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Your winter guide to healthy hair
Hair and skin both need extra care in the winter season. The dryness makes the hair frizzy and moist-free leading to an itchy scalp. Here’s how you can fix your tress mess and make the hair healthy
With the onset of winter, one needs to protect the hair from damage. Here’s how.
For dry hair: Use a mild shampoo with conditioner twice a week and deep condition your hair once a week. During the winter months, deep condition your hair at least once a week. This will help in replenishing the moisture, which depletes due to styling with hot hair tools or the cold winter air. An alternative is to oil the hair once a week and leave overnight for the moisture to absorb in the roots. This makes your hair soft and lustrous. Include essential fatty acids in your diet like fish, flax seeds and almonds, to improve the texture and combat dryness.
Brittle hair: Brittle hair is prone to breakage and requires a conditioner to repair protein structure and infuse moisture. Sun damage, hair colouring, chemical treatments like traightening, relaxing, perms along with heat damage from styling remove the moisture and break vital elastic protein cellular connectivity. When your hair is exposed to hot air from the dryer, the process makes the hair even more dry and easy to break. Let your hair dry naturally, avoid using a dryer unless you are in a hurry. Even then use the dryer on a cold setting to help hold moisture in the hair. Include zinc rich food like meat, eggs, whole grains and nuts full of Vitamin B6, B12 and C.
Oily hair: Sebum glands on the scalp create a natural hair conditioner that lubricates the scalp. While an extra oil keeps the scalp in good condition and prevents dryness, it can also cause oily hair. For oily hair, shampoo it with cool water and massage less. Hot water and massages simulate the sebaceous oil glands on the scalp help to produce more oil. Eating food rich in Vitamin B such as poultry, fish, meat, beans, fruits and vegetables will help combat the oil production in your body and scalp and also regulate the sebum production.