11 Worst Hair Mistakes for Women Over 50

Women have high expectations from their aging hair. They often push curly hair to appear straight, stick-straight hair to look curly or wavy, and encourage fine or thin hair to reach extreme volume with excessive use of hot tools and products. All of these are a lot of work and traumatizing for your hair. Any hairstyle that requires constant serious heat styling and lots of hands-on manipulation will ultimately be a problem.

The solution is to modify your look to complement your hair, not the hair you wish you had. So, if you have fine, straight hair, don’t try to push it into big, bouncy waves. Instead, let a sleeker look like a blunt bob rule. If you have curly or wavy hair, amplify your natural texture or opt for a smoother, wavy look that still makes the most of your hair’s natural volume and texture. If your hair is fragile, delicate or damaged, don’t force it to grow long. Instead, aim for a bob, lob or crop that suits your texture.

4. Mistake: Buying and using too many hair products.

Like skin care, the hair care market has expanded to a ridiculous degree. It’s a profitable business, and the reason why there is such an enormous variety of styling products focused on lifting, plumping, shining and smoothing your locks. And just like skin care, women often buy more products than they need and layer them in a more-is-more strategy to restore volume and a healthier look. The truth is the more products you add — especially if you have thin, fine, dry, brittle or damaged hair as many over-50 women do — the flatter, duller and skimpier it looks.

My advice? Limit yourself to three or four essential products. The more multitasking a product is, the better. Here’s a guide: You might start with a do-all hybrid leave-in conditioner/detangler with heat protection like It’s a 10 Miracle Leave-In Product ($22, walgreens.com) for shampoo days; a dry shampoo/root lifter like Not Your Mother’s Plump for Joy Body Building Dry Shampoo, Ocean Mango ($4, cvs.com) for an emergency refresh; and a volume-boosting hydrating mousse like Nexxus HY-Volume Cloud Foam Mousse ($18, ulta.com) with hyaluronic acid and protein or a moisturizing/volumizing/thickening spray like John Frieda UltraFiller + Thickening Volumizing Spray ($10, target.com) as your baseline essentials. You can swap the volumizer for a texturizing spray or wave/curl enhancer if desired. Avoid heavy styling creams, pomades and gels that drag hair down, encourage buildup at the scalp and attract dirt and oils.

5. Mistake: Ignoring scalp care.

The scalp is the root of hair problems (no pun, it really is). Women tend to pay attention to the hair shaft itself and ignore this vital baseline hot spot. An oily, flaky, dry, itchy, sensitive, irritated scalp can lead to fallout, breakage and poor growth. Remember, the hair that we see is dead; the bulb at the base of each follicle lodged in the scalp is not.

One of the most beneficial solutions for ongoing flakiness is a dandruff shampoo such as Head & Shoulders Bare Anti-Dandruff Soothing Hydration Shampoo Sulfate-Free ($10, target.com) to calm and resolve itch. Another is a pre-shampoo scrub like Viviscal Exfoliating Scalp Hair Scrub ($13, target.com) with biotin and keratin, or a scalp massager like Growth Bomb Silicone Scalp Brush, Yellow ($11, cvs.com). Both are designed to gently slough off dead cells (which clog the scalp, like on your skin when there’s no exfoliation) and style-product buildup at the roots. No scrub or brush? A simple DIY scalp massage during your shampoo can still work to stimulate circulation and blood flow to the scalp. Use the pads of your fingers in slow circles. Serums like the Divi Scalp Serum ($48, ulta.com) with stimulating peppermint and tea tree oil are yet another good option. Applied once a day to dry or damp the scalp, they freshen the scalp and act like a nongreasy soothing treatment.

6. Mistake: Growing and keeping hair long at any cost.

Take a close look at the fans in any sports stadium or rock concert, the latte lovers in line at Starbucks and the friends in your book club, pickleball game or Pilates class. You’ll see long hair on women over 50 — the good, the bad and the ugly — meaning a range of healthy, damaged and straggly. Clearly, long hair is still the ultimate way to look cool for many mature women. The thing is, maintaining long, healthy hair as you age is hard to do. Many women think growing it long is all you need to focus on and resist even the slightest snip.

The solution? Regular trims, a once- or twice-a-year hefty two inches off the ends, moisturizing shampoos and conditioners, less heat styling and careful chemical processing are musts. Evaluating how long your hair can realistically be to still look luscious is important too. Like owning an expensive car, very long hair is a luxury. Treat it like one.

7. Mistake: Wearing tight ponytails all the time.

Pulling your hair back tightly on the regular can be an easy style solution, but it's not exactly beneficial for your hair. Many women make a ponytail, braids or a modern bun their daily look. Sure, it may look good and save on styling time, but all that pulling can cause a type of hair loss called traction alopecia. It’s most noticeable at the hairline, where breakage can appear as mini hairs. Alternating pulled-back days with hair-down ones, varying the binding point from nape to crown, pulling out loose pieces around the face and opting for softer padded elastics or scrunchies can reduce breakage and permanent damage.

8. Mistake: Buying wrong-for-you shampoos and conditioners.

Any old shampoo and conditioner won’t do. At 50, your hair’s needs may be very different from those at 45 or even last year! It may be thinner, drier, more porous or damaged, whether still its natural color, gray or color processed. Some appealing formulas that are extra creamy seem great but may contain thick butters, silicones and oils that can weigh hair down and leave a greasy residue or dull your color. Others (especially clarifying shampoos) may strip away natural oils and leave your hair feeling dry, flat and limp.

Look for formulas with potent moisture boosters like hyaluronic acid, aloe, panthenol (B5) and strengthening ingredients like keratin, biotin and amino acids. Sulfate-free shampoos are often a smart switch for those with dry, frizz-prone or color-treated hair and/or a dry-sensitive scalp. You won’t get that big sudsy feeling (so don’t expect it) since sulfates — which work like detergents — are the suds drivers in shampoos. But whether you avoid sulfates or not, look for updated shampoos and conditioners that are hydrating and can solve other ongoing concerns.

For example, you might try a strengthening formula like Pantene Pro-V Miracles Bond Repair Keratin + Vitamin E Shampoo and Conditioner ($10 each, target.com) for damaged, dry hair; a body-boosting duo such as the sulfate-free Odele Volumizing Shampoo and Conditioner for Lift + Fullness a ($12 each, target.com) with amino acids; or the Dove Intensive Repair Damage Therapy Shampoo and Conditioner and ($12 each, cvs.com) with protein and hyaluronic acid.

9. Mistake: Cutting your own bangs.

COVID turned many salon-going women into temporary at-home hair pros. Some did root touch-ups or even colored their hair for the first time. That is understandable since we were desperate to feel glam or at least look reasonably groomed on Zoom and FaceTime. While knowing how to style your hair is essential, botched bangs are one of the mistakes I hear about most. Women who love their fringe know it’s one of the best allies against a receding hairline and forehead creases, including the 11s between the brows.

My advice? Avoid cutting bangs from scratch; even curtain or side-swept bangs are not easy. You need to get the width and depth right and the exact angle at the snip point. One slip and you end up with bangs that are too short, too thick or too skimpy to be effective. Instead, learn to trim your own bangs once a pro makes the initial cut. Ask your salon stylist for a lesson and invest in a pair of salon-quality hair shears (not your kitchen scissors or the ones you use for nails) for use at home and be sure to snip on dry hair styled the way you normally wear it (not on wet hair). This will allow for shrinkage and textural changes.

10. Mistake: Having the wrong blow-dry basics.

Still using an ordinary bath towel, a fine-tooth comb and a blow-dryer that gets so hot it fries your hair? Stop now. You need three updates: a microfiber hair towel, a wide-tooth detangling comb and an updated blow-dryer. Here’s why. Unlike an ordinary comb, those with round-tipped wide teeth like the Conair Detangle&Smooth Shower Comb ($3, cvs.com) are designed to slide through wet hair and gently unsnarl. This is essential for the in-shower distribution of conditioner and a comb-through when you apply a leave-in container/detangler/heat protectant. A microfiber towel like the Kitsch Microfiber Micro Dot Hair Towel ($24, walgreens.com) is lightweight but absorbs excess water like a sponge to cut down on drying time, while an ordinary bath towel roughs up the hair’s outer cuticle layer, causing frizz. Your trusty old blow-dryer may be clogged with hair and lint and lack the new technology that dries faster and more safely.

Do your hair a favor and splurge on an updated blow-dryer with ceramic, tourmaline or ionic technology that distributes heat more evenly to prevent scorching and has multiple heat and speed settings. There's no need to level up to those premium $400-$600 dryers getting lots of social media attention. The Chi Touch Activated Hair Dryer, Pink -1500 Watts ($110, target.com) with an on/off feature that stops when you pause to style or section as you dry, and five heat/ and speed settings; the Shark SpeedStyle RapidGloss Hair Dryer ($180, macys.com) with six heat and speed settings; or the BaBylissPro Nano Titanium Professional High-Speed Nano Light Ionic Hair Dryer ($160, sephora.com) with three heat and speed settings offer top-of-the-line technology for less. Worth it!

11. Mistake: Avoiding hair accessories.

I bet you skip the hair-accessory aisle in the drugstore and never peek at the posh hair bands and clips on beauty and retail sites. Think they’re too “young”? Yes, plenty of decorative clips, scrunchies and hair bands are better suited to kids and teens, but there are sophisticated options that solve everyday hair problems, allowing you to go from bedhead to a meeting in the morning and elegantly camouflage dirty or second-day hair for a night out.

The best choices are elegant headbands in solids and prints like the Locks & Mane Embroidered Floral Headband ($14, ulta.com) and the Everly Jersey Floral Knot Headband in Brown ($24, anthropologie.com). Also consider sleek tortoiseshell and neutral-toned barrettes and clips such as the Scunci Recycled Rectangular Open Center Hair Clips in Neutral ($7 for three pack, target.com) and soft ruched elastics like Slip Pure Silk Back-to-Basics Skinny Scrunchies Set ($34 for four, macys.com) which come in seven hair-tone shades including silver, blonde and dark brown that blend with your hair color. Skip anything that stresses the hair or scalp and encourages breakage, like metal hairbands and those with teeth.