.

When the hair is pulled, a medical condition called traction alopecia develops. If a rubber band is overly tight or is worn for an extended time, pressure is applied to your scalp and roots, which may lead to this condition.

They don’t always show a lot of harm immediately. Your ponytails and buns won’t appear as tidy as they used to, and you’ll eventually discover that your hair has fallen out of its routine and style.

Although prolonged usage of rubber bands might cause harm, most women do not wear the rubber bands for long enough to develop any of these issues. Most people will leave them in for one to two days so their hair can relax and rest after taking them off.

But if you do decide to leave the rubber band in all day, feel free to do so. As long as it’s not too tight and is only left in place for a brief time, it won’t cause damage to your hair.

Continue reading to learn under what circumstances will rubber bands may be damaging to your hair and how to use them efficiently without causing damage to your precious hair strands.

Does Using Rubber Bands Damage Your Hair?

Rubber bands don’t necessarily harm your hair. They do, however, tend to pull the roots a little, which may cause certain harm to some individuals. Although it depends on how tightly the rubber band is wound, wearing them would only present significant problems with repeated long term usage.

However, it’s advised to cease wearing the band that created the problem if you do discover that wearing them causes any hair breakage or damage. Rubber bands don’t directly dominate, but they may cause breakage and damage if you wear them in your hair.

The most important thing is to avoid wearing them continuous for extended periods! They’re okay to wear for a day or two, but if you wear them consistently for weeks or months, then damage may result.

Let’s go right to the point: Could your hair ties and ponytail holders be harming it? Everything depends on the kind of hair tie you’re wearing and the haircut you’re flaunting. Your strands may be under stress from the incorrect ones.

To prevent damage, the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) suggests using coated rubber bands designed specifically for hairstyling. Therefore, you shouldn’t truly use elastics or rubber bands with no fabric covering them in your style process. According to the AAD, it’s better to limit the number of tightly pulled hairstyles to prevent hair damage. This includes hairstyles with tension, such as sleek ponytails, cornrows and tight braids.

The reasons why rubber bands are bad for hair

There are several horror tales from people who have braided or dreadlocked their hair using rubber bands.

These are often revolving on missing some of them deep inside the locks and discovering them there so embedded deeply in the hair that there was no choice but to trim some length from the hair.

Rubber bands may be especially difficult to be removed in ethnic hair. Because ethnic hair has a thick shaft, is more likely to be wavy, and is coarser than other hair types, thus they get caught in there.

It’s best to use something additional to secure these styles if you decide to go with them. Something that won’t get caught in your hair and continue to harm it.

Every hair type will suffer when tied up with rubber bands, but textured hair will undoubtedly struggle more.

It’s common knowledge that the rubber will be pulling at your hair, tangle it up, and keep you stuck. They rip out hairs or even snap strands when you remove them. The pain is just not worthwhile.

Uh-oh. Are there any rubber bands now in your hair? We don’t want to terrify you, but you should remove those bangs from your hair if you don’t want to damage your hair or cut it shorter than you’d prefer.

For information on how to do it safely, keep reading.

Methods for Removing Rubber Bands from Hair

Please don’t freak out if you still have rubber bands in your hair and you’re reading this. We’ll assist you in removing them safely, but you should probably try not to use them again after that.

Continue reading for some advice on what you can use in its place.

– Remove your rubber bands

Cutting rubber bands out of your hair with scissors may be the simplest solution. You won’t lose any hair strands or even whole portions while cutting the rubber bands as long as you maintain a steady hand.

Your hair’s rubber bands are probably wrapped around the certain parts of your hair multiple times. Instead of trying to break the band or to cut off the whole band off at once, it is advisable to first cut off the outer layer of the rubber band.

Once you’ve made the first cut, do your best to carefully unwind the rubber band.

To prevent accidentally cutting your hair, just use the tip of the scissors or you may try to use small scissors that are meant for cutting hair.

You have to be very precise and careful to perform this work. Do not hurry. Ask a friend or family member you can trust to assist you, ideally one with extremely stable hands. Seeking assistance is particular important if you have rubber bands on your head in a location you can’t see well using a mirror or reach them.

– Rolling the band down

Do not worry if the idea of cutting those rubber bands from your hair makes you uncomfortable. There are other methods to remove those nasty rubber bands from your hair. You may carefully roll them down instead.

When it comes to rolling down rubber bands in your hair for removal, it’s similar to using scissors: slow and steady will certainly win the race. Don’t deliberately use force to break it since you don’t want to break off or damage your hair strands.

Instead, roll each rubber band down your hair gradually and slowly. This requires a lot of patience since it takes longer time than using scissors, but you’ll regret it if you purposely rip or break it.

Take the time and be patience to do it properly unless you want to take the risk of completely shave off all of your hair. Thereafter, stop using the rubber bands to style your hair once you have all of them removed from your hair.

– Oil-soaked rubber bands

To get your rubber bands out of your hair, you might also decide to do it in a more intelligent way rather than using force that is frequently uncontrollable.

Sometimes all it takes to remove rubber bands is just with a little bit of oil on it. You must have experience of rubber bands lodged firmly among your curls especially if the curls are dry. It will greatly help if you use a any type of conditioner.

The ideal choice is to use a leave-in conditioner since it will nourish your hair while offering some slipping and sliding motion. However, please take note that this method will only work for those rubber bands that aren’t wound too tightly.

But what should you do if that rubber band is holding your hair in its deadly grip?

In such cases, oil is the best option since it is even greasier and thicker. If you don’t have any hair oils on hand, any oil in your kitchen will also work. You may consider using mayonnaise or olive oil. You may be surprised that butter may even works!

Although you probably don’t want to have oily hair, it is far better than losing length and hair. In addition, you may always wash it away to restore it to normal condition.

– The Seam Ripper

Seam rippers are a better option than scissors if on hand you do not have a hair tie cutter because these rippers are much safer. To prevent possibly slicing at your hair, be sure to tuck it in-between two layers of the hair tie and avoid allowing it to come into touch with your hair directly.

– Curling Wand

As a last resort, you may pop a rubber hair tie using the end of the curling iron. Hold the heated wand against the hair tie for a couple of seconds after heating the wand for a minute. Rubber ought to separate on its own. Although this trick is very popular among many YouTube and TikTok users for its minimal hair damage and its effectiveness, we still believe that the best solution to prevent possible hair breakage is to completely avoid using harmful hair ties.

– Get some help

It’s time to look for help from someone else if your best attempts aren’t working. Remind yourself that losing hair is far worse than having family members or even your hairdresser make fun of you or give you advice about using rubber bands to get over your humiliation.

As previously said, it truly pays to seek assistance of someone else to ensure that it is removed correctly if you have the rubber bangs in a position you can’t reach or see.

You can untangle those rubber band knots in half the time if you have an additional pair of hands. Additionally, you’ll have time to chit chat with that person while detangling your hair’s tangles. This will enable you to relax as well as improve a problematic circumstance.

Getting rid of rubber bands

It’s not that difficult. Just stop using it! Never do it again! When you don’t have any other options, using rubber bands may seem like a good idea, but they can damage your hair. If you are fortunate enough to be able to remove them with little to no harm, you should give up and never use them again.

Having many fly-away strands because you have torn the hair apart is not worth it. Unless you were all on board with getting one short haircut, else having a short haircut to salvage the mishap is not worth it at all.

Real hair ties and scrunchies are affordable and you may even purchase them in bulk.

Keep these hair ties and scrunchies in your bathroom, bedroom drawer, purse, desk drawer at work, vehicle, gym bag, and everywhere else you can think of in order to have a convenient way to style your hair.

Never place rubber bands close to your roots, unless you have no other option—say if you are shipwrecked on a desolate island where the rubber bands have all regretfully washed up on the beach.

To avoid pulling and ruining your hair, just tie the bands as near the hair ends as you can.

Lastly, it is always recommended to have soft, clean hair bands or scrunchies with you.

– Avoid metal hair ties

Nearly as awful as using rubber bands are the hair ties with a metal part on them. Additionally, the metal may tear and harm your hair or scalp, particularly if you pull it out too aggressively.

You want something that goes in a smooth, complete ring. They are created as hair bands or ties with very soft elastic materials that look stylish and keep your hair tied up in beautiful style.

– Try hair clips

Another smart and safer approach to bundling your hair up and keeping it out of your way is using hair clips. They come in all different sizes, and they are perfect for attaching to your bags and clip your hair when needed.

If you don’t want to tie your hair up in a ponytail or another style, then you have to try the hair clips. There is another good reason you may want to think about using hair clips for easy styling of your hair.

Using hair clips is a wiser decision if you often color your hair, especially if you bleach it. To learn why to continue reading.

– Avoid tying your hair up too much

Even without using rubber bands, hair may become brittle and fall out. It is not advisable to have too much styling on your hair. You may consider to have a rest for your hair from your regular hairstyles for a few days a week to improve the condition of your hair’s health.

Those of you with colored hair, especially the blonde hair, should exercise considerably more caution. Your coloured or blonde hair will suffer more damage if you tie it up with rubber bands.

Moreover, if your hair are considerable over-processed, brittle or dry, it may be easily damaged even if you are using the best hair ties. If this applies to your hair, stay away from any ties, particularly the rubber bands and try to use hair clips for most of the time.

You may still wear it in a ponytail, but doing so often with bleached hair can cause a chemical cut.

Do you know what chemical cut is? This is what hairdressers refer to as processed hair that has been tied up and “trimmed.” You have a chemical cut if your bleached hair has layers that you didn’t trim.

To fix this, thoroughly condition your hair and stay away from tying it up with knots, particularly rubber bands. If you must wear a ponytail, only do so on days after you have exercised vigorously to reduce the risk of breaking.

You will need to restore your hair’s health if you have a chemical cut. Talk to your hairdresser about it and find out how to fix the issue to restore your hair’s gorgeous condition.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we strongly advise against ever using rubber bands in your hair for any purpose. Your beautiful hair will be destroyed if you do this. You may try to style textured hair types or create an updo using other safer options.

Don’t be panic or freak out if rubber bands get caught in your hair. Try to be stay calm and be patient as you go through some our rubber bands removal methods, .

You have to be very careful when cutting rolling them out, or apply oil on the bands to make them slide out. Get someone to assist you if you are unable to remove them on your own especially those areas that you cannot visualize yourself in the mirror.

When you don’t have other hair accessories, rubber bands may seem like a convenient and practical option to tie your hair up, but the harm they cause may not even worth it.

Although they are particularly problematic for textured hair, they are not excellent for styling any hair type. Avoid using rubber bands, and if you must, store them in your desk drawer for office supplies.