When the cold weather hits, it’s time to switch up your hair care routine. The winter months can seriously impact your hair’s overall health, making it dry, brittle, and frizzy. The cold air zaps moisture from your skin, including your scalp, which can lead to further issues like itchiness and flaking. And moving between the cold outdoors and warm indoor heat can lead to even more dryness and damage. Don’t let the change in seasons wreak havoc on your strands. From upping your hydrating hair treatments, to switching out your hair care products, and sleeping with a humidifier in your bedroom, here are 8 winter hair care tips for soft, healthy hair.
8 Winter Hair Care Tips to Avoid Dryness and Breakage
1. Use Gentle Products
It’s super important to use gentle products on your hair throughout the winter. Clarifying/detoxing products can strip the moisture from your hair and scalp, accelerating problems like itching, flaking, and inflammation. Instead, make sure you’re using a gentle, hydrating shampoo for your hair type. The Pureology Hydrate Shampoo is ideal for dry, colour-treated hair. Jojoba adds moisture, while sage and green tea stimulate hair follicles and support a healthy scalp. Make sure to follow up with a gentle conditioner for added softness and shine.
2. Do a Weekly Hair Repair Mask
Your hair needs extra moisture in the winter since the cold outdoors and heated indoors can dry it out. Use a hair repair mask such as the OUAI Treatment Mask once a week (or more, if needed) to hydrate, soften, and condition your hair. It’s a rich, restorative mask that acts like a deep conditioner, healing split ends and protecting your hair from future damage. Formulated with shea butter to condition and soften, hydrolyzed keratin to reduce frizz, and panthenol to improve shine and strength, this is the perfect product to add to your winter hair care routine.
3. Hair Oil Treatment
Doing a hair oil treatment can add an extra boost of moisture to your hair during the cooler months. Oils such as argan, jojoba, and coconut mimic your scalp’s natural oil, delivering moisture and locking in hydration. You can use oil as a pre-wash treatment by applying it to your hair and scalp 30 minutes before shampooing. You can also add a few drops to damp hair after you wash it. Or you can massage it into your ends before bed for overnight repair.
4. Give Your Scalp Some Love
The winter can also wreak havoc on your scalp, which in turn affects the health of your hair. Try a scalp mask to remove excess skin cells and oil, and soothe a dry, flaky scalp. Briogeo’s Scalp Revival Hydration Scalp Mask detoxifies, nourishes, and soothes an itchy, irritated scalp. It boosts scalp hydration and is made with beneficial ingredients such as charcoal, white tea tree, peppermint, and spearmint oils to soothe and support healthy hair growth. Massage it directly into the scalp, leave it on for 10 minutes, then rinse it out fully, following with conditioner.
5. Shower in Lukewarm Water
Wash your hair with lukewarm water and finish with a cool rinse to close your hair follicles. Hot water strips away natural oils that keep your hair moisturized, making it more brittle and vulnerable to damage. It also lifts the hair cuticle, making hair rough, frizzy, and prone to tangles. Lukewarm water, on the other hand, open hair cuticles enough to wash away dirt and product build-up without stripping away essential oils. Cold water constricts cuticle layers to smooth the hair and lock in hydration, so it’s great to do a cold blast at the end of your shower.
6. Never Go Out with Wet Hair
You should never be leaving your house with wet hair during the winter. Your hair is in a more delicate state when it’s wet and since water expands when it freezes, going outside with damp hair can expand the water in your hair shaft, lifting the cuticle and making it more susceptible to damage. Always make sure your hair is fully dry before going outside. And if you need to blow dry it, make sure to use a heat protectant spray first.
7. Sleep with a Humidifier in Your Room
When the air is dry around us, we experience transepidermal water loss. This is when the air starts extracting moisture from wherever it can be found, including our skin This is also why we experience chapped lips and dry skin so much quicker in the winter. Sleeping with a humidifier in your room at night adds moisture back into the air and can help combat this. When your room is properly hydrated, your hair and skin will be too.
8. Opt for Less Damaging Hair Accessories
If you’re constantly putting your hair up in hair ties, it’s time to switch up your accessory game. Not only can hair ties pull the hair too tight, leading to breakage, they also cause friction and damage to the hair shaft, leading to split ends. This can be especially brutal when combined with other winter hair woes. To prevent damage or breakage in your hair, opt for claw clips or silk scrunchies to pull your hair back. Claw clips allow you to keep your hair as loose as possible and scrunchies cause less friction to the hair than hair ties.
If you’re experiencing dry, brittle hair this winter, use these tips and products to transform your strands.
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