The cold, dry weather we experience during winter can have a noticeable impact on our skin, but winter can also affect our scalp and hair health. Whether your hair feels dry and frizzy, or maybe your scalp becomes flaky, dry and itchy, we can all experience the effects of winter each year. But the good news is, with a few small and intentional changes in our haircare routine and by being aware of our daily hair habits, we can prevent and manage winter hair. During the coldest months of the year, we must focus on hydrating, nourishing and protecting our scalp and hair if we want to experience our healthiest hair long term. So, let’s discuss why our hair struggles during winter and what you can start doing now to see your best hair health results.
How does winter weather affect our hair?
With cold air and very dry weather conditions, we can experience a dry scalp in winter and even scalp irritations due to a lack of moisture. Our hair can also feel dry, brittle and prone to breakage, not only from the cold weather, but also from the hot water temperatures many of us enjoy in the shower. Our brittle hair is even more prone to further damage when we also use heated styling tools on a regular basis. With an endless list of factors that can cause poor hair health, we can see why so many of us experience an increase in hair breakage and damage. You may even feel that you’re losing more hair during winter; however, it’s important to identify whether it is hair loss from your scalp or actually hair breakage caused by all the damaging factors we’ve just discussed. If you do, in fact, feel you’re experiencing hair loss, not breakage, then it is time to look deeper into what the underlying cause of this is, for example, stress, illnesses or a lack of nutrients. Winter conditions are known to cause poor hair health and damage, but weather changes are not known to be a causing factor behind hair loss from your scalp.
Hydrate, treat, nourish and care for your hair
Knowing that our hair can become extremely dry, brittle and prone to damage during winter due to the cold air and lack of humidity, here are some of the easiest ways you can hydrate, nourish, moisturise, condition and protect your hair.
Weekly hair mask treatments
Implementing hair mask treatments into your haircare routine at least once a week is an effective way of deeply nourishing and hydrating both your scalp and hair. For your best results, ensure you’re using an all-natural, silicone free hair treatment, like our Sozo Hair Health Mask. Many hair products are formulated with silicones and ingredients known to make your hair feel smooth and shiny in the short term, but these ingredients can actually create a build up on your hair long term, which can lead to dry, brittle and unhealthy hair over time. But with a rich, all-natural hair treatment, like our Sozo Hair Health Mask, you can actively nourish, hydrate, condition, repair and strengthen your hair, as well as soothe and condition problematic scalps, all thanks to scientifically proven natural ingredients for healthier hair in the short and long term.
If you’ve only got limited time in your busy life and are not sure when you could commit to applying a weekly hair mask, the best thing you can do is shampoo as you normally would, then generously apply our natural hair mask to your scalp and hair in place of conditioner, and allow it to absorb for about 5 minutes while in the shower. You can leave your hair mask in for a longer 30 minute treatment for more enhanced results, but applying it for as little as 5 minutes when in the shower allows you to deeply nourish and hydrate your hair without needing to dedicate a large amount of time out of your day.
Prewash scalp and hair oiling
In addition to weekly hair masks, another winter haircare essential is prewash scalp and hair oiling treatments. Oiling your scalp and hair on a regular basis can soothe, condition and hydrate your scalp, as well as reduce inflammation and support healthy hair growth. Plus, with the right all-natural oils and ingredients, you can strengthen, smooth, nourish and condition your hair, as well as increase shine.
There is a range of effective oils and ingredients you can apply to your hair. But to experience your best results, the easiest way to enjoy the benefits of hair oiling is to use an all-natural serum. Our Sozo Scalp & Hair Health Serum contains ingredients proven to target both your scalp and hair health, including argan oil, beetroot extract, sunflower seed oil, grapeseed oil, rosemary oil and more. This means you can apply this one product generously to your scalp and hair at least 30 minutes before washing, then wash as normal, double shampoo and experience shiny, healthy and hydrated hair, even during winter.
All-natural shampoo and conditioner
Choosing the right treatment products and oils is not the only aspect of your routine that you need to focus on when trying to combat winter hair. In fact, our shampoo and conditioner, play a vitally important role. Many shampoos contain sulphates and other harsh cleaning agents that are known to strip your natural oil over time, leaving you with dry, unhealthy hair. This means, your hair is already vulnerable to damage when the cold winter weather starts. But with an all-natural product, like our Sozo Hair Health Shampoo, that is formulated with sulphate free surfactants, you can enjoy a clean, healthy scalp and hydrated hair. Both our shampoo and conditioner are vital to nourishing, smoothing frizz, hydrating, conditioning and strengthening your hair every time you wash. Weekly hair masks and regular prewash oil treatments are essential, but if we’re not using the right shampoo and conditioner formulated to enhance both our scalp and hair health, we simply won’t see our best results possible.
Maintain a balanced diet
Outside of your winter haircare routine, ensuring you eat a well-balanced diet, filled with nutrient rich foods, is an essential way to promote healthy hair internally. If we’re not prioritising our physical health and diet, we can’t expect our haircare products to do all the heavy lifting. Foods like eggs, berries, spinach and many others that provide essential protein, vitamins and minerals are wonderful to include in your diet for your healthiest hair.
Prevent damage when styling
Now that you’ve established your winter haircare routine to support your healthiest scalp and hair, you also need to be aware of and intentional about your hair and styling habits that are actively causing damage and breakage.
Limit heat exposure
We all know and understand that heat is one of the most common factors contributing to hair damage. So, to keep your hair as healthy and hydrated as possible, especially in the winter months, you want to limit your exposure to heated styling tools and focus on using low heat settings on your blow dryer. When we’re putting in the time and energy to take care of our hair with the best natural haircare products, who wants to undo all that hard work with extreme heat damage?
Although limiting heat exposure is an effective way to prevent further damage, it can be difficult to eliminate all heated tools completely. This is why applying heat protection before you start styling is vital. Not only has our Sozo Scalp & Hair Health Serum been formulated for prewash oiling treatments, but because of its lightweight formula, you can also apply it to the ends of your hair before styling to help prevent heat damage.
Prevent frizzy hair
Dry hair and cold weather can also mean frizz! In addition to keeping your hair hydrated, moisturised and conditioned with your shampoo, conditioner and hair mask, hair oils and serums can also be used to smooth and manage frizz between washes. Our Sozo Scalp & Hair Health Serum, specifically, is not only great for preventing heat damage, but it can also be applied to your ends to help keep your frizzy hair under control. All you need to do is gently massage a couple of drops of our lightweight hair oil into the ends of your hair, brushing it through, and adding more product as needed depending on your hair type.
Another way to prevent and limit frizz when styling, that most people are not aware of, is using a microfibre towel to dry your hair. Microfibre material is known to be very absorbent which reduces drying time after washing. Plus, it also causes less friction to the hair shaft, unlike cotton bath towels, which means you can achieve smoother, healthy hair with less frizz. With our Sozo Bamboo Microfibre Hair Towel, you can manage frizz easier throughout any time of year and by drying off your hair before brushing, you’re also able to limit damage and breakage to our already vulnerable hair during winter because our hair is most fragile when wet.
There is an endless number of factors that can contribute to poor hair health, damage, breakage and even hair loss. The cold, dry weather of winter is just one external element that can cause scalp and hair concerns if we don’t take proper care. But by building your winter haircare routine with all-natural haircare products formulated to nourish, hydrate, repair and protect your scalp and hair, you can enjoy strong, shiny and smooth hair. Weekly hair masks, as well as regular scalp and hair oiling treatments are both effective ways to give your scalp and hair the added nourishment they need to remain healthy. In addition to our haircare products, limiting hair damage and breakage by avoiding extreme heat exposure when styling is also an important part of preventing unnecessary damage to our already vulnerable hair. It is normal to experience hair changes throughout different seasons in the year, as well as during various periods in our lives when we face health challenges or hormone changes, for example. But by prioritising our haircare routine, our hair habits and our physical health and diet, we can set ourselves up to achieve and maintain our healthiest scalp and hair.
Leave a comment