The winter season is the time of year for coziness and comfort, but it also comes with some downsides pertaining to hair and scalp health! If you live in wintery weather, chances are you already know the toll winter weather takes on hair. The drop in temperatures can make hair feel dry, rough, weak and prone to breakage. Just like with our skincare, we need to adjust our winter hair care routine to help maintain our hair hydration and protect hair.
These 10 hair care tips will keep your hair and scalp in perfect condition shape throughout the cold winter season!
1. Eat A Nutritious, Well-Balanced Diet for Healthy Hair
Eating a diet rich in protein and nutrients is essential for improving hair health. In addition, a lack of water intake can lead to dehydration which can affect the heath of hair, making hair rough and dry. Following a healthy, well-balanced diet with a combination of vitamin-rich fruits and vegetables, leafy greens, and lean meats will work to help keep your body and hair healthy and strong.
Check out this article on how to make vitamin A in foods work for you (and your hair).
2. Shampoo Less Often
Extending the time in between your washes can help maintain the natural balance of oil and moisture your scalp and hair needs. Washing hair everyday may seem like its necessary for some hair types, however frequently washing hair with harsh shampoos can strip the hair of its natural oils, causing further irritation and dryness on the scalp. When you wash your hair every day, you train your scalp to create more oil because the scalp needs these oils to be healthy. If possible, try to only wash your hair only 3 to 4 times a week. Washing your hair less often is a process that takes time. Just remember, if you're washing your hair every day and your hair seems to get greasy fast, you've trained your hair to relubricate. So start slow by washing your hair every other day. After a month, adjust this to every 3 days. After some time, you'll notice your hair is my hydrated AND less greasy. You CAN do it!
To help with the process, we recommend using a gentle, detoxifying treatment like Product Overload which helps to remove dead skin cells and product buildup, while infusing hydration and nutrients back into the hair. This is a gentle, sulfate-free formula that won't strip away your hair's natural (and needed) moisture.
3. Use a Rich and Creamy Conditioner
Do you know the difference between emollients, occlusives and humectants?
- Emollients provide immediate moisture to the skin and make it feel replenished.
- Occlusives help reduce water loss and form a barrier that keeps moisture inside.
- Humectants attract hydration and pull needed moisture into the skin and hair.
When selecting a hair conditioner, it's a good idea to get one that is well rounded and has a blend of all three categories of moisturizer and hydrators. Natural oils like coconut, jojoba, and shea butter can provide emolliency and occlusiveness while hyaluronic acid and glycerin can offer deep hydration for hair. For best results, after washing hair with a gentle, sulfate free shampoo, apply conditioner from the mid-lengths to ends. Concentrating the conditioner on the ends helps to prevent rough texture, dryness, and split ends.
Pro tip: Use a lightweight leave in conditioning treatment like Save Me From Age Acceleration. Applying this on wet hair after showering will help seal in the moisture but also thickens and volumizes, so hair never feels weighed down.
4. Switch Out Cotton Towels for Microfiber Towels for Healthy Hair
Cotton bath towels can cause hair to feel rough, tangle easily, and get frizzy. Using a microfiber towel to dry your hair is gentler, yielding a higher absorbency, and helps to reduce friction that can cause frizz and breakage.
5. Comb Hair Carefully
Dry hair in the winter tends to tangle, the key is to avoid combing your hair when it is wet to prevent hair snapping and breaking. Select a wide-tooth comb and start combing hair from the mid-lengths to ends. Gently comb hair downwards in order to reduce strain on the scalp while minimizing the risk of hair breakage.
6. Commit to a Weekly Hair Treatment
In the winter season the scalp can get dry, flaky and itchy due to the lack of moisture in the air and turning up the heat inside. This can lead to irritation and flakes that can cause hair fall. Using a hydrating, nourishing and soothing formula like Thermal Obsession works to nourish the scalp and replenishes moisture into strands by penetrating and sealing in moisture into the layers of the hair. The great news is that with any of the hair products like Save Me From Tip to Root Hair Reboot, the treatments are hybrid. You have the flexibility to decide - do you use more and leave it in as an weekly hair treatment OR do you use it sparingly and use it more often as a leave-in hair repair?
7. Invest in a Humidifier
Making an investment in a humidifier can go a long way in helping to help keep hair hydrated, soft and healthy in the winter months! With the transitions of cold, dry air outside with the warmer temperatures inside, this can draw moisture out of your tresses during the harsh fluctuations in temperatures during the winter season. Humidifiers work to rehydrate the air while balancing the moisture levels inside a room to help prevent hair dryness and reduce hair breakage.
8. Avoid Excessive Heat Styling
Since hair is brittle and more delicate in the winter season, using heat styling tools can exacerbate hair breakage and scalp dryness. Avoid blow drying as it can draw moisture from the scalp and out of hair. By embracing our natural hair texture and allowing hair to air dry, this minimizes the damage caused by excessively heat styling.
Pro tip: Taking a shower in the evening allows hair to air dry without touching your tresses without a dryer!
9. Don't Leave the house with Wet Hair
When wet hair is exposed to cold air in the winter, the hair shaft expands + makes your strands prone to breakage and can cause hair color to fade. Giving your hair extra time to air dry will help prevent breakage as well as the loss of hydration and color.
Pro tip: Modifying your morning routine and washing hair at night can offer healthy hair in the wintertime.
10. Get Regular Trims
The cold temperatures and dry air in the winter can cause hair breakage and split ends. To prevent further winter hair damage, trim the dry ends off your hair every four to eight weeks to keep hair looking fresh, healthy and hydrated in the winter.
Fenugen, The Fenugreek Rich Hair Treatment for Healthier Hair
What is the best oil for dry hair in the winter? Sometimes you need something completely different. It's worth mentioning the hair reparative benefits of Fenugen. Inspired by Ayurvedic medicine, we've captured the most active parts of fenugreek benefits for hair and unleashed its rich phytonutrients into a concentrated and purified active ingredient. Fenugreek phytonutrients include medium and long chain fatty acids, terpenoids, polyphenols, phospholipids and vitamins A, C and B variety vitamins (including vitamin B3 for hair benefits) and paired these with bio-boosters like ubiquinone (also known as Coenzyme Q10 for hair), organic Karanja (also known as Pongamia for hair benefits) and medium chain triglycerides (MCT’s derived from coconut for hair). As you age, hair losses important moisture and nutrition that causes your hair to become dry, porous, easily tangled and look dull. Fenugen is a rich source for phospholipids such as phosphatidylcholine, conditioning mucilage & vitamins A, C & several B that replenish your hair’s hydration, restores healthy porosity & lightly condition so your hair can be frizz-free & shiny. Through a patented eco extraction process, we've magnified fenugreek’s phytonutrients and phospholipid content into our clinically proven technology. Fenugen possesses the rich nutrients of fenugreek seeds in a complex 5x more potent in its phytonutrients. These nutrients include Vitamin A, B Vitamins, Vitamin C and more. With consistent, long-term use, hair bonds are rebuilt, hydration is restored helping to reduce frizz, the scalp is energized and nourished from within allowing hair that's more resistant to damage to emerge. Rooted in Ayurveda, our Fenugen is the best ingredient for healthy hair - clinically proven to transform hair from tip to root, inside and out.
Check out our article about the importance of phospholipids and hair ceramides, here.
