Edited by: Ananya Khandelwal (UG 2021)
Winters are rough. It’s hard enough working through the harsh temperatures and frequent colds, but taking care of your body—and especially your hair—becomes an additional burden. While it may be hard to maintain your hair perfectly throughout the season, here are 5 ways you can nourish it and protect it from the cold this winter!
1. Reduce Washing Your Hair
In the winter, washing your hair excessively will dry out the scalp. To avoid this, try reducing the amount of times you wash your hair in a week. Washing it upto two times a week should be a good idea.
2. Use Moisturising Hair Products
Your hair can feel very rough and lifeless in the winter, so it’s important that you moisturize it. You can do this by using products with moisturizing ingredients or moisture locking properties. Applying coconut oil to your hair once a week can also help nourish your hair. On a similar note, hair masks can be very effective, and can be fun to do—especially with friends. While there are many great products available in the market, you can also make hair masks all by yourself. So, keeping that in mind, here is a recipe for a DIY hair mask that will help your locks regain their shine:
DIY Honey-Banana Mask
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Ingredients:
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1 ripe banana
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1.5-2 tsp honey
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Method: Take one ripe banana and cut it up into small pieces. Place these pieces into a bowl and mash them up with a spoon until you successfully mash the banana into a paste of sorts. Add your honey to this mixture and mix well. When you’re satisfied with the consistency of your paste, apply this mixture liberally onto your hair and let it rest for around 20 minutes. Once this is done, wash your hair with your regular routine.
3. Change the Way You Dry Your Hair
Drying your hair is almost as important as washing it. Instead of using hair dryers, choose to air dry or towel dry your hair- though make sure you pat it dry gently if you choose the latter method. Also, if you can, wait until your hair completely dries until you leave your house. Leaving the house with damp hair will not only damage it, but will also make you more likely to catch a cold.
4. Avoid Hot Water
While taking long, hot showers in the winter can be comforting and fulfilling, the hot water isn’t all that good for your hair. Hot water tends to dry your hair and scalp out, and can potentially create split ends and causes dandruff. Instead of this, use normal to lukewarm temperature water instead.
5. Minimize Styling, Especially Heat-based Styling
This tip seems almost self explanatory, especially with the other conditions kept in mind. The harsh weather does enough damage, don’t maximize that by using a lot of heat based styling products.
So, there you go! Though these tips don’t guarantee perfect hair throughout the cold months, they’ll definitely help nourish and protect your hair and scalp this winter season.