Woman who battled with severe hair loss cautions against doing sleek, ‘clean girl’ hairstyles

If you’ve been even the slightest bit online in the last year, you’ll know that the “clean girl” aesthetic has been all the rage. A distinguishing characteristic of the look is the slicked-back bun or ponytail à la popular nepo babies and “it” girls Sofia Richie and Hailey Bieber. While undeniably trendy and “off-duty model chic,” these hairstyles may cause severe damage to your scalp.

A creator Basicela (@basicela_), who has struggled with hair loss, has recently taken to TikTok to caution against these “clean girl” updos.

“I’ve battled with severe hair loss the past seven years. … Only now, I’ve managed to grow my hair, and part of it is to stop these hairstyles or reduce them to a minimum,” Basicela says in an Oct. 9 video. “I always felt the most comfortable when my hair was out of my face, and this is what it caused.”

The American Academy of Dermatology Association noted that a “tightly pulled updo,” if done often, “can damage your hair follicles.” If your follicles are damaged, “your hair cannot grow back, so you develop permanent hair loss.”

In her video, Basicela pulls her hair into a bun to show that the hair on the left side of her head is noticeably thinner. She says this was caused by “two major issues” of “clean girl” hairstyles.

The first issue, according to Basicela, is “the kind of elastic band you have to use when you do a very slick hairstyle.” Because you have to wrap the elastic a few times to secure the hair, the friction of doing so will cause the hair to break off. This is an even bigger concern for women who have a finer hair texture.

The second issue is that a slicked-back hairstyle requires constant pulling of the hair to achieve that snatched, facelift effect. Doing this daily or every other day, Basicela explains, can lead to “constant pulling” in your hair.

Ariana Grande, who has been rocking her signature slicked-back ponytail for nearly a decade, has also spoken about her receding hairline after years of continuously pulling back her hair.

Low bun hairstyles, Basicela says, are the worst because of how they widen your hairline. She also claims that, according to her trichologist, a specialist who focuses on hair and the scalp, many young girls are being treated for hair loss — and it’s because of the low bun.

According to experts like hair transplant surgeon Dr. Daniel Ness, the type of hair loss associated with this trend of updos is recognized as traction alopecia.

“Many hairstyles can cause hair loss, however, the main ones are tight ponytails and buns, tight braids and extensions,” Ness told Metro (U.K.). “If you often wear your hair tightly pulled back like this, the first sign of hair loss may be broken hairs around your hairline or thinning hair around the temples, known as frontal or parietal hair loss.”

The best thing for your scalp, Basicela says, is to “leave your hair open.” That is, to not put it up at all — or, if you do, to put it in a loose updo with a claw clip. You should also refrain from putting your hair in a sleek bun while it’s still wet, as “wet hair is the most vulnerable.”

“When hair is wet, it’s more likely to break,” Siobhán Quinlan, a creative director, stylist and colorist at Cutler Salon in Los Angeles, told Real Simple. According to Real Simple, this happens because “when hair gets wet, the proteins that make up each strand (keratin) form weaker hydrogen bonds, rendering it more susceptible to damage from being pulled, stretched, bent, or otherwise roughly handled.”

Basicela’s video, which has more than 847,600 views and 40,200 likes as of this reporting, has captured its target audience: women who’ve either been interested in these hairdos or have also suffered hair loss from doing them.

TikTok user @slaterlaura wrote, “Yes people don’t talk about this enough! I only do them on especial occasions.”

@helloblairw thanked Basicela for raising awareness about this, commenting, “Thank u!!! I was doing this hairstyle for a year I think, and my hair started falling out a lot, I didn’t know what was causing it.”

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