A magnetic head for reading information from and writing information to a hard magnetic disk having reduced thermal protrusion at the air bearing surface. In some embodiments, a read-head portion of the magnetic head includes one or more read insulation layers, and a write-head portion of the magnetic head includes one or more write insulation layers. The magnetic head may optionally further include one or more insulation layers between the read-head portion and the write-head portion. One or more of these insulation layers includes a material with a negative thermal expansion characteristic, including but not limited to, carbon fiber, zirconium tungstate (Zr W.sub.2 O.sub.8), or hafnium tungstate (Hf W.sub.2 O.sub.8).