The way you wear your purse might be wrecking your hair

If you’ve got long hair, it’s hard not to be a touch paranoid about its health in the long run. We’re cautious about how much styling and heat we apply, and we do our best to use quality shampoo that won’t dry out our scalp. But have you ever considered that the way you wear your handbag might be affecting your tresses? Yep! How you carry your purse. Hear us out.

Lisa DeSantis has written about her most recent experience with a hair stylist, which armed her with some hair care information we could all use. When she sat down in the salon chair after her wash, Francis Catanese, a stylist at Art and Autonomy in New York City she was trying out for the first time, asked her, “Do you wear your purse on the left side?

Initially, she thought it was her lopsided posture that gave her away. When she admitted that he was correct and asked why he inquired, he responded, “I can tell because your hair is thinner on that side. I’ve seen it much worse, but there’s definitely a difference.

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Um, of all the reasons your hair would thin out — extreme stress, lack of protein, pregnancy — We would never have expected that it would be from the way you carry your purse. And neither did Lisa.

Francis went on to explain that the strap of your bag can pull at your hairs, weaken the follicles, and cause breakage. In some cases, it can tug out your precious strands completely! I don’t know about you, but this is beginning to sound like a low-budget horror movie to me.

Luckily, this is a problem that can be solved pretty easily. For starters, just be more aware of where your pretty hair sits every time you’re carrying around a purse. Move your locks out of the way or clip them to the side before you put the bag on your shoulder. The same goes for wearing backpacks. If you’re not careful, you could potentially thin out your hair on both sides. Eeek! It might be a good idea to pin your hair back while you’re in transit, and then you can let it run wild when you arrive at your destination.

If you’re wondering if your hair has been thinning on one side, go see a stylist who can do the inspection for you and break the news gently.