How to Hydrate Your Dry Hair in the Summer Heat
The height of summer means the hottest days of the year, and depending on where you live, those days could be full of humidity or as dry as the desert. But either way, summer means more sweat, and more sweat usually means extra showers.
So whether you mean to or not, if you have a habit of washing your hair every time you shower, there’s a good chance your extra showers are actually depleting your scalp of healthy oils and leaving your hair feeling dry and brittle.
Summertime also means you’re likely to find yourself relaxing by the pool or at the beach. The sun, chlorine and saltwater you’ll undoubtedly encounter will all play a part in creating your dry summer hair. Learning to be proactive and protect your hair from dehydration isn’t so different from surviving summer when you have thinning hair. Remember that natural oils are healthy and swim caps can save you from a headache later on down the road.
What Causes Dry Hair?
If you’ve been struggling with extra frizz lately, your hair looks dull, and/or it feels brittle, you might have dry hair. Dry hair happens for two main reasons: either your hair can’t retain moisture, or your scalp doesn’t produce enough oils to moisturize your hair.
There are quite a few reasons your hair might be unable to retain moisture, such as environmental aggressors, damaged cuticles, overwashing, harsh shampoos and heat damage. On the other hand, the amount of oil your scalp produces is most commonly impacted by your age, since your hair makes less oil as you get older, but it can be due to overwashing as well. The chemicals involved in bleaching and coloring your hair can also rid your hair of its beneficial natural oils.
Because your scalp produces less oil as you age, that often means that by the time you have a head full of grays, the texture and feel of your hair has changed as well. Don’t worry, that’s completely natural. But natural or not, your hair needs moisture. Keep reading to learn how to add that much-needed moisture back into your tresses.
If it feels like your dry hair has become more of a sudden issue than a gradual development, you might want to talk to your doctor. There are a number of health conditions, and medications, that could be causing your scalp to dry out.
Hydrate for Your Hair Type
Believe it or not, all hydrating products and techniques are not created equal. Coarse, fine and curly hair each require something a little different to keep them at their healthiest. And while all hair types can suffer from a lack of moisture, especially when the hair is aging, coarse hair and curly hair are particularly prone to dryness.
If you have coarse hair that's perpetually dry, you might want to opt for a thicker, repairing shampoo since the wider width of coarse hair naturally requires more moisture. The reason these shampoos are thicker is that they often contain moisturizing ingredients such as aloe vera and argan oil. Applying a butter masque after shampooing, focused on the mid-lengths and ends, also helps to boost moisture.
If you have curly hair, your curl patterns can make it more challenging for your natural scalp oils to travel down the hair shaft and soak into your strands. This is often why shampoos aimed at those with curly hair have a creamier, thicker texture—to provide more moisture. When your natural oils stay stuck on your scalp, however, you can end up with both an oily scalp and dry hair, so focusing a conditioner like our Bounce Back Super Moisturizing Conditioner for Curly Hair on the mid-lengths and ends is best.
When it comes to thin or fine hair, the trick is to keep it moisturized without weighing it down. This means you should reach for lighter-weight products and focus conditioners on the ends of your hair since fine hair tends to be drier on the ends. Plus, avoiding your roots will help keep your scalp from becoming oily.
We love our hydrating Wake Up Call Volumizing Shampoo for its ability to add volume and fullness to aging strands without drying hair out like many volumizing shampoos do. And our Wake Up Call Volumizing Conditioner hydrates, smooths and adds manageability without weighing hair down.
When choosing any hydrating shampoo, make sure to avoid sulfates, as they can be too harsh on your hair and scalp, stripping them of the beneficial oils you need to retain moisture.
When styling, avoid products that contain alcohol as a key ingredient, as they can dry out your hair. Our Lift Me Up Hair Thickener is a terrific lightweight spray that wraps around thinning hair strands for allover volume and lift at the roots. It's non-drying and non-sticky, it won't add any unwanted buildup and it also nourishes the scalp and follicles.
When you’re heat styling at home, make sure you’re using a heat protectant like our No Remorse Heat Protection & Taming Spray to keep the moisture in your hair, where it belongs.
And when brushing your hair, choose a boar bristle brush, as the thin, compact bristles will help distribute the natural oils in your scalp throughout your strands.
5 DIY Home Remedies for Dry Hair
First and foremost, no matter your hair type, try washing your hair less often. We recommend two to three times a week if possible. Hair oils aren’t your enemy—you don’t have to rush to the shower as soon as your hair starts to feel a little greasy. But if you can’t resist the exhilarating feeling of a head-to-toe shower, remember that you can always just give your hair a rinse with warm water or just apply conditioner so your hair has a chance to soak up extra moisture.
1. Don’t Completely Wash Your Conditioner Away
While in the shower, don’t rinse the conditioner from your hair until it feels like you never applied it. Instead of sticking your hair under the pressure washer that is your showerhead to rinse your conditioner out, try using a cup to gently pour the water over your head and squeeze the conditioner out of your hair. It might sound crazy, but you will be amazed at how healthy and moisturized your hair will feel once it’s dry.
2. Bath Towels Are for Your Skin, Not Your Hair
When it comes to drying your hair, leave your towel on the rack. Bath towels are designed to do one thing: dry. But while that’s great for your skin and keeps the water off your bathroom floor, that’s not what you want for your hair. Especially if you’re already dealing with dry or dehydrated hair.
So instead of using your bath towel to squeeze the water out of your hair or, heaven forbid, rubbing it against your hair and scalp, try drying it with a microfiber towel, 100% cotton T-shirt or flour sack towels. All of these are gentler on your hair and less drying than traditional bath towels.
3. Scalp Massages Pair Well with Oils
Add a scalp massage to your weekly hair-care routine either when you shampoo your hair or at some point later in the day—you can even ask your partner for a scalp massage while you relax on the couch at the end of the night. Why is this so important? Because when you massage your scalp, you increase blood flow and sebum production (your scalp’s healthy, natural oil).
And while you’re at it, don’t be afraid to add oils back into your scalp and hair by applying coconut oil, argan oil, avocado oil or jojoba oil during your scalp massage. Or you could make your life simpler by reaching for your Superpower Serum and Liquid Comb, designed to make adding oil back into your scalp easier than ever while also conditioning the skin and hair at the roots.
4. Deep Condition from Home
Rather than having to run to your stylist for a deep-conditioning treatment, why not make it happen at home instead? All you really need is a restorative mask and a source of heat, such as a deep conditioning heat cap.
While adding heat certainly isn't a requirement for many hair masks—including our Hair Redemption Restorative Butter Masque, which is designed to penetrate deeply into the hair shaft while also locking in moisture—applying heat to your hair will help open the cuticles in the hair shaft so that they can absorb as much moisture as possible. Adding a deep-conditioning treatment to your hair-care routine a couple of times a month or evenly weekly will bring the moisture you need back into your thirsty locks.
5. Supplements Make Hair Care Easy
One of the easiest things you can do is make hair-friendly supplements a part of your daily wellness regimen. While environmental and outside factors are often to blame for the health of your hair, you can give yourself a leg up by promoting hair health from the inside out.
Our Significant Other Hair, Skin & Nails Supplement features all the essentials nutrients like vitamins A and B and biotin for stronger-, healthier-looking hair.
Tell Us: Do you have a go-to remedy for dry hair during the summer? Share in the comments below!
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