How to Take Care of Your Hair During the Winter Season

Whether it’s for your immune system, skin or overall health, winter can be a pretty harsh season. Doctors and nutritionists recommend you modulate your dietary pattern to suit the weather and include winter foods in your daily diet to give your immune system a much-needed boost. Caring for your skin during the winter season can involve everything from the use of natural ingredients that maintain skin moisture to UV-protective creams. But what about hair care?

The dryness of the climate and the low temperature not only affect how your hair looks but also how healthy it is. Many people experience an excess of dandruff and hair fall during winters, apart from complaining that their hair looks dull and lustreless.

All of these issues can be handled if only you take ample care of your hair during this season. Your winter hair care routine could be daily, biweekly or weekly, but don’t skip it completely if you want your tresses to remain shiny and healthy. The following are some of the most useful winter hair care tips that you must follow:

1. Avoid excess heat

Simply because the weather is cold does not mean that you expose your scalp and hair to high temperatures. In fact, using excessively hot water or drying your hair with the dryer at the hottest of settings is the worst winter hair care nightmare because it’ll suck the moisture right off your skin and dry your scalp even more. Instead, you should use lukewarm water to wash your hair and dry your hair naturally as often as possible.

2. Don’t skip oiling

While oiling your hair may seem like a bother during winters, it is still a necessity. Dry scalp and dandruff are typical winter issues and so is frizz. These problems are likely to be at a minimum if you oil your hair once or twice a week. You can use coconut oil, almond oil, amla oil or even ghee or olive oil to naturally nourish your hair and lock in the moisture.

3. Cover your head

The sun may not be out often or seem harsh enough to hurt your hair and scalp during winters but that does not mean you should let your hair down and let it flow in the cold wind. Ultraviolet rays can still harm your hair and the cold winds can make your hair drier and frizzier than it would be otherwise. Just like you apply sunscreen on your skin during winters, wear a scarf or a trendy hat to shield your hair from the vagaries of the weather.

4. Don’t be harsh

The weather is already quite harsh on your hair during this season so your glorious mane does not need any additional tough love from you. What it needs is some TLC and a gentle hand. Don’t brush your hair too harshly, even if it is tangled or frizzy. Apply a good serum to deal with the frizz and use a hair pack every month to manage your hair without having to be harsh with it.

5. Keep drinking water

It’s easy to forget you have to drink water during the winter season but hydration is absolutely necessary for your overall as well as hair’s wellbeing. Studies show that if your body is hydrated enough, it won’t lose as much moisture during winters. Not only will drinking enough water keep your hair moisture levels in place but also tackle issues such as split ends, brittleness, dandruff and itchy scalp.

For more information, read our article on Dry hair.

Health articles on News18 are written by myUpchar.com, India’s first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health.