The Difference Between Brittle Hair vs Thinning Hair

Having dry and brittle hair is frustrating. It breaks easily, looks frizzy, and is anything but soft to the touch. Thinning hair is also a huge issue, causing severe distress and confidence issues in those who experience it.

Now, the complicated issue is that brittle hair can look like thinning hair, but it isn’t – not exactly. Similarly you may assume your thinning hair is just due to breakage. Understanding the real difference between brittle hair and thinning hair can help you accurately tackle the problem once and for all.

Don’t let hair care troubles get you down or hurt your confidence. Instead, use this guide to help you understand just what’s going on with your hair, and how you can finally fix it:

What is Brittle Hair?

Brittle hair means that it breaks easily. The hair shaft itself may already be cracked and breaking, so just a little bit of extra pressure is all that it needs to snap. Brittle hair happens because your hair itself is extremely dry. Think of anything when it dries out, including your skin. Heat or cold can dry your skin out to the point where it starts to crack.

That’s what your hair is doing.

As it cracks, it breaks. This will look like thinning hair to many, with one key difference – the thinning will start after your roots.

What is Thinning Hair?

Thinning hair, on the other hand, begins at the roots. This is because thinning hair isn’t caused by breakage, but instead by hormonal, genetic, or even autoimmune conditions. Even something as seemingly benign as too much Vitamin A can cause thinning hair.

How Do You Know if Your Hair is Brittle or Thinning?

Brittle hair breaks halfway along the hair shaft, which means your hair may feel and look thicker around your scalp, before it starts thinning. Thinning hair, on the other hand, just doesn’t grow properly. This means you may notice patches along your scalp where your hair is very thin – thin enough to see your scalp.

You can easily track the difference with a hair track app. If your roots look like they stay the same, you have brittle hair. If your hair keeps thinning at the root, then you have thinning hair.

Of course, you can easily have both. Thinning hair can be brittle, which can lead to hair breakage and extreme hair loss both near your scalp and further along the hair shaft.

More specific ways to tell the difference between brittle and thinning hair is by assessing the texture and appearance:

Brittle Hair

The texture of brittle hair is coarse. If you hold the tips of it up, it will stay straight and not flop over. It will also feel very dry to the touch.

As for its appearance, you’ll see split ends, everywhere. These split ends may be right down the middle, or they may fracture off all the way up the hair.

Thinning Hair

Thinning hair can still be soft to the touch. It will look fine on its own, healthy, and even shining. The difference is that you will be able to start seeing your scalp more easily. This is because there’s less hair growing, and therefore, there’s less coverage.

What Causes Brittle Hair Loss?

There are six main reasons why you may have brittle hair, and most of them boil down to your hair care routine:

1.    Environmental Damage

Environmental damage like UV damage, cold damage, and even pollution can cause brittle hair. This is because these conditions break down the hair, particularly if it’s not well hydrated. The same applies to your skin.

2.    Nutrient Deficiency

If your body isn’t getting enough nutrients then your system will direct what you do have towards your essential organs. This means less nutrients go to your hair, skin, and nails, making them brittle and prone to breaking. In even more extreme situations (like those with anorexia) hair growth may stop altogether.

3.    Product Damage

You can damage your hair by the way you wash your hair. This is because some shampoos and other products strip your hair of all oils in order to get it “clean”. While you may think your hair is healthy because of it, it’s not. Your hair and scalp need those natural oils to stay hydrated and healthy.

4.    Styling Damage

Heat styling, like blow drying your hair or using curling irons, is a primary cause of brittle hair. This is because you’re basically breaking your hair by cooking it [1]. To avoid this damage, dry your hair on a low heat. Only use heat styling tools on dry hair that’s been protected with a heat protector, and even then, limit how often you use them.

5.    Hair Colour and Bleaching

No matter your hair type, if you style your hair with hair colourant or bleach you are damaging it. Bleaching in particular breaks down your hair, and can lead to breakage after even just one session. To avoid this, minimise how often you colour your hair, and use regular hair hydrating treatments afterward to keep it as healthy as possible.

 

 

What Causes Thinning Hair?

Thinning hair is due to internal causes, like genetics. You can see just how thinning hair looks in both men and women in our patients gallery for reference. Understanding what’s causing your thinning hair is critical, since you’ll want to slow down that hair loss. This is particularly true if you’re planning on getting a transplant, since you’ll want that transplant to last as long as possible.

Without further ado, here are the top medical conditions that can cause thinning hair:

Genetic Conditions

The most common reason for hair loss is genetics. Hair thinning can start to become balding. Genetic conditions can be the most frustrating, since there’s no stopping the march of time, but they can also be the easiest to treat. In men, for example, taking hair loss medication can provide solid results.

Hormonal Causes

Hormonal changes can also cause hair loss [2]. This issue particularly impacts women, who go through significant hormonal changes due to pregnancy and then, later on, menopause. Women too, can take hair loss treatment with great success, though the exact methods will differ from their male counterparts.

Stress on the Body

Stress on the body can result in hair thinning. Being stressed at work, not getting enough food or nutrients, or even a disease can all cause stress.

Medication

Some medications can result in thinning hair. Chemotherapy is one of the most infamous, to the point where most patients undergoing chemotherapy shave their hair off to stop watching it fall out in clumps.

Medical Conditions

Some conditions can cause hair loss or abnormal hair growth [3]. It’s important to get your specific medical condition diagnosed by a professional, as you will likely have additional symptoms and concerns that go well beyond hair loss.

How to Stop Thin and Brittle Hair

There are many ways that you can stop thin and brittle hair and start enjoying healthy hair, starting with right at home:

 

• Use the right shampoo and conditioner for your hair needs
• Eat a healthy diet to give your hair the nutrients it needs
• Protect your hair with hats
• Care for your hair by brushing only when dry
• Keep your hair condoned with hair oil
• Use hair growth treatments
• Minimise or stop using heated styling products or use a heat protectant spray
• Avoid colouring and especially bleaching your hair
• Cut your hair to remove split ends

When using these methods, it is important to remember to be patient. Doing everything right won’t allow your hair to repair itself. You will still have split ends and breakage. What you’re hoping for is that the new hair is healthy.

This means you need to wait months, or even up to a full year, before you can fully see the fruits of your efforts.

What To Do If Your Hair Doesn’t Return

Of course, even with all the at-home treatments and products in the world there’s a good chance that your hair just won’t return. You may have a genetic condition, medical condition, or even too much stress for your hair to return to its healthy state.

In these instances you may feel like you have no options, but you do. You can get a hair transplant. FUE transplants are very effective, and come with amazing results. All you need is to get in touch with our team. We’ll be happy to show you just what you can expect from the transplant, as all treatments are catered to you and you alone. That’s how we can offer such natural-looking results.

And they are natural, too. FUE uses your own hair, so you can get your original hair back if the thinning was permanent.

 

Resources

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3229938/

[2] https://www.uow.edu.au/media/2024/heres-how-hormones-and-chemotherapy-can-change-yourhair.php#:~:text=Hormonal%20changes%20as%20we%20age,loss%2C%20particularly%20as%20we%20age.

[3] https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/hair-loss/