Hair gel seems to be a compulsory part of styling your hair. However, there are a few side effects that might make you wish you never had to use it again. If you want your hair to be healthy and look its best, you need to keep the styling products to a minimum. Ideally, you should only use hair gel for special occasions. Daily application can be outright dangerous.

1. Dehydration

Hair gels contain alcohol that dries out your hair. Excessive hair gel use can dehydrate your locks and make them drier than normal. As a result, your hair will look coarse. Hair gel reduces the production of natural oil called sebum that’s one of the main nutrients for your hair. Once the sebum production is decreased, the hair becomes brittle and breaks every time you comb it. Brittle hair is often frizzy and unmanageable. This leads to people using more and more gel, which is a vicious cycle.

2. Hair Loss

When you use too much hair gel, it clogs the scalp pores. This, in turn, decreases the amount of nutrients your hair gets from your organism. Besides, it leads to the reduction of moisture levels which results in dry scalp. Eventually, you get dry and brittle hair along with flaky skin and dandruff. Clogged pores and lack of nutrients lead to excessive hair loss. The more you use hair gel on a regular basis, the more prone you are to such problems as receding hair lines. If the problem persists you might want to check out the latest men’s military haircuts.

3. Hair Color Alterations

Since hair gel removes the proper nutrients from your hair and even changes the pH balance of your locks, the unpleasant side effect of its use is dull and faded hair color. This goes for both natural and dyed hair. Natural hair color loses its brightness and becomes pale. At the same time, the number of gray hairs is increased. The fewer nutrients your hair gets, the more likely it is to start graying faster. At the same time, split ends are more likely to appear and you will need to schedule the barber shop appointments more often than before.

4. Skin Damage

The excessive use of hair gel leads to skin damage. The pores get clogged and the skin doesn’t receive enough hydration. Dehydrated skin is prone to dryness and this results in flakiness and dandruff. Over time, the production of healthy skin cells is decreased which leads to the loss of elasticity. Eventually, this results in skin irritation and brings about such unpleasant skin problems as seborrheic dermatitis. With time this disease spreads from beneath your hair to the skin along the hairline and becomes visible.

5. Cancer

While this might seem far-fetched, some chemicals used in hair gels can contribute to the development of cancer. Phthalates and parabens are the components that give most of the hair gels their stickiness. They were proven to be carcinogenic and are mostly linked to breast cancer.

The next time you decide to use hair gel to improve your hairstyle, consider the side effects. Perhaps you can come up with a way to avoid it.