Brillo Pad Hair: What Is It and How to Fix It!

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Severely dry, brittle, rough, weak, and hardened hair. Those are the show signs of brillo pad hair. Neglected, it can lead to excessively dry hair. But with proactive steps, brillo pad hair can be treated successfully. 

If your hair is never soft or moist, no matter what you try, you’re suffering from brillo pad hair. Is it permanent? No. Can it affect your mental well-being? Yes. How long can you treat it? It depends. What are the necessary steps to take?

I’ve covered that below in this article, so keep reading: 

Brillo Pad Hair Meaning

Brillo Pad Hair is used to describe hair that is unruly, rough, and unsoft. When you have frizzy, dry, and brittle hair, then you’re suffering from a Brillo pad. The term is derived from Brillo Soap Pad, which is a household cleaning soap with a rough surface and texture.

The similarities between hair that looks rough and unkempt and brillo pad soap texture are why the condition is referred to as brillo pad hair.

Why Does My Hair Feel Like a Brillo Pad?

Those who have experienced this condition will also be familiar with the SOS Brillo Pad, which I referred to above. In essence, hair that feels like straw, extremely dry, and unmanageable will resemble an SOS Brillo Pad, a soap with rough edges.

Symptoms of Brillo Pad Hair

When your hair starts to feel like rubber, plastic, or straw, you may be showing signs of brillo pad hair. Your hair might also be dry with little to no oil/moisture, rough, brittle and wobbly.

Other symptoms include hair that is super thick/rough, is hard to comb or brush, and is not manageable or soft.

If this is the first time you’re experiencing the condition, it may stress you out and affect your overall well-being and you may find yourself impatient.

However, the best course of action is to be calm and patient. Fortunately, there are solutions as well as precautions to take to avoid it if you happen to cure it.

There are people who once had this condition but with sheer effort are able to repair it for good.

So, if you follow the steps and guidelines in this article, you should be able to treat and (possibly) curb future occurrences. Also, it might be tempting to want to use any product that comes your way. But don’t.

Some products are actually good and will help but many others might worsen it. So, it’s important to take calculated steps toward treating your hair.

How to Treat Brillo Pad Hair

I’m sure this is the most anticipated section in this article. There are plenty of tips and techniques you’ll find scattered all around the internet to help you treat brillo pad hair.

I’ll try to condense everything here so you can start working towards treating it and also come back to this as your reference point.

Use the Baggy Method for Hair

Remember what you normally do when you’re ready to deep condition your hair? You wet your hair, wear a plastic helmet and sit under the dryer for a while.

The baggy method is the same except you don’t need to wet/wash your hair. Just apply a moisturizer to your hair, cover it up with a plastic cap, or baggy plastic, or wrap and sleep on it.

Try Apple Cider Vinegar Rinses

ACV rinse is simple the mixture of apple cider vinegar with water to use as a treatment after shampooing and conditioning. It’s easy to make too.

All you have to do is mix 2-3 tablespoonfuls of apple cider with water and massage it into your hair after your shampoo and conditioner. This can help reduce buildup, treat dandruff, and assist in hair growth.

Make Sure You Balance Protein and Moisture in Your Hair

Too much or too little of either can leave your hair dry or limp. The best thing you can do here is to only use products that will help you balance this two and avoid any activity that might disrupt the balance.

When your hair has too much protein, it’ll become dry, hard, and a mess. Too much moisture in your hair will also make your hair unmanageable. 

Do Deep Conditioning

It’s similar to the above. You can do it at home or allow your stylist to assist you with it. 

Other methods to help with brillo pad hair: 

Hot Oil Treatment

Moisturizing daily with Bumble and Bumble

Using glycerin and co washing with Suave humetress

Protein treatment one time in a week

Use coconut oil for sealing and treating

Go totally natural and organic

Maintain a balanced diet and drink plenty of water

How to Prevent Brillo Pad Hair

Even if you successfully treat brillo pad hair, it can come back if you don’t know how to avoid it. It’s important to know the likely causes of brillo pad hair and how to avoid those things so your hair is always in a good health.

1. Use Shampoos Less Frequently

Shampoos are generally designed to cleanse the hair so that it’s fresh, cleaner, and ready for conditioning, styling, or treatment. However, some shampoos are too harsh that they do more than clean the hair.

They also strip essential oils, hair moisture, and vital nutrients your hair needs to grow and stay healthy. If you shampoo thrice a week and you experience dry hair, try making it once a week and evaluate.

Make sure you’re using a shampoo that isn’t dry, suitable for your hair type and has a low pH. Also, avoid shampoos that contain gluten, sulfate, or paraben.

2. Always Apply Your Conditioner After Shampooing

No matter how gentle shampoo is, it’ll still take away some oils/moisture from your hair. That can lead to drying out of hair strands.

Conditioning your hair will not only soften your hair but will also seal in moisture to keep your hair hydrated. Apply your favorite conditioner after shampooing.

After wetting your hair, massage the conditioner into the hair, wait for 5 minutes, rinse off and towel dry your hair.

3. Avoid Chemical Processes and Thermal Heat Styling

Hair straighteners, blow dryers, straightening irons, etc can give your hair a new look. But just as they are beneficial, they come with their own negative impacts on the hair.

Also, chemical processes, hair straightening, and thermal heat styling can actually damage your hair. If you have dry hair, try to avoid all of these or use them at the bearest minimum.

4. Oil Treatment

Occasionally, you can apply hot oil treatment to your hair. This can add in some moisture and allow your hair to seep in some necessary oil for health. Consult your stylist or a professional for adequate guidance.

3. Get In Touch With a Professional

Sometimes, you can try everything and still not be able to solve the problem. It could be because of the way you’re applying products or your hair is just selective.

A professional will be able to access all the steps you’ve taken, the products you’ve used and currently using, and your hair condition, to be able to recommend a more effective regime.

It’s also easier and less stressful, although it can be expensive, to go with the services of a professional.

When do you need to consider this option?

When you start shredding too much, breaking hair, and not seeing improvement with all the treatments you’ve tried.

You will be asked questions pertaining to your eating habits, your hair washing habits, products you use on your hair, when and how often you style your hair, and the symptoms you were experiencing.

So, it’s important to be accountable as you try to find the solution to this phenomenon.

Causes of Brillo Pad Hair

There are a few causes of the condition you need to be aware of. When hair beings to lose enough moisture and oil that it can not maintain its normal texture and sheen, you may be seeing early signs of BPH. Let’s go through some of the important and common ones.

Chemical Damage

When hair is overprocessed, it loses its strength and essential nutrients and oils that keep it healthy.

Chemical processes can strip hair of its moisture and protein, which makes it dry and malnourished. It can also disrupt the pH balance in the hair, leading to dry, weak, and severely damaged hair.

Too Much Shampoo

You can’t avoid shampoo in your hair care routine and maintenance. However, there is a limit to how much you can shampoo your hair.

Some shampoos are naturally drying, so when used on hair that’s weak, it can cause further damage. Also using the wrong shampoo on your hair can wreak havoc when you don’t expect it.

Environmental Stressors

If you live in a dry climate, it might be affecting the condition and health of your hair. You should try to condition or moisturize your hair with appropriate hair care products so that it doesn’t dry out and degrade as a result of stress from the environment.

Medical Conditions

If you have hypothyroidism, and/or anorexia, your hair may suffer as a result, due to low production of thyroid hormones. Other possible causes include underactive parathyroid and underactive thyroid.

Improper Nutrition

Whether it is a poor diet or your hair lacking essential nutrients, malnutrition can gradually degrade the life in your hair. If proper care is not taken, it may continue to worsen the condition of the hair.

Excessive Hair Washing

Lastly, too much washing of your hair and using soaps/alcohol that are not hair-friendly can cause serious damage to hair.

Some soaps and detergents are so harsh they are not recommended for hair wash. Make sure you know these ones to be able to avoid them.

How Common Is Brillo Pad Hair?

Brillo pad hair is very common in people, especially women. And contrary to popular belief, it’s not only black people that experience Brillo pad. It spans across races, continents, and people of different backgrounds. 

It just might be much more common in blacks than in other races.

It can occur in any race, depending on genetics, lineage, nutrition, or as a result of thermal heat styling and styling with harsh chemicals. If you experience any of the symptoms, it’s important to take steps immediately toward repairing your hair.

Brillo Pad Hair Meme

So, this is actually a thing. And it’s here to cheer you up. You need to be in good spirit if you want to completely annihilate this hair issue. 

As you can see, brillo pad hair is somehow popular. Some people don’t actually know they are experiencing it until somebody eventually explains it to them.

But you reading this means you’re on the right path, soon to celebrate a hair free from dryness, hardness, wimpiness, and roughness.

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