The cold weather is fast approaching, which also means that your hair will be needing some extra care.
In the winter, hair can suffer dryness and become more prone to damage, due to the lack of moisture in the air.
Here are some things that you can do to help maintain healthy hair in the winter.
Use a hydrating shampoo – great hair starts in the shower. Using a hydrating shampoo will infuse more moisture into the hair’s shaft. If you find your scalp more on the oily side, try using the hydrating shampoo once a week instead of every wash. You can also try using a hydrating conditioner on the ends only if the hydrating shampoo is too much moisture for your scalp.
Wash your hair every other day or less – have you ever noticed hair rarely feels as good after a wash as it does the next day? Hair becomes more dry after a wash, and it feels wonderful the next day due to regaining some of that oil that you stripped off back. Limit the amount of times you wash your hair in a week, and this will help with the dryness.
Try a hair oil – hair oils can help coat the hair shaft and lock moisture in. It creates a barrier between the hair and the hair, and most commercial hair oils also have smoothing properties to help the hair look smooth and silky. You can also try to make your own, or use whatever oils you may have on hand. Coconut oil smells divine, and many people have gotten wonderful results with adding just a touch of coconut oil to the ends of their hair.
Give yourself a weekly hair mask treatment – give your hair more of a moisture boost with a hair mask.
You can do this at home with ingredients from your kitchen. A really good one is the avocado and banana mask. YUM! Just mash up half an avocado with 2 bananas (the riper the better), and apply to your hair. Let sit for 20 minutes, then wash off with shampoo in the shower.
Another one that’s quite simple to put together is coconut oil and honey hair mask. Mix up 1 tbsp of coconut oil with 1 tbsp of honey (more if you’ve get extra thick or long hair), apply to the hair and let sit for 20 mins.
If you’d like, put your hair up with the mask applied, and saran wrap it up while you let it sit. This will keep some extra heat in between the hair and saran wrap, which will help the mask absorb into the hair shaft.
Use an ionic blow dryer – it’s best to avoid heat styling if you can, but for some of us, that simply isn’t an option. If you must blow dry your hair, opt for an ionic blow dryer. In the colder months, the air is drier, making your hair full of positive atoms, which also creates static.
An ionic blow drier will emit negatively charged ions back into the hair, removing the static. These ions also help by breaking down water molecules, as opposed to just evaporating the water out of your hair, which is stripping your hair of moisture.
Try out these tips this winter to enjoy healthy, silky, beautiful, shiny hair.
What are your favourite hair winter rescue tips? I would love to discuss!