How To Wash Your Hair To Prevent Damage
| Hair damage is inevitable. If you’re living in the city, you have to take extra measures to protect your hair. Urban living environments contain dust, pollution, dirt and other contaminants that can be damaging to hair in the long run. Additionally, even hard water or chlorinated water in cities can damage your hair. |
When hair gets too damaged, it leads to breakage and oftentimes, this is beyond our control. However, you needn’t worry as there are many measures that you can adopt to keep your hair protected from the environment.
The first step that we recommend is to find the right way to wash your hair. Our hair is at its most delicate when it’s wet. Therefore, it is crucial to follow the right methods to wash, dry and protect our hair. Let’s look at the steps we should remember before we dive into the details of how to protect your hair from damage:
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- Pick the right hair cleanser
- Avoid scalding hot water
- Do not wash every day
- Use the right techniques
- Follow rinsing hygiene
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Pick the right hair cleanser
The first step to addressing hair damage control is to pick a hair cleanser that is most suitable for your hair type. There’s a reason so many different formulations exist in the market today: it’s because different hair types need different kinds of care. Whether your hair is curly or straight, dry or oily, natural or coloured: it’s best if you find the right hair cleanser for you.
Avoid extremely hot water
Did you know that the temperature of the water that you use to wash your hair can have an adverse impact if it’s too hot? While we all love a good hot shower, we know that extremely hot water damages hair follicles and cuticles, which are essential to protecting hair from external pollutants. Long-term use of hot water also makes hair weak, excessively dry and prone to breakage. We recommend using warm water to wash your hair and finishing off with a cold rinse for giving your hair a healthy shine
Do not wash every day
While it may be tempting to run the shower over your hair every day, it has been proven that washing hair every day can be problematic. Washing your hair leads to over cleansing, which causes your scalp to produce excess oil and become flat and oily. As we mentioned earlier, hair is fragile and prone to breakage when it’s wet. Lowering your hair wash frequency will restore your scalp’s natural oil balance and leave you with healthy and strong locks. We suggest you try different routines and find a sweet spot between once a week, thrice a week, or every other day, depending on how naturally oily your hair tends to be.
Follow the right washing technique
Did you know that there are specific techniques for washing and conditioning your hair? Hair cleansers(or shampoos) are meant for your scalp and conditioners are meant to be applied from mid-length to the tips of your hair. To put it simply, apply shampoo directly and evenly to your scalp and run your fingers through it to distribute it evenly. Apply conditioner only on the lengths and ends of your hair, and not your scalp. You should not leave conditioner on for more than a few minutes at a time.
Rinse properly
Now that we’ve covered all the steps of washing your hair, it comes down to one of the most important steps – rinsing. It’s important to remember to avoid washing your hair in a hurry. Pay attention to getting every last bit of shampoo out of your hair. If left behind, they can cause the roots of your hair to feel sticky and heavy, making detangling difficult. Always finish your rinse with one last run of cold filtered water, as it can help wash hard water out of your hair.
As covered above, washing your hair can be a more delicate process than you think. Even if we take care to apply all the required measures necessary, sometimes hair damage can be boiled down to the hardness of the water that we use. Luckily, we have a remedy to address hard water. Stay tuned for our next blog post to know more.